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    Washtenaw County Sheriff's Deputies William Tommelein and Randel Evans have been fired from their jobs  and face possible state and federal indictments as a result of their roles in the arrest, search and detention of six members of the Philadelphia musical group "Blue Magic" on May 10. In addition, the deputies are defendants in a $12,000,000 law suit brought by the band as a result of the incident.

    The full account of the musicians' six hour ordeal at the hands of local law enforcement agents was first published in the Ann Arbor SUN in its June 6 issue. In that story, the bandsmen reported being systematically brutalized, threatened and degraded by officers of the Sheriffs Department and the Ann Arbor Police while in their custody on a false gun charge, later dropped.

     Commenting on the June 13 dismissal of Tommelein and Evans, Sheriff's Department spokesman Laird Harris stated, "We are going to do everything we can to make the charges stick." He listed five grounds for the firing: ( 1 ) gross and negligent mishandling of property of persons in custody, (2) gross mishandling of the persons of subjects under arrest, (3) submitting false reports to superior officers, (4) withholding material information from reports, and (5) willfully engaging in conduct prejudicial to the good name of the department. Harris reported that the dismissal was being appealed, but expressed confidence that the action would be upheld.

    Meanwhile, four other actions and investigations are underway related to the incident:

    Attorney Ivan Barris representing "Blue Magic" filed a civil suit in Detroit's Federal District court seeking $6,000.000 each from Tommelein and Evans in damages. The suit charges the deputies with acting illegally, "under color of law" to deprive the bandsmen of their civil rights.

     According to Barris, Washtenaw County Prosecutor William Delhey is contemplating taking act ion in the case under state law. "Delhey wanted to hear my clients he was giving considered thought to seeking indictments. But." Barris continued. "I think a federal grand jury will indict these officers anyway."

    U.S. Attorney Donald Guy's office and the Detroit office of the FBI are handling the federal investigation of the incident, now being carried out under Title 18 of' the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

    "We're acting at the request of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department." Special Agent Jay F.Bailey of the FBI told the SUN. He stated that "several" agents were working on the case and that "we hope to finish the preliminary investigation within a week or ten days." The report, when completed, will go to the U.S. Attorney's office and the Justice Department for further action.

    Meanwhile, more information about the role of Ann Arbor Police in the incident may be forthcoming as a result of a report being prepared for the Ann Arbor City Council by City Administrator Sylvester Murray at the request of Mayor Albert Wheeler. The names of the Ann Arbor officers who participated in the search have been withheld by the Police Department, although an internal department investigation reportedly exonerated the officers.

    The Mayor's request followed the defeat of a resolution introduced by HRP City Councilwoman Kathy Kozachenko June 15 which would have established a special Council Committee to look into the incident and report publicly on its findings. Wheeler, along with Council Democrats and Republicans, voted down Kozachenko's proposal, and she, in turn voted along with Council Republicans to defeat a milder Democratic proposal which she termed "meaningless and watered-down." Murray's report is expected shortly.

   This house at 326 S. Fifth Avenue, along with the historic Masonic Temple are soon to be razed, making way for the parking lot of the new federal building. Residents of this house lost their court challenge to the federal government's attempts to relocate them. The judge ordered them out by June 14, clearing the last obstruction to the new building's erection. A Detroit company won the bidding to put up the Federal Building, and construction should be under way before the summer's end.