After an extraordinary day that saw him plead guilty to two felonies, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spoke for the first time publicly this evening.
Telling Detroiters "I've always said that you need to stand strong for the City of Detroit...but sometimes standing strong means stepping down," Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick delivered a televised speech that was part-apology, part campaign speech.
As his mother, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick watched, Kilpatrick said, "I want to emphasize tonight that I take full responsibility for my actions ... our challenge now is to put the anguish and the turmoil of recent months behind us."
Kilpatrick then proceeded to take light jabs at Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who he said put his removal above the many other problems facing the state. He said, though, that he would continue to support her.
“I'm stepping down because the new spirit of this city, the new expectations and standards that we've set for excellence in the past six and a half years has been tangled up in what I believe is the pursuit of many people's own political ambitions, even our governor, Jennifer Granholm, who I wish well,” he said. “Rather than focusing on the huge issues that are facing our state, from the record home foreclosures, the lack of affordable healthcare, a record unemployment in our state, Kwame Kilpatrick was at the top of her list,” he said. “I wish her well and hope that the same tenacity, the same professionalism, if you will, and intensity that went around putting together a quasi-administrative court will also be the same tenacity to solve the problem of the people of the state of Michigan.”
Granholm’s spokeswoman Liz Boyd responded: “The governor wishes Godspeed to the mayor and his family. With this behind us, leaders of our state and Detroit can devote 100 percent of their attention to growing the economy and creating jobs.”
Kilpatrick also said he would support City Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. when he becomes mayor, but he warned that running Detroit was a lot different than leading the City Council.
Before launching into a litany of his accomplishments as mayor, Kilpatrick said, "To those who have supported me throughout the years....I thank you with all my heart ...I know that supporting me has not always been easy, but it has not been boring either."
He said that Cockrel inherits a city "in much better shape than the city I inherited seven years ago.”
“Under this administration, Detroit has become an example of progress and resilience. I am proud of the fact that we as a community have been able to accomplish so much…”
He praised his wife, Carlita, as “the strongest woman that I’ve met in my entire life, the person with the most beautiful spirit, she can be a soldier at one minute and absolutely endearing the next, someone who took a wretch like me and said I am standing by you through thick and through thin…”
“This city always gets up. I want to tell you, Detroit, that you done set me up for a comeback.”
The plea deal that ended Kilpatrick's tenure
Kilpatrick's guilty plea this morning ended a nearly eight-month drama that has transfixed the region, paralyzed much of city business and halted a political career that once held such promise.
In a courtroom this morning, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstructing justice by committing perjury. He will spend four months in jail, pay up to $1 million in restitution, and serve five years' probation. He also agreed not to run for office during that five-year span.
In addition, the mayor agreed to a no-contest plea to one count of felonious assault for shoving a sheriff's deputy in July who had tried to serve a subpoena on Kilpatrick's friend. He agreed to serve four months on that charge, too, but it will be served at the same time as his other sentence.
The deals also call for Kilpatrick to turn over his state pension to the City of Detroit, which paid $8.4 million to settle two whistle-blower lawsuits three former cops filed against the city. The mayor was charged with eight felony counts ranging from conspiracy to perjury to misconduct in office to obstruction of justice after the Free Press revealed in January that the mayor lied on the witness stand during a police whistle-blower trial and gave misleading testimony about whether he intended to fire a deputy police chief investigating allegations of wrongdoing by members of his inner circle.
In a rushed monotone, before a standing-room only audience, Kilpatrick told Wayne Circuit Judge David Groner: "I lied under oath in the case of Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope versus the city of Detroit ... I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury, to impede and obstruct the disposition of justice."
Sentencing will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 28 As part of the deal, Kilpatrick has two weeks to vacate the office of mayor.
Moments after Groner praised the lawyers for their work reaching a deal, Kilpatrick summoned his wife, kissed her and went back into a side room.
“Justice has finally been served,” University of Detroit Mercy law professor Larry Dubin said this morning.
“The deal that the mayor agreed to ... is a major victory for the prosecutor, the mayor and the people of the City of Detroit and State of Michigan."
Dubin, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the mayor, praised Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
“For the way she prosecuted this case. She has demonstrated integrity in holding a public official accountable for serious criminal violations that constituted serious breaches of the public trust,” Dubin said.
Kilpatrick’s mother, Michigan Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, issued a statement this afternoon. “While my heart is heavy, I support Mayor Kilpatrick’s decision to do what he believes is best for his family, our family, and the citizens of Detroit,” she said. “I would like to thank all those who have encouraged the Mayor and our family with your prayers, cards, and other expressions of support. I ask that you continue to pray for the Mayor and his family and the city of Detroit during this difficult time.”
In the moments before the plea this morning, and before huddling with his attorneys, a smiling Kilpatrick entered the third-floor courtroom in the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice and jousted with reporters sitting in the first row of the courtroom. He, apparently good-naturedly, told them their reports were wrong and they needed to check their sources. He did not elaborate.
He also shook hands with Christine Beatty, his former chief of staff and ex-lover. Beatty’s lawyers got Groner to delay her separate criminal case for a week while she tries to hammer out her own plea deal.
First Lady Carlita Kilpatrick sat in the audience, a few feet behind her husband, with a stern face throughout the proceedings. It was the first time she had been in a courtroom with Beatty since the scandal started in January.
The mayor had some other familiar faces in the courtroom, including Marc Andre Cunningham, a former aide to Kilpatrick who resigned shortly after the Free Press reported that he had been using a city-issued cell phone that was tapped by the FBI last year in an unrelated investigation.
Kilpatrick’s lawyers and Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran started the day at the Cadillac Place state office building, where they met for about 45 minutes with Gov. Jennifer Granholm. They updated the governor on the plea agreement, and she later canceled historic removal proceedings that had begun a day earlier and could have resulted in Kilpatrick’s removal from his job.
In January, the Free Press published text messages Kilpatrick and Beatty exchanged on city-issued pagers. The article showed the pair lied under oath when they testified in a police whistle-blower trial last year that they did not have an intimate relationship. They also gave misleading testimony about the firing of a top police official, Gary Brown. Nelthrope was another cop who sued with Brown, both alleging their careers were ruined because of their involvement in an internal affairs investigation that could have led to the discovery of extramarital philandering by Kilpatrick.
Worthy cited the Free Press investigation in March, when she charged Kilpatrick with eight felonies and Beatty with seven. The charges included perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office.
Prosecutors and lawyers for Kilpatrick have been mulling a deal for days, the talks intensifying late Wednesday and culminating in this morning’s guilty pleas.
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