DETROIT (AP) — Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has been led to jail in handcuffs, after being convicted today on corruption charges.
His lawyers asked that he be allowed to remain free while he awaits sentencing, but a judge refused.
Kilpatrick earlier spent 14 months in prison for violating probation in another case -- in which he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice. That case involved sexually-explicit text messages and an extramarital affair with his chief of staff.
In this case, jurors convicted him of a raft of crimes, including racketeering conspiracy, which carries a maximum punishment of 20 years behind bars. During a five-month trial, he was portrayed as a corrupt politician who took bribes, rigged contracts and lived far beyond his means. Prosecutors said he ran a "private profit machine" out of Detroit's City Hall.
IRS agents said Kilpatrick spent $840,000 more than he earned as mayor.
A federal prosecutor is hailing today's verdict, saying Kilpatrick was "grabbing money from the citizens he was elected to serve."
One juror said she saw things during the trial that, in her words, "really turned my stomach." She said, "I couldn't believe this type of thing was going on."
A Kilpatrick friend was also convicted of racketeering conspiracy.
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197-c-16-(Ed White, AP correspondent)-"of corruption charges"-AP correspondent Ed White reports from U.S. District Court that the outcome of the lengthy trial was not good for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick or his co-defendants. (11 Mar 2013)
<<CUT *197 (03/11/13)>> 00:16 "of corruption charges"
195-c-13-(Ed White, AP correspondent)-"reach a verdict"-AP correspondent Ed White reports from U.S. District Court that jurors came down hard on the former Detroit mayor. (11 Mar 2013)
<<CUT *195 (03/11/13)>> 00:13 "reach a verdict"
APPHOTO MIDTF104: Bobby Ferguson, a friend of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, leaves federal court after being found guilty, in Detroit on Monday, March 11, 2013. Ferguson has been convicted of a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. (AP Photo/Detroit Free Press, Ryan Garza) (11 Mar 2013)
<<APPHOTO MIDTF104 (03/11/13)>>
APPHOTO MIARB102: Ex- Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick peers out from the Theodore Levin Federal U.S. Courthouse in Detroit following his 6-month-long corruption trial in which Kilpatrick was found guilty on 24 of 30 counts, including racketeering and extortion convictions on Monday, March, 11, 2013. Kilpatrick's long-time contractor friend, Bobby Ferguson was found guilty of 9 of 11 racketeering and extortion counts. Kwame Kilpatrick's father, Bernard Kilpatrick was convicted of 1 of 4 counts including filing a false tax return. (AP Photo/AnnArbor.com, Tanya Moutzalias) (11 Mar 2013)
<<APPHOTO MIARB102 (03/11/13)>>
