$28M will go to trustee without Detroit's top lawyer's signature

The City of Detroit is struggling to avoid a financial disaster and the city's top lawyer, Krystal Crittendon, is once again front and center.  Her signature is needed on bond refinancing paperwork.  Without it, State of Michigan Treasurer Andy Dillon says $28-million in revenue sharing money will be diverted to a trustee.

He claims it's not a political move to get Crittendon to drop her legal challenge of the Financial Stability Agreement.

"It's not a threat.  It's just there [are] agreements in place that say I have to send the money to the trustee," said Dillon.

"She's a lawyer.  She knows what she's doing.  She's not playing political games, and I trust her," said City Council President Charles Pugh, voicing his support for Crittendon.

"She's not trying to block what we're doing.  What she's trying to make sure is that it's legal."

The legal fight between the city and state may not be over.  Fox 2 obtained a copy of a letter from the state Attorney General's Office to the City of Detroit's chief deputy lawyer.  It was written Thursday and is in response to a request by the city lawyer for the attorney general to join a motion to have an Ingham County judge reconsider his earlier rejection of a lawsuit filed by Crittendon challenging the Financial Stability Agreement.

The response from the state, Crittendon's claims are meritless and there is concern over how prolonging the needless litigation will impact Detroit's ability to meet its financial obligation.

Detroit's interest rate has already been impacted jumping to 6.25-percent, an extra $10,000 a day.

"I think we should stop playing these games.  The City of Detroit is broke and this back and forth and these little games about whether we're going to run out of money and whether we should get money that we've already agreed that we should get, I think we should stop this," said Pugh.

We did reach out to Crittendon, but she has not returned our phone calls.