DETROIT — A judge ruled Friday that there’s enough evidence for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to stand trial on two felony assault charges stemming from a confrontation with two investigators.
The investigators testified that an angry Kilpatrick shoved one of them into the other and made racial remarks while they were trying to deliver a subpoena in the mayor’s perjury case on one of Kilpatrick’s friends last month.
District Judge Ronald Giles said there was no question Kilpatrick knew Wayne County sheriff’s Detective Brian White and county prosecutor’s investigator JoAnn Kinney were on official business at the home where the confrontation took place.
“It’s clear Kilpatrick knew who Detective White was. He had previous contact with him through his other case. He specifically called him by name in this case,” Giles said.
White testified that the mayor shoved him into Kinney when he was trying to deliver the subpoena. He and Kinney also testified that Kilpatrick used profanity and made a racial remark.
“You’re a black woman,” Kinney said the mayor told her. “You should be ashamed of yourself being with a man with the last name White. You should not be a part of this.”
The mayor and Kinney are black. White is white.
Kilpatrick’s attorneys have denied an assault took place.
Defense attorney Jim Thomas said after the hearing that he would peck away at inconsistencies between the testimonies of White and Kinney when the case goes to trial. He called the investigators’ visit to the house a setup.
Kilpatrick remains free on bond ahead of arraignment this week in Wayne County Circuit Court. He must continue to wear an electronic ankle tether.
