Ex-Mayor of Detroit Convicted in Corruption Case

[theworldismine13]

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/12/u...it-convicted-in-corruption-case.html?hpw&_r=0

Ex-Mayor of Detroit Convicted in Corruption Case
By MARY M. CHAPMAN and STEVEN YACCINO
DETROIT — Kwame M. Kilpatrick, a former mayor of Detroit, was found guilty on Monday of a range of charges, including corruption and fraud, at the completion of a five-month trial. Jurors reached consensus on 40 of the 45 charges leveled against Mr. Kilpatrick and his co-defendants, the judge in the trial said.

The verdicts brought to a close a trial in which prosecutors laid out a complex case against Mr. Kilpatrick and his co-defendants — including his father, Bernard, and a city contractor, Bobby W. Ferguson — arguing that they had used the mayor’s office to enrich themselves for years through shakedowns, kickbacks and bid-rigging schemes.

The jury found Mr. Kilpatrick guilty of some 22 of the 30 charges against him, including the most serious charges, that of racketeering and extortion, which each have a maximum sentence of 20 years. The former mayor was also found guilty of mail fraud.

The remaining charges were returned with no decisions from a hung jury or as not guilty verdicts.

After the verdicts were read, Mr. Kilpatrick shook his head, muttered and looked at his lawyer.

Mr. Ferguson, who faced 11 counts, was found guilty of racketeering, bribery and extortion, with at least one not guilty verdict on an extortion charge.

The former mayor’s father was convicted on a charge of filing a false tax return.

Elected mayor of Detroit in 2001, the youngest person, at 31, to hold that position in the city’s history, Mr. Kilpatrick was seen by many as a future star of the Democratic Party, destined to lift Detroit out of economic hardship and then rise himself through the ranks of national politics.

But his tenure as mayor was plagued by scandal, his career cut short. He was soon fighting rumors about partying, questions about the use of city money to lease a luxury vehicle for his wife, and claims that he fired police officers for investigating his sizeable staff of bodyguards.

In 2008, Mr. Kilpatrick resigned after text messages were unearthed by The Detroit Free Press that exposed an affair with his chief of staff. The romantic revelation led him to plead guilty to obstruction of justice charges for lying about the relationship under oath in an unrelated lawsuit against the city.

But the corruption charges against Mr. Kilpatrick, filed in 2010, had been by far the most serious of his troubles. Prosecutors accused him and his close associates — a group referred to in the indictment as the Kilpatrick Enterprise — of extortion and illegally steering municipal contracts to Mr. Ferguson worth $84 million.

In two-hour closing statements last month, after a trial that featured about 80 witnesses for the prosecution, R. Michael Bullotta, an assistant United States attorney, said the Kilpatrick administration’s enrichment formula was simple: “No deal without me.”

“That was their mantra, those were their words,” Mr. Bullotta said. “They had to get a piece.”

Federal prosecutors also contend that Mr. Kilpatrick spent donations that were intended for his charity, the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, on golf equipment, summer camp for his children, yoga lessons for himself and other personal expenses.

Defense lawyers claimed that there was no proof Mr. Kilpatrick did anything wrong, saying the prosecution’s case was built on weak circumstantial evidence and a raft of lying witnesses.

“We came here into this courtroom with a lot of baggage,” said James Thomas, Mr. Kilpatrick’s lawyer, who argued that his client had been unfairly “demonized by the media.”

Mr. Kilpatrick, whose wife and three children live in the Dallas area, could face up to 20 years in prison.

 

[valet]

good to see justice served on this side of earth for this corrupt, liar and thief. As the Bible says "pride comes before the fall". And his arrogance and pride is what got him. Though some ignorant people in the D will call this racism.

 

[Ed MOTHERFUCKING G]

Shoulda never threw that party

 

[eastside313]

Shoulda never threw that party

fool shoulda left office when they gave him the chance

 

[the mechanic]

Shoulda never threw that party

..i heard some billionaires daughter was involved

 

[88m3]

SAD SAD SAD

 

[NerdNash]

A true American Gangster

 

[Hiphoplives4eva]

Shoulda never threw that party, or killed that stripper, or bought the red Navigator, or been a goddamn corrupt fukking politician

fixed

 

[Mr. Somebody]

Hopefully his successor takes his position more seriously. Seems like he got into politics for the wrong reasons. Obviously, demonic reasons.

Its so demonic, friends.

 

[TLR Is Mental Poison]

Free Kwame.

 

[Born2BKing]

Cism'

 

[theworldismine13]

fixed

wait, what? killed strippers?

 

[Julius Skrrvin]

your uppance has come

 

[tru_m.a.c]

Read 6,000 new text messages | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

Below are PDFs of the approximately 6,000 text messages released by Wayne Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny today. The messages, taken from former mayoral chief of staff Christine Beatty's city-issued paging device, were gathered by prosecutors as they developed perjury cases against Beatty and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

this is from his other case

nikka hit shorty with the "you're the wind beneath my wings" line......he deserved jail time for that line alone

 

[tru_m.a.c]

wait, what? killed strippers?

DETROIT — A lawyer says a stripper got $1,000 to perform at a dope-fueled party at the Detroit mayor's mansion and saw Kwame Kilpatrick's wife attack a woman who was giving the then-mayor a lap dance.

Tamika Ruffin's statement comes in documents released Sunday by Norman Yatooma, lawyer for another stripper killed months after the long-rumored 2002 party.

Yatooma's filing is a response to efforts by Kilpatrick and the city to dismiss a lawsuit by Tamara Greene's family. The 27-year-old Greene was shot to death in 2003. Her family says city officials suppressed the investigation.

No one has been charged, and city lawyers deny officials squelched a probe.

Ruffin claims Carlita Kilpatrick attacked Greene with a table leg or board.