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Issue 1561 November 25, 2012
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SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED: Interview with Justice Kavanagh on Swainson Case

June 3, 2014       Leave a Comment
By: Dave Rogers

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Thomas Giles Kavanagh
Michigan Supreme Court Justice.

 

EDITOR'S NOTE: A column by the author of this article was published last week, outlining reports that asserted that Michigan Supreme Court Justice John B. Swainson had been framed in a 1975 grand jury called by a Justice Department strike force headed by Robert Ozer. An oral interview with a former justice has come to light that bears on that allegation.)

Thomas Giles Kavanagh, justice of the Michigan Supreme Court, was interviewed by longtime Lansing reporter Roger Lane about the 1975 conviction of John B. Swainson for lying to a grand jury.

Justice Kavanagh was from Bay City and his father had been Collector of Internal Revenue for Michigan and his grandfather was George Washington, publisher of the Bay City Democrat and Industrial Herald weekly newspapers.

Kavanagh was born on August 14, 1917, in Bay City. He attended St. James School and then moved with his family to Detroit where he graduated from the University of Detroit High School. He received his A.B. degree from the University of Notre Dame in 1938. Thomas then attended the Detroit College of Law and received his LL.B. in 1943.

He first served on the bench in 1964 in the Court of Appeals. In 1968 he was elected to the Michigan Supreme Court. In 1976 Thomas was re-elected in a landslide victory despite the Democratic Party nominating someone else.

In 1969, the Court had two Thomas Kavanagh's: Thomas Matthew Kavanagh of Carson City, and Thomas Giles, though they were not related. Nicknames were given to distinguish the two Justices. Thomas Matthew Kavanagh, the hard driving, politically astute, long-time Chief Justice was aptly called "Thomas The Mighty" Thomas Giles was known as "Thomas The Good."

During his four years as Chief Justice Kavanagh was credited with calming and unifying the high court. During the 1960's and 1970's the court was "fiercely and harshly divided", even to the point of physical confrontation between justices according to Roger Lane, a friend of Thomas and former court employee.

Asked by Lane in a formal, taped interview in 1990 for the Michigan Supreme Court Historical Society, Kavanagh recalled the start of the Swainson case:

"Justice Kavanagh: Well, somebody identifying himself as an agent of the FBI asked if he could talk to me.

"Mr. Lane: Came into the office?

"Justice Kavanagh: Came into the office of the Court, yes. He talked to me and told me about this, and I was aghast, and I, of course, looked up the John Whalen case that had been in front of the court...

Mr. Lane: Was this Robert Ozer that brought the word or was it somebody else? You don't remember...?

"Justice Kavanagh: I don't remember whether it was Ozer who was the first...I think it probably was Ozer that made the first contact with me, but I went and looked up and my recollection was refreshed, but I rather than John Swainson, had carried the ball on the Whalen thing, in that I was much more instrumental in the Court's decision regarding Whalen than John Swainson had been, although we voted together, but I was the guy that kicked the dog in the first place, and I did it on the basis of the pleadings, not...I didn't know any of the parties involved, and so I couldn't believe the charge. I don't believe it to this day.

"Mr. Lane: This was a granting of a rehearing, was it, of a felony conviction. Was that what it was? Do you remember?

"Justice Kavanagh: I think so. Something like that. I don't really recall the details of it, but I remember how astounded I was at the concept, the suggestion that John had taken a bribe to influence some decision on the Court, and as I said, you know, to Ozer, I said, "Well, that's ridiculous to even think that because there isn't one of us who could do it all alone", you know, and there is nothing. John has never talked to me about this thing. He didn't influence my vote. I always thought I had influenced his vote, and I did it because I thought it was right.

"Mr. Lane: Did this Federal agent offer any kind of documentation or something that was at all persuasive to support his representations? Do you remember that? This thing turned out, of course, in an acquittal, right?

Justice Kavanagh: Sure, absolutely. I don't remember exactly what he had. He had this Whalen...I think it was Whalen...somebody had testified, given an affidavit that he had, that John had solicited a bribe, and I think an affidavit to the effect that he had accepted a bribe which was later....John was acquitted of that charge which was totally ridiculous.

"Mr. Lane: This guy was a scurvy, penny-ante crook.

"Justice Kavanagh: Absolutely. Absolutely.

"Mr. Lane: Did you ever come to a judgment as to how this all...what led to this thing, how it all grew up into this...?

"Justice Kavanagh: Yes, I have a very firm conviction about how it came about, and I've said it before. I can't prove it, you understand, but I believe that the word came out of Washington. If you remember the political climate in Washington at that time of the Nixon and the Brownells and all these people that were getting rid of their political enemies, and I think the John Swainson incident was a part of that. I think the word came from...because John was being prominently mentioned as a candidate for the United States Senate.

"Mr. Lane: I remember that.

"Justice Kavanagh: And that is what took John out of the Senatorial picture, and if it hadn't come up, John would be the United States Senator, and he would be the United States Senator today, I think, so I am convinced that it was a put-up job originating in Washington.

"Mr. Lane: Now this fellow that actually carried the ball in the prosecution was imported from Buffalo or somewhere, was he not?

"Justice Kavanagh: Someplace. I'm not sure. His name was Robert Ozer. He was a special agent of some sort, and ...

"Mr. Lane: Had no background in the Michigan operation of the FBI or Justice Department.

"Justice Kavanagh: Not as far as I know.

"Mr. Lane: Well, I think it was well established in my mind, at any rate; I am very confident of it that he was brought in only a short time before the proceedings crystallize, and he was brought in from Buffalo or Philadelphia or someplace in the east and it seemed almost as though...well, you could draw a lot of conclusions given the timing of it.

"Justice Kavanagh: Yes, as I say, I can't prove that, but I am confident, I'll go to my grave with that conviction that John was framed.

Mr. Lane: But this really was a terrific blow to the Court given the...

Justice Kavanagh: It was devastating, devastating.

Justice Kavanagh died in Royal Oak in 1997.

###

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Dave Rogers

Dave Rogers is a former editorial writer for the Bay City Times and a widely read,
respected journalist/writer in and around Bay City.
(Contact Dave Via Email at carraroe@aol.com)

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