By ZEINAB NAJM
Times-Herald Newspapers
HEIGHTS — During a nearly four-hour Dearborn Heights City Council meeting Aug. 10, a resident and the fiancé of Chairwoman Denise Malinowski-Maxwell were removed.
While Malinowski-Maxwell was addressing another topic on the meeting agenda, Dearborn Heights resident Hassan Saab was heard calling her a liar.
Attorney Jim Fett — also the fiancé — then directed a curse word at Saab before Dearborn Heights police officers briefly removed both men from the meeting to the hallway.
In a statement, Police Chief Mark Meyers said that there is an ongoing investigation and that the safety and security of all people in attendance at the meeting was of the “utmost importance” following the disturbances.
He also said a report was filed with the Police Department the next day by someone in attendance.
“Our officers were able to quickly de-escalate the confrontation between individuals in attendance to gain orderly compliance, allowing the meeting to continue safely on two separate occasions,” Meyers said.
Saab and Fett returned to the meeting, and each spoke at the end of the meeting during the public comment portion. First was Saab who presented printouts of alleged Facebook posts by Fett.
“My comments are about the comments on Facebook from your boyfriend-attorney — about the racist comments he made about black residents in Dearborn Heights,” Saab said, addressing Malinowski-Maxwell. “Is that someone you agree with?”
Malinowski-Maxwell responded by saying, “That is nothing that I agree with and I am not — I don’t see any evidence of that on his Facebook.”
Saab claimed that the comments were deleted.
“I have my own beliefs and he’s his own person,” Malinowski-Maxwell said. “He has no control over what I say, and I have no control over what he says.”
The conversation then shifted to Saab asking if Malinowski-Maxwell was OK with the comment Fett made before walking out of the meeting.
Malinowski-Maxwell said she had no idea what comment was made and that she was not going to argue with Saab, reminding him he had three minutes to speak.
“Exactly, I have three minutes and I’m asking you that question — the comments that he posted about black people and about Black Lives Matter sympathizers on July 12 and 1 and September 11 of last year,” he said to Malinowski-Maxwell. “You were OK with them?”
She responded by saying, “No, I have no idea.” Saab then said Malinowski-Maxwell commented on one of them saying he has photos he can show.
Malinowski-Maxwell responded with “Not that I’m aware of.”
With permission, Saab approached Malinowski-Maxwell asking “Are these his comments? Is that his name? Is this his picture?”
Malinowski-Maxwell asked why the papers were crumbled up and Saab said because they were printed, but can give her pictures rather than printed copies.
He then questioned Malinowski-Maxwell again, asking “Is this him or not? Are these his comments?”
“I don’t know if that’s his account, he had somebody make up a fake one besides that,” Malinowski-Maxwell said referring to Fett. “His account was cloned at one point so I don’t know if that’s his main account or the fake one somebody put out there.”
Saab then went back to referencing the f-word that was made to him.
“So the comment that he made while walking outside with the police officer as an Arab when he called me the f-word,” he said. “You didn’t tell him to shut his mouth but you asked me to be quiet.”
Malinowski-Maxwell then said she didn’t hear what was going on and the quiet was aimed at anybody at that point.
“Sir, I’m not going to argue with you,” she said. “You’ve got something to say and you’ve got three minutes. I’m not going to respond any further.”
Saab again asked Malinowski-Maxwell if she was going to answer anything about the Facebook comments Fett has.
She said, “It’s probably the fake account. Did you make it up?”
“I made up? I got time to sit — it’s amazing how you keep looking and smirking all the time and you accuse everybody but yourself,” Saab said to the council chairwoman. “You’re such a disgrace to this community. You’re such a disgrace.”
Malinowski-Maxwell then responded saying, “No personal attacks, thank you.”
Later during public comment Fett spoke regarding the Facebook comments.
“I didn’t see youy little Facebook page that you captured, but I know one thing,” he said. “I’m no racist, but I do know something else and my truth is this — BLM is a terrorist organization. This assumption is that of law enforcement.”
Members of city council then intervened and asked Fett to address them while speaking. Fett continued and said that he considers BLM a terrorist organization.
“I sue them on behalf of people that have been cancelled by them,” he said. “I also represent many African Americans, Arabs, it doesn’t matter to me, but there has never been anything on my Facebook page that could be considered racist unless you consider people that oppose that marxist organization as racist, but if that’s racist I guess call me racist.”
To watch the meeting go to the City of Dearborn Heights YouTube channel.
(Zeinab Najm can be reached at [email protected].)