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Disgraced Detroit Mayor Resigns To Serve Jail Time

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The Associated Press

Published: September 5, 2008

DETROIT - Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was driven from office Thursday in a deal with prosecutors that will send him to jail and put an end to the sex scandal that embarrassed this chronically struggling city and preoccupied its government for months.

The 38-year-old mayor who brought energy and excitement to city hall when he took office in 2002 pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and will get four months behind bars.

The Democrat also will pay the city $1 million in restitution, lose his license to practice law, and cannot run for any elected office for five years. His resignation will take effect in two weeks.

Kilpatrick was charged this year with perjury and other offenses for denying he and his chief of staff had an affair. The scandal broke wide open in January with the release of a trove of lusty text messages between the two of them that appeared to contradict the mayor.

"I lied under oath," the former college lineman said in court Thursday. His wife, Carlita, watched from the second row.

The scandal stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by two former police officers who accused Kilpatrick of retaliating against them for trying to investigate misconduct by the mayor and his security detail. Questioned under oath in 2004 and 2007, Kilpatrick repeatedly denied having an affair with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.

But the Detroit Free Press later obtained text messages between the two - some of them sexually explicit - and published excerpts.

In addition to perjury, Kilpatrick was accused of misleading the city council when he secured its approval of an $8.4 million settlement with three former police officers. Prosecutors said he settled to keep the text messages from becoming public.

Beatty is expected to enter a plea bargain on Sept. 11.

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