Kilpatrick-Beatty criminal trial

On March 24, 2008, Wayne County, Michigan Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced a 12-count criminal indictment against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff and paramour Christine Beatty.

[2] The charges stem from a political-sex scandal emerging from a sexual relationship between Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick and his chief of staff Christine Beatty.

The text messages appear to contradict testimony that Kilpatrick and Beatty gave at a trial in 2007 in regards to whether they had an affair and had fired an officer for investigating the mayor's behavior.

According to Kilpatrick legal team spokesman Christopher Garrett, the fund's membership committee included former mayor of San Francisco, Willie Brown; Detroit native and television personality Judge Greg Mathis; Malik Zulu Shabazz, the leader of the New Black Panthers in Detroit; and S. Martin Taylor, a former DTE executive and a University of Michigan regent.

[4] However, within 24 hours Greg Mathis had contacted the media to state that the reports of his support for Kilpatrick were not true.