Key figures in Michigan crackdown on marijuana corruption get early release from prison

Two central figures convicted of bribing former Michigan House Speaker Rick Johnson in the biggest public corruption scandal in Michigan’s capital in 30 years have been released from federal prison despite serving less than half of their sentences, and Johnson could soon join them.

Marijuana industry lobbyist Vince Brown walked out of a low-security prison in western Pennsylvania on Aug. 6, three weeks after Oakland County businessman John Dawood Dalaly was released from a minimum-security prison camp in West Virginia.

Brown served less than nine months of a 20-month sentence for conspiring to bribe Johnson, the former chairman of the Michigan Medical Marijuana Licensing Board, while Dalaly was granted compassionate release from prison less than nine months into a 28-month sentence for bribing Johnson.

The moves raise questions about whether justice was served in a high-profile public corruption case involving bribes paid to the state’s top regulator as companies sought a competitive advantage in the early days of Michigan’s marijuana industry.

“This seems like no justice,” said Matthew Abel, a Detroit criminal defense attorney who specializes in marijuana cases. “The legacy of these wrongdoings is still very much with us.”

A spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons declined to explain why Brown was released from prison. But the release of two figures from a high-profile bribery scandal continues a trend of businessmen, union leaders and politicians from the Detroit metropolitan area being released early from federal prison after being convicted of public corruption crimes.

On Wednesday, Johnson, 71, a Republican from LeRoy, asked a federal judge to release him from prison, citing several health problems.

Johnson asked to be released from a minimum-security federal prison in Minnesota after serving less than nine months of a 55-month sentence. He was sentenced last fall for accepting $110,200 in bribes and committing what U.S. District Judge Jane Beckering called an “unfettered abuse of power.”

He is expected to remain in prison until August 2027.

The sentencing capped a yearslong investigation into Johnson’s actions as chairman of the state’s medical marijuana licensing board. Nominated by then-Senate Majority Leader Arlan Meekhof and appointed by then-Gov. Rick Snyder, Johnson, a fellow Republican, chaired the state’s medical marijuana licensing board from May 2017 to April 2019. His panel had the power to influence regulations and decide which companies could enter the market first.

Beckering said Johnson had taken advantage of his position to collect cash payments, feast on free meals and indulge his own sexual desires. The judge said Johnson had accepted at least 42 bribes over 20 months, including cash payments ranging from $1,000 to $20,000, and the services of a prostitute who called him “Batman.”

Johnson’s request for compassionate release portrayed him as a sick man. In February, he asked the warden of a Minnesota prison to grant him compassionate release, citing a list of ailments, including heart problems. The warden refused, saying Johnson had served only 4% of his sentence.

“While you do have a medical condition, it is not terminal or debilitated,” the director wrote.

Johnson then asked the judge for compassionate release.

Federal judges can reduce an inmate’s sentence and grant compassionate release based on “extraordinary and compelling reasons” after requests have been rejected or ignored by governors. Nationwide, federal judges have granted compassionate release to more than 5,310 people since the fall of 2019.

The possibilities of early release of former presidents

Johnson faces major challenges if he hopes to return home because federal judges on Michigan’s west side have released only 13, or 3%, of the 410 inmates who have sought compassionate release since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

There are 94 federal judicial districts across the country, and judges in the Western District of Michigan, where the Johnson case was prosecuted, denied 96% of all compassionate release requests between 2020 and 2022. That denial rate trailed only district courts in four other states (Arkansas, Georgia, Oklahoma and Texas), according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission.

There has been a “severe drought of compassion in sentencing and compassionate releases” on Michigan’s west side, said Birmingham defense attorney Wade Fink.

“In general, I think it’s a good thing that there is a safety valve for courts to decide when there are compelling and extraordinary circumstances to let someone out of prison,” Fink said.

“I don’t think people should take the view that someone isn’t doing enough punishment or that this is somehow a reflection of being too lenient with people,” Fink said. “Often what gets lost in the headlines are some of the underlying factors that you would never know about, such as a person’s terminal illness or the need to care for a baby who didn’t have another person to care for him or her.”

The marijuana industry scandal led to four convictions last year, including that of Lansing lobbyist Brian Pierce, 46. He was sentenced to two years in prison and prison records show he is incarcerated in a medium-security prison in Pennsylvania until May 2025.

Brown and Dalaly will each serve two years under court supervision, but it was unclear whether Brown, 34, was transferred to a halfway house in Detroit or released under house arrest.

Why did a former lobbyist leave early?

During a brief interview Thursday, Brown said he was released after receiving credits available for good conduct in prison and through the First Step Act, a federal law that takes into account several factors, including an inmate’s age, overall health and lack of a criminal record. Inmates with good conduct in prison can reduce 54 days of release for each year of their sentence, be sent to halfway houses six months early and receive credit for time spent in prison before being sentenced.

Under the First Step Law, inmates can earn 15 days off for every 30 days they work in prison or participate in other programs.

Brown, who said he works overseeing his real estate portfolio, said the criminal case focused on a small part of his career when he was a young lobbyist before opening his own firm.

“For six years I ran my own business and it wasn’t part of the investigation at all,” Brown said. “I feel like I made mistakes when I was young and I was in the wrong companies and that put a huge shadow on that good business that I ran for six years.”

At least 14 people convicted of corruption in recent years have been released early. They include Detroit City Council member Andre Spivey, Macomb County District Attorney Eric Smith and former United Auto Workers presidents Gary Jones and Dennis Williams, according to a database compiled by The Detroit News. In early 2021, President Donald Trump commuted former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s 28-year prison sentence, 16 years before Kilpatrick was released from prison for running a racketeering enterprise from City Hall.

Mark Totten, the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Michigan, on Thursday called corruption “a poison to any democracy.”

“My team and I are asking the court to impose lengthy sentences on Rick Johnson and the other defendants who participated in this bribery scheme,” Totten said in a statement to The News. “We are fully committed to finding and holding accountable anyone who corrupts our democratic process. And because we have the power to do so, we will work to ensure that these offenders receive the punishment they deserve.”

Fight for compassionate liberation

In early July, Dalaly, 72, was granted compassionate parole. The West Bloomfield businessman, who was convicted of giving Johnson at least $68,200 in cash payments and benefits, was released after suffering worsening back problems and undergoing spinal surgery.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher O’Connor fought the request for compassionate release, writing in a court filing that “public corruption strikes at the heart of our democracy.”

“Dalaly should be required to serve the full prison sentence imposed on him by this court…” he wrote.

Beckering, the judge, cited Dalaly’s medical problems and concluded that the businessman was not dangerous and had been deterred from committing further crimes.

“Dalaly has demonstrated that his release is warranted so that he can receive medical care outside of a prison setting,” he wrote.

Dalaly is the first person released by a federal judge on humanitarian grounds in western Michigan in two years. Johnson wants to be the second.

His application stated that he is suffering from a “seriously deteriorating state of health” that has led to him being hospitalized three times.

In a letter of support, her daughter Theresa Davenport of Reed City wrote that “not only are there no doctors available to meet her medical needs, but her prescriptions are not being filled.”

Johnson also has the support of his hometown sheriff.

“While I understand the gravity of the circumstances that led to your incarceration, I believe you have shown genuine remorse for your actions and have taken significant steps toward rehabilitation during the time you have served,” Osceola County Sheriff Mark Cool wrote.

The request is Johnson’s latest attempt to get out of prison early.

In April, Beckering said Johnson did not deserve a prison break under changes to federal sentencing guidelines that can retroactively shorten sentences. The judge noted that Johnson already benefited from shorter guidelines before he was sentenced in September, ending a process that some wish had provided a full public accounting of wrongdoing within the marijuana industry.

“Johnson never told the truth about what really happened here,” said Abel, the marijuana industry attorney. “He really just perverted the industry. People in the community still want to know which companies got favoritism.”

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Craig Mauger contributed