Feds Charge Detroit Judge in Corruption Crackdown on Probate System

A globetrotting Detroit judge is accused of blowing money stolen from elderly and incapacitated people on a dive bar, a luxury car and a ritzy downtown condominium, according to a federal indictment unsealed Friday, almost seven months after The Detroit News revealed a secret FBI investigation.

The case against 36th District Judge Andrea Bradley-Baskin, her father and two others describes a conspiracy to steal assets and money from clients and splurge on luxuries. In Bradley-Baskin’s case, she spent more than $247,000 on personal luxuries, Chick’s Bar and rent on two properties in Metro Detroit, including a Brush Park condominium across Woodward from Little Caesars Arena, according to the government.

The fraud, conspiracy and money laundering indictment represents a rare federal public corruption prosecution in Metro Detroit made more unique because it involves a judge who was elected to a six-year term as the top vote-getter in November 2024. What voters did not know was FBI agents were investigating the judge and several others amid questions about the well-being and finances of vulnerable people in the probate system, including senior citizens and people with developmental disabilities.

Besides Bradley-Baskin, 46, of Detroit, the three other people charged are the judge’s father, lawyer Avery Bradley, 72, of Detroit; probate guardian Nancy Juanita Williams, 59, of Detroit; and Williams’ boyfriend, Detroit businessman Dwight Rashad, 69.

The judge was charged with three crimes and faces up to 45 years in federal prison if convicted of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, two counts of money laundering and lying to the FBI.

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Chief 36th District Judge William McConico revealed after the arraignment that Bradley-Baskin had been suspended from her $186,164 job.

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She was ultimately released on $10,000 unsecured bond and ordered to restrict her travel to the continental United States. That’s because in recent years, a time during which she is accused of spending stolen money, court officials said Bradley-Baskin traveled the world, including trips to the Caribbean, Spain, France and — most recently — Cancun in August as prosecutors inched closer to an indictment.

The indictment alleges a wire fraud conspiracy that ran from January 2017 to July 2024, a timespan that predates Bradley-Baskin’s tenure as a judge. The case portrays her as conspiring with others to enrich herself by embezzling money and using false pretenses to keep money and property belonging to multiple incapacitated wards of the probate system.

Her father and Williams, meanwhile, are accused of writing and obtaining unauthorized checks from wards’ accounts and depositing the money into bank accounts belonging to the judge and others.

Prosecutors unsealed the case almost five months after an investigation by The News revealed Bradley-Baskin and other targets were involved in the sale of at least five homes belonging to vulnerable people in the probate system, including some sold for far less than the properties’ market value.

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In September, The News reported that several homes belonging to wards were sold to Williams’ boyfriend after Bradley-Baskin proposed the sale or drafted the deeds, including a Dearborn Heights ranch that was flipped in less than a month for a 72% profit.

And in late January, The News revealed investigators were tracing the disappearance of $550,000 belonging to a 91-year-old woman from Berkley, whose home was sold by her court-appointed guardian and bank accounts drained after she became unable to manage her medical or financial affairs.

Wayne County Probate Court filings indicate Williams, meanwhile, has sought court permission in recent years to sell at least three homes belonging to wards that she was appointed to represent. {snip}

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