CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Federal investigators said former Clinton Township trustee Dean Reynolds was so desperate to be released from jail, he told the court he was suffering from kidney cancer and his mother was in hospice.
Reynolds was found guilty of 10 bribery counts and four bribery conspiracy counts. The jury voted unanimously against Reynolds.
ORIGINAL STORY: Former Clinton Township trustee found guilty on all counts in Macomb County bribery scandal
Investigators listened in on phone calls Reynolds was making from jail -- not to his attorney, but to others -- and they said Reynolds made up the cancer and dying mother stories.
Reynolds was indicted in 2016 for accepting bribes from trash hauling company Rizzo Environmental Services in return for his influence in giving Rizzo lucrative contracts from the township. The indictment said Reynolds accepted bribes worth more than $50,000.
Investigators found Reynold did have a cancer scare in 2016 and had a biopsy done on his kidney. Doctors gave him the all-clear.
In the phone calls investigators listened to, Reynolds urged his wife and father to get a letter from his doctor claiming he had cancer. The investigators said Reynold's father had received a letter from his doctor saying he showed no evidence of cancer.
Reynolds allegedly told his father to throw the letter away.