FREE PRESS SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
Mayor Kilpatrick, chief of staff lied under oath, text messages show
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied about their relationship last summer at a police whistle-blower trial that has cost the cash-strapped city more than $9 million, according to records obtained by the Free Press. The false testimony potentially exposes them to felony perjury charges, legal experts say.
* Photo Images of text message documents
* Photo Images of Kilpatrick, Beatty
* • Read excerpts from the text messages
* • Statement from Mayor Kilpatrick
* • City fought for years to keep the text messages secret
* • The chain of events
* • What is perjury?
* • BREAKING NEWS ANIMATION: Mayor Kilpatrick
* • STEPHEN HENDERSON: For mayor, city, lies undermine potential
* • EDITORIAL: Serve city, starting with truth
* • Post a comment on this Free Press special investigation
* • VIDEO: The mayor's response to infidelity charges (August 2007)
Read excerpts from the text messages
January 23, 2008
In public statements and under oath, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has denied repeatedly over the past four years that he had a sexual relationship with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The issue was central to claims by former police officers who sued the city and Kilpatrick, accusing the mayor and Beatty of retaliation in part because of what the cops knew about Kilpatrick's private conduct. The Free Press obtained nearly 14,000 text messages from Beatty's city-issued paging device. The messages reveal hundreds of personal exchanges between the mayor and Beatty in September-October 2002 and April-May 2003. Many describe a sexual relationship, often graphicly. The two of them arranged trysts, plotted to spend nights together while traveling on city business and discussed their fears of being caught by the mayor's security team. The Free Press is excerpting some passages, but is withholding exchanges that refer explicitly to sex acts.
WHAT KILPATRICK TESTIFIED
Aug. 29, 2007, Wayne County Circuit Court
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Mike Stefani, lawyer for ex-cops Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope: Mayor Kilpatrick, during 2002 and 2003 were you romantically involved with Christine Beatty?
Kilpatrick: No.
Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, lawyer for the City of Detroit: And would it be fair to say, sir, that in your professional relationship as mayor and Christine Beatty's professional relationship as chief of staff, that you in fact have conducted yourself in such a way as professionals in a non-sexual way?
Kilpatrick: Yes.
WHAT KILPATRICK SAID IN PUBLIC
May 21, 2004
After a judge unsealed depositions in which former mayoral bodyguard Walt Harris said under oath that Kilpatrick cheated on his wife with Beatty, Kilpatrick said: "All of the allegations are completely false."
Referring to Harris and other accusers, Kilpatrick added: "They will say anything to get money. They are suing the city. ... They want the taxpayer dollars and we're refusing to give it."
WHAT BEATTY TESTIFIED
Aug. 28, 2007, Wayne County Circuit Court
Stefani: During the time period 2001 to 2003, were you and Mayor Kilpatrick either romantically or intimately involved with each other?
Beatty: No.
Dec. 9, 2003, deposition in the whistle-blower suit
Stefani: So you've not dated the mayor at all?
Beatty: No, I've not dated the mayor at all.
Stefani: Do you have any knowledge of the mayor philandering?
Beatty: No, I do not.
Stefani: Do you believe that he does philander?
Beatty: Is this something I have to answer? OK. No, I do not.
Stefani: During the trip (referring to a Sept. 9-15, 2002, trip to Washington, D.C.), did you and the mayor spend time alone together in his hotel room?
Beatty: I don't recall that at all.
Stefani: Is it possible you could have?
Beatty: I doubt it. ...
Stefani: Did you use the message device to arrange social meetings between you and the mayor?
Beatty: No.
Stefani: Did you ever send the mayor, or receive from the mayor, a text message which was of an intimate or sexual nature?
Beatty: No.
WHAT TEXT MESSAGES SHOW
9/12/02, 10:38 p.m., during trip to Washington, D.C.
Christine Beatty: Can I just come and lay down in your room until you get back?
Kwame Kilpatrick: Yes.
9/13/02, 9:02 a.m. (the next morning)
KK: They were right outside the door. They [the mayor's bodyguards] had to have heard everything...
CB: So we are officially busted! LOL
KK: LOL LOL! Damn that. Never busted. Busted is what you see! LOL. ...
CB: LOL, LOL. Damn, so they have to walk in before you conceed busted! LOL.
KK: Hell yeah. Walk in.
9/15/02, 3:38 a.m. (still in Washington)
CB: I'm on my way to your room now. But by the time you get there I'll be sleep and it will be 5am!
KK: I got something for you.
CB: LOL. Is that so? I'm in your room. Don't let Mike check it [an apparent reference to Mike Martin, a bodyguard who often traveled with the mayor]. Are you in route or still hanging? What do you have for me?
9/24/2002, 6:56 p.m.
CB: This is one of those little things I had to tell you. Last night when I was laying on your shoulder in the car and you held my face and sang whatever song it was, that felt so good. It was just one of those little moments when you just made me fall some more.
9/28/2002, 11:53 p.m.
CB: Where are you now?
KK: At home waiting for all EP [executive protection unit officers] to leave. Where are you?
CB: At the residence inn in Madison hgts.
KK: What rm?
CB: ...I'm in room 311 in bldg 3 in the back.
10/7/2002, 11:20 p.m.
CB: OK, I'm feeling like I want another night like the most recent Saturday at the Residence Inn! You made me feel so damn good that night. As you can see I can't let it go! ...
KK: I feel that we can do that in WV [West Virginia] + just relax together. I need you soooo bad. I want to wake up in the morning and you are there. Make it happen. Love ya.
10/8/2002, 10:18 a.m.
KK: I'm fine. Need a break. I want to get out of town w/you. Check on resorts outside of Houston.
10/16/02, 11:48 p.m.
KK: I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days...relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love.
10/31/2002, 5:28 p.m.
KK: I'll feel better once I'm holding you.
CB: You didn't say whether or not we are trying for some time tonight.
KK: Definitely. I'm getting a room. Damn that!
CB: LOL. Okie dokie.
(Kilpatrick later tells her to pick up room key at Marriott)
11/1/2002, 12:28 a.m.
KK: 6301 or 6302?
CB: Definitely 6302! 6301 has two double beds.
4/8/2003, 8:55 p.m.
KK: I'm at Laker game. The security doesn't believe I'm mayor. Mike is pulling out all kind of shirt to prove it.
CB: And, did you miss me, sexually?
KK: Hell yeah! You couldn't tell. I want some more. Don't sleep!
5/5/2003, midnight
KK: That's the first time that I couldn't fully seduce you. My game is off. LOL! Thanx for the conversation and the QT! Love you!
CB: LOL! Your game is way on baby! "you had me at hello!" Jerry McGuire 2000. LOL. I just didn't want to get caught.
The termination of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown
Under oath at trial and in depositions, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied firing Brown for pursuing an internal affairs investigation involving the mayor, his police bodyguards and staff. Brown said he was fired in part because the mayor and Beatty feared their relationship would be exposed. Kilpatrick and Beatty testified that the mayor merely revoked Brown's appointment as a deputy chief, effectively demoting him to lieutenant, and that Brown then chose to retire.
WHAT KILPATRICK TESTIFIED
Aug. 29, 2007, Brown whistle-blower suit, Wayne County Circuit Court.
Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, lawyer for the City of Detroit: Did you terminate Mr. Brown?
Kilpatrick: No. I did not terminate Mr. Brown. I did not fire Mr. Brown.
Colbert-Osamuede: When you removed Deputy Chief Brown from his appointment, was it your intent to harm him?
Kilpatrick: Not at all.
Colbert-Osamuede: What was your intent, sir?
Kilpatrick: My intent was to move him out of the public, I mean professional accountability, bureau, and find a more professional person who understood that. That had grew up in that process, and get that person in there. But it wasn't to damage him in any way. And it was a tough decision. These decisions are always tough. But it wasn't to hurt him, step on him, do things to him.
WHAT BEATTY TESTIFIED
Aug. 28, 2007, at the whistle-blower suit.
Beatty: Again, Mr. Brown was not fired.
Dec. 9, 2003, in deposition taken by Brown's lawyer, Mike Stefani.
Beatty: Gary Brown wasn't fired.
Stefani: He was what again?
Beatty: He was unappointed from his position as deputy chief and has since retired from the Detroit Police Department. He wasn't fired.
WHAT TEXT MESSAGES SHOW
The following is an excerpt from Beatty's city-issued paging device. The exchange came two days after Brown said at a press conference that he was fired.
May 15, 2003, 11:02 a.m.
Beatty: I'm sorry that we are going through this mess because of a decision that we made to fire Gary Brown. I will make sure that the next decision is much more thought out. Not regretting what was done at all, but thinking about how we can do things smarter.
Kilpatrick: True! It had to happen though. I'm all the way with that!
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