Legal Commentary

Detroit Mayor Charged With Perjury and Obstruction

By Jeralyn

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been charged with perjury and obstruction of justice as well as misconduct in office for lying about a romantic relationship with his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty. The pair were caught by text messages.

Both had denied the relationship under oath in a whistle-blower lawsuit filed by Detroit police officers. The case was later settled for almost $9 million.

[DA Kim] Worthy began her investigation the day after the Free Press published excerpts of the embarrassing text messages in late January. The messages called into question testimony Kilpatrick and Beatty gave in a lawsuit filed by two police officers who alleged they were fired for investigating claims that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.

In court, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied having an intimate relationship, but the text messages reveal that they carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their trysts. Kilpatrick is married with three children. Beatty was married at the time and has two children.

...Documents released last month showed Kilpatrick agreed to the settlement in an effort to keep the text messages from becoming public.

The lawsuit alleged the officers were fired after investigating whether the Mayor's security unit had been used to cover up the affair. Mayor Kilpatrick today said he expects to be exonerated. [More...]

He intends to remain in office although many have called for him to step down. Beatty wasn't so lucky.

For Beatty, who attended high school with Kilpatrick and managed his campaigns for Michigan's state House and the mayor's office, the scandal forced her to resign.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on March 24, 2008 (boomark / email).