Kilpatrick corruption trial cost taxpayers more than $1 million

Former Detroit mayor, his father rang up more than $1 million bill in corruption trial

DETROIT – Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, cost taxpayers more than $1 million in the public corruption trial against them, a judge showed on Wednesday.

The former mayor's legal tab cost was $813,806.14 and his father's was $352,777.53.

Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison after being convicted of multiple corruption charges including racketeering. Bernard Kilpatrick was found guilty of one count of subscribing a false tax return. He has been ordered to pay $62,212.24 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

View: List of Kwame Kilpatrick's convictions

Both were represented by court-appointed attorneys during the corruption trial after telling the court they could not afford to hire their own.

Attorney Jim Thomas, who Kwame Kilpatrick said he lost trust in, claims $429,755.11 in the trial. Thomas was one of five attorneys who represented Kwame Kilpatrick during the case.

Bernard Kilpatrick's attorney, John Shea, received about $225,000.

A third codefendant, Bobby Ferguson, who was a longtime friend of the Kilpatricks, paid for his own attorneys during the trial. He was sentenced to 21 years in prison on convictions he extorted millions during his time as a contractor in Detroit and orchestrated it all with Kwame Kilpatrick.