Disgraced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick convicted of corruption charges, ensuring return to prison

DETROIT — Kwame M. Kilpatrick, a former mayor of Detroit, was found guilty on Monday of a range of charges, including corruption and fraud, at the completion of a five-month trial. Jurors reached consensus on 40 of the 45 charges leveled against Mr. Kilpatrick and his co-defendants, the judge in the trial said.
The verdicts brought to a close a trial in which prosecutors laid out a complex case against Mr. Kilpatrick and his co-defendants — including his father, Bernard, and a city contractor, Bobby W. Ferguson — arguing that they had used the mayor’s office to enrich themselves for years through shakedowns, kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes.

The jury found Mr. Kilpatrick guilty of some 22 of the 30 charges against him, including the most serious charges, that of racketeering and extortion, which each have a maximum sentence of 20 years. The former mayor was also found guilty of mail fraud.

The remaining charges were returned with no decisions from a hung jury or as not guilty verdicts.

After the verdicts were read, Mr. Kilpatrick shook his head, muttered and looked at his lawyer.

Mr. Ferguson, who faced 11 counts, was found guilty of racketeering, bribery and extortion, with at least one not guilty verdict on an extortion charge.

The former mayor’s father was convicted on a charge of filing a false tax return.

Elected mayor of Detroit in 2001, the youngest person, at 31, to hold that position in the city’s history, Mr. Kilpatrick was seen by many as a future star of the Democratic Party, destined to lift Detroit out of economic hardship and then rise himself through the ranks of national politics.

But his tenure as mayor was plagued by scandal, his career cut short. He was soon fighting rumors about partying, questions about the use of city money to lease a luxury vehicle for his wife, and claims that he fired police officers for investigating his sizeable staff of bodyguards.

In 2008, Mr. Kilpatrick resigned after text messages were unearthed by The Detroit Free Press that exposed an affair with his chief of staff. The romantic revelation led him to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges for lying about the relationship under oath in an unrelated lawsuit against the city.

But the corruption charges against Mr. Kilpatrick, filed in 2010, had been by far the most serious of his troubles. Prosecutors accused him and his close associates — a group referred to in the indictment as the Kilpatrick Enterprise — of extortion and illegally steering municipal contracts to Mr. Ferguson worth $84 million.

In two-hour closing statements last month, after a trial that featured about 80 witnesses for the prosecution, R. Michael Bullotta, an assistant United States attorney, said the Kilpatrick administration’s enrichment formula was simple: “No deal without me.”

“That was their mantra, those were their words,” Mr. Bullotta said. “They had to get a piece.”

Federal prosecutors also contend that Mr. Kilpatrick spent donations that were intended for his charity, the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, on golf equipment, summer camp for his children, yoga lessons for himself and other personal expenses.

Defense lawyers claimed that there was no proof Mr. Kilpatrick did anything wrong, saying the prosecution’s case was built on weak circumstantial evidence and a raft of lying witnesses.

“We came here into this courtroom with a lot of baggage,” said James Thomas, Mr. Kilpatrick’s lawyer, who argued that his client had been unfairly “demonized by the media.”

Mr. Kilpatrick, whose wife and three children live in the Dallas area, could face up to 20 years in prison.

First Jesse Jackson Jr, now Kilpatrick...what is the democrap party coming to?

Washington — Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, D-Detroit, said Thursday she and a top aide are not targets of a grand jury and will “cooperate fully” after receiving subpoenas.


In addition to Kilpatrick, her aide Andrea Bragg received subpoenas to testify before a grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan. The congresswoman’s son is former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, whose actions as mayor are being investigated by federal prosecutors.

Kilpatrick said she’ll have no further comment.

Though grand jury matters are secret, legal observers said Thursday it is likely the subpoenas relate to an ongoing federal investigation of the congresswoman’s son, and possibly her ex-husband, business consultant Bernard N. Kilpatrick.

There is no legal privilege that makes communications between a mother and son confidential, and the spousal privilege would only apply up to the time Bernard Kilpatrick and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick were not divorced, said Detroit attorney David Griem, a former federal and state prosecutor.

Griem speculated the subpoenas may be related to recent cash fundraising involving tens of thousands of dollars to cover the former mayor’s restitution payments that Cheeks Kilpatrick was involved in, according to media reports.

“I’m not sure of the propriety of a U.S. congresswoman spearheading such an effort on behalf of a family member, especially when the money is given in cash,” Griem said Thursday.

Most of Kilpatrick’s recent restitution payments from his state obstruction of justice conviction came in the form of money orders, many purchased by family members. Griem said he wouldn’t be surprised if everyone who purchased those money orders was subpoenaed before the grand jury.

In August 2010 she lost the Democratic primary election. She was replaced by Hansen Clarke in January 2011

At a speech at Eastern Michigan University in November 2011, Kwame Kilpatrick told the audience that he was a victim of overzealous and biased media coverage.

“I know I’m a hip hop mayor and they call me a thug and a criminal,” he said. “Most of what you know about me is not me at all.”

Update:
Ex-Detroit mayor convicted, jailed until sentence.
DETROIT (AP) — Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted Monday of corruption charges and then sent to jail to await his prison sentence in yet another dramatic setback for a man who once was among the nation's youngest big-city leaders.

Jurors convicted Kilpatrick of a raft of crimes, including racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years behind bars. He was portrayed during a five-month trial as an unscrupulous politician who took bribes, rigged contracts and lived far beyond his means while in office until fall 2008.

Kilpatrick wore a surprised, puzzled look at times as U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds read the jury's verdict: guilty of 24 charges, not guilty on three and no consensus on three more. Kilpatrick declined to speak to reporters as he left the courthouse.

Four hours later, he was handcuffed and led to jail after prosecutors asked the judge to revoke his bond. Edmunds said it was a "close call" but agreed that the scale under federal law tipped in favor of the government.

The names of jurors were not released by the court, although 11 agreed to speak to reporters. They declined to give their names.

"I saw a lot that really, really turned my stomach," said a female juror, a Detroit resident who had voted twice for Kilpatrick when he ran for mayor. "I couldn't believe this type of thing was going on."

Notice how these news articles involving corrupt Democrats usefully omit the word "Democrat"?