Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the city’s youngest mayor and the first sitting mayor to face criminal charges, declared Monday that he expects “full and complete vindication” after being charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and misconduct.
The mayor spoke two hours after Kym Worthy, the prosecutor for Wayne County, Mich., announced to a packed news conference that she is charging Kilpatrick with eight felonies and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, with seven.
Kilpatrick, reading from a prepared statement at a news conference, said he is “deeply disappointed” but not surprised by Worthy’s decision.
“This has been a very flawed process from the beginning,” he said. “I look forward to complete exoneration once all the facts in this matter have been brought forth.”
The mayor’s attorney, Dan Webb, a former U.S. attorney from Chicago, said Kilpatrick will be found innocent of the charges and will not resign. “This man, my client, the mayor, is entitled to his day in court,” he said. “If this man is required to resign his office before his jury trial, that means he’s going to be punished before his day in court.”
Worthy said the perjury charges accuse Kilpatrick and Beatty of lying during a whistle-blower lawsuit about their romantic relationship and about the firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown.
Kilpatrick, 38, serving his seventh year in office, is the first Detroit mayor to face criminal charges while still in office. The perjury charge carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison.
“Lying cannot be tolerated,” Worthy said at the news conference. “Witnesses must give truthful testimony,” she added. “Oaths mean something.”
So far, Kilpatrick has refused to step down, saying he is on a divinely inspired mission to help rebuild the city. Conviction of a felony would force him to resign.
Webb said he would seek to block what so far has been the linchpin in the scandal — the text messages exchanged between Kilpatrick and Beatty — from being introduced at trial.
He said federal law bars the release of such messages in a civil case, and so the prosecution’s obtaining of them is tainted.
Even if the text messages are introduced, Kilpatrick’s testimony “is not a perjury case,” Webb said, because the questions the mayor was asked in the whistle-blower trial were too ambiguous.
Webb also accused Worthy of “selective prosecution,” saying he has not found a single instance of the Wayne County prosecutor’s office charging a witness in a civil case with perjury.
Webb said he is not being paid by taxpayer dollars but refused to say from what account Kilpatrick is paying him.
There was no comment from Beatty’s lawyers.
No stranger to scandal
The scandal is the latest to confront Kilpatrick, who became the youngest mayor in Detroit history when he was elected in 2001 after serving in the state legislature. His mother is U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-Mich.).
But his tenure as mayor has been rocky.
Kilpatrick has been beset by repeated controversies over extravagant spending with his city-issued credit card, allegedly lying publicly about ordering the police department to lease a Lincoln Navigator for his wife and battening down the information hatches at City Hall, making it more difficult for reporters and the public to inquire about his activities.
Besides criminal charges, the text messaging scandal and how city-paid lawyers responded to it could result in professional misconduct charges from the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission.
During her news conference, Worthy said city lawyers had tried to erect barriers to her investigation, forcing prosecutors to go to court to try to obtain documents.
She said the investigation wasn’t about sex, but about destroying the lives and careers of three police officers, including Brown.
Worthy said she had discussed the investigation with U.S. Atty. Stephen Murphy but declined to say what they discussed. Murphy declined to comment Monday on Worthy’s statement. The FBI is monitoring the investigation, according to people familiar with the case.
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Background of probe
Worthy’s investigation began after the Detroit Free Press uncovered text messages that showed a romantic relationship between Kilpatrick and Beatty — a relationship both had denied under oath during the police whistle-blower lawsuit last year. The pair also gave misleading testimony about the firing of Brown, the messages show.
A Wayne County Circuit Court jury last September awarded Brown and Harold Nelthrope $6.5 million in damages. Kilpatrick vowed to appeal but on Oct. 17 abruptly decided to settle the case and a second whistle-blower suit involving former mayoral bodyguard Walt Harris for $8.4 million.
Although Kilpatrick apologized for his conduct in a televised appearance with his wife, Carlita, in late January, he has blamed the media for his troubles and rejected calls from the City Council, Atty. Gen. Mike Cox and city union locals to resign.
Kilpatrick insisted during his apology that there was no cover-up. He accused the Free Press of illegally obtaining the text messages — which the newspaper denies — and he accused the media of conducting a public lynching.
Settlement documents the Free Press obtained last month through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the city show that — contrary to Kilpatrick’s claim that he decided to settle based on advice from friends, advisers and ordinary citizens — he made peace with the cops after discovering that Mike Stefani, a lawyer for the police officers, had the text messages.
Although Kilpatrick’s lawyers settled the suit with one agreement Oct. 17, they split it into public and private settlements after the Free Press requested a copy.
The public agreement showed how much the former cops would be paid. The secret agreement, signed by Kilpatrick and Beatty, swore Brown, Nelthrope and Stefani to secrecy about the text messages under threat of forfeiting their settlement proceeds and legal fees.
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Testimony vs. e-mail
Here is a comparison of what Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-Chief of Staff Christine Beatty said during a whistle-blower trial in 2007 and in text messages on Beatty’s pager.
Mayor’s relationship with aide
Trial testimony
Kilpatrick was asked if “during 2002 and 2003, were you romantically involved with Christine Beatty?”
Kilpatrick’s response: “No.”
Beatty was asked if she and Kilpatrick were “either romantically or intimately involved” during the period covered by the case.
“No,” she replied, rolling her eyes.
Text messages published by the Detroit Free Press
Kilpatrick to Beatty, Oct. 3, 2002: “I’m madly in love with you.”
Beatty’s reply: “I hope you feel that way for a long time. In case you haven’t noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!”
Kilpatrick to Beatty, Oct. 16, 2002: “I’ve been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love.”
Whether Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown was fired
Trial testimony
“He was not fired,” Kilpatrick testified. “My understanding is he could go back to lieutenant … but I think Mr. Brown chose to retire.”
Text messages published by the Detroit Free Press
Beatty to Kilpatrick, May 15, 2003: “I’m sorry that we are going through this mess because of a decision that we made to fire Gary Brown. I will make sure that the next decision is much more thought out. Not regretting what was done at all. But thinking about how we can do things smarter.”
Kilpatrick’s reply: “It had to happen though. I’m all the way with that!”
— Associated Press