Didn't Name the Party Affiliation, So He Must be a Democrat! (Mayor Convicted)

[Dos Equis]

And so saga of this sorry failure ends.  Good riddance.  I give the next governor or mayor about a month or two to create the next scandal.    

Big news out of Detroit

Embattled and scandal-plagued Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to step down as mayor of Detroit as part of a plea deal where he admitted to lying under oath.

From the Detroit News:

In four short words, Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick acknowledged his guilt this morning, admitting that he lied during the whistleblower case brought by two former police officers who claimed they were punished for looking into wrongdoing by the mayor's staff.

"I lied under oath," Kilpatrick said after he pleaded guilty to two felonies, a plea that will require him to spend four months in the Wayne County jail, to resign his office and to pay $1 million in restitution.

Kilpatrick will also agree not to seek office during the five years he is on probation and will surrender his state pension to the county. He will also surrender his law license.

"We did not give an inch," said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who said the deal is what she had sought "pretty much" from the beginning. She said Kilpatrick will enter the jail when he is sentenced, scheduled for Oct. 28.

In exchange for his guilty pleas, Wayne County prosecutors will drop the remaining six charges against him -- including the perjury counts -- and agree to not prosecute him for other issues that arise from the investigation into the perjury and obstruction of justice case.

Kwame Kilpatrick is the son of Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich), the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus.  She barely won the Democratic primary last month against two opponents who made her son's ethical problems the centerpiece of their campaigns.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0908/Big_news_out_of_Detroit.html

[Dos Equis]

Kilpatrick's swagger gone as he nears exit
Here, there, but rarely in the office
BY M.L. ELRICK and JIM SCHAEFER • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS • September 18, 2008

As speculation grows on where Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will go after his scandalous tenure ends today, questions remain about where he has been since becoming Detroit's first chief executive to cop felony pleas while in office.

Unlike his predecessor, Dennis Archer, who came to city hall and worked from his desk until his last day in office, Kilpatrick has not been seen much in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center.

When Kilpatrick has been spotted over the last two weeks -- grabbing a public elevator outside his office or picking up sandwiches at a downtown Quiznos -- the sartorial splendor he was known for was gone. The snazzy suits he wore to work and court were replaced by the kind of casual duds he used to wear for courtside appearances at Detroit Pistons games.

Kilpatrick's transition from office also was different from Archer's in the amount of time he spent with his successor. While Archer had three face-to-face meetings with then Mayor-elect Kilpatrick, outgoing Mayor Kilpatrick has had only one brief meeting with incoming Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. Cockrel, the City Council president, said Wednesday that he and Kilpatrick also had a phone conversation.

Still, the final days of the Kilpatrick administration could not be more different from its beginning.

Ebullient and outgoing early on -- even seeming to relish verbal jousts with reporters -- Kilpatrick has become withdrawn.

The once ubiquitous Kilpatrick has not had a public appearance since noon July 24, when he attended a ceremonial groundbreaking for the Paradise Valley entertainment district envisioned for Harmonie Park.

That event occurred just four hours before Kilpatrick shoved a Wayne County sheriff's detective looking to serve a subpoena on mayoral friend Bobby Ferguson, who also is a controversial city contractor and witness in a criminal case against Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick spokesman James Canning has acknowledged that the mayor has not been in the office every day.

"As the mayor of Detroit, you're always the mayor," Canning said. "Whether you're in the office or off-site. Therefore, he's always been working."

Canning would not say where Kilpatrick, who must vacate the city-owned Manoogian Mansion by the end of today, is moving.

The mayor was spotted Tuesday night looking at an apartment near downtown.

In addition to directing his appointees to work with Cockrel's people on the transition, Canning said Kilpatrick has been "attending to the needs of his family and their transition as well."

There also have been legal matters.

On Sept. 4, the day he submitted a resignation letter designating today as his last official day as mayor, he resolved the criminal charges against him by pleading guilty to two felonies of obstructing justice in relation to the text message scandal the Free Press exposed in January, and pleading no contest to a felony assault charge for shoving the detective.

On Tuesday, Kilpatrick spent about three hours in law offices where he gave a deposition as part of a lawsuit the Free Press filed against the city after it denied the newspaper's Freedom of Information request for more documents related to text messages sent on city-issued pagers.

And on Monday, after stopping in to see his lawyer, James Thomas, Kilpatrick joked with the women making the mesquite chicken and honey mustard turkey sandwiches he ordered at the Quiznos in the Buhl Building.

One of the women, Angela Kellar, said she greeted him, "Hi, Kwame."

"I thought to say, 'Mayor,' " she said, "but I can't say mayor because he's Kwame now."

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080918/NEWS01/809180379/1003/NEWS

[Dos Equis]

Oct 28, 6:22 PM EDT
Detroit's ex-Mayor Kilpatrick jailed for 4 months

By COREY WILLIAMS and ED WHITE
Associated Press Writers
 
DETROIT (AP) -- Kwame Kilpatrick was sent to jail for four months Tuesday for his part in a sex-and-text scandal and the judge chastised the disgraced ex-mayor for arrogance and disregard for the rule of law.

Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner's sentence was the finale to the scandal that destroyed Kilpatrick's reign at City Hall and threw local government into disarray for months.

"At a time when this city needed transparency, accountability and responsibility, you exhibited hubris and privilege at the expense of the city," the judge said.

He ruled that Kilpatrick not be given an opportunity for early release.

But county sheriff's spokesman John Roach said in a subsequent statement that Groner didn't have the standing to order Kilpatrick not receive time off for good behavior.

The judge's ruling "does not override Michigan Statute that says a sheriff shall credit all sentenced county jail inmates with one day good time for every five days served, provided the individual is a model inmate," Roach said.

Kilpatrick, 38, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, admitting he lied about an affair with his chief of staff while testifying in a civil lawsuit in 2007. He also pleaded no contest to assaulting a sheriff's detective.

He was ordered to serve five years of probation and pay the city $1 million in restitution. Kilpatrick paid $20,000 to the City of Detroit on Tuesday as his downpayment on the restitution.

Groner had harsh words for Kilpatrick when he laid down the sentence.

"Ultimately what shocked this court and much of the community was your press conference after your plea hearing," the judge said. "That night, the community expected to hear a message of humility, remorse and apology. Instead, we heard an arrogant and defiant man who accused the governor, among others, for his downfall."

Kilpatrick declined an offer to address the court

Groner moved the hearing to a larger courtroom to accommodate the news media and spectators. As he waited for the sentencing hearing to begin, Kilpatrick sat back with an arm around his wife, Carlita. The ex-mayor smiled often and chatted with other family members and supporters seated nearby.

But once the hearing began, Kilpatrick's demeanor changed. At times, he was seen burying his head in his hands.

It was Kilpatrick's first public forum since the speech to supporters - referenced by the judge Tuesday - after his guilty plea Sept. 4. In that address, Kilpatrick lashed out at Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who was holding hearings to remove him from office, and told Detroit, "You done set me up for a comeback."

His next stop is the Wayne County jail, where he will be in his own cell 23 hours a day. He will not be allowed to mix with other inmates during his one hour of recreation.

Kilpatrick, a Democrat, admitted lying while testifying last year in a civil lawsuit filed by former police officers who had accused him of illegally demoting or firing them.

He and chief of staff Christine Beatty denied having an affair, but text messages obtained by a lawyer in the case - and later the Detroit Free Press - clearly contradicted them.

They used their city pagers to arrange trysts and share sexually explicit desires. A fresh batch of messages was released last week, revealing that Kilpatrick, married with three children, likely had other lovers.

The messages first were publicly disclosed in January by the Free Press. Beatty quickly resigned but Kilpatrick hung on as mayor, even when prosecutors filed criminal charges against the pair in March.

The saga rolled through spring and summer as Kilpatrick hired a team of lawyers and public-image specialists and publicly ridiculed the case against him.

The City Council voted to hold impeachment-style hearings but a judge said it was illegal. Elected officials called on Kilpatrick to step down for the sake of the entire state.

Finally, he agreed to plead guilty and resign only after the governor began the public hearing in September that could have led to his ouster.

Ken Cockrel Jr. was promoted to mayor from council president. A special election to fill the balance of Kilpatrick's term will be held in May after the field is trimmed to two candidates Feb. 24.
 
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DETROIT_MAYOR?SITE=HIHAD&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT