Governor Opens Hearing at Request Of City CouncilMayor Kwame Kilpatrick continues to negotiate terms for a guilty plea in the felony charges against him, raising the prospect of an end to the city's six-month municipal scandal.
The office of the Wayne County Prosecutor issued a statement Wednesday that said Mr. Kilpatrick would plead guilty. Moments after the release, the office corrected the statement to say the parties would meet in court Thursday. It is unclear whether the terms of a deal have been reached. "The defense cannot confirm the accuracy of the prosecutor's statement," said a spokesman for the mayor's defense.
News of the potential plea came after Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm opened a hearing to remove Mr. Kilpatrick from office for official misconduct, at the request of the Detroit City Council. Under state law, the governor has the power to remove Mr. Kilpatrick from office.
Gov. Granholm heard evidence Wednesday over allegations that Mr. Kilpatrick deliberately concealed information from the City Council in an $8.4 million settlement of whistleblower lawsuits. In addition to the governor's hearing, Mr. Kilpatrick faces several felony charges, including perjury and assault.
The City Council alleges they weren't informed of a confidential agreement in the settlement to cover up text messages between the 38-year-old mayor and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The messages, published in January by the Detroit Free Press, appeared to contradict their sworn testimony last year, denying the affair.
"The mayor has abused his trust," William Goodman, a lawyer for the City Council, said in his opening statement. Mr. Goodman said Mr. Kilpatrick engaged in an "incredible pattern of deception, concealment and nondisclosure."
Mr. Kilpatrick's defense team challenged Gov. Granholm's hearing with an appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court. Attorneys contend the mayor can't mount a proper defense because the governor has showed bias against him. Two lower courts have turned down that argument.
Earlier plea negotiations agreed on issues of resignation, restitution, and community service but got stuck on whether the mayor would have to serve time in jail. The Detroit News reported late Wednesday that the mayor capitulated and agreed to serve four months in jail after pleading guilty to two felonies, citing an attorney familiar with the matter.
The bulk of Wednesday's testimony came from Michael Stefani, a lawyer from Royal Oak, Mich., who represented police officers who were fired in the whistleblower case. Mr. Stefani attained the mayor's text messages through a subpoena. Mr. Stefani testified that after he showed the messages to a lawyer for the mayor last October, they came back with an immediate offer to settle the case. Among the main concerns from the mayor's attorneys was keeping the test messages confidential, Mr. Stefani said, and he kept them in a safe-deposit box.
The scandal and the mayor's emphatic defense has captivated the city of Detroit and, by some accounts, paralyzed the administration. In recent weeks, support for Mr. Kilpatrick has waned among his political allies, as well as the business community.
"We're suffocating," said Sheila Patrick, a 48-year-old resident, who works in a clothing boutique. "Detroiters accept things as normal. It's not normal not to have street lights, to have your children walk by vacant houses. We need to get out from under this."
The City Council invoked a little-used clause in Michigan law that allows a governor to remove elected officials from office for misconduct. "This is not a civil or criminal trial. It's not a jury, it's me who is hearing this," Gov. Granholm said. Her sole authority in the hearing is to remove Mr. Kilpatrick from office.
Sharon McPhail, who represents the mayor, warned that the hearing would have an impact on mayors statewide. "Are you willing to twist these impermissible inferences in an Olympic effort to contort the truth to please the political forces that underlie this effort to remove the mayor?" she said in opening arguments.
A resolution to the mayor's legal troubles would allow the economically depressed city to focus on such problems as its school budget deficits, high unemployment and struggling poor.
By: Kate Linebaugh
Wall Street Journal; September 4, 2008
