DETROIT—Kwame Kilpatrick will be wearing an electronic tether around his right ankle as the judge who most recently put it there decides if the embattled and embarrassed Detroit mayor will stand trial on assault charges.
Kilpatrick is to appear at a preliminary examination Friday morning before 36th District Judge Ronald Giles.
But those proceedings likely will lack the surprises Thursday in two courts rooms.
Hours after Wayne County Circuit Judge Leonard Townsend told Kilpatrick to remove his tether, Giles ordered the mayor to put it back on, a result of the legal pingpong occurring in his two separate criminal cases.
Townsend was overseeing Kilpatrick’s arraignment on perjury and other charges. Besides removing the tether, Townsend also said Kilpatrick could attend the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month—over heated objections by an assistant prosecutor.
But by afternoon, Giles reinstated the tether as a condition of his Kilpatrick’s release in the assault case. Those terms were first set Aug. 8.
“The lawyers for the mayor said they were willing to comply,” said Rusty Hills, spokesman for the Michigan attorney general’s office, which is prosecuting the assault case.
Kilpatrick and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, were charged in March with conspiracy, perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, mostly tied to their testimony in a civil trial.
Sexually explicit text messages between the pair, published by the Detroit Free Press in January, contradict their denial of an affair, a key point in the trial last year involving a former deputy police chief.
Separately, the 38-year-old Kilpatrick is accused of shoving Wayne County sheriff’s deputy Brian White into another investigator as they tried to serve a subpoena last month in the perjury case.
The newest twist in that case is the partial release Thursday evening of an audio recording of White apparently joking with a dispatcher about the confrontation with Kilpatrick at his sister’s Detroit home.
Defense attorney James Thomas said he plans to play the full recording during cross examination of White at Friday’s preliminary examination.
Thomas also said Kilpatrick will abide by Giles’ order barring the mayor from travel outside the Detroit metro area, despite Townsend’s earlier ruling.
“I see absolutely no reason for that and it’s silly,” said Townsend, drawing an immediate protest from Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Lisa Lindsey who reminded the judge that Kilpatrick’s travel was restricted because he earlier had violated the conditions of his release.
“I think you’re losing your composure,” Townsend told Lindsey.
The prosecutor’s office filed an appeal Thursday with the Michigan Court of Appeals. It was not known when the appeals court would act.
Thomas was pleased with Townsend’s ruling: “This is the first time a judge has stood up for him.”
By afternoon, however, Giles signed his order emphasizing that the tether remains a condition of release in the assault case.
“It’s not that bulky,” said John Roach, spokesman for the Wayne County sheriff.
It also may be premature for Kilpatrick to pack his bags for the convention. That’s because a ban on out-of-state travel is part of the assault case.
“If someone wants to discuss changes to that, they’re going to have to bring that up with us,” Hills said.
A Michigan spokesman for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Kilpatrick would be a distraction at the convention.
Brent Colburn said in an e-mail that “the focus of our convention to people back in Michigan should be on Barack Obama and how the party intends to get America back on track, not (on) a distraction involving the troubles of one individual.”
Without saying whether he wanted to attend the convention, Kilpatrick echoed Colburn’s assessment in a statement released Thursday evening.
“The nomination of Senator Obama at the Democratic National Convention will be a historic event, however I’m focused on running the city and I don’t want anything to distract from that extraordinary moment,” Kilpatrick said. “The focus should remain on uniting the party and leading our great nation in a different direction.”
Also Thursday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s legal team said she has no authority to pardon Kilpatrick because he hasn’t been convicted of a crime. One of his lawyers had raised that possibility in a letter to the governor Wednesday.
The state constitution says the governor can only grant a pardon in a criminal case after a conviction.
Granholm plans to hold a Sept. 3 hearing to decide if she should remove Kilpatrick from office. Earlier Thursday, she addressed the matter following a speech in Traverse City.
“I’ve said all along this has got to be resolved,” Granholm said. “This has been very, very difficult for the city and for the state, and it’s obvious why we need a resolution.”
———
Associated Press writers Ben Leubsdorf in Detroit, Tom Krisher in Traverse City and Kathy Barks Hoffman in Lansing contributed to this report.
