18 | JANUARY 9 • 2020
Jews in the D
continued from page 16
arrested and charged with one
count of falsely reporting a fel-
ony. He was arraigned the same
day at 48th District Court in
Bloomfield Hills and appeared
in court Jan. 2 for a probable
cause hearing.
Kol Ami is located on Walnut
Lake Road in West Bloomfield,
a virtual “synagogue row” that
includes three other synagogues
on the same road and the
Jewish Community Center not
far away.
“When we learned there was
an alleged crime of violence
connected to a possible hate
crime, it was a source of imme-
diate and urgent concern to our
department,
” said Patton, add-
ing that Samitt, like any defen-
dant, should be presumed inno-
cent until proven guilty. “We
called in off-duty detectives and
brought in a lot of resources,
including tracking dogs.
”
Gary Sikorski, the Jewish
Federation’
s community-wide
security director, spoke
to members of the West
Bloomfield Police Department
prior to the news becoming
public.
“We have a great relationship
with all of our law enforcement
and had there been something
that the community needed to
be aware of, I’
m sure we would
have been notified immediately
and information would have
been relayed to the communi-
ty,
” Sikorski said.
Carolyn Normandin, regional
director of the Anti-Defamation
League (ADL) in Michigan,
credits the West Bloomfield
Police Department for acting
“swiftly and very professionally”
but stresses the severe impact
this false police report has on
the community.
“It is very destructive to file a
false police report,
” Normandin
said. “Not only is it illegal, but
it doesn’
t help anyone. At a
time like this, when there is an
uptick in anti-Semitism, filing
a false police report harms
everyone.
”
Patton agreed.
“We already have an elevated
concern about these things,
”
Patton said. “For someone to
fabricate this kind of incident
wastes our resources and puts a
bad light on the community.
”
According to information
found in Jewish News stories in
the William Davidson Digital
Archive of Jewish Detroit
History, Samitt came to Temple
Kol Ami in August of 2018
as cantorial soloist and also
worked as the school’
s music
teacher. He resigned Dec. 16,
a Kol Ami spokesperson con-
firmed.
“Sean resigned for personal
health reasons,
” the spokesper-
son said. “We wish him well
in the future. Sean’
s musical
talents were appreciated during
his time here, and we’
re very
sad for him that he faces these
challenges.
”
Other online sources showed
that Samitt relocated from
Arizona, where he was the
musical director at Temple Beth
Sholom of the East Valley. He
is originally from New York
and attended Arizona State
University, where he assisted in
leading services at the Hillel.
Samitt will return to court
Jan. 14 for a preliminary exam-
ination in front of 48th District
Court Judge Diane D’
Agostini.
If convicted, he could face up to
four years imprisonment.
JN staffers Ronelle Grier, Corrie Colf
and Keri Guten Cohen contributed to
this report.
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