The city was the subject of a report on the satirical national news show Monday that dramatized a misdemeanor case involving a city employee convicted of selling bootleg polka DVDs.
The nearly seven-minute clip, called "Nailed 'Em -- Polka Piracy," included interviews with former Warren employee Fred DeChausse and the mayor, Jim Fouts. Host Stephen Colbert calls DeChausse the "kingpin of Warren's largest piracy ring" and shows a fake sting at a Warren restaurant that led to DeChausse being dragged off to the "polka pokey."
"I was arrested for selling polka DVDs," DeChausse says.
DeChausse, 72, was ordered to serve 18 months of probation and pay $600 in restitution and fines in March after pleading no contest to one misdemeanor count of copying audiovisual recordings for gain and embezzlement.
Fouts, who initially turned down an offer to appear in the segment, said he agreed after Colbert called him personally. "It wasn't mean-spirited," Fouts said. "It was poking fun at a variety of things related to this incident."
DeChausse, who also goes by Fred Merle and produced the TV Warren show "Polka Party," sold 11 polka DVDs to an undercover officer for $150.
DeChausse could not be reached Tuesday.
Fouts said he realized the piece would be "good-natured political satire," but hoped his points about values and Warren's code of ethics would have made the final cut.
"I would have preferred my serious point of view, that nobody's above the law, would have been in there," he added. "I wasn't offended by it. Would I energetically go on the show again? Probably not."
Attorney Leon J. Weiss, who represented DeChausse, said his former client is a "good man."
"He's done a lot of good things in his life; I want that to be part of his legacy and not just this polka thing," said Weiss, of the Southfield-based Fieger law firm.
>From The Detroit News:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100728/METRO03/7280367/1457/ENT10/Warren-s-polka-DVD-piracy-dances-onto-national-TV#ixzz0uzOH9a8e