Court blocks Detroit council's plan to oust mayor

DETROIT (Reuters) - Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick won a legal victory on Monday when a judge blocked the city council from holding hearings intended to oust him.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Ziolkowski ruled the Detroit City Council does not have authority to move forward with proceedings to remove Kilpatrick under the city charter.

Kilpatrick, 38, still may be removed by Michigan's Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a former ally, who has scheduled a hearing on September 3.

Once seen as a rising star in the Democratic Party, Kilpatrick has been charged with perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in a cases related to a sex scandal and the city's handling of a $8.4 million whistle-blower lawsuit. He also faces a separate felony assault charge.

Kilpatrick's legal problems have deadlocked city government and threaten the Democratic party's efforts to carry Michigan, a battleground state, in the November 4 election.

Kilpatrick has faced mounting pressure from his party and civic leaders to resign.

"There has been a lot of piling on, but today the people of Detroit got to see a judge rule on the facts of the case," said Marcus Reese, a spokesman for Kilpatrick.

Detroit City Councilman Kwame Kenyatta said those pushing for Kilpatrick's ouster would not be deterred.

"It is something that was expected," Kenyatta told Detroit radio station WWJ of the court ruling. "It was clear that there would be some challenge to the council, so the backstop is in fact the governor."

Detroit, the 11th-largest U.S. city, has been in a downward spiral, ravaged by a declining population, high unemployment, failing schools and a housing market saddled with thousands of abandoned homes.

Dubbed the "hip-hop" mayor when he took office in 2002, Kilpatrick has claimed that the charges against him are racially motivated, likening his critics to a "lynch mob."

Last week, the Michigan Chronicle, a black newspaper in the city, called for Kilpatrick to leave office. "The nation's largest African-American electoral base has reached a state of paralysis," it said.

Kilpatrick, who has to wear an electronic monitoring device, is a delegate to the Democratic convention in Denver but a court order bars him from leaving the three counties around Detroit.

On Friday, a Detroit judge also ordered him to stand trial for felony assault after a police officer trying to serve a subpoena in the perjury case said Kilpatrick pushed him and screamed obscenities during a July incident at the home of Kilpatrick's sister.

Kilpatrick is set to be arraigned on the assault charge on August 22. A trial date in the perjury case is expected to be set at a September 4 hearing.