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| Ex-Detroit mayor facing federal prison on corruption convictions |
| By kelo.com - Steve Neavling |
| Published: 10/10/2013 |
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Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, once seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, is set to be sentenced Thursday on federal public corruption and bribery convictions prosecutors have said justify a prison term of at least 28 years. Kilpatrick, 43, was convicted in March on two dozen federal charges including racketeering conspiracy, bribery, extortion, mail and wire fraud, and tax counts. He was deemed a flight risk and has been held in custody since then. Prosecutors accused Kilpatrick of extorting bribes from contractors who wanted to get or keep city contracts and turning the mayor's office into "Kilpatrick Incorporated," robbing the cash-strapped city of desperately needed tax dollars. Kilpatrick, who served as mayor from 2002 until his resignation in 2008, was not the main culprit in Detroit filing for bankruptcy, "but his corrupt administration exacerbated the crisis," prosecutors said in a presentencing report. Detroit, which is under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager, filed for bankruptcy protection in July. The city has lost more than half of its population since the 1950s, leaving it with a shrinking tax base and huge debts. "The city desperately needed resolute leadership. Instead it got a mayor looking to cash in on his office through graft, extortion and self-dealing," prosecutors said in their report. Prosecutors argued that Kilpatrick's "widespread and corrosive breach of trust" in office was even more egregious than that of former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who is serving a 14-year sentence for bribery and extortion. Kilpatrick's bank records alone showed more than $840,000 in unexplained expenditures above and beyond his mayoral salary, none of it disclosed on income tax returns, prosecutors said. Read More. |
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