DEARBORN — Mayor Jack O’Reilly is criticizing 19th District Court Judge Mark Somers’ re-election campaign and questioning his character, following an interview that appeared in The Arab American News last week.

Somers had addressed an open letter written by O’Reilly, which claimed the city couldn’t afford to keep him as a judge because of costs incurred from three civil lawsuits that had involved him.

O’Reilly told The Arab American News that Somers is making false accusations against his opponent, Tony Guerriero, by sending out robo-calls to residents.

In the phone message, a former court employee claimed she was harassed by Guerriero during a period when he was a magistrate at the 19th District Court.

O’Reilly said he’s puzzled that Somers is allowing the former court employee to make such claims, because she was fired from the court while he was chief judge, based on a number of factors.  

Other court employees had claimed that the woman had falsified her time records, used vulgar language against co-workers on numerous occasions and made derogatory comments against both Muslim women and African Americans.

“He knows that she’s not credible,” O’Reilly said. “This woman was fired while he was in the court as our chief judge. She was fired for cause and he knows it.”

According to the records of the grievance filed by the former court employee,  a then court administrator had stated that she was “unprofessional, an embarrassment to the court before the public and a disruption of the workplace.” 

An arbitrator who looked at the case also agreed that the woman was fired for cause. Her case was dismissed in June 2013.

“He knows her background, yet he’s telling the people of Dearborn to trust her,” O’Reilly said. “He can’t claim innocence and say he didn’t know any of this. He was the chief judge. He was her superior and now he wants to use her to attack his opponent?”

O’Reilly also rebutted an argument that Somers had brought up last week, in which he claimed that he should have been protected as a city official when Julie Pucci, now the wife of 19th District Court Judge William C. Hultgren, had sued him for violating her due process rights when he terminated her position.

O’Reilly said the city has already paid more than $500,000 in legal costs pertaining to the lawsuits and that it was not held financially liable for a $1.2 million federal judgment that ruled in Pucci’s favor.

He argued that as a judge, Somers is classified as a state employee.

“He’s not a city employee,” O’Reilly said. “He was not represented by our legal counsel; he was represented by the Attorney General’s office. His suggestion that we should be indemnifying him is not accurate. The state should be indemnifying him.” 

Last week, Somers told The Arab American News that he had appealed the federal ruling because he didn’t believe either he or the city should pay the penalty. 

However, O’Reilly said that Somers’ actions indicate that he expected the city to pick up the tab for the lawsuit. 

“He is now trying to sue the city to pay for the penalties in the Pucci case,” O’Reilly added. “But because the Pucci case was a deliberate action, an intentional violation of civil rights, we, the city, went in with our in-house attorneys and made a motion to say that neither the court nor the city should be held responsible and the court agreed.” 

On the campaign trail, Somers has criticized Guerriero’s stint as the city attorney of Allen Park. During that time, Allen Park faced setbacks when a film studio project worth more than $12 million failed to materialize. O’Reilly noted that Guerriero was not the attorney who had represented the city in that case. Instead, the city had hired in a specialty firm tasked with overseeing the blunder. He said Dearborn has taken similar measures in special circumstances. 

O’Reilly also noted that the Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee, which is comprised of 25 attorneys from the Detroit Metropolitan area who evaluate candidates for judicial office, had rated Somers as “unqualified” for the position of 19th District Court judge. 

They base the ratings on a candidate’s legal ability, trial experience, integrity, honesty, judicial temperament and reputation, without regard to party affiliation, race or creed.

O’Reilly said this was the second time the committee gave Somers a poor rating. He received a similar rating when he ran for judge in the Wayne County Circuit Court in 2012.

O’Reilly also said he was disappointed to learn that the Arab American Political Action Committee (AAPAC) had endorsed Somers over Guerriero. 

The Detroit Metropolitan Bar Association Judicial Candidate Evaluation Committee also evaluated Guerriero and rated him “outstanding.” 

“No sitting judge has ever been ruled twice as unqualified,” O’Reilly said. “The people of Dearborn deserve to know this. How in the world can our advocacy groups endorse him [Somers]? I’m just trying to look out for Dearborn.”

O’Reilly clarified that he did, at one point, endorse Somers during his previous run for judge on the 19th District Court. Years later, he said that he admits he made a mistake in doing that, adding that Somers appears to be “delusional” about his actions.

“I am not perfect, I make mistakes,” O’Reilly said. “But unlike Somers, I admit when I make a mistake and I try to figure out how to mitigate the damage. You don’t want a judge who doesn’t know the difference between truth and falsehood.”