Detroit mayor pleads guilty, to leave office

By David Bailey

DETROIT (Reuters) - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty on Thursday to obstruction of justice in a plea agreement that forces him from office and caps a scandal that had threatened to spill over into the U.S. presidential campaign in a key battleground state.

The guilty plea to two felony charges stems from Kilpatrick's role in the city's $8.4-million settlement of a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by two fired police officers.

Prosecutors alleged he lied in the lawsuit proceedings and to Detroit's city council, which approved the settlement, to conceal text messages that revealed an affair with his former chief of staff.

Under the deal, Kilpatrick will resign from office, spend four months in jail, pay $1 million in restitution to the city, surrender his law license and serve a five-year probation during which he will be barred from running for office.

Kilpatrick, 38 and once a rising star in the Democratic Party, had faced up to 15 years in prison if convicted of felony perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct charges.

He had faced mounting pressure from his own party and civic leaders to step down as his growing legal problems deadlocked city administration and threatened to put the blot of corruption on Democrats in the hotly contested state as the presidential race goes into its final laps.

Dubbed the "hip-hop" mayor when he took office in 2002, Kilpatrick had remained defiant in the face of his mounting legal troubles, claiming the charges against him were racially motivated.

When asked by Judge David Groner of the Wayne County Circuit Court if he understood that he would be giving up his right to be presumed innocent by agreeing to the plea deal, Kilpatrick said, "I think I gave that up a long time ago."

Kilpatrick, who appeared in court in a brown suit, also read a statement admitting he had lied when testifying in the suit brought by a former deputy police chief who had been investigating the mayor and his bodyguards when he was fired.

"I lied under oath," Kilpatrick said. "I did so with the intent to mislead the court and the jury and to impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice."

'LONG NIGHTMARE' OVER

In a speech Thursday night, Kilpatrick said the decision to step down as mayor was the most difficult of his life.

"I take full responsibility for my actions, for the poor judgment that they reflected," Kilpatrick said. "I wish with all my heart that we could turn back the hands of time and tell that young man to make better choices, but I can't."

In a separate deal, Kilpatrick also pleaded no contest to a charge of felony assault stemming from a July incident in which a police officer trying to serve a subpoena in the perjury case said Kilpatrick pushed him and screamed obscenities.

Kilpatrick's resignation, effective in two weeks, will make Detroit City Council president Kenneth Cockrel, a former journalist and community activist, mayor of the 11th-largest U.S. city.