The Kwame Kilpatrick story’s still got legs. The mayor is expected to speak at his church tonight, his first public appearance since he spoke in Asheville more than a week ago during the local MLK Breakfast. Detroit residents are planning demonstrations calling for his resignation, and counter-demonstrations showing support.
Kilpatrick has been at the center of a storm of controversy surrounding sexy text messages that show he may have perjured himself in court. And Detroit papers have been reporting that while in Asheville, Kilpatrick spent some fun-luvin’ time with another woman at the Grove Park Inn.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s office insists he stayed alone at a luxury resort during the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend, but the hotel’s chief executive told the Free Press on Tuesday that the mayor and another person shared a couple’s massage.
Grove Park Inn CEO J. Craig Madison’s confirmation that Kilpatrick shared a two-hour massage — described as “incredibly romantic” on the resort’s Web site — with another person contradicts mayoral spokesman James Canning’s insistence Friday, and again on Tuesday, that “there was no one else with the mayor.”
Madison’s comments are the first on-the-record verification that Kilpatrick spent the weekend with someone who apparently was not his wife just days before the Free Press revealed the mayor and his chief of staff lied about their affair on the witness stand at a police whistle-blower trial last summer.
After last week’s Free Press report — based on covert text messages between the mayor and Christine Beatty — Kilpatrick issued a statement calling the release of the messages “deeply painful” and added, “My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago.”
Using text messages Kilpatrick and Beatty exchanged on city-issued pagers in 2002-03, the newspaper showed that they had an affair, lending credence to claims from police who said they were retaliated against when their probe of the mayor’s inner circle threatened to reveal the affair. Settling that case and another whistle-blower suit cost the city more than $9 million.
In an interview Tuesday, Madison declined to say who was with the mayor, citing privacy restrictions. Kilpatrick was in Asheville to speak at a King memorial breakfast Jan. 19.
Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy and Oralene Simmons, who invited Kilpatrick to deliver a King holiday speech at the resort, said they never saw Kilpatrick’s wife, or any other woman, with him.
WXYZ-TV (Channel 7) reported Friday that the person with Kilpatrick during the massage was listed on hotel records as Carmen Slowski.
Madison confirmed Tuesday that a room reservation was made for Kilpatrick and another person, but said he did not know who made the reservation or who may have been with the mayor.
Canning said Kilpatrick’s executive assistant Jonathan Quarles went to Asheville with the mayor, but left after his speech. The mayor received his massages the next day. He stayed at the resort from Jan. 19 to Jan. 21.
Tuesday evening, after Canning responded to Free Press inquiries, one of Beatty’s lawyers, Mayer Morganroth, called a reporter to say Beatty was not in Asheville.
Simmons said her group, which commemorated King, agreed to pay for the mayor’s hotel room and meals, but would not be happy if the mayor asked to be reimbursed for the spa charges. She said Friday that she had not yet received a hotel bill from the mayor.
Resort records show that Kilpatrick had two spa treatments Jan. 20. The first was a $264 deep-tissue massage.
The second was the 120-minute massage with two masseuses. Resort literature says, “The deluxe couples room is sprinkled with rose petals, then you and your significant other will receive a tandem candlelit Grove Park Inn Spa Massage, followed by an aromatic whirlpool bath. Sip chilled champagne while feeding each other chocolate-covered strawberries.”
Kilpatrick’s bill, obtained by the Free Press, lists a $504 spa charge.
Two employees listed on the massage and bath document declined to comment at their Asheville homes Tuesday.
Out of curiosity, WHY would the CEO confirm such a thing?