It is an irrevocable fact that on January 26, 1977, evidence implicating Chris Busch as a suspect in the OCCK case was deliberately destroyed and fraudulent polygraph evidence was knowingly manufactured to protect him from suspicion.
While it may seem strange to interrupt this narrative with what may sound like a departure into polite conversation, but let’s talk about the weather. It actually plays an important role in the OCCK case and provides helpful context to understand and explain what happened on January 28, 1977. The headline from the Detroit News says it all:
The Detroit News, January 29, 1977, 1‐A.
We are talking about the top headline regarding the paralyzing blizzard. Although it is more than an interesting coincidence that the blinding snow shared the front page with the story about Kristine Mihelich being smothered. The latter article marked the debut of Brooks Patterson asserting/inserting himself as the de facto leader and spokesman of the OCTF.
If you were to check the precipitation on a historical weather site, you would be confused because the Detroit area and Flint had less than a half inch of snow fall on that day. The above article acknowledges this. The problem was the winds that exceeded 50 mph and blew snow that had already fallen, resulting in one of the most dangerous blizzards in living memory. There was no visibility on the roadways. Several accidents were reported involving those crazy enough risk driving in those conditions. One pile up near Flint involved 17 cars and trucks. It was on this day that Chris Busch was arrested for CSC charges in Genesee County.
Recall that when Chris Busch agreed to take a polygraph test he was warned against it by his attorney.
Doan’s notes do not identify counsel’s name, but it appears in the “Special Report” regarding Chris Busch’s arrest that was submitted by Waldron on January 31, 1977.77 The attorney who represented Chris Busch in Flint on February 28, 1977 was David Megdell, a local defense lawyer. We need to take a moment to process this.
There was an attorney in Flint on January 28, 1977 representing Chris Busch.
When did Busch call his attorney? Everything in the record indicates that Busch did not call anyone. In fact, he explicitly stated that he did not want to consult with or avail himself of the protection of having an attorney. Given that there is no record of Busch placing any phone calls and the fact that he waived his right to counsel and ignored the advice of counsel no less than three times that day, one might wonder who rubbed the lamp from which this lawyer magically appeared.
If Busch called any lawyer, he would have called Keith Stark. Stark handled H. Lee Busch’s business matters like purchasing the home and restaurant in Alma that Chris owned. Stark also would come into the picture later to assist with Chris’ criminal charges. Chris Busch had no connection to this Flint lawyer. If Busch called Megdell or any other attorney from his restaurant or home, Megdell would have instructed him to not let the officers enter or search his home. He would have told Busch to not tell the officers anything. Then, during the ride to Flint with Busch and Doan, Waldron reported the following:
Does it make any sense for Chris Busch to have an attorney ready and waiting when he arrived in Flint after he specifically waived his right to counsel? Chris Busch neither called an attorney nor did he ask for one. Yet, his attorney was there in Flint waiting for him.
Could one of Busch’s employees at his restaurant have called H. Lee and told him his son was arrested? First, we must remember that this was 1977 and unlike current times, people did not have each other’s contact info let alone their emergency contacts. Second, Busch’s restaurant opened barely two months before his arrest. That is hardly enough time for him to establish a close, personal bond with his employees for them to know him and his family well enough to call H. Lee. Third, of the readers who at any point in their lives worked in a restaurant waiting on or bussing tables, can I have a show of hands of those who had the contact info of the restaurant owner’s father? Yeah, me neither. Fourth, can you imagine a world where an image‐conscious prick like H. Lee Busch would allow lowly restaurant workers to have the phone number of the former Cadillac Division Controller? Thus, it is highly unlikely that Megdell’s representation of Busch was the result of someone from The Scotsman making a call.
Maybe Megdell was one of those criminal defense attorneys who trolls around police stations fishing for clients. Megdell did his undergrad at Michigan State and attended law school at Texas Southern University. He passed away in 2017. Tributes on his obit site laude his abilities as an attorney and one thanked him for the mentorship he provided to a young lawyer in 1976. His education and condolence notes do not fit the profile of an ambulance chaser. Of course, there is also the fact that no lawyer is so desperate for business that he would hang around the Flint PD during one of the worst blizzards in living memory.
Before engaging in a ridiculous argument that perhaps someone at the police station allowed Busch to call his attorney, you must present that absurd, baseless assertion in the context of the factual record. You have to say it like this: “Chris Busch might have called the attorney without anyone at Flint PD or in the OCTF making a note of it after he consented to a search of his home, and again after he specifically waived his right to an attorney during the car ride to Flint, but before he ignored the advice of the attorney he supposedly called and kicked the attorney out of the room because Busch again wanted to waive his right to counsel and tell his story to the officers. Try making that argument in court with a straight face.
The obvious question is: Why did the police officers not catch the supernatural presence of an attorney who was never called? As mentioned previously, this is not the story of a vast conspiracy. One need only look at Doan’s report of the Busch interview to see that the OCTF detective was in no way trying to help this monster. In the context of this case, there is a good reason why the police did not note the miraculous appearance of David Megdell. We must remind ourselves that there were multiple police departments involved in Busch’s arrest. There were the officers in Alma, Flint PD and the OCTF. This was not a normal arrest. If this were a regular case with two detectives from a single department, upon seeing Megdell, they would have asked each other, “Who the hell called him?” In this case, there were at least three departments involved in Busch’s arrest and when they saw the attorney, they likely assumed one of the other departments let Busch make the call. But also keep in mind the bizarre orders these officers were required to follow for Busch’s arrest. No mentions of Greene’s tip in the Flint record. No reference to the OCTF participation in the investigation until it was no longer possible to hide their presence. The repeated polygraphs of Greene. No authorization of arrest warrants by the OCP regardless of the mountain of probable cause. The unexplained presence of David Megdell was probably the least strange event for these officers.
So, who did make the call that resulted in Megdell appearing in Flint to represent Chris Busch? That question is precisely why the following caption appears under the title of this and every subsequent chapter:
It is an irrevocable fact that on January 26, 1977, evidence implicating Chris Busch as a suspect in the OCCK case was deliberately destroyed and fraudulent polygraph evidence was knowingly manufactured to protect him from suspicion.
We are dealing with a public official who thinks nothing of manufacturing evidence to protect a suspect who admitted to raping and murdering children.78 Muddling the initial Genesee County warrant to buy enough time to tip off H. Lee about his son’s impending arrest is hardly a stretch. If anyone has an explanation that makes more sense why and how David Megdell was ready, waiting and willing to represent Chris Busch when he arrived at the police station in Flint, lay it on me. Despite Chris Busch repeatedly waiving his right to counsel, the OCP who worked so hard for the perception that he gave no quarter to defense counsel, dropped a dime to make sure Chris Busch was represented.
It is worth noting that January 28, 1977 was Megdell’s one and only appearance as Chris Busch’s attorney. H. Lee had to go local because his regular go‐to guy, Keith Stark, was not desperate and/or stupid enough to risk the treacherous 50‐mile drive in zero visibility conditions. Place a mental bookmark on the notion that no lawyer in his right mind would make the drive from Oakland County to Flint on that day.
After Busch went against the advice of the lawyer he never ask for and agreed to be polygraphed, arrangement for the test were made. News of the upcoming test reached the OCP office. Realizing that the defense attorney they set up for Busch failed, it fell upon the OCP to save Busch from himself. Patterson dispatched Dick Thompson, a lawyer who was never in his right mind, to jump in his car and make the white‐knuckle drive to Flint through zero visibility conditions, past stranded motorists and that 17‐vehicle pileup.
It is, indeed, a travesty that Thompson’s journey of reckless stupidity to protect an admitted child rapist has been mythologized into something heroic. The false narrative is that the OCP was so hopeful and expectant that an arrest in the OCCK case was forthcoming that he dispatched his right‐hand man to risk life and limb for the sake of his constituents. Let us recalibrate this with the facts that were known at the time and state it correctly:
The OCP, who obstinately and repeatedly REFUSED TO AUTHORIZE A WARRANT for the arrest of either Chris Busch or Greg Greene despite having more than enough probable cause that included a positive polygraph test implicating Busch that was destroyed while the OCP’s minions were in town, a polygraph test of Greene implicating himself that was also thrown out, the testimony of Busch’s victim who painted a target on Greene as a prime OCCK suspect, the testimony of that same victim where he pointed to a map showing where in Oakland County Busch molested him, and the admissions of Busch himself who told three OCTF officers that he molested several boys in Oakland County and fantasized with Greene about kidnapping, tying up and raping a boy, dispatched his chief assistant to drive in a blizzard to be present during Chris Busch’s polygraph test.
Again, this is not hindsight. This is what was known at the time. It is absolutely true that Dick Thompson made the drive to Flint that evening because an arrest in the OCCK case was imminent. It simply did not occur to anyone that the purpose of his desperate trip was to keep that arrest from happening.
Dick Thompson did not make this trip to Flint to simply be in town during Chris Busch’s polygraph test. What H. Lee Busch expected required a much more personal touch. There had already been enough screw ups because Chris Busch was not even supposed to be arrested. The Chief Assistant OCP made everyone wait until he arrived because he insisted on being in the room during the test. After David Megdell’s failure to protect Busch, H. Lee insisted on bringing in the “A Team” and the OCP was more than ready to assist. Recall Doan’s comment about Dick Thompson’s presence in Flint that evening. Of the hundreds of polygraph tests taken of suspects in the OCCK case, this was the first time anyone from the OCP office was in the room during the examination.
Busch’s test was performed by MSP polygrapher, Ralph Cabot. Recall that Cabot was one of the two polygraphers who was used to manufacture the fraudulent polygraphs of Greg Greene. Greene’s other fraudulent polygraph was taken by Melvin Scott. According to Waldron’s “Special Report,” Cabot and Scott worked together to develop the question for Busch’s test. Below is an unredacted copy of Chris Busch’s polygraph test.
These are identical to the questions that were asked of Greene when Cabot took his fraudulent, manufactured polygraph four days later on February 1, 1977. We already know based on a review by independent experts who reviewed the technical data that neither Busch nor Greene should have been “passed” by Cabot. It is worth noting that the despite the fact that Busch and Greene were admitted child molesters and Mark Stebbins was sexually abused before he was murdered, neither man was asked whether he knew Mark Stebbins or sexually abused him.
Below are handwritten note taken presumably by Ralph Cabot during Busch’s polygraph test under Dick Thompson’s watchful eye.79
Busch repeated the “fantasies” that he described to the OCTF officers about tying up and molesting a boy. Only this time, he said it directly to Dick Thompson’s face. The notes also indicate that after asserting that he had nothing to do with the Stebbins boy, Chris Busch asked, “is there something wrong with the machine?” It was as though even Busch was trying to point out that something was amiss with the test. Of course, we would learn more than thirty years later what Thompson and Patterson already knew at the time these sham polygraphs of Green and Busch were taken.
Meanwhile, the investigating OCTF officers eagerly anticipated that Busch was going down in flames during his polygraph examination. Little did they know that Busch’s test was a charade. They had no idea that there was a jackal among them. Their sense of relief at hitting upon what they were certain was the first major break in the OCCK case gave way to shock upon learning that Busch “passed.” As mentioned previously, at that time, polygraphs were given undue status and were regarded as the gold standard. As to Cabot, Thompson only had to leverage his position using heavy‐handed threats and gifts to get the result he needed. Sexual predators are not the only ones who rely on these tactics to get what they want.
Thompson pretended to commiserate with the crestfallen OCTF officers. This cannot be emphasized enough: It was the only polygraph of the hundreds that were taken during the course of the OCCK case that was attended by someone from the OCP office. Nevertheless, more than 30 years later, Thompson pretended to have no knowledge of risking life and limb to be in Flint to attend Chris Busch’s polygraph session.80
Finally, it seems like we are just piling on at this point, but during his polygraph pre‐test, Busch openly admitted to molesting young boys right to Dick Thompson’s face. Busch mentioned his fantasy of tying up and sexually abusing a young boy with Greg Greene right to Dick Thompson’s face. Sure, Patterson and Thompson illegally destroyed and manufactured evidence to create the illusion that there was no connection between Greene and Busch and the OCCK case, but what about the other crimes? It is important to remember that Chris Busch’s polygraph was limited to whether he was involved in the murder of Mark Stebbins in Oakland County. It had nothing do to with his admissions of molesting children, using Big Brothers to procure victims, the child pornography photos and films found at his house or the statement of Ken Bowman. What about Greene, Busch and Bowman all telling the OCTF about the time the men took the boy to a place that is definitely in Oakland County to molest him? What about Busch admitting to using Big Brothers in Oakland County to procure victims since 1971? What about Busch specifically naming a boy from Berkely who he molested? Was it policy in Oakland County to give admitted child molesters a free pass? Chris Busch could have ghost‐written his own Oakland County arrest warrant leaving only the signature line blank to Thompson. Yet,
6. The OCP refused to authorize a warrant for Busch’s arrest.
The OCP succeeded in making sure Chris Busch would face no consequences in Oakland County for the children he admitted to raping and those he was suspected of murdering. All that remained were the pesky Genesee County charges against Busch for molesting Ken Bowman in Flint.
Footnotes:
77 MK 500‐503, Special Report regarding the arrest of Christopher Brian Busch, submitted on January 31, 1977 by Det. Tom Waldron of Flint PD.
78 Of course, Busch’s admission that he murdered Tim King had not yet happened, but the suppression of Greene’s polygraph test indicating he was being truthful about Busch murdering Mark Stebbins preceded Megdell’s appearance at the Flint PD.
79 MSP 326.
80 OCP 470.
Guarded By Jackals 