The cause of criminal justice in Detroit received a setback with the appointment on May 23 of Roman S. Gribbs as Sheriff of Wayne County.
Gribbs, who is presently a Traffic Court Referee, will replace ticket-fixing Peter Buback who resigned from the post after removal proceedings had been begun against him by State Attorney General Frank Kelley.
The Detroit civil rights movement best remembers Gribbs for his role as prosecutor in the First Federal Bank sit-in cases in 1964 and against Barry Kalish for contributing to the delinquency of a minor. In both cases Gribbs zeal for conviction was matched only by his ruthlessness. In the Kalish case he actively conspired with the police to bring charges against Kalish he knew to be false.
All Buback was interested in doing was to get the graft; Gribbs hates.
