Detroit Judge Charged In Alleged Scheme Targeting Vulnerable Residents
Federal prosecutors have charged Detroit 36th District Judge Andrea Bradley-Baskin in an alleged conspiracy to steal money from vulnerable and legally incapacitated people in the Detroit area.
Guardian and Associates owner Nancy Williams and Williams’ fiancé, convicted felon Dwight Rashad, were also charged in the case, The New York Post reported. According to federal authorities, the scheme targeted individuals placed under guardianship, people who depend entirely on the courts and court-appointed officials to protect their finances and property.
Bradley Baskin was elected to the 36th District Court bench in November 2024. Federal prosecutors allege that Bradley Baskin personally benefited from the scheme.
According to investigators, she used $54,250 tied to the alleged conspiracy to rent a nearly $900,000 townhouse in Detroit’s Brush Park neighborhood near Little Caesars Arena.
Prosecutors also allege that more than $29,000 taken from victims was used to rent a home in Westland.
Property records show Bradley Baskin had been living at the Westland residence as early as 2019. But the allegations go far beyond rent payments.
One of the most disturbing claims involves Frankie James, a legally incapacitated woman who was under the care of a court-appointed guardian.
James’ Detroit home was allegedly sold to a company owned by Corey Baskin, the judge’s husband, for one dollar.
The property was later sold for $140,000.
If proven true, it represents the type of exploitation that guardianship systems are specifically supposed to prevent. Another case referenced in the investigation involves the late Lincoln Park resident Ethel Ciotti.
Ciotti’s home was sold by her court-appointed personal representative, attorney Avery Bradley.
Bradley is the father of Judge Andrea Bradley Baskin. Both Bradley and Bradley Baskin are under investigation by the FBI in connection with the case.
Federal prosecutors have also begun moving to secure assets linked to the alleged scheme.
Authorities filed a federal lien on an Oak Park office building.
The lien indicates the property could be forfeited to the government because it is allegedly connected to bribery and other federal crimes.
In May 2025, prosecutors filed another lien on a home in Southfield that could also be subject to forfeiture.
Those properties trace what investigators believe may be the alleged conspiracy’s financial footprint across the Detroit metro area.
The FBI has also obtained search warrants allowing agents to seize records connected to the care and finances of minors and legally incapacitated individuals.
Those warrants included records tied to Bradley Baskin’s legal work involving guardianship cases.
Federal investigators are now reviewing those records as part of the ongoing probe.
Cases like this strike at the heart of public trust in the justice system.
Guardianship courts exist to protect people who cannot protect themselves, including the elderly, the mentally incapacitated, and minors.
These individuals often have little ability to monitor their own finances or challenge the decisions being made on their behalf.
When the very people entrusted with protecting them are accused of exploiting that power, the damage extends far beyond the individual victims.
It undermines faith in the entire legal system. The allegations in this case are particularly troubling because they involve multiple members of the same family.
A father serving as a court-appointed representative. A daughter who rose to the bench.
A husband who allegedly benefited from a property transaction involving an incapacitated woman.
If prosecutors prove their case, it would represent not only corruption but also a systematic abuse of a process designed to protect the most vulnerable members of society.
Bradley Baskin’s election to the bench in 2024 raises another uncomfortable question. The FBI investigation was already underway when voters sent her to the court.
That fact highlights a recurring problem in many large cities where corruption investigations often remain largely invisible to the public until charges are filed.
Voters cannot evaluate information they are never given.
Top DHS Special Agent And His Wife Found Dead
A Department of Homeland Security special agent and his wife were found dead in their New Jersey home in what appears to be a murder-suicide, prosecutors said.
Police in Sayreville responded to the couple’s home on Glynn Court around 8 p.m. July 3 and found Kelly Latauro, 46, dead inside the residence, the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office said.
Her husband, 52-year-old Christopher Latauro, was discovered dead in the backyard.
Both appear to have been shot.
Authorities said Christopher is believed to be the shooter and the case is being investigated as a murder-suicide.
Police told residents to keep away from Glynn Court, from Deerfield Road to Scarlet Drive, briefly because of police activity.
The area was reopened about 40 minutes later, but police remained on scene.
According to NJ101.5, citing DHS records from 2019 and 2020, Christopher was a special agent for the Department of Homeland Security.
Authorities have not said what may have sparked the violence.
Kelly’s sister-in-law Robyn Perlman-Spencer confirmed her death in a Facebook post on July 7, remembering her in a heartbreaking tribute.
“As many of you may now know, my beautiful sister in law Kelly Iatauro was senselessly and suddenly taken from us on Friday. Kelly was a bright light- kind, thoughtful, hysterical, inappropriate, and just one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known. She left a lasting impression on anyone that was lucky enough to know her,” Robyn wrote in part.
Sayreville police confirmed officers responded to the Glynn Court residence on July 3 and found both people dead of gunshot wounds.
The incident is being treated as a murder-suicide, and Christopher is suspected to be the shooter, the spokesperson said.
The Department of Homeland Security and Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office did not immediately respond to additional requests for comment on the case.
What began as a heavy police response to a deadly scene left two people dead and the quiet Middlesex County neighborhood stunned.
Investigators are still trying to piece together what happened inside the home leading up to the gunfire.
Separately, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin made headlines last week with an election-related announcement.
Mullin on Friday said officials who don’t cooperate with the administration’s election security efforts may be slapped with fines — and potentially prison time.
“If the election officials, once we gave them the information they need to secure their elections — and they chose not to — then those individuals can also be held accountable by fines, by penalties, and even, depending on how far it goes, prison time,” Mullin said during a press conference at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
Mullin also promised DHS would work to “speed up our security enhancements” for states.
He vowed to hold up federal election security grants until state officials took steps the administration demanded, including running their voter registration lists through a system that checks for non-citizen voters on the rolls.
Mullin made his comments after President Donald Trump’s primetime address on election security Thursday night, when he repeated already known concerns about the security of voting systems, alleged Chinese efforts to get into voter rolls, and aired old gripes about the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
In his remarks on Friday, the DHS secretary focused on DHS’s work with states to secure election systems and scrub voter registration rolls for fraud and concerns about noncitizen voting.
The Justice Department also sent letters this month threatening prosecution to election officials across the country if they don’t remove noncitizens from their voter rolls.
On Friday, Mullin seemed to suggest that the agency was able to estimate the numbers using the Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) system at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and said 23 states are already working with DHS to analyze voter rolls.
And he criticized the legal challenges that are hindering the administration’s efforts: Last month, a judge blocked the Trump administration from creating a database of information about Americans, including Social Security numbers and citizenship status.
