It’s been more than eight years since Danielle Stislicki of Farmington Hills went missing and was allegedly killed by a former security guard, Floyd Galloway, who knew her from their jobs at MetLife in Southfield.

The case has been caught up in legal wrangling for the past several years involving evidence from Galloway’s leaked polygraph which has been deemed inadmissible for trial. The trial date is still pending with at least one loose end: A ruling on a requested “Franks hearing” regarding a search warrant used in the investigation. Defense attorney Ellen Michaels, who filed the motion for the hearing in 2022, said during a Feb. 26 court appearance that it’s needed to specify precisely what evidence will be suppressed; Michaels said it needs to be made clear if it will include not only evidence from the leaked tip or “evidence derived” from it.

The case was reassigned in December 2024 to Judge Michael Warren due to Judge Phyllis McMillen’s retirement, and last Wednesday’s pretrial hearing was — as Warren described it — his first time “up to the plate” for the case.

Wednesday’s hearing was also Galloway’s first in-person court appearance in years, but Warren’s professed dislike for court hearings via Zoom indicates in-person proceedings will be the norm moving forward.

Warren set a March 19 deadline for Michaels to either re-file her request for the Franks hearing or submit another with updates. The prosecution has until April 16 to respond.

Along with a new judge on the case, the prosecution might change before the trial, too. The Michigan Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the case, and in light of the leaked polygraph evidence McMillen had stated it would be appropriate for those who know about the inadmissible evidence to withdraw from the case. The prosecution told Warren on Wednesday they haven’t yet agreed or decided to do so.

Michaels said she believes McMillen was “crystal clear” that, once the leaked polygraph issue is resolved, prosecutors “not privy to” the suppressed information should begin taking over the case. Michaels said she believes it should be a prosecuting agency outside of Dana Nessel’s office, despite prosecutors claiming there’s been “a firewall for years” and only an “insulated group” out of the 600 staffers have the information.

Galloway, 38, is charged with first-degree premeditated homicide for the death of Stislicki, who went missing Dec. 2, 2016 after leaving work. Galloway was purportedly the last person seen with her.

Excluded evidence

The evidence that McMillen ruled to be inadmissible in 2022 involves Stislicki’s cell phone, keys and Fitbit, video surveillance footage of Galloway at a Tim Hortons and gas station in Farmington Hills, employee testimony and information from a cab company that Galloway allegedly used for transportation from Farmington Hills following Stislicki’s disappearance.

According to court records and testimony from several evidentiary hearings McMillen held in 2022, the polygraph operator, former FBI agent James Hoppe, shared details of the polygraph with Troy’s police chief at the time, Gary Mayer. Mayer then passed along the information to then-Farmington Hills Police Chief Chuck Nebus, reportedly leading Farmington Hills police officers to Stislicki’s missing keys and Fitbit, and to obtain relevant security video footage. The phone wasn’t located.

Weeks later, Nebus shared the information with the Oakland County Prosecutor’s Office, which was handling the case at the time. The Attorney General’s Office eventually took over the case.

McMilen’s ruling was upheld by the Court of Appeals in 2023. Both the Michigan Supreme Court and United States Supreme Court declined to review the case. The prosecution says there’s plenty of other evidence to convict Galloway.

Galloway’s next pretrial hearing is scheduled for May 21.

Galloway is serving a 16- to 35-year prison sentence for the kidnapping, assault and sexual assault of a woman in Wayne County’s Hines Park that happened three months before Stislicki vanished.