Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick released from jail, but faces new charges
The mayor, who was jailed for violating his bond agreement, is charged with assault for an alleged incident in July.
CHICAGO -- After spending the night in jail, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was released this morning, only to be charged hours later with assault for allegedly shoving a Sheriff's Department investigator when he tried to serve a friend of Kilpatrick's with a subpoena.
Today's assault charges against Kilpatrick are in connection with an alleged incident July 24 at the mayor's sister's house in Detroit.
Wayne County Sheriff's Department Det. Brian White testified in court last month that he and his partner arrived at the house to try to serve a subpoena related to perjury charges brought against the mayor to Kilpatrick's friend Bobby Ferguson. According to White, the mayor shouted vulgarities at him. He said Kilpatrick then picked him up and threw him into JoAnne Kinney, an investigator with the Wayne County prosecutor's office.
Detroit mayor: An article in Saturday's Section A about the legal troubles of Detroit Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick referred to U.S. Circuit Court Judge Thomas Jackson. Jackson is in fact a Wayne County Circuit Court judge.
Both investigators told the court that the mayor, who is African American, also made racially charged comments to White, who is white, and Kinney, who is black. White told the court that the incident left him with a fractured hip.
"It is a very serious case," Michigan Atty. Gen. Mike Cox said at a news conference this morning. "I cannot recall, ever, seeing, let alone hearing, of a situation where a police officer trying to serve a subpoena was assaulted."
At an arraignment hearing this afternoon, Kilpatrick pleaded not guilty. Bond was set at $25,000. A preliminary hearing on the case is set for next Friday.
Kilpatrick's defense team has described the incident to reporters as a calm exchange of words between the investigators and the mayor, and that the former football player politely escorted the pair off his sister's property.
James Thomas, attorney for the two-term Democratic mayor, said today they will fight the assault charges with the same "law and common sense" approach as has been taken with Kilpatrick's other legal woes.
In that case, a state district court judge ruled Thursday that the mayor should be jailed because he violated the conditions of his bond by going to Canada for a business meeting without clearing the trip with the court. Kilpatrick, 38, faces eight felony charges -- including perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice -- after he and former top aide Christine Beatty testified during a public whistle-blower trial last year that they did not have a relationship.
But the Detroit Free Press in January released racy snippets from more than 14,000 text messages sent to and from Beatty's city-provided pager in 2002 and 2003. Kilpatrick sent one to Beatty in 2002 that read, "I'm madly in love with you."
Beatty was charged with seven felonies.
p.j.huffstutter@latimes.com
