Mrs. Conyers after an earlier bar fight.

Report says Monica Conyers made threat

Mayor’s aide files police complaint, but council member’s chief of staff says she was the one wronged.
Christine MacDonald
February 15, 2008

DETROIT — An aide to Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick filed a police report Thursday claiming Monica Conyers, the short-tempered City Council president pro tem and wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers, threatened to get a gun and shoot him at a city pension board meeting.
But a spokesman for Conyers says she was the real victim in the hubbub.
According to the police report filed Thursday by DeDan Milton, an assistant to Kilpatrick, Conyers “threatened to shoot (Milton) with her gun” and made “several aggressive movements” toward Milton “in a threatening manner.”
Milton also reported to police that Conyers said she would “have my brothers (mess) you up.”
David Clark, chair of Detroit’s General Retirement System, backed up Milton’s account.
“She ran at him,” Clark told The Detroit News. “She told him she would get a gun if she had to and that she has four brothers and they would whup his a– if she asked them.”
In his police report, Milton said members of Conyers’ staff, and others at the meeting, had to restrain her. But Sam Riddle, Conyers’ chief of staff, said Milton was the one who had to be restrained. Riddle, who said he witnessed the squabble, said Milton started it by telling Conyers to shut up — and used an expletive.
Late Thursday, Conyers filed a police report of her own, accusing Milton of being the perpetrator.
Milton declined to be interviewed, and Riddle said Conyers didn’t want to talk about the confrontation.
Riddle said he is recommending that Conyers, as the wife of a congressman, seek protection from the U.S. Marshals Service.
“We don’t know who we can trust in the city of Detroit,” Riddle said.
A member of Congress who is threatened, or whose family member is threatened, would seek assistance from the U.S. Capitol Police. A threat assessment would be conducted, and if judged to be needed, protection would be given, said spokeswoman Kerri Hanley.
Police are investigating, but it’s not clear what crime Conyers could be charged with. The report was categorized as “harassing communications.” Maria Miller, spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office, declined to speculate. No audio or video recordings are made of pension board meetings.
Clark said the pension board plans to meet in a closed session Wednesday to discuss how to handle the situation. He said the board could ask the City Council to remove Conyers from the post. A member of council sits on both the city’s general retirement board and the police and fire retirement board. Conyers was appointed to the board in November 2006 by her council colleagues for a two-year term. Milton is appointed to the board by the mayor, as his representative.
Clark said the verbal battle started when Conyers came late to the board meeting and wanted to talk about an investment issue the trustees had already discussed.
“The comment that was made (by Milton) was, ‘Can we move forward? We’ve already discussed this,’ ” Clark said. “That’s what triggered everything.”
He said Conyers said she could do what she wanted and called Milton foul names. Clark also said Conyers ran toward Milton and had to be restrained by other trustees.
Riddle said Conyers never threatened Milton, and just defended herself from his bullying. Riddle said she did mention the word “gun,” but not in the way Milton claimed and Clark recalled.
“She said she has as big of a political gun as he does,” Riddle said. “You can’t put the victim of the abuse on trial.”
Riddle said Kilpatrick’s administration has shown a pattern of disrespect toward women. He cited Matt Allen, who stepped down as Kilpatrick’s press secretary after pleading guilty to domestic violence in December.
“This is an administration that has shown it doesn’t care about women,” Riddle said. “Matt Allen can slam a woman’s head into the wall and he’s still on the payroll.”
Riddle said he thinks Milton filed the report as a payback for Conyers’ criticisms of Kilpatrick in the $8.4 million whistle-blower scandal. “They don’t like what she is doing on council,” Riddle said. “This is another bullying tactic by the Kilpatrick administration.”
Conyers was accused of punching a Walled Lake woman in 2006 during a bar brawl. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office found Conyers had acted in self-defense at a party at the Crossroads Lounge on Livernois in Detroit. Both had filed police reports.
In 2005, Valecia Moore, who said she was a friend of Conyers, filed a personal protection order against Conyers, saying that she had threatened to kill her. “There was gun shots behind my house following that conversation,” Moore wrote in the report.
The order was denied by the court.
Riddle said Conyers denied the allegations.

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