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| Former U.S. congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick exits the Theodore Levin Federal U.S. Courthouse in Detroit, Monday, March 11, 2013. Her son, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was convicted Monday of corruption charges and then sent to jail to await his prison sentence in yet another dramatic setback for a man who once was among the nation's youngest big-city leaders. Jurors convicted Kilpatrick of a raft of crimes, including racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years behind bars. Kilpatrick's long-time contractor friend, Bobby Ferguson was found guilty of 9 of 11 racketeering and extortion counts. Kwame Kilpatrick's father, Bernard Kilpatrick was convicted of 1 of 4 counts, including filing a false tax return. |
DETROIT (AP)
-- Jurors in a city buffeted by financial crisis convicted former
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick on corruption charges Monday, capping a
five-month trial that exposed a brazen pay-to-play culture during his
years in office while the distressed city lost jobs and people and
veered toward insolvency.
Kilpatrick could
face more than 10 years in prison for two dozen convictions, from
racketeering conspiracy to bribery to tax crimes. Once hailed as a hip,
young big-city leader, he was portrayed at trial as an unscrupulous
politician who took kickbacks, rigged contracts and lived far beyond his
means.
"Kwame Kilpatrick didn't lead the city. He looted the city," U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade said in victory.
At
the government's urging, Kilpatrick, 42, was ordered to jail to await
his sentence, along with Bobby Ferguson, a city contractor who benefited
from having a pal as mayor and also was convicted.
Businesses
said they were forced to hire Ferguson as a subcontractor or risk
losing work through the city's water department. Separately, fundraiser
Emma Bell said she gave Kilpatrick more than $200,000 as his personal
cut of political donations, pulling cash from her bra during private
meetings at city hall. A high-ranking aide, Derrick Miller, told jurors
that he often was the middle man, passing bribes from others.
Internal Revenue Service agents said Kilpatrick spent $840,000 beyond his salary as mayor, from 2002 to fall 2008.
"I
saw a lot that really, really turned my stomach," said a female juror, a
Detroit resident who had voted twice for Kilpatrick when he ran for
mayor. "I couldn't believe this type of thing was going on."
The
names of jurors were not released by the court, part of the secrecy
promised by the judge last summer. Eleven agreed to speak to reporters,
although they declined to give their names and refused to be interviewed
by TV crews.
The trial occurred at a time of
extraordinary crisis in Detroit. Population has fallen 25 percent to
700,000 since 2000. Public finances are in the red for billions of
dollars, mostly future pension obligations. Half of property owners are
overdue with their property taxes. Meanwhile, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder
could appoint an emergency financial manager in a matter of days, making
Detroit the largest city in the country to be taken over by state
government.
Detroit's woes were decades in the
making. But Kilpatrick's crimes certainly fueled perceptions that he
and his staff were far adrift, selfishly lining their pockets, while the
city slipped even further.
Detroit's budget
deficit topped $300 million by 2008 when Kilpatrick was forced out in a
different scandal, a series of lies to cover up an extramarital affair
with a top aide.
The current mayor, Dave Bing, said the verdict would allow the city to move from "this negative chapter in Detroit's history."
Andre Falconer, a 43-year-old plumber, said Kilpatrick is yet another politician who betrayed the public.
"Everybody
should be held responsible for what they do," Falconer said.
"Kilpatrick's case doesn't reflect on Detroit, but reflects on his
inability to perform the tasks he was elected to do. He didn't have the
maturity."
McQuade hopes the case means a new day for the city.
"I
hope it sends an important message ... so that businesses will want to
come do business here. So that honest politicians will want to serve as
the mayor here. So that people will want to work for city government
without fear of being compromised," the prosecutor told reporters.
U.S.
District Judge Nancy Edmunds said the jury finished its work Friday,
the 14th day of deliberations, but wanted to go home for the weekend
before announcing the results Monday.
"They said they wanted to sleep on it. ... I had a sense of what the verdict was," Edmunds told reporters.
Kilpatrick
declined to comment outside court after days of regularly posting
upbeat messages to his Twitter followers. Defense attorney James Thomas
said the former mayor spoke by phone to his wife, Carlita, in Texas.
"He's
a pretty strong individual. He doesn't show his emotions very easily,"
Thomas said when asked how Kilpatrick was holding up.
Kilpatrick's
father, Bernard, also was charged as part of the racketeering
conspiracy. The jury, however, couldn't reach a consensus and convicted
him only of submitting a false tax return. The Kilpatricks hugged twice
after the verdict, with the son appearing to console his sobbing
71-year-old dad.
Kwame Kilpatrick, who now
lives near Dallas, declined to testify. He has long denied any
wrongdoing and even declared before trial that he wasn't going to
prison. Thomas told jurors that his client had access to loads of money
because city workers and political supporters showered him with cash
during holidays and birthdays.
The government
also said Kilpatrick abused the Civic Fund, a nonprofit fund he created
to help distressed Detroit residents. There was evidence that it was
used for yoga lessons, camps for his kids, golf clubs and travel.
Kilpatrick
was elected in 2001 at age 31. He resigned in 2008 and pleaded guilty
to obstruction of justice in a different scandal involving sexually
explicit text messages and an affair with his chief of staff.
The
Democrat spent 14 months in prison for violating probation in that case
after a judge said he failed to report assets that could be put toward
his $1 million restitution to Detroit.
Voters
booted his mother, Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, from Congress in 2010,
partly because of a negative perception of her due to her son's
troubles.
