State budget employee raised red flags about Bobby Ferguson's grant money

Michigan budget employee Kelly Bartlett testifies in Kwame Kilpatrick trial about defendant Bobby Ferguson's grant money

DETROIT – Kelly Bartlett was a state budget employee who was upset with former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and contractor Bobby Ferguson.

Bartlett drafted a letter for his boss to send to the Michigan Attorney General saying there were serious concerns about the Detroit duo.

Kilpatrick called Bartlett on the phone disappointed that the budget office was pushing for more documentation on how Ferguson's non profit was spending state grant money. Even more concerning, Bartlett wrote, was that Carlita Kilpatrick, Kwame's wife, was the recipient of $100,000 of the money.

Bartlett worried it was a conflict of interest or worse: A state representative telling him to lighten up on inquiries about money that went to his wife.

"This is an issue that the jury is going to have solve for themselves. Was (Kwame Kilpatrick's) conduct excessive? And obviously his wife's involvement is always going to be an issue," said Local 4 Legal Expert Keith Corbett.

The defense said it was Kilpatrick's job to follow up on grants going to non profits he recommended. For all of Bartlett's concern there was no investigation and his boss elected not to send the letter to the AG.

Kelly Bartlett


-- Kelly Barlett