What Did Barry County Commissioner Jon Smelker Do With What He Was Told?
A decade on the Barry County Board of Commissioners. A seat on the committees that touch courts, corrections, dispatch, and…
Rita Williams
Rita Williams is a Michigan-based judicial oversight analyst and founder of Clutch Justice, an investigative platform focused on court system accountability, sentencing integrity, and SCAO policy. Her work examines how courts, policies, and administrative systems operate in practice, with a focus on where process breaks down and harm is created. Drawing on lived experience and systems-level analysis, she writes to make legal structures more readable, expose institutional gaps, and advocate for reforms grounded in both evidence and human impact. Rita’s writing bridges legal analysis, institutional critique, and public education, with a consistent focus on accountability without losing sight of the people most affected by the justice system.
Free Crochet Pattern: The Crime Scene Tape Scarf
The Field Kit · Crochet Pattern No. 19 The Crime Scene Tape Scarf A long striped scarf in caution yellow…
Twenty-Two Calls to Police, and the Law That Made Doing Nothing Legal
Investigation Twenty-Two Calls to Police, and the Law That Made Doing Nothing Legal Netflix’s Worst Neighbor Ever tells Miles and…
The Analyst’s Cut: Worst Neighbor Ever Gets Investigated
The Analyst’s Cut · Episode 04 Five people tied to one explosion. Two of them were convicted of murder without…
The 2026 Clutch Blanket Mystery, Week 05: The Camera Square
Some evidence has to be taken before it can be trusted. This week’s square is the instrument for taking it:…
Albert DeSalvo Confessed to 13 murders. He Was Convicted of Zero of Them
Boston breathed a sigh of relief in 1965 when Albert DeSalvo confessed to thirteen stranglings. The relief was never tested…
Barry and Calhoun County Jailed a Documented Diabetic With an Open Wound. He’s Now in the Hospital With Sepsis.
EDITORIAL TRANSPARENCY. I disclosed my own history with Barry County’s court system in the original investigation into this case, published…
Allegan County GOP Reverses Siver Judicial Endorsement 12-4 as Former Employees Detail New Allegations
Investigation The committee’s reversal came the same night former employees went on the record about a pattern of cash handling,…
Exhibit WTF, Case No. 01: The High School Dropout Who Performed Real Combat Surgery Under a Stolen Name
Exhibit WTF · Case No. 01 Ferdinand Waldo Demara never finished high school. He also ran a maximum security prison…
The Analyst’s Cut: Death of the Pastor’s Wife Gets Investigated
The Analyst’s Cut · Episode 03 Death of the Pastor’s Wife · Netflix · 3 episodes · premiered August 26,…
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