Federal prosecutors have charged 36th District Judge Andrea Bradley-Baskin, Guardian & Associates owner Nancy Williams, and Williams' fiancé, convicted felon Dwight Rashad, in a case alleging a conspiracy to steal money from vulnerable and incapacitated people in the Detroit area.

Bradley-Baskin, who was elected to the 36th District Court bench in November 2024, is accused of using $54,250 generated by the alleged conspiracy to rent a former Cadillac executive's nearly $900,000 townhouse in Brush Park near Little Caesars Arena. She is also accused of using more than $29,000 taken from victims to rent a home in Westland, where property records show she was living as early as 2019, The Detroit News reported.

The scope of the alleged scheme reaches well beyond rent payments on luxury housing.

A $1 Home Sale and a $140,000 Flip

Among the most striking details in the case is what happened to Frankie James, a legally incapacitated woman under the care of a court-appointed guardian. James had her Detroit home sold to a firm owned by Corey Baskin, the judge's husband, for one dollar. Corey Baskin later flipped the home for $140,000.

A legally incapacitated woman's home, transferred for a single dollar, then turned into a six-figure payday for the judge's husband. The facts require no embellishment.

The case also touches the late Lincoln Park retiree Ethel Ciotti, whose home was sold by her court-appointed personal representative, attorney Avery Bradley. Bradley happens to be Andrea Bradley-Baskin's father. Both Bradley and his daughter are under investigation by the FBI for corruption.

Federal Liens and Forfeiture

Prosecutors have moved aggressively to secure assets linked to the alleged crimes. Federal prosecutors filed a lien on an Oak Park office building, with the lien indicating the property could be forfeited to the government because it is linked to bribery and other federal crimes.

In May 2025, prosecutors filed a separate lien on a home in Southfield. That lien similarly indicates the property could be forfeited because it is linked to bribery and other crimes.

The FBI search warrant in the case allowed agents to seize records related to the care or finances of minors and legally incapacitated clients of lawyer Andrea Bradley-Baskin. This was not a narrow inquiry. Federal investigators cast a wide net over the financial lives of people who had no ability to protect themselves.

The Guardianship System's Blind Spot

Cases like this one expose a structural vulnerability that conservatives have warned about for years: the intersection of government power and private enrichment, shielded by layers of bureaucratic process that make accountability nearly impossible for ordinary citizens to pursue.

Guardianship courts exist to protect people who cannot protect themselves. The elderly. The mentally incapacitated. Minors. These are among the most defenseless people in the legal system. When the officers of that system allegedly become the predators, the victims have no voice and no recourse. They depend entirely on the integrity of the people appointed to serve them.

That integrity, prosecutors allege, was absent here.

What makes this case particularly galling is the family dimension. A father serving as a court-appointed personal representative. A daughter who became a judge. A son-in-law flipping a vulnerable woman's home for profit. The alleged conspiracy did not just exploit a broken system. It allegedly turned a family network into a pipeline for extracting wealth from people the courts were supposed to shield.

Elected While Under Investigation

Bradley-Baskin won her seat on the 36th District Court bench in November 2024. The FBI investigation was already underway. Voters trusted her with the authority to preside over cases, to weigh evidence, to judge others. The people of Detroit deserved to know what federal investigators already knew.

This is a recurring pattern in American cities where one-party rule has hollowed out accountability structures. When there is no meaningful political competition, there is no meaningful vetting. Candidates face no serious opposition research. Local media, stretched thin, cannot fill the gap. And so a lawyer under federal investigation for corruption walks onto the bench.

The forfeiture liens, the FBI search warrants, the charges against three individuals, all of it points to a case that federal prosecutors believe they can prove. The properties in Brush Park, Westland, Southfield, and Oak Park trace the alleged conspiracy's footprint across the Detroit metro area.

Frankie James lost her home for a dollar. Ethel Ciotti's estate was handled by a man now under FBI investigation. The people this system was built to protect were the ones it consumed.