Lawyer David Zacks was shot through the door of his Bloomfield Hills home in a robbery attempt organized in part by a dancer he met at a Dearborn strip club, according to the Observer & Eccentric.
One of the suspects, Christopher Hernandez-Montiel, testifying against three Macomb County cronies in a preliminary hearing Wednesday, told Judge Kim Small that fellow defendant Cassandra Chobod had been in Zacks' home before and knew the location of several safes.
"She knew where the safes were and she had the combinations. She said he wasn't supposed to be home," Hernandez-Montiel told the court.
Jay Grossman reports in the Observer & Eccentric that lawyer Mitchell Ribitwer said the relationship between Chobod and Zacks began at BT's Lounge, a strip club on Michigan Avenue in Dearborn. Ribitwer represents Devon Miller, who is accused of firing five shots with a .40-caliber revolver that wounded Zacks in the abdomen and upper thigh.
“Police reports indicate there was a relationship between Mr. Zacks and Cassandra from a gentleman’s club,” Grossman quotes Ribitwer as saying. “They knew each other and were apparently having contact outside the gentleman’s club. That’s how Mr. Zacks was targeted.”
After the botched robbery, the four drove to Miller’s house in Clinton Township and smoked marijuana, Hernandez-Montiel testified. He said Miller shot at the door because he was upset with Zacks for not answering.
Judge Small bound over the three defendants for trial on a variety of counts that could keep them in prison for decades.
The violent encounter last month took place amid the manicured lawns and mansions of Bloomfield Hills, metro Detroit's wealthiest community.
Zacks is a partner in the boutique Birmingham law firm of Ishbia & Gagleard, P.C. with a wide variety of experience, ranging from federal white-collar criminal defense to complex commercial litigation. He also has represented the city of Detroit in more than 50 of its most high profile liability and civil rights cases.
In 1990, Zacks represented notorious con man Ken Weiner, a civilian Detroit deputy police chief, a confidante of Mayor Coleman Young and, eventually, a convicted swindler.
Roger Weber reported recently on WDIV-TV about how Weiner once made a brief escape from custody while meeting with Zacks.
