Don't Forget Saturday's Clark Park Festival in SW Detroit

M.L. Elrick (left) and Mike Rataj with kids at Clark Park

Fox 2's M.L. Elrick and criminal defense attorney Mike Rataj are promoting Saturday's annual Clark Park Winter Carnival in Southwest Detroit.

"We are not just raising money, we're raising awareness of the great work being done at Clark Park!," the GoFundMe page says.

The festival, which runs from noon to 4 p.m.,  includes ice skating, carriage rides, music and face-painting.

At 6:30 p.m.,  it's the Clark Park Winter Carnival Hockey Classic, with Elrick leading one team and Rataj leading the other. Money goes to help operate the park.

Elrick and Rataj are buddies. But you might not have known that during the Kwame Kilpatrick trial in 2013 when the two got into a confrontation after court one day. Rataj was representing contractor Bobby Ferguson, Killpatrick's buddy. 

Detroit News columnist Neal Rubin described it this way:

In his closing argument on behalf of Ferguson, Rataj’s co-counsel had invoked Martin Luther King Jr. and the struggle for civil rights. Elrick, on the case for WJBK-TV (Channel 2), asked Rataj if he thought the government was racist.

The resulting calm, measured discussion included Rataj asking, “You want to go right now?” and Elrick suggesting, “Take the first shot then if you want it, counselor.”

While the confrontation lingers in memory and, of course, on YouTube, “Mike and I made our peace quickly. That same night,” Elrick says.

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