Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is in a heap ‘o trouble. You can read the details below. As you all remember, Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy invited Kilpatrick to speak at the MLK Breakfast at the Grove Park in here in Asheville back in January. Then scandal erupted.
I questioned why Kilpatrick was invited to speak here in this Jan. 21 blog post.
It’s sad to see a young man with such promise go down like this. But he really does need to resign his office.
Here’s a copy of the Detroit Free Press story:
Shortly after Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick wakes up in jail Friday morning – still reeling from becoming the first sitting mayor in Detroit’s 307-year history to spend a night behind bars – Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox is expected to charge him with felony assault.
The announcement will come just 25 hours after the onetime political wunderkind went to court Thursday, with plans to waive a preliminary examination and speed his way to trial on charges from the text message scandal, and instead wound up getting locked up.
Kilpatrick appeared devastated when 36th District Judge Ronald Giles, speaking in low-key tone from the bench, made a blockbuster ruling: that the mayor’s unauthorized trip to Windsor, Canada, last month, a bond violation, had earned him a trip to the Wayne County Jail.
Immediately.
At 10 Friday morning, Cox is expected to announce that he is charging Kilpatrick with assaulting an officer in July as he tried to serve court papers on one of Kilpatrick’s best friends.
Before the Cox announcement, Kilpatrick will appear in Wayne County Circuit Court for an emergency hearing in hopes that he will regain his freedom with a new bond. He already is charged with eight felony counts related to the text message scandal revealed by the Detroit Free Press in January. If Cox adds charges, the mayor faces the threat of being jailed again.
Giles’ decision to jail the mayor followed a lengthy apology by Kilpatrick, who begged Giles for another chance. He invoked the image of his 12-year-old twins as he pleaded for leniency.
“I am asking for your forgiveness. It will never happen again,” the mayor said, his voice quavering as the courtroom scene was broadcast. “My sons are watching this proceeding, because I asked them to. I told them that I did something wrong.”
The mayor’s sons were not in the courtroom.
As the mayor’s police bodyguards and a courtroom officer led Kilpatrick away, shock waves spread across Michigan and made national headlines.
Political leaders called again for the 38-year-old mayor to resign.
