The former Mayor of Detroit, Kwame Kilpatrick, has violated the terms of his probation. Part of those terms were payment arrangements of his fines, and he failed to live up to them. He was sentenced to five years for violating his parole, and he must serve no less than one year and six months behind bars for parole violations. His time in and out of office was a subject of great controversy.
Kwame Kilpatrick sentenced to five years
In 2008, Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, and he served 99 days in jail. Part of the deal was paying the City of Detroit $ 1 million. The presiding justice, Judge David Groner, issued a warrant for his arrest after he failed to make payments on time. Kilpatrick appeared to have hidden assets in his financial statements, like real estate and several Cadillac Escalades. He claimed to not know who had actually purchased them, according to the New York Times . Even if he had a high priced attorney on retainer using a personal loan to get one, it wasn’t sufficient.
What brought him down
The two scandals that brought Kwame Kilpatrick down would make Rod Blagojevich proud. He used city property in sending lascivious text messages to his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, as the two were involved in an extramarital affair. When an investigation began in 2007, he fired two police officers to prevent them from discovering it. He was sued, and he committed perjury to cover the affair during the trial. He reached an $ 8.4 million settlement, and was indicted on eight felony charges including obstruction of justice and perjury. He pleaded guilty to the latter, serving 99 days, stepped down as mayor and was ordered to pay the city $ 1 million, which he failed to do.
At large in the nation violating his probation
Kwame Kilpatrick’s latest news is that he failed to make sufficient payments. Judge Groner was not convinced Kilpatrick had made sufficient effort to repay those obligations. Kilpatrick pleaded with the judge, but to no avail. Kilpatrick has failed to pass go, collect $ 200, and is going right back to jail.
More information on this topic
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/us/26detroit.html?hp
