Former Detroit Mayor Convicted of Racketeering and Other Charges

Kwame Kilpatrick, the former mayor of Detroit, was convicted on federal corruption charges Monday, according to NBC News. Kilpatrick was found guilty of 24 criminal counts by a jury. They include extortion, racketeering, and bribery. The count of racketeering carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison alone.

According to prosecutors, Kilpatrick gave friend and contractor Bobby Ferguson $83 million in city work. In return, Kilpatrick was given hundreds of thousands of dollars in kickbacks. Ferguson and Kilpatrick’s father were also found guilty by the jury on Monday.

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During testimony, a fundraiser said that she gave Kilpatrick a personal cut of his political donations totaling $200,000 and pulled money out of her bra during private meetings with the mayor.

In 2008, the former mayor pled guilty to obstruction of justice for lying during a civil trial. The trial involved his affair with former chief of staff and then plotting with her to fire the deputy police chief. He resigned his post and subsequently spent three months in prison. He then violated probation, which sent him to jail for over a year.

Kilpatrick was found not guilty on three charges and the jury could not reach a verdict on another three charges. Dave Bing, the current mayor of Detroit said in a statement that, “we can finally put this negative chapter in Detroit’s history behind us.”

Ferguson was convicted of racketeering and Kilpatrick’s dad, Bernard, was convicted of submitting a false tax return.

Posted by Jim Vassallo on March 11, 2013. Filed under Legal News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.