Mayorgate 08 - OVER!

10:25 Kwame Kilpatrick has entered a plea and will resign. details to come.

10:30 The judge was reading the 8 counts against Kilpatrick after the plea deal was read. my feed crapped out part way through, i missed the prison time, but he is to pay the city $1M in remittance and surrender his state retirement. the judge left called council to chamber briefly to discuss a point in the plea agreement

10:32 Guilty to 2 counts of obstruction of justice is the plea.

10:37 the judge just read Kilpatrick the rights he forfeits by submitting a plea on this case. there was a brief laugh in the court as Kwame assured the court that he was happy with his lawyers. i missed the jail time bit, but maybe he got out of it... more to come.

10:41 Kilpatrick just read a statement that the reason that he must plea is because he lied under oath and deliberately meant to mislead the court. sentencing will take place on Oct 28.

10:47: as part of the plea, Kilpatrick will serve a concurrent 4 months in Wayne County Jail as a result of the assault charges stemming from an incident with police a couple months ago. the judge is reading the same list of forfeited rights now...

10:53: well, theyve wrapped up in Detroit. Kilpatrick has plead guilty to the whole perjury thing and no contest to the assault charges. he will be serving 120 days in Wayne County Jail, pay $1M to the city, $20k of that due at the Oct 28 sentencing, will serve 5 years probation during which he will not be able to hold or run for public office, and i imagine that he will be disbarred as a result of all this too.

at the end of the proceeding the judge thanked all involved for getting this resolved. he kind of stubled over his words, but i think he meant to thank them for avoiding the long drawn out trial that may have resulted and to avoid having Granholm remove him from office. i have to commend Granholm for getting her hearing going and quickly, i have a feeling that this lit a bit of a fire under the Kilpatrick team to get the plea in a stop the governor's removal hearing.

as they were wrapping up, Kilpatrick wiped his brow. its kind of funny, im sure he had been sweating a bit under that spotlight in court, literally, and now, he ca stop the figurative sweating as he now knows what faces him, and, considering the charges, i think he got a pretty good deal. as he stepped from behind the table his wife, Carlita, approached, they embraced, and he kissed her warmly and kindly on the forehead a couple of times. its a good reminder that while Kwame may be a corrupt mayor, he is also a husband, a father, and a person like you an me. while im glad that he finally is paying for what he did, and most importantly, he wont be running the city, im also happy that he wont be removed from his family for years, because they have already suffered for what he did and shouldnt be made to suffer more.

Detroit can breathe a sigh a of releif, its over. now they just have to figure out what is next. hopefully they can get something on the November ballot and hopefully Ken Cockerel can keep the wheels on until then. well, the wheel, i think a couple are arleady gone. that brings up another question: what ever happened with that whole sludge/corruption investigation on the council. oh, Detroit... im pulling for you...