| Submit your comments on this article |
| -Lurid Crime Tales- |
| Prosecutors: Kilpatrick should be jailed |
| 2010-04-16 |
| Wayne County prosecutors today filed written arguments saying former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has violated his probation and should be jailed. Prosecutors contend in a 22-page document filed with Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner that Kilpatrick hid more than $650,000 that could have been used for the $1-million restitution stemming from his criminal conviction and the text message scandal. They also charge that Kilpatrick lied to the court and "fraudulently conveyed assets to others to avoid his obligation to pay restitution." Groner said he will announce his decision next week on whether Kilpatrick violated his probation, a finding that could land Kilpatrick behind bars. One of Kilpatrick's lawyers, Michael Alan Schwartz, argued in a filing today that there is no point in sending the ex-mayor to an "already overburdened corrections system." "It is easy to take the view that the defendant should be punished, punished, punished," Schwartz wrote. "There are those in the community who would be pleased to see the defendant and his family suffer." Schwartz also quoted a passage from the Bible, a tactic he has used before in this case: "Justice, justice shall you pursue, that you may thrive and occupy the land that the Lord your God is giving you." During a hearing last month, Beverly Smith, area manager for the state Department of Corrections, said Kilpatrick did not surrender his Internal Revenue Service, state or city tax refunds, as ordered. She said he did not tell her about $657,000 that went through the joint account with his wife Carlita Kilpatrick, or that the Kilpatrick Civic Fund picked up the $15,042.69 bill to move the family to Texas. Nor did he tell her about a $240,000 loan from four Detroit business leaders - including his boss, Compuware owner Peter Karmanos, and others. Karmanos hired Kilpatrick as a salesman at Covisint, a Compuware subsidiary based in Texas, upon the former mayor's release from jail early last year. Wayne County assistant prosecutors Athina Siringas and Robert Spada also pointed out during the hearing that the former Detroit mayor failed to make a $79,011 payment in February. Defense attorneys counter that Kilpatrick has lived up to the agreement as best he could and that some of the financial demands are unreasonable at this time. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 "...so I told the judge 'I ain't got it!'." "What'd the judge say?" "He said 'Well, you better GET it.'" |
| Posted by: mojo 2010-04-16 13:06 |