Detroit mayor gets jail
DETROIT — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was bounced from office Thursday in a deal with prosecutors that will send him to jail for four months and put an end to the sex scandal that embarrassed this struggling city and preoccupied its government for months.
The 38-year-old “Hip-Hop Mayor” who brought excitement to City Hall when he took office in 2002 pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.
The Democrat will also pay a $1 million fine and lose his license to practice law, and cannot run for any elected office for five years. His resignation will take effect in two weeks.
Kilpatrick was charged earlier this year with perjury and other offenses for denying he and his chief of staff had an affair. The scandal broke in January with the release of a trove of lusty text messages between the two of them that appeared to contradict the mayor.
“I lied under oath,” he said in court Thursday. His wife, Carlita, watched from the second row, occasionally closing her eyes.
The scandal stems from a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by two former police officers who accused Kilpatrick of retaliating against them for trying to investigate misconduct by the mayor and his security detail. Questioned under oath in 2004 and 2007, Kilpatrick repeatedly denied having an affair with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
