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Hamtramck City Council votes to fire police chief, city manager
City council members voted late Tuesday to terminate Chief Jamiel Altaheri and city manager Max Garbarino. The city has given the recommendation to the acting chief to fire officer David Adamczyk.
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. (FOX 2) - Nov. 14 UPDATE: Former Hamtramck Police Chief Jamiel Altaheri reached an agreement with the City government allowing him to resign from his position with a five-month severance.
On August 26th Hamtramck City Council members voted to terminate Altaheri, along with City Manager Max Garbarino and Police Special Investigator David Adamczyk following an independent investigation that revealed several allegations of misconduct.
However the Hall Makled Law Firm, which represents Altaheri, said the Hamtramck City Charter does not allow for the City Council to make that move, and that while Council directed Interim and Acting City Manager Syed Ahsan to fire Altaheri, that action never took place.
Attorney Amir Makled said in part:
"My client (Altaheri) is grateful for his time in Hamtramck as Police Chief even as his reputation was wrongly sullied by recrimination and innuendo. Furthermore, Mr. Altaheri is proud of his accomplishments and the relationships he fostered with Hamtramck residents and businesses.
Makled says Altaheri’s resignation date will be backdated to August 2025.
Prior to those developments, Hamtramck City Council voted to terminate two city officials on Tuesday amid a 59-page bombshell report, which centers around misconduct allegations.
Big picture view:
City council members voted late Tuesday to terminate Chief Jamiel Altaheri and city manager Max Garbarino. The city has given the recommendation to the acting chief to fire officer David Adamczyk.
However, Grabarino was also placed on administrative leave at the behest of council because the mayor and the council said over the summer that they believe he was acting too quickly to at that point.
The decision was made after Hamtranck City Council members met in private following the release of the independent Miller Johnson probe released on Sunday.
The backstory:
This comes after a 59-page document, compiled by Miller Johnson Attorneys, that detailed alarming claims centered around Altaheri, Adamczyk, and Garbarino.
The investigation found that Altaheri allegedly destroyed evidence by wiping his city phone, drove his city vehicle while intoxicated, misused his police lights to run red lights, and at one point even handed a loaded gun to a civilian volunteer, allegedly instructing the volunteer to point it at someone’s head.
Investigators further alleged that Officer David Adamczyk tried to rig a sergeant’s exam, abused overtime hours, lied about secretly recording colleagues, and joined Chief Altaheri in an "improper stolen car recovery."
Additionally, the report claimed City Manager Max Garbarino showed poor judgment in pushing to re-hire Officer Adamczyk and allegedly attended a council meeting armed with a concealed weapon after being suspended.
The investigation concluded that there is enough evidence to discipline all three men, up to and including termination.
The Source: FOX 2 used information from previous reporting.