The New York Times-20080126-Mayor-s Amorous Texts Lead to Perjury Inquiry
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Mayor's Amorous Texts Lead to Perjury Inquiry
The city's charismatic but scandal-plagued mayor and his chief of staff will be the subject of an investigation into whether they lied under oath when they denied having an extramarital affair, the Wayne County prosecutor announced here Friday.
The investigation by the prosecutor, Kym L. Worthy, was prompted by The Detroit Free Press's publication this week of text messages, many of them flirtatious, between the mayor, Kwame M. Kilpatrick, and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, who have known each other since high school.
The messages, transmitted to and from Ms. Beatty's city-owned pager in 2002 and 2003, appear to show that the two had an intimate relationship and suggest that they committed perjury by denying the affair during testimony in one of two whistleblower lawsuits that have cost taxpayers in the beleaguered city more than $9 million.
A felony perjury conviction carries a possible sentence of up to 15 years in prison.
A union representing 900 municipal workers here called on Friday for Mr. Kilpatrick to resign and said members planned to picket City Hall next week.
The only response from Mr. Kilpatrick, 37, has been a four-sentence statement asking the public and the media to let him, Ms. Beatty and their families deal with the matter privately.
These five- and six-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life, he said in the statement. It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner. My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago.
Neither the mayor nor Ms. Beatty have been seen in Detroit since the article containing the text messages was published late Wednesday. Mr. Kilpatrick was photographed kissing his wife, Carlita, in the driveway of his family's vacation home in Tallahassee, Fla.
Mr. Kilpatrick's mother, Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, Democrat of Michigan, is chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, and he was the youngest leader of any major United States city when he was elected in 2001. He won a second term despite a $300-million budget deficit, rumors of wild partying, accusations that he had mismanaged public money and outrage over the city's lease of a luxurious sport utility vehicle for his wife.
It's just a shame to see the talent and the potential of this mayor squandered on a keyboard, said Sam Riddle, a longtime political consultant who used to work for Mr. Kilpatrick. He should simply resign and then address the legal issues. He's not going to be able to govern effectively.
John Riehl, the president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, the union calling for Mr. Kilpatrick to step down, said the latest scandal should be the last straw for Detroiters.
He's lost much of his base, Mr. Riehl said, which was the voters that thought they'd give him another chance.
Ms. Worthy, the prosecutor, held a one-minute news conference Friday to announce her investigation.
News reports and newspaper articles are not investigations, and they are not evidence, she said.
Last summer, Mr. Kilpatrick and Ms. Beatty denied ever having a romantic relationship when questioned in court by a lawyer for two former police officers who claimed that they had been fired to block an investigation into the mayor's security team that could have exposed the affair. Mr. Kilpatrick refused to settle the case, and a jury ruled against the city. Payments to the fired officers and to a former bodyguard who sued separately and legal costs totaled more than $9 million.
Ms. Beatty, who was divorced in 2006, is no stranger to controversy. She was pulled over for speeding in 2004, but she was not ticketed after yelling at the officers and calling the police chief on her cellphone.
This technosexual tragedy has engulfed the city in a way I haven't seen in 30 years of doing political consulting, said Mr. Riddle, who helped with Mr. Kilpatrick's re-election campaign. I don't think Detroit is going to be sweet-talked.
[Illustration]PHOTOS: Kwame M. Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, denied ever having an affair.(PHOTOGRAPH BY PAUL SANCYA/ASSOCIATED PRESS); (PHOTOGRAPH BY REBECCA COOK/REUTERS)