The Stink of FBI Garbage Probe Spreads; 3rd Macomb Official Charged

Michael Lovelock

The circle of elected Macomb County officials accused of corruption in a trash hauling contract scandal continues to grow.

The latest: Chesterfield Township Supervisor Michael Lovelock was arrested Thursday and charged with demanding and accepting money in exchange for his support of a municipal contract, U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in a press release. Authorities have not named the company in question, but media reports have pointed to Rizzo Environmental Services, which has been at the center of the ongoing scandal.

A criminal complaint charged Lovelock with accepting more than $30,000 in bribes.

“Public officials who seek to take advantage of their official positions for their own personal gain by selling official acts should expect to be arrested and prosecuted,” McQuade said in a statement. 

Authorities said the ongoing probe, focused primarily on Macomb County, has used telephone wiretaps, consensual audio and video recordings by cooperative individuals, undercover operations, physical surveillance, telephone tracking warrants and subpoenas of financial records and other documents.

In this case, the criminal complaint alleges that since approximately 2010 and continuing through 2016, Lovelock accepted multiple bribes from the representative of a company that had a significant contract with Chesterfield Township.

In total, Lovelock accepted over $30,000 in cash from the company’s representative. In addition, Lovelock accepted two other bribe payments totaling $4,000 in cash from an undercover FBI agent and an individual cooperating in the investigation, authorities said. 
  
In exchange for all of the cash that Lovelock allegedly demanded and accepted, authorities charged that he agreed to use his position as Chesterfield Supervisor to:

(1) secure an extension of the contract with the township for the company, (2) put past due accounts of the company on the Chesterfield tax rolls so as to assist the company in getting paid by township residents, (3) obtain payment from Macomb County for the company for its work on flood damage that occurred in August 2014; and (4) provide a favorable reference for the company for other municipalities and so that Lovelock would not speak negatively about the company.

Others charged with taking bribes from Rizzo Environmental Services are Macomb Township Trustee Clifford Freitas and Clinton Township Trustee Dean Reynolds.