Black People : (((What A Stupid Dummy)))

Fine1952

The Age of Aquarius
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Sep 27, 2005
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What public official would use a pager provided by his own city's municipal system to send lurid messages to his aide. :em19:

S-t-u-p-i-d a word that comes right after sensible. :tongue3:

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Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick shamed by text messages They raise questions about trial testimony David Josar, Paul Egan and Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Wednesday night that text messages indicating he had a sexual affair with his chief of staff in 2002 and 2003 were "profoundly embarrassing" and "reflect a very difficult period in my personal life."

The mayor's prepared statement was released by his office after a report surfaced that text messages show he had an intimate relationship with Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, 37, who has been Kilpatrick's friend since they were classmates at Cass Tech.

This morning, political consultants began digesting reports, trying to read the fallout on the city's political establishment now that text messages contradict what Kilpatrick and his chief of staff said under oath about the relationship between them.

"I think Detroiters have reached their tipping point," said Sam Riddle, a longtime political consultant. "This is going to change the political landscape in the city."

In some of those more than 14,000 messages, Kilpatrick, 37, and Beatty -- both were married at the time -- exchanged sexual banter, declared their love and arranged trysts in motels in Metro Detroit and on out-of-town business trips.

But under oath last summer in a whistleblowers suit filed against the city by two former cops, they both denied a romantic or intimate relationship. They also testified that they didn't plot to fire Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, but the text messages include exchanges about dismissing him.

Brown and ex-bodyguard Harold Nelthrope sued the city, claiming they were unfairly punished because Nelthrope alleged misbehavior by the mayor and his police bodyguards, and Brown investigated those claims. A jury awarded the pair some $8 million, including interest. In a separate but related case, a third ex-cop, Walt Harris, was paid $400,000.

Judge Michael Callahan, who presided over the whistleblowers case, said Wednesday night he does not plan to pursue contempt proceedings against Kilpatrick or Beatty, but hopes the possibility of criminal perjury harges will be investigated.

"That's where the investigation belongs, certainly, is whether a felony was committed," Callahan said.

Kilpatrick, who has characterized himself as a strong family man dedicated to his wife and three young sons, had repeatedly and vehemently denied an affair with Beatty. Kilpatrick consistently called the officers in the whistleblowers case liars. On the witness stand, he answered with a curt "no" when asked if he had had an intimate relationship with Beatty. Those allegations of infidelity had dogged the mayor since they began to surface in late 2002 and led to the drawn-out court case that was filed in 2003.

Hours after the jury sided with Nelthrope and Brown, the mayor stood defiantly by the Spirit of Detroit statue outside City Hall and announced he had done nothing wrong and would be vindicated on appeal. No appeal was filed, however.

Beatty, too, denied an affair -- 10 times on the witness stand in August. But the text messages sent to a city-issued SkyTel pager, and obtained by the Detroit Free Press, show a different picture.

"I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002, according to the messages obtained by the Free Press, which published some of the information after a protracted legal battle with the city. The newspaper did not reveal who supplied the information.

"I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied to the mayor. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"

On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote Beatty: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

Beatty and her husband, Lou Beatty, divorced in 2006.

In last summer's trial, Harris, who had worked on Kilpatrick's security team, testified that after driving the mayor to Beatty's house late at night, he and his partner wondered if they would have to shoot Lou Beatty, if he showed up.

Contacted by The News Wednesday night, Lou Beatty said he had "no comment" about the newly surfaced text messages between the mayor and his ex-wife.

'He made his peace'

The political and legal fallout for Kilpatrick could be severe.

"The city is paying this incredible judgment," said Bill Ballenger, editor of Inside Michigan Politics, a political newsletter. "It appears he lied in a way that cost taxpayers money. There is no way this is good for the mayor.

"Can he weather the storm? It remains to be seen."

Bernard Kilpatrick, the mayor's father, said Wednesday night he does not think the text messages will pose a major challenge to his son's leadership.

"It's the same old thing," Bernard Kilpatrick said. "It's five years ago. This has been hashed and rehashed.

"He made his peace with his family and with God."

Legal experts said Kilpatrick and Beatty could face perjury charges.

Laurie Levenson, a law professor at Loyola University in Los Angeles, Calif., said the mayor could be charged and possibly convicted of perjury if he lied under oath at the Nelthrope civil trial.

The basic elements of a perjury charge are that a person knowingly lied under oath, Levenson said. An additional element is that the lie was about something that was "material" to the case in which the person was testifying, she said.

So far, Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is not taking any action.

"There's nothing that has been presented to us," said Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Worthy. "For that reason, we have no comment."

Rusty Hills, a spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, said Cox had no details about the case and no immediate comment. Cox had investigated rumors of a wild Manoogian Mansion party at 2002 but cleared the mayor of any wrongdoing. The party was never substantiated, even after a state investigation.

Neither Kilpatrick nor Beatty could be reached directly for comment Wednesday.

A woman at Beatty's Rosedale Park home said she was not there. Plain-clothes police officers shooed a Detroit News reporter from the neighborhood in which Kilpatrick lives with his wife and three boys at the city-owned Manoogian Mansion.

Kilpatrick canceled a scheduled appearance Thursday at the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter session in Washington, D.C.

In the middle of the day Wednesday, Kilpatrick's staff appeared upbeat, but by the time they started leaving the office after 5 p.m. many of them were subdued. However other top appointees had heard nothing of the unfolding scandal.

Kilpatrick's last public appearance in Detroit was at the auto show last week, where he attended several events, including some with his wife. Then on Saturday, Kilpatrick spoke at the 27th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast in Asheville, N.C.

The Rev. Lonnie Peek, a member of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit & Vicinity, said the issue is a personal one and doesn't reflect the positive direction he said Kilpatrick is taking the city.

"If this is something they have dealt with and resolved, I have to leave him and how he relates to his wife to him," Peek said. "He's a big boy. He should be able to weather the storm."

Scandal may hurt mayor

Steve Mitchell, a political pollster who worked with Kilpatrick in his first term as mayor, said the mayor should get all the information out and apologize.

But a potential perjury case against him would be a tough sell with a jury of Detroiters, he said.

"How hard will prosecutors try to push a perjury charge?" Mitchell said. "It would be hard to get a unanimous verdict. He is popular in Detroit."

He predicts the scandal won't affect him negatively in the long-run. Affairs by politicians are by no means unprecedented. Attorney General Mike Cox acknowledged having an affair in 2005 and President Bill Clinton eventually acknowledged an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky.

"Politically he is still very strong," Mitchell said. "In the middle of a term, there's not a great deal of fall out."

'Intensely personal issues'

Council President Kenneth Cockrel Jr. said Kilpatrick's denials of an affair during the trial and the reported emails "certainly creates an issue." But he said on another level, it is a personal issue.

"If the mayor and his wife have dealt with it and moved on then I think you have to accept it for what it is," Cockrel said.

In the prepared statement issued by his office Wednesday night, Kilpatrick did not deny the relationship or apologize for it. The statement said "these five- and six-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life.

"It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner," he said.

"My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago. I would now ask that the public and the media respect the privacy of my wife and children and of Christine Beatty and her children at this deeply painful moment for our families."

Staff writers Oralandar Brand-Williams, Santiago Esparza and Mark Hicks, and The Associated Press contributed to this report. You can reach David Josar at (313) 222-2073 or djosar@detnews.com.



***Man fears time & Time fears the pyramids---An Old Egyptian Proverb***

© Fine1952-2008 :pc:
 
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