As the mayor and his lawyers meet to hammer out the details, we’re getting word on when and why Kilpatrick came to grips with the reality this whole ordeal will not have the ending he wanted.
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick/January 31: I would never quit on you. Ever.
That was his promise seven months ago but now we’re learning his about face occurred about two weeks ago. That was about the time, you’ll remember, that it was announced that attorney James Parkman was off the legal team. From the mayor’s inner circle, we’re told “Parkman sent packing back to Alabama” just week before last was the signal that the mayor finally abandoned hope of beating the wrap at trial in favor of getting the best plea deal he could get. And why did he do that? The mayor, we’ve learned, concluded that Governor Jennifer was someone who could get him—and he believed she would.
And even church leaders who had never before forsaken him, even they were either calling on him to quit, or withholding their public support. When Dave Bing called for him to quit and suggested he might run for mayor, Kilpatrick was said to be stunned.
With fewer and fewer exceptions, support in the business community was clearly eroding. For instance, another source close to the situation says business tycoon Tony Soave took the mayor and his family off the frequent flyer list once we exposed how Soave repeatedly allowed the first family free travel on his corporate jets.
To confidants, His Honor voiced more headaches:
• He was choking on mounting legal bills,
• facing those new felony assault charges, a case not as murky as lawyers might spin the whole text message scandal,
• clinging to hope it’d never happen, he was constantly warned his one-time mistress Christine Beatty might save herself by testifying again him;
All the while, he knew the clock was ticking, even as his lawyer publicly scoffed at the state’s offer to drop one felony charge if he’d only resign.
So Parkman, the litigator who believed he could win, was replaced with three local lawyers assigned to use their contacts to hammer out the best deal they can get for the mayor. But if he did resign, what would he do then? He apparently thinks he’d lie low for a while and then make a Marion Barry- style comeback.
While Mayor of Washington, the FBI caught Barry with crack in a hotel room. Barry went to prison, and got out to win re-election. Kilpatrick is said to believe Detroiters will either forgive his transgressions, or forget them after a while.
The mayor is also said to believe when the Synagro scandal explodes with what is widely expected to be federal indictments, the public’s attention will be on the city council and others. That’s why nearly two weeks ago he decided he could stomach pleading to one or more felony charges and forfeiting his state license to practice law. But Kilpatrick still clings to the hope that unlike Mayor Barry, he will avoid even one more day in jail.
It may be nothing more than a pipe dream to prosecutors. Their deal on the table reportedly includes 90 more days in the slammer for the Mayor even if he agrees to become a felon unlicensed to practice law.
