Matty Moroun's "Get Out of Jail Free" Card

You know, it’s not hard to find proof that life’s not fair.

At least not for the little guy.

By “little,” I mean “not part of the 1%.”

Photo by Rosh Sillars

Last week, Grosse Pointe billionaire Manuel “Matty” Moroun, about whom I’ve written before, spent just one night in the Wayne County Jail for failing to complete his part of what’s known as the Gateway project at the Ambassador Bridge, which he owns. Almost two years ago, a judge ordered Moroun and cohort Dan Stemper to honor their agreement with the Michigan Department of Transportation to reduce traffic congestion near the bridge.

More than $230 million in taxpayer dollars has already been spent building an expressway connection to the bridge ramp Moroun’s company was supposed to build; they built a ramp to their lucrative duty-free (read “tax-exempt”) fuel pumps and shop instead.

From the Detroit Free Press:

The legal case that sent the two men to jail dated to 2009, when the Michigan Department of Transportation sued Moroun's bridge company for not building its part of the $230-million Gateway project as agreed in a contract.

In planning since the 1990s, the Gateway project was MDOT's long-term effort to ease congestion at the Ambassador Bridge by getting traffic to and from the bridge directly to adjacent expressways through a series of new ramps. But MDOT complained in its 2009 lawsuit – and [Judge] Edwards agreed in a February 2010 order – that the bridge company had built its portion in a way that kept truck traffic on local surface streets in southwest Detroit.

Instead, the bridge company funneled traffic past the Morouns' lucrative duty-free fuel pumps and a duty-free store, which the Free Press reported last year could be worth millions of dollars a year to the company. Matthew Moroun [Matty’s son] told the Free Press at the time that it was worth at least $1 million annually but declined to elaborate.

Edwards ordered the bridge company in early 2010 to rip out the duty-free facilities if necessary to rebuild the Gateway project as designed per the agreement with the state. Since then, the bridge company has stalled to the point where Edwards found the company in civil contempt of court twice, first a year ago and then again in November.

On Thursday, Wayne County Circuit Judge Prentis Edwards jailed Moroun and Stamper for contempt of court until the work gets done. On Friday night, the Michigan Court of Appeals freed Moroun and his aide, Dan Stamper, after around 30 hours in the slammer; they get to enjoy their freedom for the next few weeks while the court reviews whether Judge Edwards was correct in sending ‘em to the clink.

Photo by Eric Smith

The guy, who last year bought enough state politicians to squelch a plan to build a second bridge connecting the United States and Canada, is obviously driven by greed and doesn’t have an iota of respect for the law, the residents of southwest Detroit, contracts and promises – clearly, for anything that doesn’t help grow his already-considerable bank account. I’m not big on jailing old men but it just seems wrong that Matty Moroun can renege on pledges, disregard court orders, allow countless properties he owns (including the once-majestic Michigan Central Depot in Detroit’s Corktown district) to decay (visit Matty Moroun’s Parade of Slums), and demonstrate blatant disregard for anyone and anything that doesn’t increase his own fat bottom line while lesser mortals spend months behind bars for smoking a joint or falling behind on their child support payments.

I spent more time in the Ingham County Jail once for a “crime” (violating a restraining order that Anita’s ex-husband obtained against me under false pretenses) that didn’t hurt or affect anyone. Through his greed, selfishness and unethical behavior, Matty Moroun has detrimentally affected a whole lot of folks. For years.

Maybe once you become obscenely wealthy, you’re issued a golden “Get Out of Jail Free” card that the rest of us don’t know about, and Martha Stewart couldn’t find hers but Michael Jackson, Paris Hilton, Matty Moroun and all those crooked Wall Street dudes all flashed theirs as soon as the coast was clear.


Eric Smith's photo is of the Michigan Central Depot in 2008.

Source: Detroit Free Press.