Jury verdict says Torrices set fire to home

By Heidi Roman
C & G Staff Writer

MOUNT CLEMENS — Macomb County Commissioner Carey Torrice and her husband Mike Torrice, Clinton Township residents and Fraser business owners, have to pay restitution to an insurance company after accusations that the pair conspired to burn down her late father’s home to collect on a claim, a jury decided Dec. 22. 

Carey and Mike Torrice were ordered to pay $36,000 to American Fellowship Mutual Insurance Co. to make up for money the insurance company paid to the mortgage holder.

Carey Torrice, also an actress and model, represents northern Clinton Township’s District 16 on the county board and co-owns Eye Spy Private Detective Agency on Utica Road with her husband. The accusations in the civil trial date back to a December 2005 fire that occurred at her father’s Chesterfield Township home.

No criminal charges were filed in the blaze, but fire investigators testified in the trial that it appeared to have been sparked by gasoline poured in the house. The house was locked and empty when firefighters arrived to fight the flames.

The civil case claimed Mike Torrice set the fire. He and Carey were engaged to be married at the time.

“He was the last one in the house,” said Ken Rich, an attorney representing the insurance company. “There was no evidence of burglary or vandal, he had motive and he had opportunity.”

Rich said Carey Torrice committed fraud by lying about the fact that the 1,100-square-foot home was her sole residence after her father died earlier in 2005. Rich said the house was vacant at the time of the fire, but the insurance company would not have insured it if it was aware of that.

There were no appliances and no furniture in the home except a sofa, Rich said, yet Torrice testified she often had friends over and stayed in the house with her late mother, who was undergoing chemotherapy at the time.

“You can’t believe anything she says,” Rich said. “She’ll say anything in order to protect her husband or protect herself.”

The house near Lake St. Clair allegedly had a taxable value of $150,000 — more than $100,000 of which was made up in the canal-front property alone, Rich said. He also at one point called the home “lousy” and “not the kind of house this model actress lived in.”

Torrice said those comments were hurtful.

“My dad was a Vietnam (War) veteran and that’s the only house he ever felt comfortable in,” she said. “It may have been small to (Rich), but it was wonderful to us.”

Torrice had said it was difficult to stay in the house after her father’s death in 2005, but a therapist had recommended she do so to better cope with her loss. She said the civil trial and allegations against her were “ruining the memory” of her parents.

Torrice believes that the insurance company pursued the case after finding out she held a political position.

The Torrices’ attorney, Bill Cashen, did not return calls for comment.