The long-running criminal proceedings in the murder case of Danielle Stislicki have encountered another major legal challenge as defense counsel seeks to disqualify primary law enforcement investigators from continuing their work on the prosecution.
Floyd Galloway, who stands charged with first-degree murder in connection with the December 2016 disappearance and death of Stislicki, is asking an Oakland County Circuit Court judge to bar lead detectives from further substantive involvement in the matter. The defense argues that law enforcement personnel have been compromised by exposure to protected defense materials that should never have been made available to them.
In a newly filed motion, defense attorney Ellen Michaels specifically asked the court to remove Detectives Robert Gerak and Ryan Molloy from the Farmington Hills Police Department, both of whom have served as primary officers in charge of the homicide investigation. The filing also requests the disqualification of Sgt. Chad Double, also of the Farmington Hills Police Department, along with any other law enforcement personnel who have been privy to Galloway’s privileged defense materials.
The defense insists that allowing these investigators to remain active on the case threatens the fundamental fairness of any future trial. According to the motion, an investigative team that has already reviewed confidential and privileged information cannot compartmentalize that knowledge, which creates an ongoing risk of contaminating any subsequent prosecution efforts.
Michaels argued in her court filings that establishing administrative boundaries or firewalls at this stage is insufficient to remedy the investigative steps that have already been guided by privileged materials. The motion asserts that court intervention is required immediately to enforce a complete separation and mandate that the case proceed exclusively through an entirely untainted investigative unit.
The defense brief detailed how privileged insights inevitably color an officer’s approach to an investigation, noting that expunging documents from a physical case folder does not remove the information from an investigator's memory or judgment. Michaels emphasized that exposed officers continue to exercise discretion over which witnesses to interview, which facts to highlight, how witnesses are prepped for testimony, and what evidence is ultimately elevated to prosecutors.
The origin of the tainted evidence traces back to a polygraph examination conducted for Galloway by former FBI agent Jim Hoppe. Following the examination, Hoppe improperly disclosed confidential details regarding what he had learned to Gary Mayer, who was serving as the police chief in Troy at the time.
During that interaction, Hoppe reportedly told Mayer that he was worried critical physical evidence might be destroyed or lost in an impending winter snowstorm, while specifically requesting that his own identity be kept off official records. Mayer subsequently relayed the confidential tip to Charles Nebus, who was then the police chief in Farmington Hills leading the Stislicki investigation, identifying Galloway as a prime suspect and outlining his alleged actions on the evening Stislicki vanished.
Since Galloway was formally charged with first-degree murder in 2019, the prosecution has faced protracted delays, recurrent appeals, and extensive hearings regarding the admissibility of evidence obtained as a direct or indirect result of the polygraph examiner’s unauthorized disclosures.
The issue of evidentiary contamination previously reached a milestone in November 2024, when Oakland County Circuit Judge Phyllis McMillen ruled that the Michigan Attorney General’s Office had to assign an untainted prosecutor to handle the case. Judge McMillen determined that any prosecuting attorney stepping into the courtroom must be free from exposure to the privileged materials illicitly shared by the polygraph examiner.
Following Judge McMillen’s retirement at the close of 2024, the case was reassigned to Oakland County Circuit Judge Michael Warren. Last month, Michaels sought to have the Michigan Attorney General’s Office completely disqualified from prosecuting Galloway, but Judge Warren denied that broad request.
Despite rejecting the total disqualification of the state agency, Judge Warren upheld the prior judicial determination that prosecutors previously exposed to the tainted evidence are prohibited from trying the case. The court maintained the requirement that the Attorney General's Office must designate an untainted attorney who has had no contact with the suppressed materials.
The Michigan Attorney General’s Office has previously agreed to appoint a replacement prosecutor once all ongoing motions concerning evidence suppression are definitively resolved by the court. State prosecutors have not yet submitted a formal response to Michaels’ latest motion seeking the removal of the Farmington Hills detectives.
The underlying homicide allegations stem from the December 2016 disappearance of Stislicki, whose body has never been located. Prosecutors allege that Galloway staged vehicle difficulties to convince Stislicki to offer him a ride before ultimately killing her.
Galloway is currently incarcerated, serving a prison term of 16 to 35 years following a separate 2016 conviction for kidnapping a jogger in Livonia. As the Stislicki murder prosecution moves forward, the court is expected to determine whether the existing investigative team must be replaced alongside the prosecuting attorneys before trial proceedings can commence.
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