Defenders: Businessman gets deal to talk about Kilpatrick

DETROIT – The Local 4 Defenders have the inside story about how the feds got one of ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's best friends to snitch on him and testify for the prosecution in the federal corruption case he's facing.

Kilpatrick faces tax, conspiracy, fraud, extortion and bribery charges. His co- defendants in the trial include Bobby Ferguson, Kilpatrick's father Bernard and ex-Detroit water chief Victor Mercado.

The Defenders have obtained never-before-released documents that reveal how the deal went down.

You may have never heard of him, but if Kilpatrick and the others are convicted, it could be because of what Andrew Park told investigators.

Park is a businessman who is finally coming clean. He's telling investigators he was involved in pay-to-play with Kilpatrick's high school buddy and top aide, Derrick Miller. They worked a deal to take in millions of dollars in Homeland Security money to put warning and informational signing around the city, but it never happened and the money went missing. Park is accused of not paying $300,000 in taxes for his take of the deal.

In the documents, Park says his inside information on the Homeland Security deal is what lead Miller to plead guilty last year to bribery and tax violations, admitting he took bribes, shook down contractors and delivered a cash bribe to Kilpatrick.

Park's attorney wrote, "Kwame Kilpatrick disgraced Detroit with his criminal enterprise, turning the city and its inhabitants into the object of international ridicule." He goes on to explain that Miller was a main man in Kilpatrick's conspiracy who collected payments on the mayor's behalf.

"Mr. Park appeared before the Derrick Miller grand jury and described the details of these payments," the attorney wrote.

Park goes before the judge on Wednesday. The feds say they can reduce his sentence to 16 months. But Park says he is so instrumental to the Kilpatrick case that he should be allowed to go free on probation.