Judge: Detroit mayor removal hearing can't proceed

[August 19, 2008]  DETROIT (AP) -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won a small but much-needed legal victory when a judge ruled the Detroit City Council doesn't have the authority to force him from office.

The mayor, facing 10 felony counts in two cases, still has a big fight ahead of him to stay in office -- and out of jail.

"We'll take it. We'll take this," said James Thomas, part of the team representing Kilpatrick on a number of legal fronts, including separate perjury and assault cases.

Wayne County Circuit Court Judge Robert Ziolkowski ruled Monday the city charter doesn't contain language allowing the council to punish Kilpatrick by forfeiture of office.

But the Democratic mayor could still be ousted by Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a fellow Democrat, who has scheduled a Sept. 3 misconduct hearing at the request of the council.

Kilpatrick's legal mess stems from a text-messaging sex scandal that unfolded in late January, leading the Wayne County prosecutor to charge him and his ex-top aide with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice. He also faces two felony assault charges filed by the state attorney general's office.

The council passed a resolution on a 5-4 vote in May to go forward with forfeiture of office efforts. It accuses Kilpatrick of violating the charter by not revealing a confidentiality agreement linked to an $8.4 million settlement in a whistle-blowers' settlement.

The mayor's office has criticized the council's efforts from the outset.

"All the time and effort and energy they spent, all goes for naught, and they're going to have to start over if they are going to do anything or appeal," Thomas said. "Either way, I think we are in a much, much better position."

The trial-like hearing was to have started Monday.

"The judge called it like he saw it," Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel said, who voted for forfeiture. She said the council would review their options with council lawyer William Goodman.

It ultimately will be up to the council to decide what's next, but Goodman vowed to appeal the decision, saying the ruling deprived city government "of any mechanism where this city can purge itself of wrongdoing."

The council is on break until early September. That break would have been interrupted had the forfeiture hearing been allowed to proceed.

Goodman and Cockrel both said the attention now turns to the council's second alternative to forcing Kilpatrick out: Granholm. "I think that's the appropriate venue. It's been the appropriate venue all along," Cockrel said.

Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty are accused of lying during last year's whistle-blowers' trial about having an intimate relationship and about their roles in the firing of a police official.

Kilpatrick and Beatty deny the charges, but sexually explicit text messages left on Beatty's city-issued pagers contradict their testimony.

Separately, the mayor was ordered tried last week on assault charges. He is accused of shoving a sheriff's deputy into another investigator seeking to serve a subpoena on a friend of the mayor's in the perjury case.

[Associated Press; By COREY WILLIAMS]

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.