Warren mayor says recording controversy has led to death threats

WARREN, Mich. (WJBK) - Just when you thought the Jim Fouts saga in Warren couldn't get any worse, now the mayor says he is getting death threats.

Warren residents are concerned about Fouts.

"You can't kill the man," said one resident. "You can't take the law into your own hands and start lynching like the old west."

The mayor posted Thursday on his Facebook that he's had death threats.  Death threats, allegedly because of recordings made by the mayor degrading African-Americans, the disabled, and women. 

"I have no reason not to (believe Fouts' denials), if they prove him wrong, it's going to look bad," said another resident. "Maybe if he takes that lie detector, it’s going to look bad for him."

Not quite a lie detector but an audio analysis. 

FOX 2: "They say there are death threats against the mayor." 

"I heard that, I don't think that's right," said another resident. "He needs to protect himself."

Normally when police receive notices of death threats, they take it seriously with extra patrols and drive-bys. But the police will do that for any citizen who believes he or she was receiving death threats.

Some Warren residents believe it's not Fouts on the recordings.

"You listen to them tapes real close and pay attention to them," said another resident. "It doesn't sound like Fouts, they sound like somebody different."

But could there be more tapes?  Fouts believes there may be more recordings, and, according to his Facebook, he believes Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel will continue to manufacture more tapes.

"I feel is being set up right now," one man said.

"Everybody's innocent until proven guilty," another man said. "If they prove him guilty, he has to suffer the consequences."

And for those who believe the mayor did it, the consequences would be to resign.

But as the mayor posted on his Facebook page, "I've been told that this will not end until my death or resignation, preferably the first one."