Get out already!

Hey, gang! Sorry to break this to you, but if you have been having trouble getting the Jennifer Lopez video from WILF Wednesday going, that's because YouTube suspended TheAssMan's account. No problems. AssMan has a new account up and ruuning, and tomorrow, WILF Wednesday will redebut. Trust me, you're going like tomorrow's video. So come on over, or I'll drag you in by your hair.

Anyways, I'm sure a lot of you have heard by now that Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been charged and arrested with many felonies. Kilpatrick has been charged with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, two counts of misconduct in office, two counts of perjury in a court proceeding, and two counts of perjury in a non-court proceeding. If convicted on all counts, that adds up to 80 years in prison. His former chief of staff and lover, Christine Beatty, was charged just as severely, with conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice, obstruction of justice, misconduct in office, two counts of perjury in a court proceeding, and two counts of perjury in a non-court proceeding. If convicted on all counts, Beatty is looking 75 years in prison. So how did they get in this mess? It all started when Kwame unleashed his party-boy attitude.

In the fall of 2002, at the Manoogian Mansion, the home to the mayor of Detroit, Kilpatrick was having a wild party with booze and strippers. One of the strippers, Tamara Green, found the wrath of Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, slapped Green when she arrived home early. Soon, rumors of parties at the Manoogian began to spread. As soon as word was catching on in April 2003, Green and her boyfriend were caught in the crossheirs of a drive-by shooting. Both were shot, and the SVU the shooter(s) was/were driving came around a second time and aimed only at Green. Green's boyfiend survived the attack, but Green did not. Officer Harold C. Nethrope of the Detroit Police Department, after looking into the circumstances of the case, concluded that Tamara was the only intended target and this could have been the first known deliberate hit by the DPD. Nethrope mentioned to Gary A. Brown, the head of the DPD's internal affairs department, that it might have been members of Kilpatrick's Executive Protection Unit, police officers serving as bodyguards. As Nethrope and Green were investigating, so was Walt Harris, a member of the EPU. These three men believed something was wrong with Green's murder and suspected strongly that it was an inside job performed by the city. However, before any of the men could come to any conclusions, they were all fired abruptly by Kilpatrick, who never spoke with the chief of police. Nethrope, Green, and Harris were not about to gone down quietly.

Nethrope, Green, and Harris sued Kilpatrick and the City of Detroit in 2003. They claimed they were being persecuted for digging into Kilpatrick's personal life and were sacked in doing so, a violation of the whistleblower law. In 2007, the trial began, and both Kilpatrick and Beatty were grilled on their personal lives. Both deinied that they had a romantic relationship. On September 11, 2007, a jury returned a verdict of $6.5 million be paid to the plaintiffs. Kilpatrick at first called for an appeal, but suddenly terminated the idea and offered to pay the plaintiffs a settlement of $8.4 million. Meanwhile, the city's two major newspapers, the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, were suing the city to turn over the settlement papers to the media under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act. That would include Mike Stefani, the lawyer for Nethrope, Green, and Harris, to turn over his documents. In his deposition, Stefani cited a confidentiality agreement between the plaintiffs and the defendents that was signed by all parties because Stefani was in possession of page after page of text message from SkyTel, a Mississippi based company that provided the communications for the city government from 2001 to 2003. The documents contained thousands of text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, some which contained steamy messages not quite fit for this blog, while other talked about Green's termination, all of which were denied by Kilpatrick and Beatty in court. To prevent the text messages from becoming public, Kilpatrick and the city threatened that Brown, Nethrope, Harris, and Stefani surrender a total of $7 million in damages and legal fees if they were released. Meanwhile, we, the general public were left in the dark, because the News and Free Press received a completely different settlement set that did not mention text messages or the forfeiture of winnings. Well, they didn't stay hidden much longer, because a Michigan Circuit Courtt and the Michigan Supreme Court ruled that Stefani could release the text messages to the public. This announcement caught the Detroit City Council off guard, becaus etehy were given the same settlement papers as the News and Free Press. The Council joined the media's suit and requested, and received, the real settlement papers, the text message transcripts from Stefani, and a complete runthrough of the text messages handed to them from SkyTel. Soon, the messages were smacked on the covers of the News and Free Press, and the City Council passed a resolution demanding Kilpatrick resign. Now, he doesn't have to, and he said he won't. However, the City Council can turn their findings to Michigan Governor Jennifer Granhom, who can remove Kilpatrick from office if she finds he is guilty of official misconduct. And just yesterday, as you saw on your cable news channels, Kilpatrick and Beatty have indicted on the charges listed in the second paragraph (both plead not guilty today).

So I'm sure you're wondering what I, as a Detroiter, feel of this story. Quite frankly, I am sick to my stomach. At all costs, Kilpatrick was adamnant in concealing his infidelities from the public, and ruined so many lives in the process. Nethrope, Brown, and Harris, three cops who tried to do the right thing, found themselves unemployed and unable to join another force because one man wanted to make sure they stick their noses in his dirty laundry. Their reputations have been soiled, and for what, an affair?! And what about Tamara Green and her boyfriend? I know there's probably no way to determine if Kilpatrick was a catalyst in her death. The killer(s) is/are still out there, and I sincerely doubt that he/she/them will be brought to justice. Sure, Tamara was wrong to mess around with a married man, but was that a reason for her to die? Absolutely not! Now, there is a family shattered, a boyfriend scarred for live both physically and emotionally, and a son who will never see his mother again. Mr. Kilpatrick, Mrs. Beatty, I'm sick and appalled at your behavior. I'm a man who has faith in the system, but how are we suppossed to trust the next mayor of Detroit when the two of you have soiled the occupation. You talk about rebuilding Detroit the way it should be, the way God intended it, Mr. Kilpatrick. Sure, you may have improved businesses and homes, and brought revenue in with the Super Bowl, the MLB All-Star Game, and the Ryder Cup, among other sporting events, plus the filming of major motion pictures (i.e. "Transformers") and new casinos and the annual auto show. But you know what's missing, Mr. Kilpatrick? Detroit still has the worst public school system in the state. The crime rate is still in the top three in the country. And from the Whistleblower Trial alone, the city is $9 million in the hole. NINE MILLION DOLLARS! Imagine what could be done to fix Detroit with $9 million. But no, you had to hide your dirty laundry and keep it hidden, no matter whose lives get ruined. And it's not just the cops or the shooting victims who suffer. How many children will have their futures destroyed thanks to substandard education? How many businesses will go bottom up because they cannot receive financial assistance? How many families will continue keeping warm at night with a thin blanket over their bodies and a cardboard box over their heads? You've managed to case more harm to Detroit than good. If I can lend you any advice, Mr. Kilpatrick, it's to follow Beatty's footsteps and to resign from your job. Do it now, or at least when you develop a moral compass.