Detroit Mayor Expects Vindication on All Charges; Kilpatrick

DETROIT _ Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Monday that he expects "full and complete vindication" of the perjury, obstruction of justice, conspiracy and misconduct charges that were earlier announced against him and former chief of staff Christine Beatty.

The mayor spoke two hours after Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced to a packed news conference that she is charging Kilpatrick with eight felonies and Beatty with seven.

"I’m deeply disappointed," Kilpatrick said. "I will remain focused in moving this city forward."

The mayor’s attorney, Dan Webb, said the mayor will be found innocent of the charges and will not resign. "The mayor is entitled to his day in court," Webb said.

Webb said he has instructed Kilpatrick to not respond to reporters’ questions.

"We’re not going to try this case in the press."

Worthy said the perjury charges accuse the two of lying during a whistle-blower lawsuit about the firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown and about their romantic relationship.

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, even if a judge and jury can see through it and doesn’t buy the line," Worthy said at the news conference. "Witnesses must give truthful testimony," she added. "Oaths mean something."

It wasn’t immediately clear when the mayor and Beatty would turn themselves in to be booked and later arraigned on the charges in 36th District Court in Detroit. They could be arraigned as early as 1 p.m. Tuesday.

Worthy declined to say whether she thinks the mayor should step down. Beatty resigned Feb. 8.

Soon after Worthy’s announcement, Kilpatrick appointees streamed into the mayor’s suite on the 11th floor of City Hall to meet with Kilpatrick. The meeting appeared to be brief, and appointees walked out while dozens of reporters and photographers waited to be admitted to the mayor’s recently redecorated main conference room.

One of the appointees, John Prymack, who runs Greater Detroit Resource Recovery Authority, said Kilpatrick’s message was simple: "Do your job, just do your job," Prymack quoted the mayor as saying. "Focus on your job."

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 investigators are still trying to obtain documents for the investigation, which will continue.

"At every bend and turn, there have been attempts by the city through one lawyer or another to block aspects of our investigation," Worthy said. "Some documents have been turned over, but we have been told that others have been destroyed or lost. We don’t know when or by whom."

She said the investigation wasn’t about sex, but about destroying the lives and careers of three good cops.

"Gary Brown’s, Harold Nelthrope’s and Walter Harris’ lives and careers were forever changed," Worthy said. "They were ruined financially and their reputations were completely destroyed because they chose to be dutiful police officers."

She added: "Our investigation has clearly shown that public dollars were used, people’s lives were ruined, the justice system severely mocked and the public trust trampled on."

Worthy said she had discussed the investigation with U.S. Attorney Stephen Murphy, but declined to say what they discussed. Murphy declined to comment on Worthy’s statement. The FBI is monitoring the investigation, according to people familiar with the case.

She said her staff had reviewed more than 40,000 pages of documents and interviewed many witnesses. She said her investigation had led to other possible defendants whom she didn’t identify. Worthy said her team of prosecutors on the case includes Lisa Lindsey, Robert Moran, Athina Siringas, Robert Spada and Timothy Baughman.

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 summer. The pair also gave misleading testimony about the firing of Brown, the messages show.

Despite the false testimony, a Wayne County Circuit Court jury last September awarded Brown and Nelthrope $6.5 million in damages. Kilpatrick vowed to appeal, but on Oct. 17, abruptly decided to settle the case and a second police whistle-blower suit involving former mayoral bodyguard Walt Harris for $8.4 million _ $9 million with legal costs.

Kilpatrick settled after the cops’ lawyer, Mike Stefani, informed the mayor’s lawyer that he had the incriminating text messages and would reveal them in court papers he planned to file to justify his request for legal fees in the whistle-blower case.

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, Attorney General Mike Cox and city union locals to resign.

Settlement documents the Detroit 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 Stefani had the text messages.

Although Kilpatrick’s lawyers settled the suit with one agreement on Oct. 17, they decided to 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.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. released the secret agreement last month after the Kilpatrick administration repeatedly denied its existence. Colombo released the agreement and other secret settlement records after the administration appealed unsuccessfully to the Michigan Court of Appeals and state Supreme Court, which rejected Kilpatrick’s claim that the documents weren’t public documents.

The city council, which was kept in the dark about Kilpatrick’s reasons for settling the lawsuit and never saw the confidential side agreement, voted 7-1 last week to pass an advisory resolution calling for the mayor to resign. It also ordered an investigation of the episode and directed its auditor general to look into spending by the mayor’s office and the city Law Department.

Kilpatrick insisted during his televised apology that there was no cover-up. He accused the Free Press of illegally obtaining the text messages _ which the newspaper denies _ and accusing the media of conducting a public lynching. He said the text messages and the settlement agreement that concealed them should never have been made public.

He also said the text messages were private even though he signed a policy directive in June 2000 advising city employees that all electronic communications should be considered public.

So far, Kilpatrick has refused to step down, saying he is on a divinely inspired mission to help rebuild the city. But conviction of a felony would force him to resign.

The scandal is the latest to confront Kilpatrick, a gifted politician who became the youngest mayor in Detroit history when he was elected in 2001 after serving in the state legislature.

But his six-year tenure as mayor has been rocky.

He has been beset by repeated controversies over extravagant spending with his city-issued credit card, lying publicly about ordering the police department to lease a Lincoln Navigator for his wife and battening down 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.

Defense lawyers are expected to attack the authenticity of the text messages, demanding that prosecutors prove Kilpatrick and Beatty sent them and that they had an affair.

Two previous Detroit mayors have been charged with felonies, both after leaving office.

Mayor Richard Reading, mayor in 1938-40, was sentenced to 4 { to 5 years in prison after being charged with conspiring with 80 policemen to protect Detroit’s numbers racket. Mayor Louis Miriani, mayor from 1957 to 1962, was sentenced to one year in prison for income tax evasion after leaving office.

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Detroit Free Press reporters Naomi Patton, Joe Swickard and Jim Schaefer contributed to this article.

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(c) 2008, Detroit Free Press.

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