http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081028/METRO/810280452
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Judge: Kilpatrick must serve all 120 days in jail
Mike Wilkinson, Doug Guthrie and George Hunter / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick must serve all of his four-month jail term -- no time off for good behavior -- after a judge upbraided him for acting with "hubris and privilege" during the conduct that sends him this afternoon to the Wayne County Jail.
Wayne Circuit Court Judge David Groner chastised Kilpatrick -- who often shook his head in apparent disagreement -- during a terse monologue. Groner declared that Kilpatrick knowingly lied about his relationship with his former chief of staff "all in the attempt to protect your political career.
"At a time when this city needed transparency, accountability and responsibility, you exhibited hubris and privilege at the expense of the city," Groner said.
Groner was declarative in his finding: Kilpatrick's testimony during the whistle-blower lawsuit brought -- and won -- by two former police officers was knowingly false.
"These lies were to cover up your wrongful dismissal of (two) police officers," Groner said. The result cost the city the $8.5 million is paid to the officers.
As he left the courtroom after 5 p.m., Kilpatrick -- who appeared defiant until the end -- handed his wedding ring to his wife, Carlita.
The sentencing ends nine months of revelations and admissions about and from the former mayor.
All told, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two counts of felony obstruction of justice in a deal that calls for 120 days in jail, payment to the city of $1 million in restitution and five years on probation during which he can't run for office. The sentence includes Kilpatrick's punishment for his no-contest plea to the assault of two investigators who tried to serve a subpoena on a friend at his sister's home. That charge was brought by Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox.
During the at-times testy hearing, attorneys and prosecutors exchanged charges, with Kilpatrick's team claiming that calls for additional penalties amounted to "piling on" and that Kilpatrick was being treated unlike other defendants.
That charge drew an emotional response from assistant prosecutor Robert Moran, who seethed his response, claiming that Kilpatrick had "held the city hostage for six months," denying the charges until he finally pleaded guilty in September, and only after Gov. Jennifer Granholm began a historic hearing on his removal.
"We don't need public servants who lie," Moran said, and who treat the community "as their own playground."
Afterward, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she was satisfied with the decision.
In the end, Groner agreed to the four-month term initially set during plea negotiations. He also rejected calls for an additional $22,186 bill prosecutors sought, as well as a call for an anger management class for his confrontation with two court officers trying to serve a subpoena.
Groner said Kilpatrick "snapped" that day, but that there was no evidence of a pattern of angry behavior.
During the hearing, letters from prosecution investigators were read, portraying the former mayor as an out-of-control, intimidating bully who put their lives in danger.
Doug Baker, an attorney for Cox, read letters from Brian White and JoAnn Kinney, claiming they feared for their lives during a confrontation with Kilpatrick while they tried to serve a subpoena. Kilpatrick pleaded no contest to assaulting a court officer as part of a Sept. 4 plea deal.
Kinney wrote that the event "remains etched" in her mind forever. The former Detroit Police officer said the July 24 incident with Kilpatrick was the most dangerous of her career. Kilpatrick was accused of shouting obscenities at the officers and pushing White into Kinney as they attempted to serve a subpoena.
"I have never felt so helpless or unable to protect myself," Kinney wrote. She added that the then-mayor's bodyguards were with him during the incident at his sister's house and she worried she would get shot.
"Kilpatrick is more dangerous and frightening than any criminal I have ever encountered."
The statements were met with incredulity from Kilpatrick's supporters and his lawyers. Kilpatrick's attorney, Gerald Evelyn, equated them to "piling on." Leaving the courtroom, Kilpatrick's uncle, Marvel Cheeks, accused both investigators of lying.
"There is no way in the world Kwame Kilpatrick could be the most dangerous criminal they've ever encountered in their lives," Cheeks said. "I think they are saying it out of anger, revenge. They're trying to make it as bad as possible.
"They're trying to hang him. This to me is no different than the lynchings of the 1950s and 1960s. There is no justice. There should be no peace."
The hearing occasionally grew testy, as Kilpatrick's lawyers said they spent a long time agreeing to a deal, then had new penalties imposed today. At one point, Groner admonished a Kilpatrick attorney for talking too long, telling him he wanted to wrap up the hearing.
Former city general counsel Sharon McPhail, who represented the mayor during Gov. Jennifer Granholm's ouster hearing, left the meeting and said she would have liked to have had an opportunity to address the court.
As she left the private meeting, she called the four-month jail term "overkill."
"Here's a guy with no criminal background going to jail. There are people who have killed people out on the streets," McPhail said after she left a meeting between Kilpatrick's attorneys and prosecutors. "Whatever that was done, hasn't he already paid a big price? Do we need to stomp and grind him into the ground?"
She left the hearing hours later in disgust, saying "I just don't know what's going on in there."
But she added: "I think we're all glad this chapter is over. I think dragging it out like this doesn't do anything for anybody."
After the sentencing, Evelyn said that "under the circumstances, I'm convinced this is the best deal that could be achieved."
"Would I have liked a better deal for him? Absolutely. Do I feel like he deserved a better deal? Absolutely," Evelyn said. "But I wasn't the only one making the decision."
Another defense attorney, Todd Flood, was more blunt: "I don't think there were any winners today."
By about 5:30 p.m., Kilpatrick had left the courtroom and prepared to be processed at the jail. He's expected to be processed and given a used green jumpsuit with "Wayne County Jail" stenciled in the back.
Because the hearing dragged on so long, Kilpatrick will likely miss dinner. The jail was serving beef pot pie and Jell-o.