Craig Mauger
10/27/2022
Key Points:
- Republican Matt DePerno faced a bench warrant for his arrest about two months before he launched his campaign for attorney general.
- Washtenaw County Circuit Judge Timothy signed a warrant in February 2020 for DePerno’s arrest after he failed to appear for a creditor’s exam in an unsuccessful defamation case brought by his client, former state Rep. Todd Courser, against The Detroit News. Connors previously ordered DePerno and Courser to pay a sanction of $79,701.
- The warrant was in place until the sanction was resolved in May 2021 because of a $20,000 settlement with The News.
- A court filing showed the bench warrant was stamped “canceled” on May 6, 2021. Then, on June 23, 2021, DePerno filed a motion to have the bench warrants set aside “nunc pro tunc,” essentially meaning the cancellation should be retroactive to the day the warrants were issued in February 2020. Connors agreed on July 2.
- DePerno formed his campaign committee to run for attorney general 12 days later, on July 14, 2021.
- In a Michigan Court of Appeals filing, DePerno accused lawyers for The News of telling him before the Feb. 6, 2020, hearing that it had been adjourned. It was a “trick,” DePerno told the state Court of Appeals on Feb. 26, 2020.
- The bench warrant for DePerno’s arrest was not resolved, according to available court records, and remained in effect for more than 14 months.
- “If a person does not appear and the bench warrant is issued, that means should that person be stopped while driving or anything like that, it will show up on the police’s system,” Dallo said of what would lead to an arrest. “So a police officer will be able to see on their laptop that there’s a bench warrant for this person.”
- Before the 2020 campaign, DePerno was most known for representing Courser, a Lapeer area Republican who resigned from the state House after he attempted to cover up an extramarital affair with a fellow lawmaker, and for challenging election results in northern Michigan’s Antrim County.
- DePerno’s work with Courser led to a years-long defamation suit against The News and staff member Chad Livengood, who broke the story of Courser’s affair and the lawmaker’s scheme to hide it.
- In October 2019, Connors dismissed the case against The News “with prejudice” and ordered DePerno and Courser to pay The News $79,701 as a sanction, according to Washtenaw County court records.
- Lawyers for The News attempted to collect the money from DePerno but said in court documents that DePerno transferred his interest in a 2015 Ford Flex and 2012 Ford Focus to his wife, Laura, “with actual intent to hinder, delay and/or defraud The News from collecting the amount awarded.”
- Robert Baker, DePerno’s lawyer for a portion of the case, told the court at one point that DePerno had “virtually no assets,” according to a court transcript. “The sanction award far exceeds the petitioners’ ability to pay,” Baker wrote in a filing on Jan. 9, 2020.
- But in the 32 months that followed, DePerno launched a campaign for attorney general, won the Republican Party’s nomination and poured $130,000 of his own money into his bid, representing about 13% of his total fundraising.
- “Matt DePerno has been dodging questions about his personal finances for years, and this is one more reason why Michiganders can’t trust him to be their next AG,” said Emily Trifone, deputy communications director at the Democratic Attorneys General Association.
- On Feb. 6, 2020, Connors signed a bench warrant for DePerno’s arrest and for him to be brought before the court “immediately” for failure to appear, according to a document. It’s unclear why DePerno was never arrested.
- The warrant was in place as DePerno led high-profile litigation in the weeks after the November 2020 presidential election to challenge the results in northern Michigan’s Antrim County.
- The warrant was recalled when DePerno and The News reached a $20,000 settlement in May 2021.
###