Early life, education and family

Kwame Malik Kilpatrick was born June 8, 1970, to Bernard Kilpatrick and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. His parents divorced in 1981. Kilpatrick attended Detroit's Cass Technical High School and graduated from Florida A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in political science in 1992 (where he was a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity and captain of the Rattler football team). He later received a Juris Doctor degree from the Detroit College of Law (now the Michigan State University College of Law) in 1999. He has a sister Ayanna and a half-sister, Diarra.

His mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, was a career politician representing Detroit in Michigan State House from 1979 to 1996 and serving in the United States House of Representatives for Michigan's 13th congressional district from 1996 to 2010. She was not re-elected to office because she lost her primary election on August 3, 2010 to Michigan State Senator Hansen Clarke. NPR and CBS News both noted that throughout her re-election campaign, she was dogged by questions about Kwame Kilpatrick.

Kilpatrick's father, Bernard Kilpatrick, was a semi-professional basketball player and politician. He was elected to Wayne County Commission, served as head of Wayne County Health and Human Services Department from 1989-2002 and as Chief of Staff to former Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara, and later operated a consulting firm called Maestro Associates of Detroit.

Political career

See also: Timeline of Kwame Kilpatrick's political career

Michigan state representative

Kilpatrick was elected in 1996 to the Michigan House of Representatives after his mother vacated the seat to campaign for a position in the United States Congress.

His campaign staff consisted of high school classmates Derrick Miller and Christine Beatty, who became his legislative aide; later, Kilpatrick had an affair with Beatty. According to Kilpatrick, the campaign was run on a budget of $10,000 and did not receive endorsements from trade unions, congressional districts, or the Democratic establishment.

Kilpatrick was elected minority floor leader for the Michigan Democratic party, serving in that position 1998 to 2000, and subsequently house minority leader in 2001, the first African American to hold that position. Kilpatrick ran for mayor of Detroit with the help of Berg/Muirhead Associates. They were retained as his public relations firm upon his election.

Mayor of Detroit

First term

In 2001, Kilpatrick became the youngest mayor of Detroit when elected at age 31. In his 2002 inaugural address, Kilpatrick said:

I stand before you as a son of the city of Detroit and all that it represents. I was born here in the city of Detroit, I was raised here in the city of Detroit, I went to these Detroit Public Schools. I understand this city. ... This position is personal to me. It's much more than just politics.

He was criticized for using city funds to lease a car for use by his family and using his city-issued credit card to charge thousands of dollars' worth of spa massages, extravagant dining, and expensive wines. Kilpatrick paid back $9,000 of the $210,000 credit card charges.

During his first term he closed the century-old Belle Isle Zoo and Belle Isle Aquarium. The City Council overrode his funding veto for the zoo and gave it a budget of $700,000.

In 2005, TIME magazine named Kilpatrick as one of the worst mayors in America.

Special administratorship

Since the 1970s, a federal judge had made the Detroit mayor the special administrator of the Detroit Water Department because of severe pollution issues. When serious questions about water department contracts came to light in late 2005 Judge Feikens ended Kilpatrick’s special administratorship in his capacity as Mayor. In January 2006, the Detroit News reported that "Kilpatrick used his special administrator authority to bypass the water board and City Council on three controversial contracts." These included a $131 million radio system for the city's police and fire departments, as well as a no-bid PR contract to a close personal aide. Nevertheless, Judge Feikens praised the mayor's work as steward of the department, referring questions on the contracts to the special master in charge of that investigation.

2005 re-election campaign

In May 2005, the Detroit Free Press reported that over the first 33 months of his term, Kilpatrick had charged over $210,000 on his city-issued credit card for travel, meals, and entertainment.

At a May 2005 campaign rally, Kilpatrick's father, Bernard, adamantly argued that the alleged party that the Mayor held at the Manoogian Mansion was a lie. He also implied such statements were akin to "a lie" that Jewish people caused Germany's problems in the 1930s led to the Holocaust in Europe. Bernard later apologized.

In October 2005, a third-party group supporting Kilpatrick named The Citizens for Honest Government caused controversy with an advertisement which compared media criticism of him to lynch mobs.

Kilpatrick and his opponent Freman Hendrix, both Democrats, initially claimed victory, but as the votes were tallied, it became clear that Kilpatrick had come back from his stretch of unpopularity to win a second term in office. Only three months prior to that, most commentators declared his political career over after he was the first incumbent mayor of Detroit to come in second in a primary. Pre-election opinion polls predicted a large win for Hendrix; however, Kilpatrick won with 53% of the vote. Kilpatrick's re-election had a great deal of controversy, with nursing home workers claiming that Kilpatrick campaign workers came into the homes and "helped" elderly voters with Alzheimer's disease "fill-out" their ballots.

Second term

Kilpatrick was hospitalized and diagnosed with diverticulitis in Houston, Texas, in July 2006. His personal physician indicated that Kilpatrick's condition may have been caused by a high-protein weight-loss diet. Detroit's city council voted unanimously to approve Kilpatrick’s tax plan, which he said he hoped would provide homeowners some relief from the city’s high property tax rates. The cuts ranged from 18% to 35%, depending on the property’s value.

Audit reports

The city was 14 months late in filing its 2005-2006 audit and in March 2008 estimated that it would cost an additional $2.4 million because of new auditing requirements that were not addressed by the city. The 2006-2007 fiscal year audit due on December 31, 2007, was expected to be 11 months late.

The State Treasury chose to withhold $35 million of its monthly revenue sharing to the city and required Detroit to receive approval before selling bonds to raise money. Kilpatrick told the city council that he would take partial blame for the late audits because he laid off too many accountants, but he also blamed the firm hired to replace them.

2008 State of the City address

On March 11, 2008, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick delivered his seventh State of the City Address to the city of Detroit. The speech marked a turning point in Kilpatrick's career. The majority of the 70-minute speech focused on positive changes occurring throughout Detroit and future plans. Kilpatrick specifically noted increased police surveillance, new policing technologies, and initiatives to rebuild blighted neighborhoods in the city. He received repeated standing ovations from the invitation-only audience.

Toward the end of the speech, Kilpatrick deviated from the transcript given to the media and posted on his official website to address the scandal and controversy surrounding his years in office. Kilpatrick stated that the media were focusing on only the controversies as a spectacle to increase their viewership. In closing, he addressed the city council members who chose not to sit behind him on the stage in protest, particularly Kenneth Cockrel Jr.

...And finally, and this may be the most talked-about part of this speech after laying out all of that, but I feel that I cannot leave this auditorium with my wife and my sons sitting there without addressing this issue.

In the past 30 days, I've been called a nigger more than any time in my entire life. In the past three days, I've received more death threats than I have in my entire administration.

I've heard these words before, but I've never heard people say them about my wife and children.

I have to say this because it's very personal to me. I don't believe that a Nielsen rating is worth the life of my children or your children.

This unethical, illegal lynch mob mentality has to stop.

And it's seriously time. We've never been here before. And I don't care if they cut the TV off.

We've never been in a situation like this before where you can say anything, do anything, have no facts, no research, no nothing and you can launch a hate-driven bigoted assault on a family.

I humbly ask members of the council, I humbly ask the business community, I humbly ask the religious community, I humbly ask the brothers and sisters of the city of Detroit - I humbly ask that we say 'no more' together.

I humbly ask that we say no more together. I love this city with every part of my being. I will continue to stay focused on building the next Detroit.

God Bless you, Detroit. I love you.

—Kwame M. Kilpatrick, 2008 Detroit State of the City Address

Michigan Governor and fellow Democrat Jennifer Granholm issued a statement in which she condemned the use of the N-word in any context.

Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox stated on WJR radio that he thought that using the N-word was "reprehensible". Cox went on to say, "I thought his statements were race-baiting on par with David Duke and George Wallace, all to save his political career. I'm not a Detroiter, but last night crossed the line...those statements not only hurt Detroit, as long as the mayor is there, he will be a drag on the whole region." Cox then said that whether he is brought up on criminal charges or not, Kilpatrick should resign.

Former Kilpatrick political adviser Sam Riddle labeled the address a race-baiting speech. "It's an act of desperation to use the N-word," said Riddle. "He's attempting to regain his base of support by playing the race card. He's gone to that well one too many times."

In response to Kilpatrick characterizing the media coverage of his scandals as a baseless "hate-driven bigoted assault on a family", Carmen Harlan, an African-American news anchor at Detroit's NBC affiliate, WDIV, stated the following:

Mr. Mayor, I'd like to address you directly. You were absolutely right tonight when you said that death-threats and racial slurs are wrong. I'll even go further, they're inexcusable and inappropriate, but to say that we, the media, are to blame for this mess isn't fair either. Using emotionally driven words, like the N-word, phrases like "hate-driven" and "bigoted assault", even "lynch mob mentality", stirs the very core of even my emotions. You see, I love the city too, as much as you do. Like you, we have a job to do. I've asked you to sit down with me; explain what we don't understand and how we may have gotten it wrong. I'm still waiting for that phone call, and I quote you, 'No more, I humbly ask! The Kwame Kilpatrick roller coaster has to stop!

—Carmen Harlan, Response to Kwame Kilpatrick's 2008 Detroit State of the City Address

In March 2008, the National Conference of Black Mayors moved its meeting from Detroit to New Orleans due to Kilpatrick's legal travails.

Affiliations

Kilpatrick is a member of the Democratic Party.

He was a member of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a bi-partisan anti-gun group with a stated goal of "making the public safer by getting illegal guns off the streets." The Coalition is co-chaired by Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. After his conviction, Klipatrick's membership status in the organization is not clear. As of September 2010, there had been no announcement of his resignation from Mayors Against Illegal Guns; however, by December 2012, Kilpatrick was no longer listed as a member.

Electoral history

• 2005 Race for Mayor (Detroit)
  • Kwame Kilpatrick (D) (incumbent), 53%
  • Freman Hendrix (D), 47%
• 2005 Race for Mayor (Detroit) (Primary Election)
  • Freman Hendrix (D), 45%
  • Kwame Kilpatrick (D) (incumbent), 34%
  • Sharon McPhail (D), 12%
  • Hansen Clarke (D), 8%
• 2001 Race for Mayor (Detroit)
  • Kwame Kilpatrick (D), 54%
  • Gil Hill (D), 46%

Controversies, felony trials, and incarceration

Kwame Malik Kilpatrick
Born	(1970-06-08) June 8, 1970 (age 45) Detroit, Michigan
Nationality	American
Occupation	Former politician
Criminal penalty	120 days in jail & probation (original sentence) 1.5-5 years imprisonment (probation violation) Awaiting sentencing on new convictions
Criminal status	Incarcerated
Spouse(s)	Carlita Kilpatrick
Children	3 children
Conviction(s)	Obstruction of justice (x2), assault of a police officer, racketeering, tax evasion, extortion, mail fraud

Alleged incidents of mayoral misconduct

Manoogian Mansion party

In the fall of 2002, it was alleged that Kilpatrick had held a wild party involving strippers at the Manoogian Mansion, the city-owned residence of the mayor of Detroit. It is alleged by former members of the Executive Protection Unit (EPU), the mayor's police security detail, that Carlita Kilpatrick, Kwame's wife, came home unexpectedly and physically attacked the strippers. Officer Harold C. Nelthrope contacted the Internal Affairs unit of the Detroit Police Department in April 2003 to have them investigate abuses by the EPU. Kilpatrick denied any wrongdoing. An investigation by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox and the Michigan State Police found no evidence that the party actually happened, though the State Police investigation had been cut short.

Nelthrope and Internal Affairs investigator Gary A. Brown allege that they were fired by the Kilpatrick administration in retaliation for investigating the mayor and other superiors. Nelthrope and Brown filed a whistleblower lawsuit and were awarded an $8.4 million settlement. Additionally, two other police officers, Walt Harris and Alvin Bowman, claimed they were retaliated against for their involvement in investigations into the mayor's misconduct. Harris was a former member of the EPU who was identified by the administration as cooperating with the state's investigation, and subsequently suffered a smear campaign in the media by the Kilpatrick Administration.

The murder of Tamara Greene

Tamara Greene, a 27-year-old exotic dancer who went by the name "Strawberry", allegedly performed at the Manoogian Mansion party and was allegedly assaulted by Carlita Kilpatrick. Greene was murdered on April 30, 2003, at around 3:40 a.m., near the intersection of Roselawn and West Outer Drive while sitting in her car with her 32-year-old boyfriend. She was shot multiple times with a .40 caliber Glock pistol which, at the time, was the same model and caliber firearm issued by the Detroit Police Department. Investigators speculated that this was a "deliberate hit" by a member of the Detroit Police Department. Bowman alleged his investigation was the reason that he was taken off of the case and transferred out of the Detroit Police Department's Homicide Division.

Greene's family filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Detroit for $150 million, claiming she was murdered to prevent her testimony about the Manoogian Mansion party. A judge ruled that Norman Yatooma, the attorney representing Greene's 14-year-old son, could have access to text messages between Kilpatrick, police chief Ella Bully-Cummings and dozens of city employees to ascertain if city officials blocked the investigation into Greene's murder. Yatooma also wanted the text messages and GPS positions of every city employee exchanged between 1:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. on the night of the murder. The city's communications provider, Skytel, indicated it was prepared to release the text messages if the court ruled accordingly.

On March 1, 2008, a ten-page affidavit by former Detroit Police Department lieutenant Alvin Bowman was filed by Yatooma in the U.S District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, stating that, "I suspected that the shooter was a law enforcement officer, and more specifically, a Detroit Police Department officer." Bowman also claims that high-ranking Detroit Police Department personnel, including Cummings, deliberately sabotaged his investigation. Bowman states that eventually he was transferred out of the Homicide Division because he had asked too many questions about the Greene murder and the Manoogian Mansion party. Bowman also claims that Greene was employed by an unnamed associate of Kilpatrick, and that Greene's telephone records linked her to a high-ranking city employee not long before her death. Mayer Morganroth, the lawyer representing the city, said, "The Bowman affidavit is a little less than idiotic and more than absurd."

In another affidavit, Joyce Carolyn Rogers, a former Detroit Police Department employee, stated that she read a police report that came across her desk in the fall 2002 regarding Carlita Kilpatrick's assault of Greene during the alleged Manoogian Mansion party. Rogers stated that Carlita had witnessed Greene touching the mayor "in a manner that upset the mayor's wife." Rogers alleged that Carlita struck Greene with a wooden object, and that two men stepped in to restrain her. Yatooma said that Rogers' affidavit showed that the Manoogian Mansion party was not "urban legend."

Three Detroit paramedics - Lt. Michael Kearns, Lt. Walter Godzwon, and Cenobio Chapa - signed affidavits concerning Greene. Kearns claimed he spoke to Greene around the time of the Manoogian Mansion party. Godzwon claimed he saw Mayor Kilpatrick and his bodyguards at Detroit Receiving Hospital, where an injured woman was taken. Chapa claimed that he saw an injured woman brought to the hospital by three plainclothes Detroit Police Department officers in the autumn of 2002, and heard the woman say she had been attacked by Carlita Kilpatrick. Chapa also said that he ran into medical technician Doug Bayer, and had told him about what he had seen; Bayer had previously told State Police of such an encounter.

Whistleblower trial

In 2003, a civil lawsuit was filed against Kilpatrick by his ex-bodyguard Harold Nelthrope and former Deputy Chief Police Gary Brown. The police officers claim they were fired because of an internal probe into the mayor's personal actions and that the firing was a violation of the whistleblower law.

The trial began in August 2007 with Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, both denying they were involved in an extramarital affair. In his testimony, Kilpatrick expressed anger about claims of an affair between him and Beatty and under oath said:

I think it was pretty demoralizing to her—you have to know her—but it's demoralizing to me as well," he said. "My mother is a congresswoman. There have always been strong women around me. My aunt is a state legislator. I think it's absurd to assert that every woman that works with a man is a whore. I think it's disrespectful not just to Christine Beatty but to women who do a professional job that they do every single day. And it's also disrespectful to their families as well.

The trial ended on September 11, 2007, after three hours of jury deliberation, in a verdict awarding the plaintiffs $6.5 million in damages. In an angry speech in front of City Hall made minutes after the verdict was read, Kilpatrick blamed the "wrong verdict" on white suburbanite jurors. Kilpatrick also stated "There's race in this, and we run from it in this region. And I think it's impossible for us to move forward as a region without confronting it head-on. But I don't want what has happened in the past 24 months to be erased by what has happened in the last two days."

The City Council is determined that it and the people of the city of Detroit be fully informed as to the circumstances of any settlement, but particularly this settlement.

William Goodman

Kilpatrick vowed to appeal the verdict, but weeks later during stalled settlement negotiations quickly approved an $8.4 million settlement upon learning of a motion by Mike Stefani, the police officers' attorney, which contained evidence that Kilpatrick and Beatty perjured themselves in their deposition and trial testimony. The Detroit City Council voted to pay the $8.4 million to the two officers involved in the civil suit and a third former officer who filed a separate lawsuit against Kilpatrick. The Detroit City Council was not made aware of the text messages or a confidentiality agreement to keep them private when Kilpatrick and city lawyers requested the council to approve the $8.4 million settlement.

The Detroit Free Press, The Detroit News, and the Detroit City Council sued under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requesting that the city release all settlement-related documents. The FOIA lawsuit ordered Mike Stefani to be deposed by the plaintiffs. Stefani revealed in the deposition the existence of a confidentiality agreement signed by all parties to keep confidential intimate text messages between Kilpatrick and his then chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The Detroit Law Department initially denied the existence of a "secret deal", but later fought unsuccessfully all the way to the Michigan Supreme Court to keep the documents sealed on the grounds that they are private communications. The unsealed documents revealed the stratagem of Kilpatrick and the City of Detroit Law Department to hide a series of text messages that contradict the sworn testimony of Kilpatrick and Beatty, and provided the basis for a criminal investigation against the pair.

The secret deal called for Brown to forfeit $3 million, Nelthrope to forfeit $2 million and Harris to give up $400,000 if they ever revealed the information; Stefani would forfeit $2.6 million in legal fees if he or any of his employees ever divulged the existence of the text-messages.

An investigation by Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy concluded with Kilpatrick and Beatty being charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy, misconduct in office, and perjury. The council requested that Kilpatrick resign as mayor and that Jennifer Granholm use her gubernatorial authority to remove Kilpatrick from office due to his conduct in the trial. Granholm said the inquiry was like a trial and that her role would be "functioning in a manner similar to that of a judicial officer."

Kilpatrick said he had paid back the $8.4 million through "hard work for the city" and dismissed any aspiration of removing him from office as "political rhetoric."

Text-messaging scandal

Main article: Kilpatrick and Beatty text-messaging scandal

In January 2008, the Detroit Free Press revealed the existence of more than 14,000 text messages exchanged between Kilpatrick and Beatty on their city-issued SkyTel pagers in late 2002 and early 2003. The dates are of importance because they encompass the time periods of the alleged Manoogian Mansion party and the ouster of Gary Brown respectively. The bulk of the text messages were released in late October 2008 by Circuit Court Judge Timothy Kenny, who instructed that some portions be redacted.

The text messages are the nucleus of an $8.4 million secret deal settlement by the city of Detroit. The attorneys for the city had tried since 2004 to keep the text messages hidden on the grounds that they were personal and private communications. However, a city directive re-authorized by Kilpatrick during his first term as mayor indicated that all electronic communication sent on city equipment should be "used in an honest, ethical, and legal manner" and cautions, "is not considered to be personal or private." The mayor's spokesman said the policy only applies to city-owned equipment, and the text-messages are exempt since they were sent on a city-leased device.

Kilpatrick and Beatty, both in separate marriages at the time, did discuss city business; however, many of the series of messages describe not a professional relationship but an extramarital sexual relationship between the two, often in graphic detail. The text messages further describe their use of city funds to arrange romantic getaways, their fears of being caught by the mayor's police protection unit, and evidence the pair conspired to fire Detroit Police Deputy Chief Gary Brown.

On March 18, 2008, the Detroit City Council passed a non-binding resolution asking for Kilpatrick to resign as mayor. The vote was 7-1 with Monica Conyers being the only member to vote no. Martha Reeves was absent from the vote. The resolution cited 33 reasons for Kilpatrick to step down, ranging from the secret settlement deals, to mandatory audits not being submitted to the state, to charges that Kilpatrick “repeatedly obfuscates the truth.” Kilpatrick dismissed the vote as irrelevant and declared that he would not resign as mayor. The council responded by asking its independent attorney, Bill Goodman, to "explore the proceedings by which the mayor may be removed from office."

On March 26, 2008, the Free Press published another text message contradicting Kilpatrick's testimony that Brown's employment was not terminated. In June 2003, six weeks after Brown's employment with the Detroit Police Department ended and just hours before Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox was to announce the findings of his office's investigation into his administration's scandals, Kilpatrick texted his staff on June 24, 2003:

We must answer the question? Why was Gary Brown fired, It will be asked, I need short, powerful answer. ... I just need a good answer whatever it might be.

On the stand in the whistleblower trial, Kilpatrick stated that Brown was "unappointed" from his duties as Deputy Police Chief and head of the department's Internal Affairs unit. The jury found in favor of Brown's account that he was fired and not "unappointed."

Criminal charges

Main article: Kilpatrick-Beatty criminal trial

On March 24, 2008, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced a 12-count criminal indictment against Kilpatrick and former Detroit Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, charging Kilpatrick with eight felonies and Beatty with seven. Charges for both included perjury, misconduct in office and obstruction of justice. Worthy also suggested that others in the Kilpatrick administration could also be charged. The preliminary examination scheduled for September 22, 2008, was waived by both defendants; thereby, allowing the case to proceed directly to trial.

In March 2008, a group of Kilpatrick's supporters created the “Detroit Justice Fund" to help cover the cost of the mayor's legal defense. Members of the fund's supervisory committee include former San Francisco mayor Willie Brown and former DTE executive Martin Taylor. Greg Mathis, a retired District Court judge and television personality was listed as a committee member, but disavowed any such support and has since called for Kilpatrick to resign.

WXYZ-TV reported that on July 23, 2008, Kilpatrick briefly traveled to the neighboring city of Windsor, Ontario, thus leaving Michigan and the U.S. Kilpatrick met with Windsor mayor Eddie Francis concerning a deal on the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which would have seen the city of Windsor take over operational control of the tunnel in exchange for a $75 million loan to the cash-strapped city of Detroit. While Kilpatrick claimed that Francis had requested the meeting without prior notice, several Windsor city officials, including Francis, claimed that Kilpatrick in fact requested the meeting. Kilpatrick traveled without informing the court, as required by terms of his bail agreement. As a result, on August 7, 2008, Kilpatrick was remanded to spend a night in the Wayne County Jail. It was the first time in Detroit's history that its mayor had been ordered to jail. In issuing the order, Chief Judge Ronald Giles stated that he could not treat the mayor differently from "John Sixpack." On August 8, 2008, after arguments on Kilpatrick's behalf by attorneys Jim Parkman and Jim Thomas, Judge Thomas Jackson reversed the remand order and permitted Kilpatrick to be released on posting a $50,000 cash bond and the further condition that the mayor not travel, and wear a tethering device.

On August 8, 2008, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox announced that two new felony counts had been filed against Kilpatrick for assaulting or interfering with a law officer. The new charges arose out of allegations that Kilpatrick on July 24, 2008, shoved a police officer who was attempting to serve a subpoena on an associate of the mayor. The second felony account arose out of allegations that a second officer was struck when the first officer was shoved into a woman police officer who was accompanying the first officer.

On September 4, 2008, Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of justice and plead no contest to assaulting a Wayne County Sheriff's Deputy. As part of the plea agreement, he agreed to serve four months in the Wayne County Jail, pay one million dollars of restitution to the city of Detroit, surrender his license to practice law, five years probation and not run for public office during his probation period. He also was required to resign as mayor of Detroit and surrender his state pension from his six years' service in the Michigan House of Representatives prior to being elected mayor. In an allocution given as part of his plea, Kilpatrick admitted that he lied under oath several times. His last day in office was September 18, 2008.

Slander suit

Kilpatrick was named in a slander lawsuit along with Christine Beatty and police chief Ella Bully-Cummings. The lawsuit was brought about by two police officers that claimed to have been slandered in the media by city officials.

The lawsuit stemmed from a 2004 incident in which the two police officers pulled Beatty over for speeding. The officers claimed that Beatty was irate at being stopped and bluntly asked the officers, "Do you know who the fuck I am?" when the officers came to the vehicle. The officers alleged that, while stopped, Beatty called Bully-Cummings to have the officers called off, which they were ordered to do. When reports of the incident started to surface in the media, Bully-Cummings said the officers harassed Beatty, and Kilpatrick said the stop "looked like a setup".

The parties in the lawsuit entered into mediation which recommended a settlement of $25,000 which was rejected twice by the Detroit City Council.

In January 2008, it was revealed through text messages that Kilpatrick and Beatty were involved in a sexual relationship that both denied under oath. The attorney for the officers said, "I might take a different position on the case now. The mayor has been exposed and I may want more money for my clients now."

On February 19, 2008, the Detroit City Council voted unanimously to settle the lawsuit for $25,000. The attorney for the officers accepted the settlement and said of the officers, “They don’t want to be embroiled in this whole scandal."

Synagro sludge contract

According to the Detroit News (24 June 2010), Kwame Kilpatrick, his father Bernard and the Kilpatrick Civic Fund may have been important figures in the sludge hauling contract that saw city council president Monica Conyers (wife of Rep. John Conyers) and her chief of staff Sam Riddle convicted for conspiracy and bribery. "Kilpatrick and his father also figured, but have not been charged, in evidence surrounding a bribery-tainted, $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract the Detroit City Council awarded to Synagro Technologies Inc. in 2007. According to court documents and people familiar with the case, former Synagro official James Rosendall made large contributions to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund and gave Kilpatrick free flights to Las Vegas and Mackinac Island. Rosendall also told investigators he made cash payments to Bernard N. Kilpatrick, who told Rosendall he got him access to City Hall, records show." Rosendall and a Synagro consultant Rayford Jackson were also convicted of bribery.

Recall campaign

The Wayne County Election Committee approved a recall petition to remove Kilpatrick as mayor based on the multimillion-dollar settlement ($9,000,000+) in a whistle-blower lawsuit against the city, and the accusation that Kilpatrick misled the City Council into approving the settlement. The recall petition was filed by Douglas Johnson, a city council candidate. Kilpatrick has appealed to the commission to reconsider its decision on the grounds that Johnson is not a resident of Detroit. Johnson also requested that Jennifer Granholm use her power as Governor to remove Kilpatrick from office.

On March 12, 2008, at the request of the Mayor's office, Wayne County Election Commission rescinded its earlier approval for the recall. The Mayor's office argued that there was not any evidence that the organizer, Douglas Johnson, actually resided within the city limits of Detroit. Johnson stated that his group would refile using another person whose residency would not be an issue. On March 27, 2008, a second recall petition was filed against Kilpatrick by Angelo Brown. Brown stated in his filing that Kilpatrick is too preoccupied with his legal problems to be effective. Kilpatrick's spokesman James Canning again dismissed this latest recall by saying: "It’s Mr. Brown’s right to file a petition, but it’s just another effort by a political hopeful to grab headlines."

On May 14 the Detroit City Council voted to request that the governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, remove Kilpatrick from office.

Funneling of state grant money to wife

Kilpatrick used his influence while in the Michigan legislature to funnel state grant money to two organizations that were vague on their project description. The groups were run by friends of Kilpatrick and both agreed to subcontract work to U.N.I.T.E., a company owned by Kilpatrick's wife Carlita. Carlita was the only employee and the firm received $175,000 from the organizations. Detroit 3D was one of the groups and the State canceled its second and final installment of $250,000 because 3D refused to divulge details on how the funds were being spent.

Denial of courtesy protection

In 2002, the Washington D.C. police announced that they would only offer professional courtesy protection to Kilpatrick while he was conducting official business in the nation's capital. D.C. police no longer provided after-hours police protection to Kilpatrick because of his inappropriate partying during past visits. Sergeant Tyrone Dodson of Washington D.C. explained by saying "we arrived at this decision because we felt that the late evening partying on the part of Mayor Kilpatrick would leave our officers stretched too thin and might result in an incident at one of the clubs." The Kilpatrick administration alleged that the statements and actions of the Washington D.C. police were part of a political conspiracy to "ruin" the mayor.

Preferential hiring of friends and family

It was revealed that at any given time there are about 100 appointees of Kilpatrick employed with the city. The Detroit Free Press examined city records and found that 29 of Kilpatrick's closest friends and family were appointed to positions within the various city departments. This hiring practice came to be known as 'the friends and family plan'. Some appointees had little to no experience, while others, among them Kilpatrick's uncle Ray Cheeks and cousin Nneka Cheeks, falsified their résumés. Kilpatrick's cousin, Patricia Peoples, was appointed to the deputy director of human resources, giving her the ability to hire more of Kilpatrick's friends and family without such hirings being viewed as mayoral appointments. Though political appointments are not illegal, the sheer volume of Kilpatrick's appointments compared to all the appointments made by Detroit mayors since 1970, along with Kilpatrick's cutting of thousands of city jobs, made his appointments controversial.

The jobs held by friends and family ranged from secretarial positions to department heads. The appointees had an average salary increase of 36% compared with a 2% raise in 2003 and 2% raise in 2004 for fellow city workers. Some of the biggest salary increases were for April Edgar, half-sister of Christine Beatty, whose pay increase was 86% over 5 years. One of Kilpatrick's cousins, Ajene Evans, had a 77% increase in his salary same period. The biggest salary increase among the 29 appointees was that of LaTonya Wallace-Hardiman who went from $32,500 staff secretary, to an executive assistant making $85,501—163% in five years.

Abuse of power allegations

See also: Abuse of power

It was revealed on July 15, 2008 by WXYZ reporter Steve Wilson that in 2005 Kwame Kilpatrick, Christine Beatty, and the chief of police Ella Bully-Cummings allegedly used their positions to help an influential Baptist minister arrested for soliciting a prostitute get his case dismissed. The arresting officer, Antoinette Bostic, was told by her supervisors that Mangedwa Nyathi was a minister (Assistant Pastor at Hartford Memorial Baptist Church on Detroit's west side), and that the mayor and police chief were calling to persuade Bostic not to show up to court, in which case the judge would be forced to dismiss the case against Nyathi. Bostic ignored her supervisors and appeared in court. The defense lawyer, Charles Hammons, had the case postponed a couple of times and stated in court that “The mayor told me yesterday that this case is not gonna go forward." Hammons admitted to Wilson that this was the fact and that this was how many cases for people who know the mayor in Detroit are handled. Bully-Cummings angrily denied that she had ever asked her officers to perform such acts of impropriety. Kilpatrick stated that Wilson of WXYZ "was just making up stories again."

Assaulting a police officer

On July 24, 2008, at approximately 4 p.m., Wayne County Sheriff's Detective Brian White and Joanne Kinney, an investigator from Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office, went to Kilpatrick's sister Ayanna Kilpatrick's home in an attempt to serve a subpoena. Ayanna Kilpatrick is married to Daniel Ferguson, cousin of Bobby Ferguson, later indicted along with Kwame Kilpatrick. While on the front porch of the home, Kwame Kilpatrick came out of the house with his bodyguards and pushed the sheriff's deputy, as Sheriff Warren Evans said, "...pushed him with significant force to make him bounce into the prosecutor's investigator". The mayor yelled at Kinney "How can a black woman be riding in a car with a man named White?" Evans went on to say, "There were armed executive protection officers. My officers were there armed. And all of them had the consummate good sense not to let it escalate"...and "the two officers 'wisely' left the property and returned to their office to report on the incident."

Sheriff Evans stated that due to the "politically charged nature" of the incident, the case has been transferred to the Michigan State Police to investigate. Evans' daughter, who was on Kwame Kilpatrick's staff, resigned shortly after this incident.

2010 indictment for tax evasion and mail fraud

On May 8, 2007, WXYZ-TV reported that Kilpatrick used $8,600 from the Kilpatrick Civic Fund to take his wife, three sons and babysitter on a week-long vacation to a five-star California resort, the La Costa Resort and Spa. The fund, controlled by Kilpatrick's sister and friends, was created to improve the city of Detroit through voter education, economic empowerment, and crime prevention. Tax and accounting experts said Kilpatrick's use of the fund was a violation of IRS regulations. The story was also compounded after WXYZ's cameras caught Kilpatrick in a fit of rage grabbing the microphone out of the hand of reporter Ray Sayah and throwing it.

On June 23, 2010, Kilpatrick was indicted on 19 federal counts including 10 counts of mail fraud, three counts of wire fraud, five counts of filing a false tax return, and one count of tax evasion. Each count of fraud carries a maximum sentence of 20 year imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. Each tax count carries a maximum sentence of three or five years and a fine of $250,000.

It is alleged that Kilpatrick devised a scheme to use the Kilpatrick Civic Fund to pay for personal expenses and to fund his mayoral campaigns. Some of the alleged expenses include yoga, golf clubs, summer camp for his children, personal travel, a lease on a Cadillac DeVille, moving expenses, a crisis manager for overseeing his public image, and focus groups.

FBI corruption investigation of Kilpatrick family and friends

The Federal Bureau of Investigation investigated corruption within Detroit's city hall; in particular, how contracts are awarded. Through the use of undercover video, wiretaps, and informants, the FBI investigated whether Bernard Kilpatrick, father of Kwame Kilpatrick and ex-husband of U.S. Representative Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, was involved in payoff schemes to steer city business to contractors and then illegally funnel any money or kickbacks back to his son, the mayor. The FBI also announced that Derrick Miller, a close friend of Kilpatrick's who was a top adviser in the Kilpatrick campaigns and most recently (2007) was the chief information officer of the City of Detroit, was named as a target of the corruption investigation. Kandia Milton, deputy mayor, who ran the city for one day when Kilpatrick was in jail for violating his bail, pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges involving the sale of city-owned land.

SEC investigation into pension funds influence peddling

In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission indicted Kilpatrick and former city treasurer Jeffrey W. Beasley for receiving $180,000 in travel, hotel rooms and gifts from a company seeking investments from the city pension fund. Chauncey C. Mayfield and his company were also indicted. The company received a $117 million investment in a real estate investment trust that it controlled. MayfieldGentry proceeeded to misappropriate $3.1 million from the pension fund which was revealed during the influence peddling investigation. Mayfield pleaded guilty in 2013. The case is scheduled for June 2014,

Resignation and incarceration

On March 24, 2008, Kilpatrick was charged with eight felony counts, including perjury, misconduct in office, and obstruction of justice. On May 13, 2008, the Detroit City Council approved a resolution to request that Michigan's governor, Jennifer Granholm, remove Kilpatrick from office. On August 8, 2008, Michigan's Attorney General, Mike Cox, announced two new felony counts had been filed against Kilpatrick for assaulting and interfering with a law officer.

On September 4, 2008, Kilpatrick announced his resignation as mayor, effective September 18, following a guilty plea to two felonies for obstruction of justice arising from a complex settlement scheme in a civil case where he lied about an extra-marital affair under oath, then caused the case to be settled at a premium in exchange for an agreement by the parties not to disclose his affair. He then misrepresented the settlement to the citizens of Detroit and City Council. As a result of his guilty plea, Kilpatrick will pay restitution to the city of Detroit in the amount of one million dollars, lose his pension, serve four months in the Wayne County jail, serve five years probation, and surrender his law license; he is also prohibited from running for public office for five years.

In the separate assault case, he pleaded no contest to one felony count of assaulting and obstructing a police officer in exchange for a second assault charge being dropped. This deal also required his resignation and 120 days in jail, to be served concurrently with his jail time for the perjury counts. Kilpatrick was sentenced on October 28, 2008. The judge ordered that Kilpatrick not be given an opportunity for early release, but instead serve the entire 120 days in jail.

In court hearings held in November and December 2009 it was revealed that several prominent Detroit businessmen provided undocumented loans to Kilpatrick and his wife in a quid-pro-quo for his resignation. The total amount of the loans was $240,000.

Detroit City Council President Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. replaced Kilpatrick as mayor at 12:01 a.m. September 19, 2008.

First sentencing and incarceration

Judge David Groner sentenced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to four months in jail on Tuesday, October 28, 2008, for the sex-and-text scandal, calling him "arrogant and defiant" and questioning the sincerity of a guilty plea that ended his career at City Hall. The punishment was part of a plea agreement worked out a month earlier. "When someone gets 120 days in jail, they should get 120 days in jail," Groner 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. He was seen smirking, laughing, and even calling the sentencing a "joke". Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans said that they take 40,000 prisoners into the prison annually, but that Kilpatrick would be kept separate from the general population and “won’t be treated any worse or any better than other prisoners.” He was housed in a secured, 15 feet by 10 feet cell with a bed, chair, toilet and a shower, spending approximately 23 hours a day there. At 12:35 a.m. on Tuesday, February 3, 2009, Kilpatrick left jail after serving 99 days. He boarded a privately chartered Lear jet and landed in Texas that evening. He was supposed to join his family in a $3,000 a month rental house in Southlake, Texas.

Within a couple of weeks, Kilpatrick was hired by Covisint, a Texas subsidiary of Compuware, headquartered in Detroit. The CEO of Compuware, Peter Karmanos, Jr. was one of the parties who loaned large sums of money to Kilpatrick in late 2008. Kilpatrick was let go from Compuware in May 2010 after being sentenced to prison.

Restitution hearing

Kilpatrick claimed poverty to Judge David Groner. He said he only had $3,000 per month (later lowered to $6) for the restitution payments.

Judge Groner requested detailed financial records for Kwame, his wife, their children, etc. By November 2009 Kilpatrick was on the stand in Detroit to explain his apparent poverty. He claimed to have no knowledge about who paid for his million-dollar home, Cadillac Escalades, and other lavish expenses. The former mayor also denied any knowledge of his wife's finances, or even whether she was employed. During this hearing, it was revealed that Peter Karmanos, Jr., Roger Penske and other business leaders had provided substantial monies to the Kilpatricks to convince the mayor to resign his office and plead guilty. On January 20, 2010, Judge Groner ruled that Kilpatrick pay the sum of $300,000 to the city of Detroit within 90 days.

Second sentencing and incarceration

On February 19, 2010, Kilpatrick missed a required restitution payment of $79,000. The court received only $14,000 on February 19 and then only another $21,175 on February 22. On February 23, Judge Groner approved a warrant for Kilpatrick and ruled in April that he had violated the terms of his probation. On May 25, 2010, Kilpatrick was sentenced to one and a half to five years with the Michigan Department of Corrections (with credit for 120 days previously served) for violation of probation, and was afterwards taken back into correctional custody. He was housed for fourteen days in the hospital unit of the state prisoner reception center. Kilpatrick was later housed in the Oaks Correctional Facility. After he was indicted in federal court for additional crimes related to alleged misuse of his campaign funds, Kilpatrick lobbied for a transfer from the Oaks Correctional Facility. On July 11, 2010, he was transferred into the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Kilpatrick was incarcerated in the Milan Federal Prison near Milan, Michigan. He was released from federal custody on April 6, 2011. During his final 118 days of state imprisonment, Kilpatrick resided in the Cotton Correctional Facility. Kilpatrick was released on parole on August 2, 2011. In August 2011 the court ordered Kilpatrick to pay for his incarceration costs.

2012-2013 felony corruption trial and conviction

On December 14, 2010, Kilpatrick was again indicted on new corruption charges, in what a federal prosecutor called a "pattern of extortion, bribery and fraud" by some of the city's most prominent officials. His father, Bernard Kilpatrick, was also indicted, as was contractor Bobby Ferguson, Kilpatrick's aide, Derrick Miller, and Detroit water department chief, Victor Mercado. The original 38-charge indictment listed allegations of 13 fraudulent schemes in awarding contracts in the city's Department of Water and Sewerage, with pocketed kickbacks of nearly $1,000,000. He was arraigned on January 10, 2011, on charges in the 89-page indictment. Federal prosecuting attorneys proposed a trial date in January 2012, but defense attorneys asked for a trial date in the summer of 2012. Opening statements in the trial began on September 21, 2012. Prosecutors soon brought forth a large number of witnesses that gave some damaging testimony. Mercado took a plea deal while the trial was in progress. On March 11, 2013, in spite of a vigorous defense that cost taxpayers more than a million dollars, Kilpatrick was found guilty by a jury on two dozen counts including those for racketeering, extortion, mail fraud, and tax evasion, among others. Shortly after conviction, speaking about Kilpatrick, Judge Nancy Edmunds ruled in favor of remand saying "detention is required in his circumstance". He was sentenced to 28 years in prison on October 10, 2013. Kilpatrick, Federal Bureau of Prisons Register #44678-039, is serving his sentence at Federal Correctional Institution, El Reno in El Reno, Oklahoma. There is no parole in the federal prison system. However, with time off for good behavior, his earliest possible release date will be August 1, 2037—when he will be 67 years old.

Mercado pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy, Bobby Ferguson was sentenced to 21 years in prison, Derrick Miller pleaded guilty to tax evasion and was sentenced to three years supervision, the first year in a halfway house. Bernard Kilpatrick was sentenced to 15 months in prison. Emma Bell received two years probation and was fined $330,000 in back taxes as part of a plea deal where she testified that she frequently handed Kilpatrick large amounts of cash skimmed from campaign accounts. First Independence Bank, used by Kilpatrick and Ferguson, was fined $250,000 for failing to follow anti-money laundering regulations. 14 companies were suspended from bidding on contracts with the water department in the wake of the scandal. Inland Waters Pollution Control Inc. paid $4.5 million in the settlement of a lawsuit over their involvement with Kilpatrick, Ferguson and the Detroit Water Board. Lakeshore TolTest Corp. reached a $5 million settlement with the Water Board to avoid litigation.

In August 2015, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld his convictions but ordered that the amount of restitution be recalculated.

Post-mayoralty

Memoir

Kilpatrick co-wrote a memoir about his life and political experiences titled Surrendered: The Rise, Fall, & Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick. The book was originally scheduled for release on August 2, 2011, a date which would have just barely preceded his scheduled release from a Michigan prison. However, the publisher delayed the release to August 9, almost a week after Kilpatrick was paroled. Kilpatrick has appeared at public events in Michigan and elsewhere to promote his book.

The public prosecutor in Wayne County, Michigan has asked the state courts to order the book's publisher, Tennessee-based Creative Publishing Consultants Inc., to remit Kilpatrick's share on the book's proceeds for payment toward Kilpatrick's criminal restitution and his cost of incarceration. On November 16, 2011, the publisher's attorney failed to appear at a hearing on the matter in Wayne County Circuit Court. A bench warrant was issued for the attorney, Jack Gritton, and was forwarded to authorities in Tennessee, where Gritton's practice is based.

[ Source: Wikipedia ]