SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (WXYZ) - The long-rumored, never-proven Manoogian Mansion party is back in the limelight again, thanks to a civil lawsuit that’s been taking center stage.
Before giving a deposition in that case, Michigan’s Attorney General sat down with Action News Investigator Heather Catallo to answer her questions first.
Attorney General Mike Cox is getting ready to give his own testimony in the never-proven party, and he’s making it clear that he did not hinder the original investigation of this case.
[Heather Catallo] “Did Kwame Kilpatrick or anyone else associated with the investigation ever threaten you?"
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “No."
[Heather Catallo] "Did they ever try to hold anything over you politically?"
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] "No."
Attorney General Mike Cox is saying once and for all there was no Manoogian Mansion party, and he did not do anything to thwart the state police investigation into the rumored party.
You’ll recall, the governor called on the attorney general and the state police to investigate Kwame Kilpatrick in 2003 after he fired Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown. One of the items under scrutiny was the rumor that Kilpatrick held a wild party at the Manoogian, and his wife Carlita assaulted a stripper.
As his 36-day investigation wound down, Cox, along with his criminal division chief Tom Furtaw, interviewed Kwame Kilpatrick. Detroit’s former corporation counsel Ruth Carter was also present. Cox has come under fire for meeting with the mayor – politician to politician – and for not putting Kilpatrick under oath or taping the interview.
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “Tom in fact didn’t even see a reason to interview the mayor. So I said, 'No Tom, we have to. I’ll sit with you in fact, if you want, when you interview the mayor.' So, that’s what we did. We didn’t put him under oath because at that point in time, we had not one witness who had established a crime. And after 130 interviews, we had not one witness who said the mayor had done anything that would be a crime.”
[Heather Catallo] "So you say you did ask him about the alleged rumored party. Why is that not reflected in your notes from that interview?"
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] "I don’t know Tom did those. I expect a lot of things were written in a hurry those last few days. And quite frankly we weren’t charging him.”
[Heather Catallo] “Why didn’t you or anyone from your office interview Carlita Kilpatrick?
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “Quite simply, we had no evidence.”
[Heather Catallo] "But if the crux of the rumor is that she assaulted a stripper, and the alleged investigation by Gary Brown into that rumor possibly led to his firing, why wouldn’t somebody interview the alleged perpetrator of the assault?"
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “Well, like I said, we had no evidence that a crime had even happened. Unlike a homicide where you have a dead body, unlike an armed robbery where you have missing money, we had none of that.”
Cox has been criticized, accused of closing the case too soon, and a text message revealed years later raised questions about the role Cox played in the political drama before his investigation even got under way.
[Heather Catallo] “How do you explain the text from Ruth Carter, that says, quote, 'Mike is going to do a separate investigation than the state police; he called me Saturday and asked who we would rather be cleared by, him or Duggan, I said him. I think he feels the governor put him out there, and he wants to show independence.' What does that mean?
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “Well, what do you think it means?”
[Heather Catallo] “What does it mean?”
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “I don’t know, I didn’t write it. But I can tell you my best guess. We talked with Ruth Carter. She said, 'Why are you getting involved?' And I said, 'Well, there may be a need for investigative subpoenas, there may be a need to put people under oath, and which – the state police can’t do alone – they need a county prosecutor or myself, the Attorney General’s office.' So she started pushing back on that, and so I said, 'Look, if you’re guy is innocent, as he claims, if there’s nothing here, who would you rather be cleared by, a Republican from the suburbs, who’s the attorney general, or a Democrat like Mike Duggan, who’s the elected prosecutor of Wayne County at the time, who’s a fellow Democrat along with Mayor Kilpatrick?' ”
Despite state police complaints that they weren’t part of Cox’s interview with Kilpatrick, the attorney general points out that a detective recently admitted under oath that the state police didn’t even try to interview the former mayor themselves.
[Mike Cox/Attorney General] “They work for the governor. It was their own investigation, and they said that under oath. And I’m glad you asked me this question, now that I’m here at Channel 7, because Heather Catallo or Steve Wilson had no problems cornering the mayor and questioning him.”
Mike Cox spoke with me at length about several things related to this investigation, and he was very candid about the role he has played in this case.
If you would like to see our entire interview, please click on the link at the top of this page.
