You may now call him Mayor Jailbird
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DETROIT — A judge on Thursday ordered Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail, shocking the city and plunging the leadership of the nation’s 11th-largest city into uncertainty.
Despite a plea from Kilpatrick that invoked his sons, his respect for the judicial process and his love of the city, 36th District Judge Ronald Giles was unmoved. He revoked Kilpatrick’s bond, ordering him to jail on a bond violation for a July 23 trip to Windsor.
As Kilpatrick’s lips quivered, Giles ended a short speech by concluding: “If it was not Kwame Kilpatrick sitting in that seat, if it was John Six-Pack sitting in the seat, what would I do? That answers something. So I go back to my original, ‘Keep it simple.’
“That’s what I have to do … the court is revoking your bond, that all travel be suspended, and two, that you to be remanded to Wayne County Jail.”
Wayne County sheriff’s deputies were expected to pick up Kilpatrick from 36th District Court at noon and transport him to the main jail on St. Antoine, said John Roach, a spokesman for Sheriff Warren Evans. At 11:30 a.m., he said deputies were still working out lodging arrangements, such as whether Kilpatrick will be in solitary confinement.
Kilpatrick will spend the night in jail. His attorneys immediately appealed to Wayne Circuit Judge Thomas E. Jackson, who said he will hear the appeal at 9 a.m. Friday.
The order from Giles came after Kilpatrick threw himself at the court’s mercy, acknowledging he violated the terms of his bond with the trip.
Earlier in the proceeding, he asked Kilpatrick’s attorney, James C. Thomas, why he had to learn about the case from the media.
“Who was dying? Who was sick?” Giles asked.
“The city of Detroit,” Thomas said.
In sending Kilpatrick to jail, Giles said:
“I don’t in any way claim to have a good understanding of what your responsibilities are and what you do,” he said. “I do understand you have to be under a tremendous amount of pressure and how that can affect you. But I have to look at how the system is run and is perceived by the public.
“I don’t care what the media says about me. I really don’t. I never have. I try to do what I think is right and fair…
“In this case, in the beginning, you were given every privilege that could be given to you in regards to travel, totally unrestricted initially. (Later) I felt you were abusing the privilege, and I modified the bond.”
Of course this all feeds into Kwame’s sense of persecution. He felt entitled to go to Windsor because he was doing the City’s business. He just didn’t feel entitled enough to inform the courts.
The thing is, he’s going to Wayne County lockup – not just any one City Lockup – less than a week after knocking around a Wayne County officer. I’d be scared too, if I were him. But I’m not, so I’ll just sit back and chuckle.
Says L. Brooks Patterson, Oakland County Executive:
“This is the last straw,” he said. “It’s time for the mayor to step aside for the good of the city and region. It’s just painful to watch this whole scene unfold and most of it is due to Kwame’s own behavior.”
“How do you spell humiliation,” Patterson said. “This will be broadcast around the world. It damages the reputation of the region and Detroit. Detroit doesn’t need more bad news.”
Yeah, especially right on the heels of District 13 re-electing Kilpatrick’s mother, the ever ghetto-fabulous, Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, to the US House of representatives. When you re-elected him to another term back in 2006, was this what you were expecting?
I was.
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