Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has agreed to plead guilty to two felony charges, ending a long, scrappy battle to stay in office.
Kilpatrick agreed to plead guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice, for committing perjury. He will serve four months in jail and five years’ probation, and will pay up to $1 million in restitution.
Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, were indicted in March on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice, misconduct in office and conspiracy. At the time, he had pledged to fight efforts to remove him from office.
An investigation of Kilpatrick’s activities was launched after the Detroit Free Press revealed in January that text messages showed Kilpatrick and Beatty had lied under oath when they denied having an extramarital affair.
The messages also showed that the two provided misleading testimony about firing former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown after he and former mayoral bodyguard Harold Nelthrope began investigating rumors of a party at the mayoral mansion.
Kilpatrick, elected in 2002 at age 31, was the youngest mayor in Detroit history. He is the son of U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick.
His successor, Ken Cockrel Jr., also comes from a political family. His father, the late Ken Cockrel Sr., was a Detroit city councilman and civil rights activist.
Click here to sign up for the Muckety Newsletter
0 Comments
There are no comments yet, be the first by filling in the form below.
Leave a Comment