Mark Craighead spent more than seven years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.
Now, after his exoneration in 2022, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office is targeting the nonprofit he founded to help others rebuild their lives after incarceration.
Craighead, 65, is the president and director of Safe Place Transition Center, a Detroit-based nonprofit that provides housing assistance to formerly incarcerated residents and veterans. The organization owns multiple properties in the city, offering below-market rent to those in need. The nonprofit also hands out food to about 200 low-income people in Mount Clemens twice a month.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office has filed a case in probate court seeking control over the nonprofit’s assets, arguing that Craighead improperly used funds. Craighead insists the case is a form of retaliation after he received $360,000 in 2023 under the Wrongful Imprisonment Compensation Act (WICA), which was created by state lawmakers to help wrongfully convicted people rebuild their lives.
Craighead says the allegations are baseless and that there’s an easy, innocuous explanation for what happened. According to Craighead, he used his own money to fix the properties and pay for expenses, including gas and an assistant. Then the nonprofit reimbursed him, he says.
“Everything that came out of Safe Place, it came from me first,” Craighead says. “I eventually got paid back. The board approved the money to me.”
Kimberly Bush, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, strongly disputes Craighead’s claims of retaliation. She says the office’s Charitable Trust Unit, which is handling the Safe Place case, is entirely separate from the WICA unit, which approved Craighead’s compensation claim.
“The Charitable Trust team was not involved in the WICA matter and vice versa,” Bush says via email. “It is both nonsensical and illogical to assume that the Department holds ill will in a matter that the Department did not contest.”
The AG’s office says its case against Safe Place originated from a 2020 complaint by Ibrahim Bazzi, who alleged Craighead had “pocketed over $200,000 from money intended to help needy individuals of the community.” The state launched an investigation, and when Safe Place and Craighead allegedly failed to provide legally required information, the AG filed a probate action to take control of the nonprofit’s assets.
Craighead denies wrongdoing and says he declined to answer questions because of his past experience with law enforcement, which led to his false confession and wrongful conviction.
“They did whatever they wanted to do in the past,” Craighead says. “I’m not going to let it happen again. It’s a corrupt system.”
According to Craighead, Bazzi bought a building from him and threatened to file a complaint with the AG’s office if he didn’t forgive a $60,000 debt. Bazzi’s attorney said he had a friend in the AG’s office, Craighead says.
He still hasn’t seen the complaint that Bazzi filed against him.
“I have repeatedly requested a copy of the complaint against me to face my accuser, as is my right,” Craighead says. “However, this request was ignored.”
According to court filings, the AG’s office alleges Craighead refused to provide information about Safe Place’s board, compensation, leases, reimbursements, gifts, and financial records. The IRS revoked the nonprofit’s tax-exempt status on June 15, 2022, and its last tax filing indicated it had about $317,000 in assets.
The AG argues Safe Place is a charitable trust under Michigan law, making it subject to state oversight. Craighead contends it is a nonprofit corporation, which would operate under corporate law and not probate court jurisdiction. The legal distinction is crucial because, if classified as a charitable trust, a court-appointed trustee could take control of its funds and property.
The case has bounced between state, federal, and bankruptcy courts.
In September 2023, Craighead attempted to move it to federal court, arguing that the AG’s actions violated his constitutional rights, fabricated allegations, and retaliated against him. Craighead’s court filing in federal court alleged that the office’s “deliberate misclassification of Safe Place Transition Center Inc. as a charitable trust in order to improperly seize its assets without due process in probate court resulted in constitutional and civil rights violations by Defendant.”
However, a federal judge ruled in December 2023 that the case lacked federal jurisdiction and kicked it back to probate court.
Later, Craighead filed a bankruptcy case on behalf of Safe Place, temporarily halting the AG’s efforts. The AG’s office inserted itself in federal bankruptcy court, a move that Craighead tried in vain to stop.
According to Bush, Craighead has continued to withhold financial records from the bankruptcy trustee.
The federal bankruptcy judge, Mark Randon, issued a bench warrant for Craighead’s arrest after he failed to show up for court late last year. Craighead said he was in the hospital and sent photos to the judge.
Craighead maintains that the AG’s office has circumvented legal procedure to take over Safe Place, even accusing officials of failing to properly serve him with a summons.
“You can’t take someone’s property without due process,” Craighead says. “They skipped the steps because they don’t actually have a case.”
Adding to his legal battles, Craighead filed a lawsuit under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, accusing the AG’s office of harassment, intimidation, and fraudulent legal action. He alleges that investigators have conducted warrantless surveillance, questioned tenants to find damaging information, and manipulated court proceedings to take control of his assets.
“This is déjà vu from my criminal trial,” Craighead says. “They railroaded me once, and they’re trying to do it again.”
A lingering question in Craighead’s case is whether there is any connection between his legal troubles and Barbara Simon, the former Detroit homicide detective whose aggressive interrogation tactics contributed to his wrongful conviction and cost city taxpayers about $25 million in wrongful imprisonment lawsuits.
Despite Simon’s past, then-Attorney General Mike Cox hired Simon as an investigator after she retired from DPD in 2010. For about a decade, Simon worked at the same office that is now pursuing Craighead.
Bush insists there is no link between Simon and Craighead’s current case. She says Simon worked in the Child Support Unit when she retired from the Attorney General’s Office in 2021, and she was not involved in Craighead’s current case.
“Ms. Simon left the Department in 2021,” Bush says. “She was assigned to the Child Support Unit (within the Criminal Division) and was only involved in child support cases.”
Craighead doesn’t buy that explanation, saying an AG investigator acknowledged he was familiar with Craighead’s former criminal case.
Despite Craighead’s accusations of retaliation, the AG’s office says its actions are based solely on evidence and legal precedent. Bush cited the 1985 American Foundation case as an example of the state’s authority to bring actions against nonprofits in probate court.
What makes this case even more unusual is that Craighead refuses to hire an attorney, fearing that lawyers are part of a system that he has learned to distrust.
Since his exoneration, Craighead has devoted his life to helping others who were wrongfully convicted. Safe Place Transition Center continues to provide housing and food assistance, though Craighead says the AG’s case has made it difficult to continue services. He is also concerned for the people living in his nonprofit’s affordable housing units.
“The people living in these homes, they would lose everything,” Craighead says. “I’m fighting for them too.”
Adding another layer to his challenges, Craighead was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. Meanwhile, his wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against the state remains unresolved.
“I won’t let them take everything I’ve built,” Craighead says. “I’ve fought too hard to be free.”
