Lead Paint Inspector Sentenced to Jail in Detroit
As a follow up to our recent blog post on lead paint, The Paint Doctor wanted to tell you about a former City of Detroit Health Department lead inspector who was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison on fraud charges for taking bribes and lying about lead-paint inspections.
Instead of ensuring that all paint-based lead hazards were safely removed from homes with young children as was required by his job, the defendant, Donald Patterson, used threats of criminal prosecution and even child-neglect charges to convince tenants and landlords to pay bribes and conceal the matter from state regulators, according to prosecutors. The indictment charged that between October 2008 and August 2009, Patterson demanded $1,350 in connection with fraudulent abatement of lead hazards to which children were being exposed at four separate properties.
