03/25/08
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Detroit's Democratic mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick |
That's what Detroit's Democratic mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, and his girlfriend, Christine Beatty, have discovered, much to their sorrow. Indeed, it's more than their sorrow: it has also proven a detriment to their liberty, as they turned themselves in to be booked into custody after being charged with perjury and obstruction of justice on March 24, 2008.
This is the latest twist in a case that has revealed evidence of much corruption on the part of the mayor. It originally stemmed from claims that the mayor and Beatty were having an extramarital affair. If the mayor is convicted, he's out — any felony conviction automatically terminates him as mayor.
What allegedly happened was this: the deputy police chief was fired by Mayor Kilpatrick. Two cops blew the whistle, saying the firing was motivated by the mayor's desire to keep his infidelity under wraps. During the trial on the whistleblowers' firings, the mayor and Beatty, his old chief of staff, testified under oath they were not romantically entangled.
This was great, until the Detroit Free Press managed to get a copy of the text messages Mayor Kilpatrick and Beatty had exchanged on city pagers, which clearly evidenced that, in fact, they did have a romantic relationship. The mayor had settled the lawsuits on behalf of the city without informing the city council of the text messages.
This showed that the mayor and his aide had lied under oath — which just so happens to be perjury and is a felony. There's lots more stuff that's going on, including the city council's calling on Kilpatrick to resign, his vowing to not resign until forced out, and other high drama.
Stay tuned to this case; it sounds like a doozy. There's some high-powered legal talent on both sides, and there are plenty of salacious details to go around. It should provide an entertaining distraction from the current stalemate of the Democratic party in their presidential primary.
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