Washtenaw County Trial Court Judge Tracy E. Van den Bergh has disqualified herself from The Ann Arbor Independent’s lawsuit against Supreme Felons, the organization of felons seeking taxpayer funds to put themselves into Washtenaw County schools.
From The Ann Arbor Independent:
In Jan. 2025, the newspaper received a copy of a Sheriff’s Case Report that showed Judge Van den Bergh had requested the Sheriff conduct a secret investigation into a divorce litigant appearing before her, David Scott Mathieu. In Dec. 2023 Mathieu was investigated by the County Sheriff for posting pleas for “help” and “prayers” on social media, claims that Judge Van den Bergh was biased, and a link to the A2Indy’s Nov. 5, 2023 article about Judge Van den Bergh’s handling of his divorce, and complaints filed against her.
The Case Report showed that the Sheriff’s detective assigned to conduct the secret investigation had investigated the contents of the Nov. 5, 2023 article. […]
After the Case Report was shared with the newspaper, a Motion to Disqualify Judge was filed. A public hearing on that Motion was scheduled for Feb. 19, 2025. However, on Feb. 18 the newspaper was notified the case would be reassigned to a different Trial Court judge. Judge Van den Bergh’s clerk, in an email wrote, “Judge Van den Bergh has disqualified herself from this case and the case is being assigned to a different Judge.”
Basically, because this judge had already launched a secret investigation against the Ann Arbor Independent, she was no longer fit to hear the case of the newspaper against Supreme Felons.
