A judge today ordered ousted Metro Airport CEO Turkia Awada Mullin to testify in a lawsuit that accuses Wayne County of operating in secret when it hired her.
Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo signed a subpoena ordering Mullin to appear Wednesday for the deposition. Robert Davis, the plaintiff in the lawsuit, said Mullin was served with the subpoena at her Birmingham home this afternoon.
Davis, a Highland Park school board member and a frequent litigant over open meetings issues, sued the Wayne County Airport Authority last Thursday, claiming it violated the state Open Meetings Act several times during the hiring of Mullin.
He said the authority illegally formed a search committee, which operated behind closed doors and posted no minutes.
Mullin was fired Oct. 31 from the airport post amid a scandal prompted by the revelation that she received a $200,000 severance payment when she voluntarily left her county job for the airport. That and other business dealings in Wayne County prompted an ongoing FBI investigation.
Airport spokesman Mike Conway has said he couldn't comment on pending litigation.
Larry Dubin, a law professor at the University of Detroit-Mercy, said it “would be highly irregular” for the deposition to happen so quickly after the suit was just filed and the Airport Authority hasn’t even answered the complaint.
“If you’re going to take someone’s deposition, then the other side has the right to be notified and have his or her attorney present,” Dubin said. “Until there’s a response, there’s no way to know if the person has even retained a lawyer.”
Samuel Nouhan, an airport board member who led the search, said Monday night, he had not been served with a subpoena.
“I’m not aware of what he’s trying to do,” Nouhan said.
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