Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) was an American politician who served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit from 2002 to 2008. He was a member of the Democratic Party and had previously worked as a representative for the 9th district in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. Kilpatrick stopped being mayor in September 2008 after being found guilty of lying under oath and blocking the justice system. He was sentenced to four months in jail and was released after serving 99 days on probation.
In 2010, Kilpatrick was sentenced to between 18 months and five years in state prison for breaking the terms of his probation. He spent time at the Oaks Correctional Facility in northwest Michigan. In March 2013, he was found guilty of 24 serious crimes, including mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering. In October 2013, Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison and was put in the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Oklahoma. In 2021, President Donald Trump reduced his sentence, and Kilpatrick was released from prison.
Early life, education, and family
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick was born on June 8, 1970, to Bernard Kilpatrick and Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick. His parents divorced in 1981. Kilpatrick attended Cass Technical High School in Detroit and graduated from Florida A&M University with a degree in political science in 1992. While at Florida A&M University, he played football as an offensive tackle under Ken Riley, a famous NFL player, and was team captain. On September 9, 1995, he married Carlita Poles in Detroit. Together, they have three children: Jalil, Jonas, and Jelani. In 1999, he earned a law degree from Detroit College of Law at Michigan State University. He has a sister named Ayanna and a half-sister named Diarra.
Kilpatrick’s mother, Carolyn, was a career politician. She represented Detroit in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1979 to 1996 and later served in the United States House of Representatives for Michigan’s 13th congressional district from 1996 to 2010. She was not re-elected after losing her primary election in August 2010 to State Senator Hansen Clarke. During her re-election campaign, she faced questions about Kwame Kilpatrick’s time as mayor of Detroit.
Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard, was a basketball player and politician. He was elected to the Wayne County Commission, worked as head of the Wayne County Health and Human Services Department from 1989 to 2002, and served as chief of staff to former Wayne County Executive Edward H. McNamara. Later, he ran a Detroit consulting firm called Maestro Associates.
In 2018, Kilpatrick filed for divorce from Carlita. In July 2021, he married Laticia Maria McGee at the Historic Little Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Detroit.
Michigan state representative
In 1996, Kilpatrick was elected to the Michigan House of Representatives. His mother had left her seat in Detroit to run for Congress. Kilpatrick's campaign team included high school friends Derrick Miller and Christine Beatty. Beatty later became his legislative aide, and he had a relationship with her. Kilpatrick said his campaign had a budget of $10,000 and did not receive support from trade unions, congressional districts, or the Democratic Party leadership.
Kilpatrick was chosen as the minority floor leader for the Michigan Democratic Party from 1998 to 2000. In 2001, he became the house minority leader, the first African-American to hold that role. That same year, he ran for mayor of Detroit and hired Berg/Muirhead Associates as his campaign team. After he won the mayoral election, the firm continued to work with him as his public relations company. During the 2000 presidential election, Kilpatrick served as a Michigan state co-chair for GoreNet, a group that supported Al Gore's campaign by organizing local efforts and online activities, as well as hosting events for small donors.
In 2001, Kilpatrick used his position in the Michigan legislature to direct state grant money to two organizations with unclear project details. These groups were managed by his friends and agreed to hire U.N.I.T.E., a company owned by his wife, Carlita. Carlita was the only employee of the firm, which received $175,000 from the organizations. One of the groups was Detroit 3D. The state stopped sending the second and final $250,000 payment to 3D because the group refused to share information about how the funds were being used.
First mayoral term (2002–2006)
On New Year’s Day 2002, Kilpatrick was sworn in as the youngest mayor of Detroit when he took office at age 31.
During his first term, Kilpatrick faced criticism for using city funds to rent a Lincoln Navigator for his family and charging thousands of dollars on a city-issued credit card for spa massages, expensive meals, and costly wines. Kilpatrick repaid $9,000 of the $210,000 charged to the card. At the same time, he closed the century-old Belle Isle Zoo and Belle Isle Aquarium due to budget issues. The City Council ignored his veto on funding for the zoo and approved a budget of $700,000 for it.
In 2005, Time magazine listed Kilpatrick as one of the worst mayors in America.
Since the 1970s, a federal judge had appointed the mayor of Detroit as the special administrator of the Detroit Water Department because of serious pollution problems. In late 2005, when concerns about water department contracts arose, Judge Feikens ended Kilpatrick’s role as special administrator because of his position as mayor. In January 2006, The Detroit News reported that Kilpatrick had used his special administrator authority to bypass the water board and City Council on three controversial contracts. These included a $131 million radio system for the city’s police and fire departments, as well as a no-bid public relations contract for a close personal aide. However, Judge Feikens praised Kilpatrick’s work managing the water department and referred contract-related questions to a special investigator.
In the fall of 2002, it was claimed that Kilpatrick hosted a party at the Manoogian Mansion, a city-owned home for the mayor. Former members of the mayor’s police security detail said that Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita, returned home unexpectedly and physically attacked an exotic dancer, Tamara Greene. In April 2003, Officer Harold C. Nelthrope informed the Detroit Police Department’s Internal Affairs unit about possible misconduct by the security detail. Kilpatrick denied any wrongdoing. An investigation by Michigan’s attorney general and state police found no evidence the party occurred.
Greene was killed on April 30, 2003, near the intersection of Roselawn and West Outer Drive while sitting in her car with her 32-year-old boyfriend. She was shot multiple times with a .40 caliber Glock pistol, the same type used by Detroit police officers. Her family believed the killing was a deliberate attempt to stop her from testifying about the Manoogian Mansion party. Greene’s family filed a $150 million lawsuit against the city, claiming she was murdered to prevent her testimony. In late 2011, a federal judge ruled in favor of the city. Greene’s children appealed the decision, but a higher court upheld the ruling. Many documents were submitted in the case, including claims about whether the party occurred and whether Carlita and Greene had a fight. A Detroit police lieutenant said he suspected the shooter was a police officer and claimed that high-ranking officials in the police department intentionally hindered his investigation. A city lawyer called the lieutenant’s statement “absurd.”
In 2002, Washington D.C. police said they would only provide police protection to Kilpatrick during official business in the city. They stopped offering protection outside of work hours because of his past behavior during visits, such as late-night parties. A D.C. police sergeant explained that the decision was made because late-night parties could overwork officers and lead to incidents at clubs. Kilpatrick’s administration claimed the police actions were part of a political effort to harm him.
At a campaign rally in May 2005, Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard, strongly denied claims that his son held a party at the Manoogian Mansion, comparing such accusations to false claims made by the Nazis against Jewish people. Bernard later apologized. In October 2005, a group supporting Kilpatrick printed an advertisement that compared media criticism of the mayor to lynch mobs and accused his opponent, Freman Hendrix, of helping suburbs take advantage of Detroit. The group’s treasurer said he was not responsible for the ad and did not know who placed it. Michigan’s Secretary of State did not investigate who placed the ad.
Kilpatrick and Hendrix, both Democrats, initially claimed victory in the election. However, as votes were counted, it became clear that Kilpatrick had won a second term. Three months earlier, many experts had said Kilpatrick’s political career was over after he lost a primary election for the first time. Pre-election polls predicted a large win for Hendrix, but Kilpatrick won with 53% of the vote.
Second mayoral term (2006–2008)
In July 2006, Detroit's City Council voted unanimously to approve Kilpatrick's tax plan, which aimed to reduce property tax rates for homeowners. The tax cuts ranged from 18% to 35%, depending on the value of the property.
The city of Detroit was fourteen months late in filing its 2005–2006 audit. In March 2008, officials estimated the audit would cost an additional $2.4 million because of new auditing requirements that the city had not addressed. The 2006–2007 fiscal year audit, which was due on December 31, 2007, was expected to be eleven months late.
The state treasury withheld $35 million of its monthly revenue sharing to the city and required Detroit to get approval before selling bonds to raise money. Kilpatrick told the City Council that he would take partial blame for the late audits because he had laid off too many accountants, but he also blamed the firm hired to replace them.
On July 15, 2008, WXYZ reporter Steve Wilson revealed that in 2005, Kilpatrick, Christine Beatty, and the chief of police, Ella Bully-Cummings, allegedly used their positions to help an influential Baptist minister, Mangedwa Nyathi, who was arrested for soliciting a prostitute, get his case dismissed. The arresting officer, Antoinette Bostic, was told by her supervisors that Nyathi was a minister and that the mayor and police chief were calling to persuade her not to appear in court, which would have forced the judge to dismiss the case. Bostic ignored her supervisors and appeared in court.
The defense lawyer, Charles Hammons, postponed the case a few times and stated in court that "the mayor told me yesterday that this case is not gonna go forward." Hammons admitted to Wilson that this was true and that this was how many cases for people who know the mayor in Detroit were handled. Bully-Cummings angrily denied that she had ever asked her officers to perform such acts of impropriety. Kilpatrick stated that Steve Wilson "was just making up stories."
A 2008 Detroit Free Press article revealed that at any given time, about 100 people appointed by Kilpatrick were employed with the city. The Press discovered that 29 of Kilpatrick's closest friends and family were appointed to positions in various city departments. Some appointees had little or no experience, while others, including Kilpatrick's uncle Ray Cheeks and cousin Nneka Cheeks, falsified their résumés. Kilpatrick's cousin Patricia Peoples was appointed deputy director of human resources, giving her the ability to hire more of Kilpatrick's friends and family without the hirings being viewed as mayoral appointments. The large number of Kilpatrick's appointments compared to those made by previous mayors since 1970, along with Kilpatrick's elimination of thousands of city jobs, made his appointments controversial.
The jobs held by friends and family ranged from secretaries to department heads. The appointees had an average salary increase of 36%, compared with 2% raises in 2003 and 2004 for other city workers. Some of the largest salary increases were for April Edgar, half-sister of Christine Beatty, whose pay increased 86% over five years. One of Kilpatrick's cousins, Ajene Evans, had a 77% salary increase during this five-year period. The biggest salary increase among the 29 appointees was that of LaTonya Wallace-Hardiman, who went from a $32,500 staff secretary to an executive assistant making $85,501—163% in five years.
On July 24, 2008, two local law enforcement detectives, Brian White and Joanne Kinney, went to the home of Kilpatrick's sister to serve a subpoena. While on the front porch of the home, Kilpatrick exited the house with his bodyguards and pushed White onto Kinney. The mayor yelled at Kinney: "How can a black woman be riding in a car with a man named White?"
Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans later said: "There were armed executive protection officers. My officers were there armed. And all of them had the consummate good sense not to let it escalate" and "the two officers 'wisely' left the property and returned to their office to report on the incident." Evans stated that due to the political nature of the incident, the investigation was transferred to Michigan State Police. Evans's daughter, a staffer for Kilpatrick, resigned shortly thereafter.
Resignation from mayoralty, criminal conviction
In 2003, a legal case was started by Harold Nelthrope, a former bodyguard, and Gary Brown, a former police chief, who said they were fired because of an investigation into city officials. Brown led the investigation, and Nelthrope shared information about a party at the mayor’s home. Both claimed the mayor wanted to stop the investigation because it might reveal his personal relationships outside his marriage. The trial started in August 2007. The mayor and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, said they were not involved in any affairs. In September 2007, after three hours of discussion, the jury ruled in favor of Nelthrope and Brown, giving them $6.5 million. The mayor said the jury’s makeup, which included mostly white people from suburbs, influenced the result and promised to appeal.
In October, the lawyer for the plaintiffs, Mike Stefani, received thousands of text messages showing an affair between the mayor and Beatty. After sharing the messages with city lawyers, the mayor agreed to settle the case. The city approved an $8.4 million deal, which required Stefani to give the messages to the mayor. Later, the Detroit Free Press requested the documents through a law called the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The condition about giving the messages to the mayor was moved to a separate, private document. The Free Press and The Detroit News sued for full access to the settlement papers. In February 2008, the Michigan Supreme Court ordered all settlement documents to be shared with the plaintiffs. Most of the text messages were released in late October 2008, with some parts hidden.
Beatty left her job as the mayor’s chief of staff. The City Council asked the mayor to resign and the governor to remove him from office. The governor said her role was like a judge’s, and the mayor said he had repaid the $8.4 million through his work and dismissed calls to resign as "political talk."
In March 2008, the mayor gave his seventh "State of the City" speech. Most of the speech focused on positive changes in Detroit, including better policing and rebuilding neighborhoods. He received applause from the audience. Toward the end, he spoke about scandals and said the media focused on them to gain attention and caused racial attacks against him and his family.
His comments caused criticism. Governor Jennifer Granholm said using the N-word was wrong. Attorney General Mike Cox called the speech "race-baiting" and said the mayor should resign. A former adviser said the speech was an attempt to regain support by using race issues.
The Wayne County Election Committee approved a recall petition to remove the mayor, partly because he misled the City Council about the settlement. The petition was filed by Douglas Johnson, a city council candidate. The mayor argued Johnson was not a Detroit resident and asked the commission to reconsider. Johnson said he would refile with someone else who lived in Detroit. A second recall petition was filed by Angelo Brown, who said the mayor was too busy with legal issues to lead effectively. The mayor’s spokesman said the recall was an attempt by a political candidate to gain attention.
In May 2008, the Detroit City Council asked the governor to remove the mayor from office.
On March 24, 2008, the Wayne County Prosecutor announced a criminal case with 12 charges against the mayor and Beatty, including lying under oath and blocking justice. The case moved directly to trial after both sides waived a preliminary hearing.
In July 2008, the mayor broke his bail rules by traveling to Windsor, Ontario, to discuss a deal about a tunnel. He was jailed for one night, the first time a Detroit mayor was jailed. A judge said he could not be treated differently from ordinary citizens. After arguments from his lawyers, he was released with a $50,000 bond and a tracking device.
The same day, the attorney general added two new charges against the mayor for allegedly pushing two sheriff deputies who were serving a subpoena.
On September 4, 2008, the mayor announced he would resign as mayor on September 18 and pleaded guilty to two felony charges of blocking justice. He also pleaded no contest to a charge of assaulting a deputy. In a separate case, he pleaded no contest to one charge of attacking a police officer.
Other post-mayoral legal developments
In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission accused Kilpatrick and former city treasurer Jeffrey W. Beasley of receiving $180,000 in travel expenses, hotel stays, and gifts from a company seeking investments from the city pension fund. Chauncey C. Mayfield and his company were also involved in administrative proceedings. The company received a $117 million investment in a real estate investment trust that it controlled. MayfieldGentry then used $3.1 million from the pension fund illegally, which was discovered during an investigation into improper influence. Mayfield admitted guilt in 2013. The case was set to be reviewed in June 2014.
According to The Detroit News (June 24, 2010), Kilpatrick, his father Bernard, and the Kilpatrick Civic Fund may have been key individuals in a sludge hauling contract that led to city council president Monica Conyers (wife of Rep. John Conyers) and her chief of staff Sam Riddle being convicted of conspiracy and bribery. Kilpatrick and his father were also involved in evidence related to a bribery-tainted, $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract the Detroit City Council awarded to Synagro Technologies Inc. in 2007. Court documents and people familiar with the case show that former Synagro official James Rosendall made large contributions to the Kilpatrick Civic Fund and gave Kilpatrick free flights to Las Vegas and Mackinac Island. Rosendall also told investigators he gave cash payments to Bernard N. Kilpatrick, who said he provided Rosendall access to City Hall, according to records. Rosendall and a Synagro consultant, Rayford Jackson, were also convicted of bribery.
Memoir
Kwame Kilpatrick co-wrote a book about his life and political career titled Surrendered: The Rise, Fall, & Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick. The book was planned to be released on August 2, 2011, just before Kilpatrick was scheduled to leave a Michigan prison. However, the publisher postponed the release to August 9, which was nearly a week after Kilpatrick was paroled. Kilpatrick attended public events in Michigan and other locations to promote his book.
The public prosecutor in Wayne County, Michigan, requested that state courts order the book’s publisher, Creative Publishing Consultants Inc. of Tennessee, to send Kilpatrick’s share of the book’s earnings to pay for his criminal restitution and the cost of his time in prison. On November 16, 2011, the publisher’s attorney did not appear at a court hearing about the case. A court order was issued for the attorney, Jack Gritton, and it was sent to authorities in Tennessee, where Gritton works.
Post-release activities
Since his release, Kilpatrick has worked as an ordained minister, motivational speaker, consultant, and certified character coach. In April 2023, he spoke at the Black Agenda Movement conference, which was organized by YouTuber Michelle R. Kulczyk, also known as Meechi X. On June 15, 2024, Kilpatrick endorsed Donald Trump in the 2024 United States presidential election.
Electoral history
- 2005 Detroit Mayor Election: Kwame Kilpatrick (D) (current mayor), 53% Freman Hendrix (D), 47%
- 2005 Detroit Mayor Primary Election: Freman Hendrix (D), 45% Kwame Kilpatrick (D) (current mayor), 34% Sharon McPhail (D), 12% Hansen Clarke (D), 8%
- 2001 Detroit Mayor Election: Kwame Kilpatrick (D), 54% Gil Hill (D), 46%
As a politician, Kilpatrick belonged to the Democratic Party.
Kilpatrick was part of the Mayors Against Illegal Guns Coalition, a group made up of members from different political parties who work together to stop illegal guns. The group’s goal was to make the public safer by removing illegal guns from streets. The group was led by Mayor Thomas Menino of Boston and Michael Bloomberg of New York City. After Kilpatrick was found guilty in 2013 for breaking federal laws, it was unclear at first whether he remained a member. By December 2012, he was no longer listed as a member of the group.
Personal life
In July 2006, Kilpatrick was taken to the hospital in Houston, Texas, and doctors found he had diverticulitis. His personal physician explained that this condition might have been caused by a high-protein weight-loss diet.