A FOIA response from an agency with a culture that leans toward secrecy and even obstruction can thwart legal inquiry into how our government does (or avoids) business on our dime. This can be by way of erecting unreasonable cost barriers, protracted delay, the necessity of hiring an attorney, appeals, and/or heavy-handed and improper or illegal redactions. We saw all of this in the OCCK case.
But there are different ways the truth reveals itself. Even with AI help, redaction is still a human endeavor and therefore subject to human error. If it takes 1,000 FBI agents to scour files for one man’s name, this indicates (a) how big the files are and (b) just how fucking great the concern is. Sometimes the truth is found in some small way by what is withheld and the squirming of an agency.
I have no idea who was responsible for redacting the 3,400 pages provided by the MSP in response to my Dad’s FOIA request. They did their level best to provide a disjointed response, complete with photos of my brother’s dead body. More that a couple, as a matter of fact. That’s the kind of agency we are dealing with. Somebody at the MSP got off on doing this.
But whoever it was, while they certainly used redactions to cover their asses, they missed a few things. Like the information from the Georgia polygrapher in 2009 who told MSP detectives that John Hastings needed to be treated like a serious suspect (for once). And they missed or could not figure out how to fuck with Southfield PD Det. Lourn Doan’s handwritten notes and reports concerning the arrests of pedophiles Greg Greene and Christopher Busch in late January 1977.
Maybe they rightly figured, as had Oakland County Prosecutor L. Brooks Patterson and his chief deputy, Richard Thompson, that no one would be the wiser about these pesky polygraphs these morons hung their hats on back in the day. No one would double-check dates or compare the polygraph questions to the stated intentions for the tests.
But one careful reader of the FOIA documents found their deceit and more. The result was the book Guarded By Jackals: Predators, the Public Officials Who Protected Them and Resolution of Michigan’s Most Notorious Cold Case (2024). It is a muscular book. For those of you who don’t, won’t, can’t read anything over three paragraphs, and/or are intimidated by footnotes (and are probably skimming this post anyway), I’m here to give you a little push and to open your eyes.
Here are my notes from Chapter 9, A Tale of Two Polygraphs (this chapter is available for free in a book preview at https://drive.proton.me/urls/63VBPV7QPM#NPbw0IM6oj1P, see page 56). Chapter 9 focuses on the obstruction of justice committed after pedophile Greg Greene was arrested in Flint on January 25, 1977. When it is boiled down a bit it is easier to see that there is no honorable explanation for what happened in this case between January 25 and February 1, 1977, as demonstrated by the FOIA documents themselves, before my brother became the final victim in these serial killings.
There are many more details in Guarded by Jackals, and I commend the book to you. I am focused here on a brief summary of the explanation in the book of the part the FOIA documents played in indicting the fuckers involved in giving Busch a “pass,” and turning investigators away from ever taking a closer look at him and his daddy, H. Lee. Imagine what could have been revealed if these two had been leaned on as they should have been about these and other crimes against children.
January 25, 1977–Greg Greene is arrested by Flint PD for raping young boys on a Flint baseball team he helped “coach.”
He tells Flint PD Officer Tom Waldron that Chris Busch killed 12-year-old Mark Stebbins of Southfield nearly a year prior.
He provides the name of Ken Bowman, a teen Busch and Greene had both sexually assaulted and who allegedly had been told by Greene of Busch’s connection to the Stebbins murder (that Busch killed a boy).
This information is relayed to Det. Lourn Doan and Lt. Jerry Simmons of Southfield PD (where Mark’s body was found) who both traveled to Flint that same day to interview Greene. Both men were part of the nascent Oakland County Task Force investigating murders of children in Oakland County.
January 26, 1977–Southfield Det. Doan returns to Flint and his reports state that Greene was given two polygraphs on this day, one regarding the information he gave police about Busch and a second concerning his own possible participation in this murder.
A scumbag like Greene is going to have his veracity tested by polygraph by these people before police move forward. That is the purpose of these two exams. But in the wake of these two exams, move forward they do.
TWO polygraphs of Greene on January 26, 1977. Neither of these two polygraphs with this date have ever been produced.
The name of the Flint PD officer administering these polygraphs is REDACTED in two places in Doan’s reports. You will read below that the names of the other polygraphers who interact with Greene and then Busch are not redacted, but are on full display–Melvin Scott of Flint PD and Ralph Cabot of the MSP.
There is nothing confidential about the name of the man who polygraphed Greene twice on 1-26-77 and whoever redacted these documents for FOIA production knew this and was specifically looking for this man’s name. As explained in Jackals, it is clear the redacted name is Sgt. Robert Florida, another Flint PD polygrapher. That’s a man who could have honestly remembered polygraphing Greene twice the day after his arrest. But no one circled back to ask him because his name was redacted. He was to be avoided at all costs. He might tell the truth and that would be a big problem.
Greene is then interviewed by Oakland County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dick Thompson and his investigator Gary Hawkins, along with Southfield Lt./Det. Jerry Simmons. All of them made the trip up to Flint from OC after Greene’s polygraphs.
Police, including Southfield Det. Doan, interview survivor Ken Bowman who tells them of being sexually assaulted by Busch in a car while Greene, the accomplice, drove. He later tells them of being raped and choked unconscious another time by Greg Greene.
January 27, 1977–A warrant is obtained by Genesee County (Flint) for the arrest of Busch for CSC3 (Bowman).
Greene is never charged with any sex crime against Bowman. Greene’s charges stem solely from sex crimes committed against boys on the kids’ baseball team in Flint. Although Greene is clearly an accomplice to the sex crimes against Bowman by Busch, and raped Bowman, he is never charged with crimes against Bowman.
Flint PD polygrapher Melvin Scott polygraphs Greg Greene. This is the THIRD polygraph Greene has taken. A redacted copy of this polygraph report, signed by Melvin Scott, was provided in response to my Dad’s FOIA request. He is said to have “passed” this polygraph, whatever that means in this case.
Ken Bowman is interviewed a second time; this time Flint PD Officer Tom Waldron is present and MSP Sgt. Roger Rivard (from Pontiac). This interview was to clear up any confusion about where the assault by Busch in the car driven by Greene took place. Oops, it was in Oakland County not Genesee County and the initial Genesee warrant for Busch was therefore invalid. Waldron asks about other assaults by Busch and Bowman recounts an assault that took place behind a Flint high school. A new warrant is issued for Busch’s arrest based on this crime.
January 28, 1977—Six officers participate in the arrest of Chris Busch in Alma, Michigan, which is a little under 90 minutes from Flint. This includes Waldron from Flint PD, Doan from Southfield and two other members of the OCTF, Rivard and Cattell, in addition to trooper Kenneth Anderson of Ithaca and Det./Sgt. Lombardi of Alma.
I leave out from this summary the shocking admissions made by Busch after he declines counsel and speaks freely to officers while at his house collecting personal items and during the drive back to Flint; they have been detailed in this blog many times before.
FOIA documents indicate that at approximately 6 pm, Sgt. Melvin Scott (Flint PD) and Det./Sgt. Ralph Cabot (MSP) met to “develop questions regarding a polygraph examination” for Chris Busch, to be administered by Cabot that evening.
Richard Thompson and Gary Hawkins sit in on the polygraph of Busch and this is the only time employees of the OCP engage in such an unusual protocol in this case. No one from the Genesee Prosecutors Office sits in on the exam.
Time to break up the arrest party when Busch is said to have “passed” his polygraph. His daddy then ponies up the $1,000 bond and he is back in business in Michigan.
February 1, 1977–Greene is administered another polygraph, this time by Ralph Cabot, which asks essentially the very same questions from the January 27 polygraph. This is polygraph #4 and this polygraph report, like the January 27 polygraph, is provided in the FOIA response. But now they have two polygraphs, just like Doan described in his January 26 report. No matter that the dates are off and they are not separate polygraphs regarding (1) what Greene claimed about Busch and (2) whether he was in on the Stebbins crime. No one will look closely at this for another 40-plus years.
Again, the polygraphs taken on January 26 by [redacted but clearly Robert Florida] are never produced, but were relied upon for the arrest of Busch, calling Bowman in for an interview, and the involvement of the OCTF.
Guarded by Jackals goes into much greater detail about what I’ve outlined above. But even this brief outline should establish for you that the OCP got what it wanted: 1. No connection between nasty Flint pedophile and pedigreed Bloomfield Village pedophile and son of GM bigwig H. Lee Busch; and 2. “Passes” on the polygraphs of January 27, January 28, and February 1 that would move the tips on Busch and Greene to a status of CLOSED. Anybody circling back on these two men would see “cleared by polygraph” and move on.
Even in light of the fuckery exposed in the FOIA documents provided (literally the tip of many icebergs), there is no transparency by the current OCP or the MSP in these almost 50-year-old cases. No wonder they don’t want to do next level DNA testing on any of the evidence in these cases.
The fuckery in this investigation (as detailed in FOIA in practice, Parts I, II A and B) resulted in a complete failure of justice in this case. It has basically foreclosed justice. So there must be transparency and good faith execution of the following, or this stain on the State of Michigan will be a permanent weight on its reputation:
Test or retest all of the evidence in the OCCK case and keep the public apprised. No more secrecy bullshit designed to facilitate the dragging of feet.
Digitize the files as is done in any legitimate, serious cold case review. The failure to do so highlights the lack of interest in solving these murders. You can’t claim to want to solve this case and tie the hands of anyone who makes a genetic genealogy link in this case.
Interview or reinterview the survivors of Michigan child sex rings who have come forward in this case over the years and been ignored. (And fucking shame on you for ignoring your obligations to do this difficult but necessary work.)