The 2026 Clutch Blanket Mystery, Week 09: The Newspaper Square
A third list of what came off the riverbank, and it agrees with neither of the first two. June stops…
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.
Clutch Justice Asked the State to Investigate Barry County’s Courts. The Feds Have Stepped In.
A nine-page filing to the State Court Administrative Office documents years of mail that never arrived, a register of actions…
Failing Up: Berrien County Voted in a Struggling Magistrate to the Bench. Colleagues Are Still Covering Her Docket.
Investigation Failing Up: Berrien County Voted in a Struggling Magistrate to the Bench. Colleagues Are Still Covering Her Docket. Sources…
Trial by Mechanism, Part IV: Robinson, and the Convictions Nobody Will Count
Trial by Mechanism · Part IV of VIII Robinson, and the Convictions Nobody Will Count The same defect that ended…
Slumbering on Their Rights: How the Lawsuit Against Richard Goodman Collapsed Without Ever Reaching His Residency
Investigation Slumbering on Their Rights James Galen Jr., the brother of the judge he was trying to help keep on…
No One Is Coming: Michigan Attorneys Describe a Discipline System That Dismisses 94 Percent of Complaints. The Judges Under Investigation Do Not Trust It Either.
Analysis Multiple attorneys who practice in Michigan courts described the same pattern to Clutch Justice on background: hearings that go…
Off the Record: Four More Rulings From Judge Kathleen Galen’s Courtroom Show the Same Defect
Investigation Off the Record: A Denied Right to Testify and Four More Cases From Judge Galen’s Courtroom A man barred…
Pattern Analysis for Beginners
Two disciplines use the same word. Only one of them earns it. Direct Answer “Pattern analysis” means two very different…
The Cameras Come After: Barry County Gets Body Cameras Two Years After Jeremiah Johnson, and the MSP Team That Investigated His Death Has a Record
Investigation Barry County deputies started wearing body cameras this week, 23 months after a deputy shot Army veteran Jeremiah Johnson…
Causing Her Problems: Judge Kathleen Galen Jailed a Pregnant Woman Over Unpaid Fines. The Michigan Court of Appeals Reversed Her.
Investigation Causing Her Problems Judge Kathleen Galen knew Zsazsa Soward was pregnant. She said so on the record, then sentenced…
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