Who’s Who: Ambrose Sullivan
Ambrose and His Family
Struck and killed on Whitmore Lake Road, Green Oak Township, at approximately 1:40 a.m. on September 1, 2016, while walking home after clocking out of his shift at the Whitmore Lake McDonald’s. He had lain on the shoulder for roughly a day and a half before coworkers noticed his hat by the roadway and raised the alarm. He was 19, below Michigan’s legal drinking age of 21.
Provided Clutch Justice with additional documentation in June 2026, after original publication of “Connected,” including the route David Vega drove to his brother’s apartment, the car-washing witness accounts, and Vega’s admission that he contacted his mother the night of the crash through data-based messaging that did not appear in the AT&T cell tower warrant return.
Has publicly documented the June 2018 default judgment amount as $3 million, reduced by Judge Hatty from a $10 million ask.
David Vega and the Vega Family
Was driving a yellow 2004 Chevrolet Corvette, uninsured and carrying an expired plate, when he struck and killed Ambrose Sullivan, then fled without stopping. He pled guilty on October 6, 2017 to one count of failure to stop at the scene of an accident resulting in death and was sentenced to 7 months in the Livingston County Jail and 36 months probation. No charge was ever filed over his manner of driving, the uninsured vehicle, or the expired registration, and no toxicology result for Vega appears in the released record.
He went on to direct and produce the feature film Broken Vessels, filmed in part at the Howell courthouse that had sentenced him, and successfully petitioned for early discharge from probation in September 2020 to attend the film’s Australian premiere.
Owned the commercial warehouse on Whitmore Lake Road, the same road where Sullivan was killed, where the Corvette was found concealed rather than at Vega’s residence or the crash scene. Registered agent of Vega Entertainment LLC (2015) and Vega Media LLC (2017), the entity later paid $81,690 in Michigan campaign funds. No charge was ever filed against him for concealing the vehicle, despite Michigan’s accessory-after-the-fact statute, MCL 750.505, permitting an independent charge under MCL 767.67.
Appeared as an actor in his son’s film Broken Vessels. By 2025 was President of the Hispanic Leadership Initiative and a featured speaker at the March 2025 Time to Lead event in Charlotte, Michigan, at Real Life Church, the same church whose pastor’s campaign had received $12,250 from the Gina Majority Fund seven months earlier.
Registered agent of Vega Group Inc., named as a civil defendant and found in default in the wrongful death suit. Testified under oath as the company’s resident agent at a debtor examination on October 18, 2018. David Vega admitted to investigators he contacted her the night of the crash through data-based messaging that did not appear in the cell tower warrant return. Contributed $225 to the Vega Fund, which in turn paid Vega Media $2,225 three days after Vega Media’s first documented Johnsen campaign payment.
Registered agent of a second Vega Entertainment LLC (Entity ID 802184125), formed April 21, 2018, 13 days after the original Vega Entertainment LLC went inactive. That entity itself went inactive in February 2021. Both Vega Entertainment entities and Vega Media LLC share the same P.O. Box 1164, Brighton, Michigan mailing address.
The Investigation
Documented the moved body and the unopened beer cans at the scene, executed the search warrant on the Corvette’s airbag control module, and ran a nighttime visibility reconstruction using a matching 1998 Corvette during a new-moon phase. His September 30, 2016 study found the vehicle should have stopped before striking Sullivan, with roughly 10 feet of clearance to spare. His January 4, 2017 supplemental report forwarded the complete package, including AT&T cell tower GPS analysis and a Robotic Leica Total Station scene survey, to the Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office for charging review.
The Court
Presided over both the criminal case that sentenced Vega to 7 months in jail and no prison, and the civil wrongful death suit filed by the Sullivan family less than two months later, a dual role over cases arising from the same crash. Signed the June 2018 default judgment, granted Vega’s early discharge from probation in September 2020, and, per the referral report’s documented financial network, received a $50 contribution tied to defense attorney James Metz around the sentencing period. Retired from the bench and was appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the Michigan Appellate Defender Commission in August 2025, recommended by the Michigan Judges Association, for a term expiring May 2029.
His office charged David Vega with a single count of failure to stop, MCL 257.617, on July 20, 2017. No charges were filed for operating an uninsured vehicle or an expired registration, both documented in Deputy Harmison’s police report, and no charge was ever brought against Jeffrey Vega for concealing the vehicle at his warehouse.
Represented David Vega through his guilty plea and sentencing. Left the Livingston County Prosecutor’s Office, the same office that charged his client, in January 2010 for private practice in Howell. The referral report documents a $50 payment to Hatty connected to Metz’s network around the sentencing period.
The Corrigan Network
Corrigan Towing impounded and transported the Corvette throughout the investigation. Sullivan’s body came to rest in the debris corridor near the entrance to Corrigan Oil, where the unopened beer cans were also found. The referral report documents the Corrigan family’s financial relationship with both the sentencing judge and the prosecutor, alongside the Metz network, in the table of contributions surrounding the sentencing.
Entities and Political Money
Registered October 31, 2017, with Jeffrey Vega as agent, 25 days after David Vega’s guilty plea. Was producing campaign content for Gina Johnsen as early as June 2019, more than two years before its first documented Michigan SOS cash payment in December 2021. Received $81,690 in documented Michigan campaign payments between 2021 and 2025, while the Sullivan family’s wrongful death judgment sat unpaid.
Her candidate committee paid Vega Media $9,250 across the 2022 cycle, its second-largest expenditure behind Johnsen’s own $29,850 salary draw, then an additional $1,000 in June 2023. Her independent expenditure vehicle, the Gina Majority Fund, seeded with $15,000 of Johnsen’s own money, made Vega Media its single largest vendor at $29,000 across 2024, out of $83,864 the fund spent that cycle, and separately paid the Vega Fund $3,500 directly.
Received $12,250 from the Gina Majority Fund on August 20, 2024, 14 days after winning his Republican primary, the fund’s second-largest expenditure that cycle. His church, Real Life Church in Charlotte, Michigan, hosted the March 2025 Time to Lead event where Jeffrey Vega spoke.
Contributed $500 to the Vega Fund and appeared alongside Jeffrey Vega as a featured speaker at the March 2025 Time to Lead event in Charlotte, Michigan.
Attorneys
Named in the investigative referral report’s civil collection recommendations as counsel who could pursue renewal and enforcement of the Sullivan family’s unsatisfied wrongful death judgment before its 10-year renewal window closes in June 2028.