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Prosecutor To Conduct Independent Investigation Of Detroit Mayor

Kilpatrick, Aide Had Affair Despite Denials

POSTED: 10:19 pm EST January 23, 2008
UPDATED: 12:24 pm EST January 28, 2008

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said her office has not been investigating Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and said news articles and stories are not evidence to press any charges at this time.

She said she read and heard about the text scandal through media reports and her office, "cannot and will not press charges based on the paper and the media reports."

"My office will conduct an independent investigation that promises to be fair, impartial and thorough," said Worthy. "We will not be rushed by anyone or anything."

  • Press Conference: Prosecutor Worthy Press Conference

    Personal text messages between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, were obtained by the Detroit Free Press and publicly released Wednesday night. The sexually charged messages explicitly indicated that a relationship did exist.

    "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days," reads one message sent by Kilpatrick to Beatty on Oct. 16, 2002, "relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

    "I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002.

    "I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"

    On Sept. 13, 2002, the mayor wrote to Beatty: "They were right outside the door. They [the mayor's bodyguards] had to have heard everything..."

    Beatty wrote back: "So we are officially busted! LOL"

    Both Beatty and Kilpatrick denied a relationship existed when they testified in a whistleblower case brought by two former Detroit police officers who claimed they were fired for investigating the mayor's extramarital affair.

    The officers were awarded $6.5 million by a Wayne County jury. In total, the case has cost the city more than $9 million.

    On Wednesday night, Kilpatrick released a statement to the media expressing his embarrassment at the release of the messages and asking the public to respect his family's privacy.

    "These five- and six-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life. It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner.

    "My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago. I would now ask that the public and the media respect the privacy of my wife and children and of Christine Beatty and her children at this deeply painful moment for our families."

    Beatty has hired Elliott Hall, a former chief assistant Wayne County prosecutor and Detroit corporation counsel, as her lawyer.

    In published reports, Hall said Beatty has no plans on resigning and she continues to remain chief of staff.

    City spokesman James Canning said Friday night that Hall wasn't authorized to speak on Beatty's behalf and he was hired in case Beatty faces perjury charges.

    Canning said city officials have taken the driver seat while Kilpatrick takes a few personal days off.

    "The Mayor has capable deputy directors to lead our hardworking city workforce to continue daily operations of city government…Fires are being extinguished, trash is being picked up, police are arresting the bad guys. City government is fully operational"

    Sheila Cockrel, a member of the Detroit City Council, said that the families must be going through a difficult time and urged sympathy for the children who are "impacted by these revelations."

    However, Cockrel said, Kilpatrick needs to take responsibility.

    "This is about leadership," Cockrel said, "and taking responsibility for our actions as elected officials is very important."

    The president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207 says the union wants Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to step down.

    In a regular scheduled meeting Friday, the group collectively agreed the mayor needed to resign.

    John Riehl, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, said the union wants the mayor to step down right away.

    "He's compromised the public trust," Riehl said. "Nobody can believe a single thing he says from now on."

    The union has 900 members and represents workers in the city's water and public lighting departments.

    They will hold a public rally Wednesday at 4:15 p.m. outside the Coleman A. Young Municipal Building.

    A Wayne County judge has ordered that Michael Stefani, the attorney who represented the two police officers who sued Kilpatrick and the city,Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope to be deposed.

    Stefani is being ordered to talk to a Free Press lawyer about what he knows about a reported secret agreement connected with the settlement.

    "I can’t re-enter into a settlement agreement with the city, that has a confidential provision in it that prevents me from really discussing anything other that the fact that we settled the case in order to avoid the appeal,

    Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. also said he would require SkyTel, a Mississippi telecommunications company, to preserve the text messages. The texts show that Kilpatrick and his chief of staff Christine Beatty lied when they insisted at trial that they weren’t involved romantically and that they didn’t fire Deputy Chief Brown.



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