Dee Ann Warner, 52, mother of five, disappeared from her rural Tecumseh, Michigan home on April 25, 2021. Without a car. Without money or bank cards. And most importantly, without her nine-year-old daughter. Her brother, Gregg Hardy, has made it no secret he believes Dee’s husband, Dale Warner, is responsible.
And yet, 21 months after Dee vanished, there still hasn’t been an arrest. Dale Warner is a free man.
In November 2022, the Successor Conservator, Charles D. Bullock, whose job is to protect the assets of Dee Ann Warner, and his attorney, John W. Polderman, filed a motion in Lenawee County requiring Dale Warner to show cause as to why he should not be held in criminal contempt of court.
The motion shows evidence Dale Warner diverted millions of dollars in assets from Dee’s estate in violation of court orders and attempted to hide his actions from the Conservator. The original court date, December 13, 2022, has been moved to February 14, 2023, at 9 AM.
On January 25, 2023, Dale Warner was in court facing more legal action. He was accompanied by his attorney, Lawrence Leib, and Mark Weisberg, a convicted felon who used to be Dale’s accountant and is now referred to in court papers as his personal assistant. The Successor Conservator and his attorney filed a civil complaint against Dale Warner and Mark Weisberg, charging them with 12 separate counts of business crimes, including common law conversion, breach of fiduciary duty, and silent fraud.
Gregg Hardy told me, “This matter is above and beyond the criminal contempt charges. On Wednesday, we had a status conference that lasted several hours. The Conservator was not getting the information that he had a right to get — information Dale was court ordered to hand over. After all the negotiations, they came out with a stipulated motion, which the judge signed. It reinstates control of a lot of things including access to the record books, passwords, and any kind of sale of commodities. Any personal transactions conducted by Dale have to be reported to the court.”
Hardy broke it down further, “For example, if Dale sells grain through Dale and Dee’s business name, War-Ag, the check would be put in Dale’s name and Dee’s name, via the Conservator. Basically, any kind of business transaction legally has to involve the Conservator.”
Up to this point, Dale has done quite the opposite. “Dale’s MO has been to try to put everything into his personal name and then say, ‘Okay, I own all this now and I control all this, and it doesn’t matter what the Conservator wants me to do,” Hardy said.
The civil complaint against Dale Warner and Mark Weisberg will be heard in a Circuit Court in Lenawee County on a date to be determined.
“This order is an attempt to stop all the leakage taking place — all this money that seems to be disappearing. I underline the word attempt, because, quite frankly, there hasn’t been any serious enforcement of anything Dale has been court ordered to do,” Hardy said. “There’s been a lot of happy talk and there’s been a lot of behind-the-scenes court hearings and ex parte hearings. But it’s been a rotating circus created by Leib and Weisberg, in conjunction with Dale, to just kind of run everyone around.”
After almost two years, Dee’s family wants to see people held accountable — and not just for her disappearance. The blatantly fraudulent way Dee’s estate has been drained is an added pain to bear.
Hardy said, “There are 12 counts there, between Dale and Mark. I’m going to be extremely disappointed if there isn’t a pretty serious charge levied against Mark on the civil business side of this. He’s already a convicted felon for embezzlement and, here he is, playing all kinds of games.”
Dee’s family has had a lot of people calling and messaging, asking for an update on Dee’s disappearance and the multiple charges Dale is facing. “It’s a tightrope to walk, trying to be forthcoming and honest to all the people who care so much about this case. I’m trying to walk that tightrope by not giving away any information that could be used as some legal technicality that could harm us,” Hardy said. “I just want to make sure people understand how much we appreciate all that they do. I want them to know how much we feel responsible to report to them everything we can.”
For background information and to get the latest updates on Dee Ann Warner’s disappearance, join the Justice for Dee Facebook page.
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