Detroit — Mayor Mary Sheffield has man troubles.
First, there is the demolition contractor being investigated by the FBI for allegedly poisoning the city with toxic dirt. Sheffield’s first instinct was to tell the public she didn’t vote to give her former lover city contracts. That turned out to be a $59 million lie.
Now comes her latest Himbo eruption. And this one threatens to burn down City Hall.
Sheffield’s handlers do not deny her relationship with businessman Marvin Walker. There are too many salacious photographs and videos for that. But Sheffield’s minions are quietly whispering to reporters that if any money changed hands between the two, it was Sheffield helping out her former lover when his funds were short.
For his part, Walker claims that he was Sheffield’s bagman while she was a member of city council, acting as the courier who collected illegal kickbacks on her behalf and deposited them in her mailbox.
Walker came to meet me with a heavy portfolio of videos, text messages, and screenshots. Walker described an ornate scheme—one of many—where Sheffield used her public position and municipal contacts to help steer lucrative real-estate deals to a pair of prominent businessmen. Those men, in turn, would provide Walker with the quid-pro-quo: wads of cash as thick as a head of cabbage. Walker estimates that he collected and delivered at least $200,000 to Sheffield.
In one screenshot, Walker is sitting in his car with a bundle of high-denomination currency.
“7,000. In your mailbox,” he wrote along with a photo of the cash.
“Thank you,” she replied.
The rationale for his alleged criminality? “I loved her, man,” Walker said. “I would have done anything for her. But now she’s throwing me under the bus.”
Then Walker showed some wedding photographs of him and Sheffield taken in Las Vegas in 2022. It wasn’t a real wedding, said Walker, who is married with children. They were just “playing house.”
As he was talking about the Vegas getaway, Walker’s telephone rang. It was Detroit Chief of Police Todd Bettison. Photographs and videos of Walker and Sheffield were starting to appear on social media, and the Chief wanted Walker to take them down.
“How am I supposed to take them down when I didn’t put them up?” Walker asked the top cop. “I don’t got nothing to do with that.”
City Hall refuses to answer questions about Walker’s relationship with Mayor Sheffield, except to say, “[We] highly recommend you consider the source and motivation behind what is being said.”
Detractors paint an unsavory portrait of Walker. He’s been called slum lord, a car thief, and a manipulator who uses his properties to house homeless women and then use them as his own personal harem.
Walker denies it all. Nevertheless, police confirm that they have asked the county prosecutor for an arrest warrant against Walker for criminal sexual conduct.
And last week, Detroit police came 12 deep to lock and shutter Walker’s midtown building for code violations.
Also, plain-clothes detectives have been scouring local car dealerships inquiring about whether Walker had engaged in title fraud.
But car titles were not the only thing detectives inquired about. “They asked us if we knew anything about his and the mayor’s relationship,” one surprised salesperson recalled. “It was fucking crazy. I mean, we’re just a car dealership, what were we supposed to know about that?”
In response, Walker’s lawyer has made overtures to the FBI. They’re looking to cut a deal.
“I did whatever she asked of me,” Walker said, as we spoke in the parking lot of one of his moldering properties. Clay-faced women stared from their porch stoops. “Now, when I needed her help, she turns on me. I’m not going out like that,” he said.
But this story doesn’t end with Walker.
Earlier this month, Chief Bettison phoned Jahdante Smith, a high-strung and hard-charging activist who had posted intimate images of the couple online.
Smith recorded the call with the Chief.
“I did see some of the posts you made, the post with Mary kissing Marvin,” Bettison said. “What I would like for you to do, I would like for you to take those pictures down off your Facebook page. I would like for you to do that. I’m asking you.”
Smith refused.
Then last week, as Smith was walking downtown with his 7-year-old son, four uniformed cops jumped out of their squad cars, cuffed Smith, and seized his cellphone.
“They never presented a warrant, didn’t articulate suspicion, they just snatched my phone,” Smith said. “This administration is off the hook, man. Not good.”
When contacted by telephone, Chief Bettison said, “It’s an open investigation, I cannot comment on it.”
This shouldn’t be taken as a story of lust, but rather a story about the lust for power and money. It’s a story about judgment and the company Mary Sheffield keeps. A scorned and sleazy lover trying to settle a score. A mayor using the police force as a personal palace guard.
It’s fair game for the public to ask if their city is being run like an organized crime racket. Are we going back to the bad old days in Detroit? Maybe. Or maybe the bad old days never left and we just couldn’t see it.
