Warren Mayor Fouts accused of losing temper again, lunging at treasurer

Warren Treasurer Carolyn Moceri said she is so shaken up from an explosive encounter with Mayor Jim Fouts that she fears for her safety.

Today, Moceri filed an official complaint with the Human Resources Department, saying the mayor lunged at her during a meeting in his office last week and threatened to cut her budget in retaliation for comments she made in a news story nearly a year ago.

According to the complaint, obtained by Motor City Muckraker, Moceri was meeting with Fouts to discuss her department’s budget on Feb. 21 when the mayor became “enraged and out of control.” The complaint alleges that Fouts yelled and then lunged at her.

“I thought he was going to strike me,” Moceri wrote, saying she was “very shaken by this incident and trembled from the stress of the event.”

She added: “I have known Mayor Fouts for over a decade and was his friend and his supporter as a citizen activist and a fellow councilperson. Over the past few years, I have noticed a growing pattern of the Mayor losing his temper and engaging in aggressive and verbally threatening language.”

Moceri, who is a citywide elected official, pointed out that Fouts cost the city more than $300,000 from lawsuits and complaints stemming from his temper.

She’s asking the city to send Fouts to anger management classes and requested that action be taken by Monday to avoid further action.

According to the complaint, Fouts was enraged because Moceri called him “gross and disgusting” for comments he made during a taped phone call with a former aide.

In the phone call, Fouts said of Moceri: “All she does is sit around all day and finger herself and watch television.”

The aide, Jim Hartley, reported the death threats to police, and Fouts fired him. Hartley was awarded $175,000 in a federal whistleblower lawsuit. 

Here is the recording:

  Carolyn Moceri, Lawsuit, Mayor Fouts, threats, Warren

Steve Neavling

Steve Neavling lives and works in Detroit as an investigative journalist. His stories have uncovered corruption, led to arrests and reforms and prompted FBI investigations.

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