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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