Detroit mayor agrees to plead guilty, resign

September 4, 2008 · Print This Article

COREY WILLIAMS and ED WHITE (AP)

- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to a pair of felony charges on Thursday in a sex-and-misconduct scandal and will step down after months of defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation’s 11th-largest city.

The plea deal brings to an end a seven-months-long ordeal that led to felony charges against Kilpatrick and plunged the city, region and state into political chaos.

As part of the deal, the 38-year-old Democrat is to serve four months in jail and five years of probation. He also would pay $1 million in restitution over the five-year probationary period.

The married mayor and former top aide Christine Beatty were charged in March with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice. They’re accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing of a deputy police chief.

Beatty did not plead guilty and next will appear in court on Sept. 11.

City Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. will succeed Kilpatrick as mayor until a special election is held.

Until now, Kilpatrick had refused to resign even as the calls for him to step down grew louder and the controversy overshadowed all else at City Hall, tarnishing the national image of the much-maligned city even more.

Written by The Admin · Filed Under Featured, Michigan
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pamela 3 months ago 1 point
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What a utterly compromised, incompetent, corrupt, immoral and discusting pimp-daddy Kwame is!!!! But the people of Detroit, a truly disgraced and violent city, voted him Mayor not once, but twice...........unbelievable.......did they just not get it -- do they not see that they have been abused, mistreated, cheated upon, lied to, by this gangsta-looking wannabe lover??????? The people of Detroit have been and will be continuing to pay out millions.................maybe next time the people of Detroit will not use the "RACE" card in electing someone to office --- but instead character and integrity........Liberalism is killing this city!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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