The man at the center of a media report alleging Mayor Mary Sheffield accepted kickbacks as a council member says his words were “twisted” and that he never made the claims about his former romantic partner.
Marvin Walker spoke to the Free Press in a brief phone interview Aug. 28, responding to allegations that first emerged in a video and written report posted by Charlie LeDuff and the Michigan Enjoyer’s social media accounts Wednesday, Aug. 26.
The report stated that Walker claimed he collected illegal kickbacks for Sheffield.
“I did not tell Charlie that,” Walker told the Free Press Friday, Aug. 28. “I never told him that she gave me any money or that she gave me any transaction. I ain’t never in my life took no transactions from where it came
from me to a middle person.”
In response, LeDuff told the Free Press he stands by the story.
Sheffield issued a statement to the Free Press late the same day of the Enjoyer’s post, denying taking any kickbacks and saying Walker never received city contracts or funds.
She has acknowledged their previous relationship and said she had loaned him tens of thousands of dollars and that “any funds he provided me was repayment for money he owed me.”
In a statement, Sheffield said private photographs and communications had been “used to bully, harass, and intimidate me,” but now had to address these issues due to Walker "fabricating lies in an obvious attempt to protect himself from his own criminal and legal troubles.”
Walker is a controversial shelter operator who the city sued in 2023, alleging he was operating an unlicensed transitional housing facility that was not up to code. He has criminal convictions including identity theft and forgery and the city shut down one of his shelters last week.
The drama began bubbling on Facebook in July, when Detroit activist Jahdante Smith and another Detroit activist began posting intimate photos of Walker and Sheffield, and accusing Walker of wrongdoing.
On Aug. 26, LeDuff and the Michigan Enjoyer put the images in the news, along with kickback allegations. LeDuff’s story also included a confirmed allegation that Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison had intervened, asking Walker and Smith, the activist, to take down the photos or stop their dissemination.
Bettison told the Free Press that he had made the ask of Walker on July 11, while following up on a human trafficking complaint at a shelter he owned that did not bear out. He said he asked Smith to take down photos in a phone call on Aug. 5.
Two weeks later, Smith’s cell phone was seized by Detroit police during the execution of a search warrant. Smith told the Free Press he believes it was an attempted cover-up; Bettison said officers took Smith’s phone to investigate a separate July 28 allegation of social media harassment and a threat made by phone. The complainant is an acquaintance of Smith’s.
Sheffield has said she had no involvement in the chief’s requests and was unaware of them.
Walker says money exchanged with Sheffield was personal
Walker told the Free Press he had a romantic relationship with Sheffield “around 2020,” when Sheffield was a council member, and that the two would “just go out and have fun” while he was “going through something” in another relationship – dining out and riding on his motorcycle.
He said he had not talked to Sheffield in over three years, and a mayoral spokesman said in a statement that Sheffield and Walker’s relationship ended “several years ago.”
Money exchanged between the two, Walker said, was personal.
“We were dating,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with giving her money. There was times that she gave me, there was times I gave her – that’s it.”
Of LeDuff, Walker said “I don’t know how he twisted that story” into kickbacks, adding that LeDuff’s report contained numerous falsehoods.
“I stand by every word," said LeDuff, whose story said Walker provided him with texts, photos, and documents. "In fact, there will be more coming shortly.”
Walker said he would call the Free Press back later in the morning Friday, Aug. 28, but did not. Subsequent attempts to reach him were unsuccessful.
Walker first told the Free Press by text Thursday, Aug. 27 that "I never said no one gave me a kickback and that I gave it to her, that was not the conversation," and that he would call the paper later.
The pair were in a relationship while Sheffield was a City Councilmember, but Walker says he never exploited that role.
“I have never went to her for a favor, never,” he said. “I didn’t ask her for a favor after the city sued me."
Mayoral spokesman John Roach told the Free Press a nonprofit fiduciary of the Sheffield-led Occupy the Corner gave Walker $1,800 in 2019 for event services, just like "all other vendors."
Walker shelters prompted city lawsuit, shutdown
Walker is a transitional housing shelter operator through an organization called Detroit Power Detroit Focus LLC, housing men, women, children, and veterans across at least two sites in the city.
One facility, at 4545 Chrysler Dr., was shut down by city building officials last week following an inspection based on a complaint, according to Building Safety Engineering and Environmental Department director David Bell. The inspection found the building to be partially fire-damaged with multiple safety violations and an illegal electrical hookup. The building was ordered “vacated for public safety,” Bell said in an emailed statement.
The city in July 2023 sued to shut down another of Walker’s transitional housing facilities, at 19403 W. Chicago, winning a temporary restraining order before the suit was dismissed under a settlement agreement that Walker bring the properties up to code before housing people or they would be placed in receivership.
The suit, over alleged blight violations and unlawful use, accused Walker of operating without a state license or certificate of compliance from the city, creating “conditions that constitute a danger to the public health and safety of Detroit residents.”
In late December last year, the city moved to reopen the suit, alleging that Walker’s company was again operating the shelter without proper approvals. The city also said Walker had not provided proof that the facility was exclusively housing veterans, as permitted under the earlier court order; neighbors had instead reported raucous parties and men, women and children living there.
The case was administratively dismissed Jan. 7 due to a “lack of order entry” – essentially a procedural dismissal for unfinished paperwork.
City of Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett said the case was dismissed because the city had not provided sufficient evidence that the building had once again become a public nuisance.
Detroit Free Press investigative reporter Dave Boucher contributed reporting.
Violet Ikonomova is an investigative reporter with the Free Press focused on government and police accountability in Detroit. Contact her at vikonomova@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sheffield ex says report alleging kickbacks was "twisted," not true
