Detroit Mayor - possible perjury

Source: Detroit Free Press

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied about their relationship last summer at a police whistle-blower trial that has cost the cash-strapped city more than $9 million, according to records obtained by the Free Press.

The false testimony potentially exposes them to felony perjury charges, legal experts say.


Read more: http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/NEWS05/801240414&theme=KILPATRICK082007

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My tax dollars "at work"

when the people who are constantly attacking Kilpatrick are doing so, not because he's a bad mayor, but because they don't like have a black man in power; i.e. someone who's look reflects that of citizens of detroit (and he's been elected multiple times, so it can't just be looks). The other side of it is the fact that Kilpatrick hasn't done anything revolutionary (which Detroit needs), and has been just this side of being indicted for a long time... possibly always being innocent, possibly because he's gotten away by the skin of his teeth.

Just kidding with it being hard to pick sides though - I'll never side with the racists.

He is a dishonest man. This is not the first time he has been in hot water. But if the citizens of Detroit keep voting him in then they can live with it.

Christine Beatty was stopped by police for some infraction and said, "Don't you know who I am?" And with that got the Chief of Police on the phone and if I recall that was the end of the traffic stop. The sad part of this is that the city of Detroit has had to pay out nine millon dollars.

However, I think a lot of what people don't like about him is that he's "the hip-hop mayor" of Detroit, and go after him every chance they get. The reason's he shouldn't be in office have nothing to do with race, but I'm afraid that a lot of the flack he gets does have to do with race - sad, I know.

people are MAD. People want him OUT. People are NOT HAPPY. And when I say people, I mean the PEOPLE OF DETROIT. He's costing Detroit $$$MONEY$$$. And he's ONLY been elected twice.

And I know that people don't like him and are mad. Still, a lot of the opposition towards him is race-based (though often veiled) and until a cogent opposition based on facts (as opposed to political tricks and slander motivated by race) is put together, I'm afraid no progress can be made.

Archer is a black man who did not get this kind of attention as mayor of Detroit. I think it really comes down to the fact that Kilpatrick is bad for the city of Detroit, not that he's a minority in a city that has a 90% minority population.

My point is that while he should be attacked for his poor leadership, it seems to me that lots of his opposition comes from those who don't like having a young black man in power.

I can't stand Kilpatrick and I promise it has nothing to do with his race, age, or media perceptions. He's just a very corrupt mayor of a city that needs good leadership, desperately. I think it's time we stopped attributing racism to every situation that involves a minority and start asking whether there's a reason for opposition before throwing out the race card so quickly. In this case, I believe there is good reason to question the mayor's integrity.

I haven't lived in Michigan since last summer, so I might be wrong. It did seem to me though, that some of the reason he was disliked was because of his skin colour and cultural background. It really is bad when someone is a bad mayor and they can play the "race card" to get away with things - it shouldn't be done. But, it's also true that when Harold Washington was mayor of Chicago, he got a lot of shit just because he was black, though a better mayor than the Dalleys, who are thugs.

and that's unfortunate.

But Kwame is not merely a victim, he's also a beneficiary of racism. Last election, he painted (!) Freeman Hendrix as "not black enough", pandering to the suburbs north of Eight Mile Road (a real AND symbolic border of Detroit). He used the "race" card to motivate Detroit voters in his favor.

So in a sense, he's hoisted by his own petard.

Back on topic, this whole thing looks like it's being swept under the carpet. Powers-that-be are making it all about the sex, therefore personal. Nothing about the consipiracy to use their offices to punish (fire) whistle-blowers. In a few days, we'll all feel sorry for him and his wife, having to come up here to this cold climate from their Florida home in order to address this attack by the press.

Don't the residents of the city of Detroit deserve a mayor that is accountable?

Remember, the mayor wanted this to go to court. He refused reccomendations to settle.

Just throwing out the Republican Scooter Libby defense.

But conspiring with his chief-of-staff to fire the cop that blew the whistle? Lying about that conspiracy under oath? There could be something there.

Costing the city 9 million dollars? Probably not a good idea. Again, not in itself a crime. But the money could have been better spent elsewhere.

He and his chief of staff feel they are above the law. Beatty gets pulled over and bullies and berates a cop who is out on patrol risking her life everyday while Beatty is boinking the Mayor in swanky hotel rooms on the taxpayers dime. "Do you know who I am?" is what she said when she got pulled over. They have zero respect for the law or for the taxpayers' money. They were in disbelief that they couldn't win in court even though they obviously retaliated against a whistleblower. And they could have minimized the damage and saved the city millions by settling, but Mr. Egomaniac didn't give a shit about that.

The people of Detroit deserve better. Kwame won by labeling Hendrix as the "white" suburban candidate and tapping justifiable black resentments. It's a sad commentary on how little trust there is between the city and the suburbs and I certainly understand why it exists. The citizens of Detroit trust an obvious liar more than they trust someone who they fear is a suburban puppet. People in the suburbs should think about their role in all this rather than just dissmissing Detroit voters as stupid. History provides many examples of why that decsion is entirely rational.

But it should be clear by now that Kwame is for Kwame and he is probably more, not less, likely to sell the city out to the highest bidder. Kwame is for Kwame. Nobody else.

"Kwame won by labeling Hendrix as the "white" suburban candidate and tapping justifiable black resentments. It's a sad commentary on how little trust there is between the city and the suburbs and I certainly understand why it exists."

I agree 100% with the above. I was working Hendrix functions throughout the last election
(to clarify I was not working for the Hendrix campaign but for a company that was hired to do some of his events so I had no horse in the race)

I came to know all of the Hendrix volunteers and campaign people and none of them seemed to me to be agents of the suburbs, but that was indeed the vibe Kilpatrick was spreading throughout the neighborhoods.

Kwame IMO is just a crook and a clever mud slinger like what we have in the oval office.

I feel sorry for the people of Detroit because they got bamboozled big time--they would have been a lot better off with Hendrix in office IMO--he at least seemed honest, intelligent and well intentioned IMO.

Most people knew that they had a relationship, I don't think anyone was that shocked-maybe some little old ladies were. This was fairly widely known at the time of the investigation regarding the firing of the cop and the "stripper party" at the mayor's mansion.

The news is that they were stupid enough to use city cell phones for this kind of business. FOIA allows anyone to pull up public records. The Free Press needs readers, and there is nothing better than a sex scandal to get people reading your paper.

This appears to be pretty blatant perjury.

"perjury" as in lying about a personal affair, I guess I see that as not a big deal. Ask me no questions, I'll tell you no lies, nudge-nudge, wink-wink.

"perjury" as in lying about a conspiracy to fire a (whistle-blower) cop, that's worth a stretch behind bars.

It'll be interesting to see if Kwame's mom pulls strings to protect him.

Clinton, pfft. This is serious.

It is my understanding that the city could have settled with Brown (a career officer who was in the right, by the way) and made this go away. In this case, the mayor wanted this to go to court where he thought he could lie and nobody would be able to prove he was lying.

Detroit deserves better.

sad to see it come down to this...he had a lot of promise when he was up-and-coming...but politics always has a way of corrupting

Much the same as electing a bad President two times.

was it a 9 million dollar affair? was he embezzeling? what?

8-something, plus the interest that accrued while fighting the case.

Edit to add: I think the original was an award to the (wrongfully) fired cops, awarded by the court, payable by the city.

Source: Detroit Free Press

"Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied about their relationship last summer at a police whistle-blower trial that has cost the cash-strapped city more than $9 million, according to records obtained by the Free Press.

The false testimony potentially exposes them to felony perjury charges, legal experts say.

Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty denied during testimony in August that they had a sexual relationship. But the records, a series of text messages, show them engaged in romantic banter as well as planning and recounting sexual liaisons."

The messages are also at odds with the pair's trial testimony that they did not fire Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown in 2003, an ouster that led him to sue. The text messages show Beatty recalling the "decision that we made to fire Gary Brown."





Read more: http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080124/NEWS05/801240414&theme=KILPATRICK082007

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This liar cost the city $9 Million dollars trying to cover his ass.

Since that seems to be the new Scooter Libby standard for perjury cases now.

Does Michigan still have any laws on the books regarding adultery? If they do then there's your underlying crime!

Whom they claimed under oath that they didn't directly fire.

I could care less who he has sex with, but I do care that he thinks he is unaccountable, and that he can use his office and use the law to crush his enemies at the taxpayers expense.

There is also a pattern of behavior of abusing his office on extravagances while the city has faced possible state receivership for fiscal insolvency that you may not be aware of.

Go here to an earlier thread on this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x3154121

True, the barriers of race and party are formidable, but how often do you get to have a "Sex on the City '08" ticket? :eyes:

I didn't know that

With Democratic roots - his mother is U.S. Rep Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (D-MI).

He may be a lot of things, but certainly not a Republican.
:rofl:

and did, indeed, mention that the barriers of race and party were formidable.

They wouldn't have a shot in hell of winning lol.

Regardless of party, an elected official breaking the law is unforgivable, but for me it is just so much worse when it is a Democrat doing it.

I am not naive; I know that both parties have rotten apples. I just like to think the Democrats at least have the decency to punish their own when they do crap like this.

Hmm. Maybe I AM being naive?

Evil Kumquat