Ambrose Sullivan: Case Timeline

Of Northfield Township, Michigan. He would be 19 years old at the time of his death, below Michigan’s legal drinking age of 21.

Sullivan, 19, had clocked out of his shift at the Whitmore Lake McDonald’s at 1:02 a.m. and was walking home along Whitmore Lake Road, Green Oak Township, Livingston County, when he was struck by a yellow 2004 Chevrolet Corvette driven by David Michael Vega, 20, of Fowlerville. The Corvette was uninsured, carried an expired plate, and sustained about $1,000 in impact damage. Vega fled without stopping.

Deputy Harmison’s report documents that Sullivan’s body had been moved from its uncontrolled point of rest, and that a white plastic bag containing two full, unconsumed cans of beer was found on the shoulder near the Corrigan Oil entrance, in the same debris corridor as the acceleration marks and headlight fragments. Sullivan was 19, below the legal drinking age; the report does not attribute the beer to him or anyone else.

Per additional documentation Jason Sullivan (Ambrose’s father) provided to Clutch Justice, David Vega drove after the crash to his brother’s apartment in the Whitmore Lake area, a route inconsistent with heading to his own residence. Witnesses at or near the complex reported seeing him washing blood off the Corvette the next day. Vega separately admitted to investigators he messaged his mother, Patricia Vega, the night of the crash, using data-based messaging that did not appear in the AT&T cell tower warrant return.

His McDonald’s coworkers noticed his hat alongside the roadway and raised the alarm. Ambrose had lain on the shoulder of Whitmore Lake Road for approximately a day and a half.

The vehicle was not found at Vega’s residence or at the crash scene. It was located concealed at a commercial warehouse on Whitmore Lake Road owned by his father, Jeffrey Vega, the same road where Sullivan was killed. The Corrigan family, whose towing company impounded and transported the vehicle throughout the investigation, held a documented financial relationship with both the sentencing judge and the prosecutor.

Deputy B. Harmison executed a search warrant and downloaded the Corvette’s airbag control module. At two seconds before impact, speed was 50 mph and throttle was 0%. At one second before impact, speed was 46 mph and the brake switch had activated. Calculated impact speed was a maximum of 42 mph, under the 55 mph limit. Investigator’s conclusion: the data indicates the driver observed an obstacle prior to impact.

Deputy Harmison used a matching 1998 Corvette during a new-moon phase with 1% lunar visibility, replicating Sullivan’s clothing. A person was detectable at 394 feet and identifiable at 208 feet; applying a conservative 50% reduction yielded an effective detection distance of 197 feet against a 187-foot total stopping distance at 50 mph, a 10-foot clearance. Investigator’s conclusion: the vehicle should have stopped before striking the pedestrian.

The report documents the airbag data, the visibility study, scene measurements taken with a Robotic Leica Total Station, vehicle inspection, AT&T cell tower GPS analysis, and the pedestrian walk reconstruction, then forwards the complete package to the Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office for charging review.

The Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office, under Prosecutor William Vailliencourt, charged David Michael Vega with one count of MCL 257.617, failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death, a felony carrying up to five years. No charges were filed for operating an uninsured vehicle (MCL 257.328) or an expired registration (MCL 257.255), both documented in the police report.

Ambrose Sullivan v. David Vega and Vega Group Inc., Case 2017-0000029572-NI, 44th Circuit Court, Howell. Judge of record: Michael P. Hatty, the same judge presiding over the criminal case.

Vega entered a guilty plea before Judge Michael P. Hatty. His defense attorney, James W. Metz II, was the former Senior Trial Attorney of the same Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office bringing the charge, having left that office in January 2010 for private practice in Howell.

Judge Hatty sentenced Vega to 7 months in the Livingston County Jail and 36 months probation. No prison term. No vehicle forfeiture. Because county jail time (unlike state prison) carries good-time credit under MCL 51.282, actual time served was reduced to approximately 170 days, roughly five and a half months.

Filed July 20, 2017; closed November 14, 2017. No charges were ever brought against Jeffrey Vega for concealing the vehicle in his warehouse, despite Michigan’s accessory-after-the-fact statute (MCL 750.505) permitting an independent charge under MCL 767.67.

The Sullivan family filed a motion for alternate service on November 30, 2017; the court authorized service by first-class mail, tacking, affixing, restricted delivery, and publication on December 1, then ordered service by publication and posting on December 18. Service by publication and tacking continued into January and February 2018.

David Vega was found in default on February 8, 2018. Vega Group Inc. was found in default on March 15, 2018. Neither defendant responded to the wrongful death suit.

Judge Hatty, the same judge who had sentenced David Vega seven months earlier, signed the default judgment. Kayla, Ambrose’s mother, has publicly documented the amount as $3 million, reduced by Judge Hatty from a $10 million ask. The exact figure has not been independently confirmed against the underlying court order.

The Sullivan family subpoenaed both for debtor examinations on August 31, 2018. On October 18, 2018, both appeared before Judge Hatty; Patricia Vega testified under oath as resident agent of Vega Group Inc. The family still could not collect.

The Livingston Daily profiled the production of Broken Vessels, David Vega’s feature film about traumatic brain injury survival, filmed at the Howell courthouse, seven months after the default judgment against him. Jeffrey Vega appeared in the film as an actor.

MiCOURT records a motion for early discharge from probation so Vega could travel to Australia for the international premiere of Broken Vessels. The first hearing was cancelled July 8, 2019; the request was later renewed.

Approximately two months before the standard 36-month expiration, marked “Successfully Completed.” The stated reason in the court file was international travel for the film premiere.

More than two years after the default judgment, the Sullivan family filed a request and writ for garnishment of David Vega’s state income tax refund, attempting to collect on the wrongful death judgment.

The last docket entry in the civil case. No public record documents the wrongful death judgment as satisfied. The judgment’s 10-year renewal window under Michigan law runs to June 29, 2028.

Entity ID 800048664, registered agent Patricia A. Vega. Would later be named as a civil defendant, found in default, and would lapse in May 2017 and go inactive, all while the wrongful death judgment against it remained unpaid.

Entity ID 801810038, registered agent Jeffery Alan Vega. This is the business named as David Vega’s business address, “Vega Entertainment, Video Prod,” on the Incident Report Suspect List in the September 2016 crash file. It lapsed in February 2016 (before the crash) and went inactive March 28, 2019.

Entity ID 802128666, registered agent Jeffery Alan Vega, formed 25 days after David Vega’s October 6, 2017 guilty plea. This entity would go on to receive $81,690 in documented Michigan campaign payments between 2021 and 2025 while the civil judgment sat unpaid.

Entity ID 802184125, registered agent Steven Matthew Carlson, formed 13 days after the original Vega Entertainment LLC (801810038) went inactive. Went inactive itself February 16, 2021. Michigan LARA records document a sequential pattern of entity formation, lapse, and re-formation under the Vega family name, all sharing the same P.O. Box 1164, Brighton MI 48116 mailing address.

The Vega Media Facebook page (vegaentertainment.net) was producing Johnsen campaign content as early as this date, 11 months after the wrongful death default judgment and more than two years before the first documented Michigan SOS cash payment. This overlaps directly with the Sullivan family’s active garnishment proceedings from October 2020 through March 2021.

The Committee to Elect Gina Johnsen pays Vega Media, Howell, $4,250, nine months after the last documented garnishment activity in the Sullivan civil case. Three days later, on December 30, 2021, Vega Media receives an additional $2,225 from the Vega Fund, whose contributors include David Vega ($500) and Patricia Vega ($225).

Across four transactions in the 2022 cycle (Dec 27 2021, Aug 22 x2, Sep 30 2022), the Committee to Elect Gina Johnsen paid Vega Media a total of $9,250, its second-largest expenditure behind only Johnsen’s own $29,850 salary draw.

An additional payment outside the Gina Majority Fund, bringing Vega Media’s total documented Michigan political income closer to its eventual $81,690 total.

Across three transactions (May 29, Aug 15, Oct 8, 2024), the new independent committee, seeded with $15,000 of Johnsen’s own money, made Vega Media its single largest expenditure of the $83,864 it spent that cycle. The fund separately paid the Vega Fund $3,500 directly.

The Gina Majority Fund’s second-largest expenditure went to the Andy Shaver Campaign, 14 days after Shaver won his Republican primary for Michigan House District 76. Shaver is the founding pastor of Real Life Church in Charlotte, Michigan, the same venue where Jeffrey Vega spoke seven months later.

Jeffrey Vega, President of the Hispanic Leadership Initiative, appeared as a featured speaker alongside David Lambright, a $500 Vega Fund contributor, at the event co-sponsored by Citizens Defending Freedom Faith. Held at Real Life Church, the same church whose pastor’s campaign the Gina Majority Fund had funded seven months earlier.

Appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, recommended by the Michigan Judges Association, for a term expiring May 24, 2029, after having retired from the 44th Circuit Court bench.

“Connected: Gina Johnsen’s Campaign Paid the Vega Family. Their Son Killed Ambrose Sullivan.” A 58-minute investigation documenting the forensic record, the Corrigan and Metz financial network around the judge and prosecutor, the entity cycling, and $49,250 then documented in direct Johnsen-to-Vega Media payments.

A formal referral documenting the full entity-cycling table, the complete $81,690 in documented campaign income to Vega Media across 2021–2025, and specific recommendations: reviewing the full cell tower record, obtaining the deputy’s toxicology equivalent (David Vega’s own drug/alcohol status was never disclosed), and considering an accessory-after-the-fact or alter-ego theory against Jeffrey Vega and Vega Media LLC.

Ambrose’s father provides Clutch Justice with documentation not available at original publication: the brother’s-apartment route, the car-washing witnesses, and David Vega’s admission that he contacted his mother Patricia the night of the crash through data-based messaging.

The article is revised to incorporate the car-washing witness accounts and the Patricia Vega contact finding, both sourced to documentation Jason Sullivan supplied after original publication.