FBI targets Detroit judge and her father in public corruption probe
Judge Andrea Bradley-Baskin has served the 36th District Court since 2023. (Photo from the 36th District Court in Michigan)
A sealed federal search warrant shows a Detroit judge and her father are at the center of an FBI investigation involving alleged conspiracy, wire fraud and bribery, according to the Detroit News, which published details of the document last week.
Issued in April, the search warrant allowed FBI agents to seize “records related to the care or finances of wards for which Andrea Bradley-Baskin was appointed guardian, conservator, representative payee or fiduciary” since May 9, 2016, the Detroit News reports.
Bradley-Baskin, a judge in the 36th District Court in Detroit, was elected to the bench in November. According to the Detroit News, she also previously served as general counsel of the court and worked as a lawyer in the probate court system during the period in question.
The search warrant allowed FBI agents to seize the same records involving Avery Bradley, Bradley-Baskin’s father and an attorney who practices probate, family and criminal defense law outside of Detroit, the Detroit News reports.
While the full scope of the FBI investigation has not been disclosed, the Detroit News reports federal prosecutors filed the case involving the search warrant in October. Since then, FBI agents have seized more than $580,000 from multiple properties and accounts in the Detroit area that are tied to Bradley-Baskin, her father and guardianship firms.
These firms include Guardian & Associates Inc. and Tri-State Guardian Services Inc., which represent the elderly, people with developmental disabilities and other wards in probate courts, the Detroit News reports. Both Bradley-Baskin and her father were involved in probate cases with Guardian & Associates, the Detroit News also reports.
The search warrant also allowed FBI agents to seize “records of the receipt or distribution of proceeds from the conspiracy including bank accounts and money transfers” and “items, documents or other records, in whatever form, which contain the identity of other associates or the identity of co-conspirators,” according to the file obtained by the Detroit News.
Bradley-Baskin and her father have not been charged with any crime, the Detroit News reports. The judge told the publication she had no comment, and her father did not respond to its requests for comment.
Bradley-Baskin and Bradley also did not immediately respond to the ABA Journal’s requests for comment.
The Detroit News additionally reports that the FBI and U.S. attorney’s office in Detroit declined to comment.
Chief Judge William McConico of the 36th District Court told the Detroit News that FBI agents obtained Bradley-Baskin’s employment records and were “looking into something dealing with when (Bradley-Baskin) was an attorney.”
“But we don’t know what this is about,” McConico also said.
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