Post by Sapphire Capital on Aug 8, 2008 2:53:04 GMT 4
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick sent to jail
Kilpatrick violated conditions for his bond by traveling to Canada on business without notifying the court, a judge rules.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 7, 2008
CHICAGO -- A Michigan judge sent Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail today after learning that the controversial official violated the conditions of his bond in a perjury case by going to Canada for a business meeting without clearing the trip with the court beforehand.
Kilpatrick apologized this morning to 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles for the unauthorized trip he made to nearby Windsor, Canada, and pointed out that he "ran in, made a presentation . . . and I ran back."
The ruling, though shocking to prosecutors and allies of the mayor alike, comes after months of the mayor's defiant and sometimes flippant attitude toward his legal woes.
Both the mayor and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, testified during a "public whistle-blower" trial last year that they did not have a relationship. But the Detroit Free Press in January released racy snippets from more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from Beatty's city-provided pager in 2002 and 2003, including one Kilpatrick sent to Beatty in 2002 that read "I'm madly in love with you."
Kilpatrick now faces felony charges -- including perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice --for attempting to hide his extramarital relationship with Beatty, who also was charged with seven felonies. (Earlier this week, the pair both waived their right to a preliminary hearing previously scheduled for next month.)
As the case has moved toward trial, Kilpatrick has refused to step down from his mayoral office and, at times, acted as if nothing was wrong.
Kilpatrick's travels have come up before. This spring, after Kilpatrick and his wife flew to Dallas for a meeting with church officials, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office asked the court to add travel restrictions as conditions of the mayor's bond.
A judge ruled that when Kilpatrick needed to travel for city business reasons, he simply needed to make a phone call to the court -- and then he was free to travel worldwide.
But last week, Giles revoked the mayor's right to make any trips without a court hearing, after a Wayne County Sheriff's deputy testified that he was physically assaulted by the mayor and suffered a fractured hip.
The deputy, Brian White, told the court that when he and his partner tried to serve a subpoena related to the mayor's case to a friend of Kilpatrick's, the mayor shouted profanities at him. White also testified that the mayor picked him up and threw him into JoAnne Kinney, an investigator with the Wayne County prosecutor's office.
Kilpatrick told the court today that he knew he had made a mistake but that the trip to Windsor was necessary to save hundreds of city jobs in Detroit and preserve city services. The trip, he said, was part of his effort to erase a $65-million budget deficit by selling the city's half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which connects the U.S. to Canada. The bid had stalled when the City Council rejected the deal late last month.
But a stern Giles, who acknowledged that the mayor had been facing extreme public and media pressure, ignored Kilpatrick's pleas for forgiveness and made it clear his patience had worn out.
"The first day you were before me, I thought I made it clear to you that this court comes first in everything," Giles said before a crowded courtroom.
Later, the judge said, "If it was not Kwame Kilpatrick sitting in that seat, if it was John Six-Pack sitting in the seat, what would I do? And that answer is simple."
Giles revoked Kilpatrick's $75,000 bond. Minutes after the ruling was made and Kilpatrick was escorted out of the Detroit courtroom, the mayor's attorneys filed a petition to have Giles' ruling reviewed by Circuit Court Judge Thomas E. Jackson.
Jackson, who requested a copy of the transcript of today's proceedings, is expected to weigh in on the matter Friday morning -- after the mayor has likely spent at least one night in jail.
Kandia Milton, the mayor's chief of staff and recently named deputy mayor, will step in to run the city. A statement from Kilpatrick's office said, "Detroit's government will continue to operate as usual."
Kilpatrick violated conditions for his bond by traveling to Canada on business without notifying the court, a judge rules.
By P.J. Huffstutter, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
August 7, 2008
CHICAGO -- A Michigan judge sent Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail today after learning that the controversial official violated the conditions of his bond in a perjury case by going to Canada for a business meeting without clearing the trip with the court beforehand.
Kilpatrick apologized this morning to 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles for the unauthorized trip he made to nearby Windsor, Canada, and pointed out that he "ran in, made a presentation . . . and I ran back."
The ruling, though shocking to prosecutors and allies of the mayor alike, comes after months of the mayor's defiant and sometimes flippant attitude toward his legal woes.
Both the mayor and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, testified during a "public whistle-blower" trial last year that they did not have a relationship. But the Detroit Free Press in January released racy snippets from more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from Beatty's city-provided pager in 2002 and 2003, including one Kilpatrick sent to Beatty in 2002 that read "I'm madly in love with you."
Kilpatrick now faces felony charges -- including perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice --for attempting to hide his extramarital relationship with Beatty, who also was charged with seven felonies. (Earlier this week, the pair both waived their right to a preliminary hearing previously scheduled for next month.)
As the case has moved toward trial, Kilpatrick has refused to step down from his mayoral office and, at times, acted as if nothing was wrong.
Kilpatrick's travels have come up before. This spring, after Kilpatrick and his wife flew to Dallas for a meeting with church officials, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's office asked the court to add travel restrictions as conditions of the mayor's bond.
A judge ruled that when Kilpatrick needed to travel for city business reasons, he simply needed to make a phone call to the court -- and then he was free to travel worldwide.
But last week, Giles revoked the mayor's right to make any trips without a court hearing, after a Wayne County Sheriff's deputy testified that he was physically assaulted by the mayor and suffered a fractured hip.
The deputy, Brian White, told the court that when he and his partner tried to serve a subpoena related to the mayor's case to a friend of Kilpatrick's, the mayor shouted profanities at him. White also testified that the mayor picked him up and threw him into JoAnne Kinney, an investigator with the Wayne County prosecutor's office.
Kilpatrick told the court today that he knew he had made a mistake but that the trip to Windsor was necessary to save hundreds of city jobs in Detroit and preserve city services. The trip, he said, was part of his effort to erase a $65-million budget deficit by selling the city's half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which connects the U.S. to Canada. The bid had stalled when the City Council rejected the deal late last month.
But a stern Giles, who acknowledged that the mayor had been facing extreme public and media pressure, ignored Kilpatrick's pleas for forgiveness and made it clear his patience had worn out.
"The first day you were before me, I thought I made it clear to you that this court comes first in everything," Giles said before a crowded courtroom.
Later, the judge said, "If it was not Kwame Kilpatrick sitting in that seat, if it was John Six-Pack sitting in the seat, what would I do? And that answer is simple."
Giles revoked Kilpatrick's $75,000 bond. Minutes after the ruling was made and Kilpatrick was escorted out of the Detroit courtroom, the mayor's attorneys filed a petition to have Giles' ruling reviewed by Circuit Court Judge Thomas E. Jackson.
Jackson, who requested a copy of the transcript of today's proceedings, is expected to weigh in on the matter Friday morning -- after the mayor has likely spent at least one night in jail.
Kandia Milton, the mayor's chief of staff and recently named deputy mayor, will step in to run the city. A statement from Kilpatrick's office said, "Detroit's government will continue to operate as usual."