Mired in a sex scandal that crippled the governance of Detroit all year, the city’s troubled mayor chose Thursday to walk out of office rather than risk being heaved out.
The tawdry drama of Kwame Kilpatrick, the once- promising 38-year-old mayor of the nation’s 11th-largest city, ended in a wood-paneled courtroom when a subdued Kilpatrick, after months of defiant claims of innocence, meekly pleaded guilty to reduced felony charges and agreed to serve four months in jail and pay up to $1 million in restitution.
“I lied under oath,” Kilpatrick told the court, conceding what growing numbers of Detroiters have suspected for months: that he covered up an affair with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, as part of a lawsuit settlement that cost the city $8.4 million.
Kilpatrick is scheduled to leave office no later than Sept. 18. But in a city whose residents are well aware of the steamy details of text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, widely reported in the media, the mayor is already history.
“I think there is a giant sense of relief in the city and the entire state over the events of today,” said Larry Dubin, a professor at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law.
Kilpatrick will be succeeded by Ken Cockrel Jr., 42, the city council president and one of five council members who voted in May to begin ouster proceedings against the mayor. Cockrel will serve until a special election is held.
Cockrel said it was “a very sad day for the city of Detroit, but I think we also have to recognize it’s also a day of hope and renewal.”
On Wednesday, Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm had begun expulsion hearings, fanning a flurry of activity aimed at a plea bargain.
Granholm, who halted Thursday’s scheduled hearing after Kilpatrick’s plea, called the events of the day “a sad but historic story” that is coming to an end. Such a scenario did not seem likely seven years ago, when the charismatic 31-year-old state legislator and son of a powerful congresswoman took over the reins of the shrinking city and seemed to energize the city by force of will.
