Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy Detroit mayor to face charges

 Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy Detroit mayor to face charges
Perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct charges laid by prosecutor

DETROIT - Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced this morning that she is charging Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty in connection with 12 felonies including perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office in a text-messaging scandal.

Kilpatrick was to be arraigned today at 5 p.m.

"President Theodore Roosevelt once said 'no man is above the law and no man is below it,' she said. "In this case we asked 'can we charge perjury? Yes. Are there other crimes and offence we can charge other than perjury? Yes. Should we charge?' Yes.

"Today we have filed a 12-count criminal information that contains charges against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty."


Penalties for the charges range from five to fifteen years in prison. A conviction of lying under oath can bring up to 15 years' imprisonment.

Both are charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice -- a five year felony, said Worthy. " That count states that they did unlawfully conspire and confederate together with each other and others to commit obstruction of justice."

Worthy has been investigating claims the pair lied under oath during a whistle-blowers' trial last summer when they denied having a romantic relationship. Published excerpts of sexually explicit text messages left on Beatty's city-issued pager in 2002 and 2003 appear to contradict their testimony.

Kilpatrick has said he expected to be vindicated.

Worthy also accused some members of the Detroit city hall of attempting to obstruct her investigation. "We have reviewed over 40,000 pages of documents that we have obtained and talked to many witnesses," she said.

"While many individuals have been very co-operative through the course of this investigation there have been some obstacles in our way, obstacle that have caused delays for us. I have no tolerance for deliberate obstruction ... at every bend and turn there have been attempts by the city through one lawyer or another to block our investigation."