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Kwame Kilpatrick Research Paper

Decent Essays

Oxana Kane
Kwame Kilpatrick Crimes and Punishment.

Kwame Kilpatrick was elected Mayor of Detroit at the age of 31 which made him the youngest person holding the position in the history of the city. Kwame was a charismatic, intelligent, savvy and ambitious young man with great potential and future ahead of him. During the inauguration ceremony he was singing on the stage, “Together we stand, divided we fall; let’s build a bridge, tear down the wall” [1]. Instead Kilpatrick tore down the entire city. He stole from the citizens he voted for and used his position to make money illegally. Extortion, fraud, bribery, conspiracy are among the crimes that involve 32 more people besides Kilpatrick himself. [2] In 2008 Kilpatrick resigned and was charged …show more content…

The biggest factor in the settlement was the evidence against Kilpatrick and his former Chieft of Staff, Chistine Beatty, obtained by the officer's lawyer, Mike Stefani. He subpoena the phone and text messaging records from Skytel. The messages detailed their sexual relationship, indicated of Mayor misappropriating funds and arranging expense romantic getaways with Beatty. The evidence contradicted testimony that both Kilpatrick and Beatty gave at trial regarding the intimate relationship and ouster of Brown. [9] Under the Michigan Freedom of Information Act the Detroit Free press requested a release of all the settlement-related documents in 2008. This led to the criminal charges against Kwame Kilpatric and Christine Beatty. In March 2008 they were charged with misconduct in the office, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and perjury.[10]. Misconduct in office is a commission of an unlawful act within the official capacity. It carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the public office employees/ Conspiracy is the agreement between two or more people to commit a crime. Obstruction of justice may be an attempt to hide and not disclose an importance piece of evidence (discovery), apprehension or punishment of somebody who committed a crime. It sometimes includes bribery, murder or physical harm to the key witness. Oftentimes, obstruction of justice and perjury go hand in hand, as perjury is providing false information under

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