By Mark G. Michaelsen on 10.19.09 @ 6:06AM
Continuing unseemly fallout from the Kwame Kilpatrick case.
Detroit has seen better days. There is a shortage of auto
sales, jobs and public money but there is no shortage of contempt
charges against attorneys.
Two Detroit Mayors have served since Kwame Kilpatrick was
forced to resign in 2008. Yet the attorney who uncovered the
conspiracy, perjury and obstruction of justice scandal which
forced Kilpatrick from office is now facing his own contempt
charges and attorney discipline actions.
Michael Stefani represented police who blew the whistle on
Kilpatrick and his sexual relationship with his former chief of
staff, Christine Beatty. The affair came to light in a police
investigation of the Mayor's large security detail and
irregularities in the Mayor's Office.
Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown was fired. Stefani was
retained by Brown and another fired officer. In a deposition,
both Kilpatrick and Beatty said under oath they were not
romantically involved. More than 1,000 amorous text messages
between Kilpatrick and Beatty on Detroit equipment said
otherwise. Other texts were to Detroit staff members to come up
with retroactive excuses for Brown's firing. Brown and another
fired officer were awarded $8.4 million. Part of this deal was to
seal the text messages, with Brown to pay back $3 million and
Stefani to give up his $2.6 million fee if the text messages
became public.
Kilpatrick resigned as part of a plea bargain agreement in
which he pleaded guilty to two felony counts of obstruction of
justice and one felony count of physically assaulting a Wayne
County Deputy Sheriff. He was to give up the pension from being a
State Representative and pay $1 million in restitution to the
City of Detroit.
Why Stefani is in hot water now is that he violated a
judge's order that the text messages be handed over to the judge
first and for not telling the judge that the evidence showed the
Kilpatrick and Beatty lied under oath. Instead, Stefani
putatively leaked some text message content to a Detroit Free
Press reporter. Stefani was coy when the
Detroit News and Detroit Free
Press filed a Freedom of Information Act suit
in 2008 seeking access to more text messages.
Ironically, Stefani went to bat for Kilpatrick attorney
Samuel McCargo when McCargo faced attorney discipline charges in
August 2009. Stefani said he made only four copies of the text
messages for him, his wife, his secretary and client Brown.
Stefani also said that he had a computer disk version of the
damning texts.
Stefani has often denied being the source of the leak and
his denials have been wildly inconsistent. Recently, Stefani has
admitted he was the source before he was a party to the deal to
give the text messages only to the judge.
As a result, Stefani faces state and local action. The
result could be nothing, but it could mean up to 15 years in
prison and/or disbarment. Stefani is not alone, however. In
addition to McCargo, four attorneys for the city face state
attorney misconduct charges for how they acted in the Kilpatrick
case.
Legal scholars throughout Michigan think that Stefani will
beat the rap, but many thought Kilpatrick would beat the rap,
too.
topics:
Corruption, Kwame Kilpatrick
