The last casualty of the train wreck that was Kwame Kilpatrick’s career:

Between sobs and sighs Monday morning, Christine Beatty accepted her share of guilt in the text message scandal that has gripped metro Detroit for almost 12 months and made felons of her and her former boss, ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
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“I lied under oath,” Beatty said shakily as part of her guilty pleas before Wayne Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny. She admitted lying to jurors and seeking to “impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice” in a 2007 police whistle-blower case.

Hours later, Beatty read a statement at her attorney’s office apologizing “to all of the people that were harmed in this ordeal,” noting particularly the anguish suffered by her family, Kilpatrick’s family and Detroit’s scandal-weary residents. She never specifically mentioned the cops who filed the whistle-blower claims.

Beatty’s deal, worked out over the past week, calls for her to serve a 120-day jail term, 5 years of probation and pay $100,000 restitution to the City of Detroit in exchange for pleading guilty to two felony obstruction of justice charges. She is to go to jail immediately after her Jan. 5 sentencing.

The plea is a milestone in an ordeal that began Jan. 23, when the Free Press published text messages sent by Beatty and then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on city-issued pagers.

The messages showed the pair lied under oath in the whistle-blower case when they denied a sexual affair and sought to mislead jurors about the firing of one cop, deputy chief Gary Brown, whose career was ended by Beatty’s and Kilpatrick’s actions.

The plea and jail term are a coda to the career journey she has taken with Kilpatrick since they met more than 20 years ago in a hallway at Cass Tech High School. She has served as a trusted adviser and stern enforcer on Kilpatrick’s behalf as he moved through the state Legislature and Detroit’s City Hall. Starting next month, they will both be inmates in the Wayne County Jail.

Kilpatrick is currently serving a 120-day sentence and faces a $1-million restitution, after pleading guilty in September for lying under oath in the whistle-blower case.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she’s happy with the terms of Beatty’s plea deal, which averts a January trial.

“I think it’s a fair resolution to this. I would have liked it to happen sooner,” Worthy said moments after the plea. “Come Jan. 5, when she is sentenced, we can truly move on from this chapter in Detroit history.”

In a packed hallway outside Kenny’s courtroom, Worthy chose her words carefully, signaling that although this aspect of the scandal is concluded, her investigation into the text messages of city officials, including Beatty and Kilpatrick, will continue.

“We are continuing to investigate other matters,” Worthy said, skirting specifics.

She said the more than 625,000 text messages obtained by her office are an investigative treasure trove: “I’ve said all along this is an ongoing investigation.”

But Worthy also noted that Beatty’s plea deal doesn’t require her to turn snitch on her former boss, or anyone else.

“Cooperation wasn’t a consideration,” she said.

Beatty’s lawyer Mayer Morganroth also said Beatty’s cooperation against Kilpatrick “wasn’t an issue” in the final plea.

Morganroth shrugged off any suggestion that a wide-ranging federal investigation into alleged City Hall corruption posed a threat to Beatty: “We’re not worried about that at all.”

Federal authorities would not discuss Beatty, nor would they comment on Worthy’s ongoing investigation Monday.

Worthy said she had little doubt about the outcome had Beatty’s case gone to trial in January “We had a very, very strong case,” she said. “There is so much evidence that no one has ever seen that we have.”

Beatty, a divorced mother of two young girls, served as Kilpatrick’s powerful chief of staff, a formidable presence in city politics and a gatekeeper to the charismatic young mayor. Before the scandal erupted, she also began attending night classes at Wayne State University’s law school, hoping to become a lawyer as he had.

That dream, too, appears to be dashed. Her plea Monday prevents her from obtaining credit for any law school classes during her 5 years of probation. Her admission to lying under oath makes it unlikely she could ever obtain a law license.

At some point during Kilpatrick’s time as mayor, the close friends — both married — became lovers and then partners in criminal deceit when two police officers sued, claiming their careers were torpedoed for getting too close to the mayor’s personal life. They claimed under oath that their relationship was professional and platonic — testimony that conflicted with the explosive texts.

The plea Monday preempted three days of court hearings set aside to argue pretrial motions. Morganroth and Beatty could have waited to see if Kenny ruled in her favor, and excluded hundreds of damaging texts from her trial.

But Morganroth said that gamble works both ways.

“It just made sense, either side, not to take those risks,” he said.

As it was, Beatty choked up and paused before admitting her crimes. She accepted a tissue from a sheriff’s deputy before speaking.

She then took a deep breath and repeated the line uttered by Kilpatrick when he pleaded guilty in September.

“I lied under oath,” she said.

Afterward, Worthy said the case underscores that public trust is “a gift. It’s not something that you go and take from the public trough.”

When asked for her reaction to Beatty’s tears, Worthy took an obvious shot at Kilpatrick, who clowned around in the courtroom before his own sentencing. “I think this defendant’s remorseful, yes,” Worthy said of Beatty.

Morganroth called the deal the best outcome for his client and her daughters, ages 8 and 10.

“Most people — thank God — don’t know what goes on in a criminal case,” he said. “The uncertainty, the suspense, the cost to your family and friends, the fear of what might happen — it all keeps adding up.”

But he said he had no doubt Beatty will rebound — perhaps relocating out of state if the court approves such a move.

The specifics of her jail housing — will she be isolated, or mixed with other prisoners? — had yet to be decided Monday.

It is still hard to believe how a young Black man with all of the opportunities that Kilpatrick was given ened up this way. He’s an embarrassment to Black Colleges (FAMU). SMH.

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Kwame Kilpatrick, whose promising career as Detroit mayor was derailed in part by a torrid affair with an ex-top aide, was unable to kiss goodbye the one woman who stood beside him throughout a sex-and-text scandal: his wife.

As Kilpatrick was being led off by courtroom deputies to begin serving the first of 120 days in jail, he was stopped just short of embracing Carlita Kilpatrick.

“I can hand her keys, but I can’t kiss her?” Kilpatrick asked.

The two spoke briefly before he was ushered through a rear courtroom door following Tuesday’s sentencing in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Only minutes earlier Judge David Groner called Kilpatrick “arrogant and defiant” and questioned the sincerity of a guilty plea that ended his career at City Hall.

Kilpatrick declined to speak in court, instead relying on lawyers to urge the judge to look at his entire career, not just the crimes that threw local government into disarray for months.

The punishment was part of a plea agreement worked out last month by prosecutors and the defense. Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner followed that deal but said Kilpatrick would not get time off for good behavior, typically 20 days in this case.

“When someone gets 120 days in jail, they should get 120 days in jail,” Groner said.

Kilpatrick was taken across the street to the county jail. He traded his custom suit for green clothes and was placed in a private cell where he will spend 23 hours a day.

As he was being taken from the courtroom, Kilpatrick yelled out to supporters: “You all take it easy.”

They responded: “Be strong, mayor. We love you, mayor. We got your back, mayor.”

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, both 38, 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 by the prosecutor last week, revealing that Kilpatrick, married with three children, likely had other lovers.

The sentencing was Kilpatrick’s first public forum since a speech to supporters after he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice on Sept. 4. In that address, he 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.”

The judge said he was “shocked” by the comments.

“That night the community expected to hear a message of humility, remorse and apology,” Groner said. “Instead, we heard an arrogant and defiant man who accused the governor, among others, for his downfall.”

Indeed, assistant prosecutor Robert Moran said Kilpatrick agreed to plead guilty and leave office only when “facing the barrel of a loaded gun” - Granholm’s power to eject him from City Hall.

Groner told Kilpatrick that he misled the City Council into settling the police officers’ lawsuits for $8.4 million, “all in an attempt to protect your political career” by keeping a lid on steamy text messages.

“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.

Kilpatrick also was given a 120-day concurrent sentence for assaulting a sheriff’s officer who was trying to deliver a subpoena in July.

“I don’t think there are any winners, just the end of a chapter,” defense lawyer Todd Flood told the Associated Press. “I think the mayor wanted this city to move on, and that’s what we’re doing.”

Besides jail, Kilpatrick will be on probation for five years and must pay the city $1 million in restitution by the end of that period. He also signed a revocation of his law license.

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.

“This is a sad day for Detroit and for the Kilpatrick family,” Cockrel said in a statement. “As a city, we now must put the past behind us and work together to meet our common challenges.”

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A Wayne County judge this morning ordered the release of a key document that prompted Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s secret $8.4 million lawsuit settlement last fall in a police whistle-blower trial.

The document, which leveraged the deal to keep Kilpatrick’s text messages secret, contains extensive excerpts of damaging texts between the mayor and his then-chief of staff Christine Beatty over four months in 2002 and 2003, including never-before-published inflammatory comments from the pair.

Some of the messages are texts the Free Press had not previously published because of their sensitive nature or potentially offensive language. They are being published now because the judge’s decision today makes them part of a public court record.

Among the new messages released today are:

• Sexually graphic conversations between Kilpatrick and Beatty, with whom Kilpatrick had an extramarital affair that both of them denied last summer under oath.

• Messages in which Kilpatrick and Beatty refer to each other in a playful manner using derivatives of a racial slur - a slur that the mayor had publicly called on to be “buried” at a highly publicized speech last year.

• Kilpatrick, questioning the motives of City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel for opposing him on an issue: “Why is Sheila always looking for a scandal with us?” an exasperated mayor asked Beatty in one message. “That bitch ain’t right!”

• A message from Beatty’s husband, Lou Beatty, in which he expresses frustration about his wife’s closeness to Kilpatrick.

• Christine Beatty writing about her jealousy of the mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick.

• More discussions of the firing of then-Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown. Kilpatrick and Beatty gave misleading testimony about Brown’s ouster at trial.

Among the text messages cited by Stefani in his legal brief are messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty in which they playfully refer to each other on city-owned pagers as “nigga” and “nigette.”

While apparently meant to be pet names, the terms are offensive to many people, and there has been a renewed effort among civil-rights groups to extinguish such terms, even when used within the African-American community. Kilpatrick acknowledged that in 2007 when, during the NAACP’s national convention in Detroit, he spoke at a mock burial held to promote ending the use of the N-word.

“So good riddance. Die, N-word. We don’t want to see you ’round here no more,” Kilpatrick said during the ceremony.

Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel insisted she was unfazed by Kilpatrick insulting her.

“I am 60 years old. I’ve been doing this stuff since I was 10. It comes with the territory,” she said. “It’s about public policy and what’s in the interest of the people of the city.”

Cockrel said what is far more important is the brief’s details about Kilpatrick’s interference in the police department, moves she said violate the city charter, which authorizes the police chief, not the mayor, to appoint the head of internal affairs.

“There’s nothing in” the charter “that appears to give the mayor the opportunity to intervene in the operation of the police department the way that the language I’ve read would suggest was going on,” she said. “We have a police department that in my opinion is clearly reflecting a profound and fundamental cancer, a kind of institutional corruption that needs to be addressed. The tone is set at the top. You have a mayor’s office that feels that it can reach inside the department and start firing.”

The Free Press, which earlier obtained copies of nearly 14,000 text messages from Beatty’s paging device and published a report about them in January, previously decided to not publish some of the messages released today, including messages the newspaper deemed unduly embarrassing to family members and others not involved in the case.

But Wayne Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr.’s order today makes public messages cited in a legal brief crafted by Mike Stefani, the attorney for three former cops, including Brown, who sued Kilpatrick under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

City Council lawyer Bill Goodman recovered the previously missing document on Monday after hiring a forensic computer technician to retrieve it from Stefani’s computer. Stefani had deleted the document as part of the secret deal, but cooperated with a subpoena from Goodman to retrieve the document.

The document was crucial to Kilpatrick’s decision not to appeal a jury verdict awarding two of the former cops $6.5 million last fall. The mayor initially had vowed to appeal that verdict, but changed his mind after Stefani turned over an envelope containing the legal document to the mayor’s lawyers, a document rife with embarrassing text messages. Because lawyers for the mayor and the city decided to settle the case, the document was never actually filed in court.

Stefani has said he incorporated the salacious messages in the legal brief, not to blackmail the mayor’s legal team, but to justify his entitlement to higher legal fees from the defense because of all the extra work Stefani had to perform going through the text messages to document perjury by the mayor and Beatty.

Kilpatrick and Beatty currently face a slew of felony charges arising from the Free Press’ publication of the text messages, including perjury, charges which they have each denied.

Read Full Text Messages

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Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty Thursday to charges resulting from a sex scandal and is to resign from office, a prosecutor said.

The resignation won’t take effect for 14 days, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said outside the courthouse.

Kilpatrick will go to jail on October 28, the day of his sentencing, and serve 120 days, she said.

The mayor pleaded guilty in Wayne County Circuit Court to two counts of obstruction of justice.

“I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit,” Kilpatrick said, reading from a prepared statement.

“I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury and to impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice.”

Circuit Judge David Groner accepted a no-contest plea on an assault charge.

As part of his plea deal, Kilpatrick also agreed not to run for public office during his five-year probation.

“Today, this sad but historic story is coming to an end,” said Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

“It’s very important for us as a state and as a city to turn this page together. There is much work to do. It is my profound hope that we can now write a new history for this great but embattled city.”

Kilpatrick has been embroiled in a public scandal since January, when the Detroit Free Press reported he had exchanged romantic text messages with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, indicating the two were involved in an affair.

At a police whistle-blower trial in 2007, the pair, under oath, denied they had an affair.

The mayor and Beatty were accused in criminal court of lying about their romantic involvement, under oath, during the summer 2007 whistle-blower trial, which eventually led the city to pay more than $8 million in settlements.

In a hearing Wednesday, Peter Hammer, a Wayne State University law professor, testified that in addition to a standard agreement not to disclose the amount of damages and escrow, the settlement reached last fall included another agreement on confidentiality.

“The confidentiality agreement is for private purposes,” Hammer said. “It commits all parties to not disclose the contents of the text messages.”

He added, “The agreement purports to manage who has access and control to the text messages as of October 17. It’s dated the same day as the private contractual settlement. … So this is a side agreement.”

According to the confidentiality agreement, the text messages were to be put “into a safe and secure bank,” or deposit box.

Kilpatrick faced charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. Beatty was charged with perjury.

The Detroit City Council voted in May to ask Granholm to remove Kilpatrick, accusing him of misleading the council when it approved settlements with two fired police officers — Deputy Chief Gary Brown and Officer Harold Nelthrope, a mayoral bodyguard.

The two accused Kilpatrick of retaliating against them because of their roles in an internal affairs probe of the mayor’s security team — an investigation that could have exposed the affair. They sued Kilpatrick and the city of Detroit. A Wayne County court ruled in their favor.

Walt Harris, another former mayoral bodyguard, filed his own whistle-blower suit, contending he was punished for supporting Nelthrope’s reports of wrongdoing by Kilpatrick and his bodyguards.

This guy is a total idiot and an embarrassment to himself, his supporters and not to mention FAMU students and alumni. Kilpatrick was given an opportunity that many educated young Black males would die for and he squandered it away. SMH.

Source: CNN.com

In the ongoing Saga that is the life of the idiot FAMU graduate pictured above, here is the latest:

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the region that has followed his legal saga face a world of drama today, with court hearings that could end Kilpatrick’s career, or prolong it indefinitely.

It begins with a 10 a.m. hearing in one courtroom, where a judge will rule on whether the governor can oversee ouster hearings on the mayor Wednesday.

Kilpatrick is then back in court at 2 p.m. before another judge, a hearing that may — or may not — be the scene of a plea deal to resolve the mayor’s criminal cases.

The twin hearings follow a weekend of behind-the-scenes negotiations that hinge on whether the mayor should be made to serve jail time for his actions that led to perjury and other felony charges stemming from the text message scandal.

As the Free Press reported Sunday, Kilpatrick’s new legal team offered to have Kilpatrick plead guilty to two of eight felonies in the perjury case. The mayor has also agreed to resign, perform 300 hours of community service, give up pension benefits, pay a six-figure restitution and agree not to run for office for two years.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has rejected any deal that does not also include 30 to 90 days behind bars.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy

The defense team also hand-delivered a letter to Worthy on Friday, suggesting an independent and respected legal figure serve as a facilitator in the negotiations. One person suggested by the defense is former Wayne County Prosecutor John O’Hair, who said Monday that he would help if called upon.

“If asked to participate — fully realizing that the final decision rests with the prosecutor — I would be glad to participate,” O’Hair said.

Of the most recent defense plea offer, O’Hair said, “That’s an offer of substance, if made in good faith.”

Maria Miller, spokeswoman for Worthy, shot down the facilitator suggestion Saturday, saying her office “does not use facilitators to resolve our cases.”

The mayor’s legal journey continues this morning before Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Ziolkowski, who is to rule on whether Gov. Jennifer Granholm can consider removing Kilpatrick a hearing Wednesday. The hearings are being held at the request of Detroit’s City Council, which contends Kilpatrick misled the city by failing to disclose a secret side deal to hide damaging text messages as part of an $8.4-million settlement of police whistle-blower lawsuits last fall.

The messages, revealed by the Free Press in January, show the mayor and his then-chief of staff Christine Beatty lied at trial last summer when they denied a sexual affair and sought to mislead jurors about the firing of one of the cops.

If Ziolkowski rules Granholm has authority to oust the mayor, that’s likely to intensify the mayor’s efforts to reach a deal on perjury, obstruction and other charges against him and Beatty.

The prospect of such a deal is fueling anticipation for an otherwise routine bond hearing set for 2 p.m. today in the mayor’s assault case. That hearing, before Wayne Circuit Judge David Groner, could serve as a forum for a possible plea deal.

The mayor is wearing a tether and has his travel restricted to the Detroit metro area. As a result, he was unable to attend the Democratic National Convention last week.

Tonight, Unify Detroit, the Ecumenical Ministerial Alliance and other groups others plan to hold a Rally for Justice in support of the mayor from 6 to 8 p.m. at Detroit City Airport, 11499 Conner.

Never will I understand why these politicians keep trying to live the life of regular men that are not in the public eye. SMH !!!

Source: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080902/NEWS01/309030001

A review of what happened Thursday in the case of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who’s charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice, all tied to his testimony in a civil trial last year:

District Judge Ronald Giles ordered Kilpatrick to jail for violating the terms of his bond when he traveled to Canada on city business without informing the court in advance. The mayor apologized, but Giles sent him to jail, saying he’d give any defendant the same treatment.

A circuit judge on Friday will hear an appeal of the decision to jail Kilpatrick. The mayor’s chief of staff will run the city while he is in jail.

Kilpatrick waived his right to a preliminary examination scheduled for Sept. 22 and will head to trial on the criminal charges. An arraignment was set for Aug. 14.

The district judge decided 200 pages of text messages he had ordered sealed will be transferred with the case file to circuit court. Giles had been considering whether they should be released to the public. But that issue will be decided by a circuit judge instead since Kilpatrick waived the probable cause hearing.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who has been asked by the city council to remove Kilpatrick for misconduct, postponed Thursday events in Grand Rapids to hold internal meetings.

Attorney General Mike Cox scheduled a Friday press conference to announce whether he intends to charge Kilpatrick after allegations that the mayor physically interfered with a sheriff’s detective who was trying to serve a subpoena on Kilpatrick’s friend July 24. The detective and another investigator said Kilpatrick burst onto the porch at his sister’s house, shouting obscenities and shoving one of them