Pressure grows on Mayor Kilpatrick to step aside; AG may file new charges today
DETROIT -- Jailed and facing an uncertain future, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is under mounting pressure from City Hall to Lansing to step aside and end seven months of scandal and commotion.
After months of relative silence, prominent Democrats such as Speaker of the House Andy Dillon and Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano are calling on Kilpatrick to resign or take a leave of absence.
Hours after Kilpatrick was jailed, Gov. Jennifer Granholm said she's made up her mind and will host hearings Sept. 3 on whether to remove him from office.
At 9 a.m. today, Kilpatrick will ask Wayne County Circuit Judge Thomas Edward Jackson to set him free. An hour later, Attorney General Mike Cox is expected to announce criminal charges against Kilpatrick for a scuffle he had with a deputy trying to serve a subpoena at the mayor's sister house.
That could mean more jail time. And even Kilpatrick's friends say his time may be up.
"He's out of moves; it's checkmate," said Adolph Mongo, the Detroit political rainmaker and architect of Kilpatrick's 11th hour re-election in 2005. "His enemies have him surrounded."
Also today, the City Council is expected to set rules for an in-house removal effort against Kilpatrick set to start Aug. 18.
A onetime ally, Councilwoman Alberta Tinsley-Talabi, said the jailing was the last straw. She now supports ousting Kilpatrick.
"It's a snowballing effect," she said. "The city needs to be moving forward, and it's not doing that."
Even Kilpatrick's most vocal supporter on the council, President Pro Tem Monica Conyers, reiterated her call the mayor take a leave of absence.
"Just to clear his head," Conyers said. "I think he needs to take a leave of absence and assess things."
Though Kilpatrick is represented by a slew of high-priced lawyers and has hired a high-powered public relations firm from the East Coast to craft his message, it was Kilpatrick who skippered his own ship into the rocks, say both his critics and supporters.
In court Thursday, Kilpatrick apologized to Judge Ronald Giles of the 36th District Court for leaving the state without permission. He explained he's been under strain caused in part by having reporters camped outside his house and helicopters buzzing over his bedroom.
"I've been living under an incredible state of pressure," Kilpatrick said. Kilpatrick has been politically and criminally under siege for months since the publication of text messages in January that indicated he lied on the stand last year when he denied a sexual affair with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty. A friend since high school, she quit in January. Both were charged with numerous felonies in March.
Since then, the scandal has moved to several legal and political fronts. Initially, Kilpatrick was free to travel anywhere while awaiting trial. Giles has since tightened the restrictions, requiring 48 hours notice for out-of-state travel. Violating those conditions sent Kilpatrick to jail.
In the past few weeks, Granholm also has ratcheted up pressure on Kilpatrick with a series of decisions that suggested she would host hearings to remove Kilpatrick. On July 1, she indicated she wouldn't decide whether to host hearings until after Labor Day. On July 28, she accelerated the process and said hearings might be two days after the holiday.
Last week, Granholm refused Kilpatrick's request to delay the process. Her statement Thursday confirming the Sept. 3 hearing didn't elaborate, but Bill Ballenger, editor of "Inside Michigan Politics," said her strategy is clear.
"She is pushing the envelope. She is definitely trying to get him to crack and go out on his own," Ballenger said. "I think everyone would have liked him to have been gone at this point."
Since February, Kilpatrick has dropped the "N" word during the State of the City address, lost upwards of 40 pounds, sung in court halls and increasingly referred to himself in the third person. In June, he told reporters, "When you really think about it, from 1776 to 2008, men, women of all ages, colors and creeds died in this country for Kwame Kilpatrick and you to have the right to a fair trial."
"He trusts no one," Mongo said.
Last month, Kilpatrick said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's case against him "was going to hell quickly" and that she was playing to white racism in the region. Worthy is black.
Two days later, Giles restricted Kilpatrick's travel and revoked his bond after Kilpatrick got into a scuffle on his sister's porch with a sheriff's officer who was trying to serve a subpoena there. Two deputies were serving a subpoena on a witness about a half-mile away and happened to stumble on a truck owned by mayoral friend Bobby Ferguson, who was wanted as a witness.
Despite the travel restrictions, Kilpatrick took a business trip to Canada without Giles' permission and was given his own private cell at the Wayne County Jail in return.
"How do you spell humiliation," said Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson. "The mayor for the good of Detroit and the region should step aside."
Ficano, who made a public appearance with the mayor a few weeks ago, said that if the mayor refuses to resign he should "take a leave of absence until his legal issues are resolved."
"As an attorney, I respect the legal process but the mayor's legal issues have become more than a distraction," Ficano said. "This is paralyzing the city and the region.
Dillon, who for months has echoed fellow Democrats and has been reluctant to criticize Kilpatrick, said the mayor's "legal issues have escalated to a point where it is impacting not only the City of Detroit but also the state."
"Mayor Kilpatrick needs to step down so the city, the region and the state can begin to move forward," Dillon said in a statement. "If the mayor is exonerated in court, I am confident he will be rewarded by the public for putting the people first during these challenging times."
The latest imbroglio has caused even the mayor's closest associates to wonder.
The Rev. Horace Sheffield III, a leader on a fund to raise money for the mayor, said he hopes the mayor will offer up some sort of deal to put an end to the situation.
"I love the mayor like my own son," Sheffield said. "But even my son at some point would have to learn to abide by the restraints he placed upon himself.
"While the mayor should be working himself out of this, he's giving others further reasons to bury him," Sheffield said. "My prayers are with him. I would hope that at some point that he would recognize how serious this is."
And so Kilpatrick spent the evening in jail, alone with his thoughts, Mongo said.
"He's got time tonight to reflect," Mongo said. "But I can't advise him at this point except to say that no job in the world is worth all this. He's going to lose his family, he's going to lose his law license, he's going to lose everything. I tried to tell him, but he isn't listening to anybody."
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