Inkster official resigns as police investigate what he did with payment from Biden campaign

The city of Inkster’s parks and recreation director has stepped down amid allegations that he pocketed a $1,500 payment from the Joe Biden presidential campaign to rent a city facility the day before the November election.

Inkster police are investigating what happened to the campaign’s check to use the city’s Booker T. Dozier Recreation Center for an event featuring actress Kerry Washington, The Detroit Free Press first reported. Biden was not at the event.

City officials first became suspicious of Alex Legion, the short-time recreation director, when they noticed he was leasing the facility to friends and using the rental funds to renovate his city office, Mayor Patrick Wimberly said.

The Biden administration wrote a $1,500 check to Signature Milestones LLC to rent the facility. Legion was an organizer and managing partner with the company, according to state corporate records in 2017 and 2019.

"Questions were raised about the misuse of public funds within the Parks and Recreation Department, as well as the prosecution of the past director, Alex Legion, who is suspected of embezzlement from the department's due revenue and was allowed to resign from his position and not terminated," she wrote.

"Mayor Wimberly stated that he and the Chief of Police, William T. Riley III, launched an investigation but decided that he should pay the money back. We contend that there was a grave miscarriage of justice for the city of Inkster in that the investigation did not result in definitive answers as to what are the true circumstances of the situation."

Wimberly said Legion eventually reimbursed the city for money he received from his friends, but it wasn’t until later that officials learned about the check from the Biden campaign, which has not been paid back. He said an investigation is ongoing.

"We didn't know that he had Biden money," Wimberly said. "It's a company that he's affiliated with. Why would the Biden campaign write a check to the parks and rec director?"

Legion couldn’t be reached for comment.

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