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, in order to conceal text messages that revealed an affair with his former chief of staff.

Under the plea deal, Kilpatrick will resign from office, spend four months in jail, pay $1 million in restitution to the city of Detroit, 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 and loss of his office if convicted of felony charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct.

Kilpatrick 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 a blot of corruption on Democrats in the hotly contested state as the presidential race goes into 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 that 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 out 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 and justice."

"LONG NIGHTMARE" OVER

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

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

Kilpatrick's resignation will take effect within the next two weeks under an agreement with Cockrel, lawyers said.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who spearheaded the case against Kilpatrick, said she had sought a tougher six-month jail term at one point, but agreed to a shorter sentence to allow the city to put the scandal behind it.