Word: kilpatrick
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Nearly six years ago, then Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was one of the most sought-after figures at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. This afternoon, Kilpatrick is making his second appearance in a downtown Detroit courtroom to explain why he can't pay the nearly $1 million that he promised taxpayers to resolve a sordid case that effectively ended his political career...
...Kilpatrick's fall from grace was fast and hard. In September 2008, the youngest mayor in Detroit's history pled guilty to obstruction of justice and assaulting a police officer. He was sentenced to six months in prison. According to the terms of his probation, Kilpatrick resigned, pledged never again to run for elected office and surrendered his public pensions and law license. He also agreed to pay Wayne County, Michigan, which includes Detroit, a restitution of nearly $1 million. So far, Kilpatrick has paid about $90,000 of that sum. But despite having a $120,000-a-year...
...Kilpatrick's story is, by any measure, tragic. He was born into one of Michigan's powerful political families. His mother Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick was until recently chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus. Tall and brawny, he played football at historically black Florida A&M University, studied law and rose quickly as a young representative in Michigan's legislature. By 2001, he was elected Detroit's mayor at age 31, partly by energizing this city's disaffected youth. His flashy suits, diamond-stud earrings and inaugural "club crawls" proclaimed his comfort with being called "America's first hip-hop mayor...
Initially, Kilpatrick maintained the confidence of Detroit's business establishment, extending many of the economic-development projects that were launched by his predecessor, Dennis Archer Sr. Kilpatrick moved thousands off Detroit's bloated job rolls and reduced property taxes to sustain what was left of Detroit's middle class. But Kilpatrick's personal excesses quickly overshadowed his professional success. In 2007, a jury awarded $6.5 million to two Detroit police officers who alleged that they were essentially dismissed for investigating concerns about Kilpatrick and his bodyguards' efforts to conceal his extramarital affairs. Then came a text-messaging scandal, which revealed...
Predictably, when Kilpatrick arrived for his first restitution hearing last month, it was a circus. He posed briefly for the spectators and gaggle of television cameras that were assembled in the courtroom. He was noticeably muted, wearing a gray coat, black pants and no earrings. Over nearly three hours, he was grilled by the lead prosecutor, Athina Siringas, and the judge, David Groner, on what should have been fairly ordinary matters, with questions like, Does your wife leave the house each morning to go to work? Shockingly, Kilpatrick said he didn't know. Groner then asked, "Who's paying...