Anthony and Willie Mills opened up a restaurant in Grand Rapids. It wasn’t much of a place, but it was making them enough money to stay open, give them some autonomy, and do a little to help out the local economy. But then an unnamed officer came in one night, made erroneous claims, and shut the whole operation down.
Here are two brothers who came and tried to open up a legitimate business. They weren’t in violation of the law. There wasn’t criminal activity going on in the business. They were just doing the best they could here in Michigan and because of what happened they have lost that dream. They have lost that opportunity to succeed,” said Benjamin Mills, a partner at Gruel, Mills, Nims & Pyleman who is now representing Anthony and Willie Mills.
The Mills brothers opened the now vacant restaurant called Chili Willi’s on Eastern and Burton 5 months ago. They say the new business was just making enough money to keep the doors open then on August 30th a Grand Rapids police officer came in and improperly shut them down for not having a license they in fact did not need.
“He closed me up and told me if I sold anything that I would go to jail,” said co-owner Willie Mills.
After this story first got press, the city looked into what was going on. They’ve admitted guilt.
After losing their business the Mills brothers needed to know why this happened to them and wanted someone to be held accountable. They contacted 13 On Your Side and we went to police and city leaders to get some answers.
“Well after your story it brought this whole thing to our attention. We realized a mistake had happened. We are not out trying to hurt any type of business,” said Lt. Ralph Mason, Spokesperson for Grand Rapids Police Department. “A mistake happened. We are humans. We now have to figure out how to get this thing behind us.”
First, a police officer should know better than to admit error publicly. It’s just as bad as a citizen talking to the cops. I suspect if the city is sued, Mason’s statements will be thrown back in his face. In all likelihood, by admitting his guilt he just forced a settlement by the city (which should be at least $25,000, the amount the Mills brothers are out). Second, really? He wants to “figure out how to get this thing behind” the city and police department? How about he gets the Mills brothers back in front of all their debt? That would be the decent thing to do, at least.
Filed under: News | Tagged: Anthony Mills, Chili Willi's, Grand Rapids, Lt. Ralph Mason, Willie Mills | Leave a comment »
For the Sake of Science 