Kwame Kilpatrick
In what comes as little surprise, federal prosecutors Thursday recommended ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick go away to prison for a long long time.
In a sentencing memorandum, prosecutors recommended that U.S. District Judge Nancy G. Edmunds sentence Kilpatrick, 43, to "at least 28 years" in prison. He's set to be sentenced Oct. 10 at 10 a.m.
Prosecutors wrote:
Kilpatrick extorted city vendors to help his coconspirators and to line his own pockets. He rigged bids and took bribes. He defrauded non-profits to enrich himself, his wife and his associates. And worst of all, he did it all in a city where poverty, crime and lack of basic services made it one of the most vulnerable metropolitan areas in the nation.
The scale of his corruption was astonishing. The impact on the region was devastating. As a career public servant and a licensed attorney, Kilpatrick was especially qualified to understand the gravity of his crimes. He understood the power and trust given to elected officials and that corruption benefits the few at the expense of the many.
Prosecutors in the their memorandum also pointed to other wrongdoings outside the federal case. They cited his cover up of perjury in the civil case in Wayne County Circuit Court and his resistance to pay restitution.
"Even now, after years of civil and criminal litigation, there is no evidence that Kilpatrick has accepted responsibility for his crimes in office, nor is there any sign of remorse or contrition," the memo said.
In office, they accused him of fostering a corrupt environment. The feds wrote:
As the top public official of the state’s largest city, Kilpatrick’s behavior reverberated throughout the city’s vast bureaucracy. Rather than inspiring his city managers and employees to serve the public, he set a powerful and distressing example for how to abuse public office.
An alarming number of the department heads and advisors he handpicked for high-level city positions followed in his footsteps, resulting in their convictions for felony corruption offenses in office.
The government's recommendation is close to what prosecutors recommended in a separate sentencing memorandum filed earlier in the day for Kilpatrick's friend, contractor Bobby Ferguson. Both were convicted in March in federal court of a host of charges including racketeering and extortion. Both have been behind bars since the conviction awaiting sentencing.
In the memorandum, the prosecution writes that both Kilpatrick and Ferguson conspired to rip off the city and the taxpayers.
Bobby Ferguson was the coconspirator who benefited most from Kilpatrick’s tenure as mayor. Kilpatrick made Ferguson rich, improperly steering tens of millions of dollars of city contracts to Ferguson or companies associated with him.
Before Kilpatrick came to office, Ferguson did some demolition and excavation work for the city, but he was not a major player. After Kilpatrick took office, Ferguson and his companies received city-related gross revenues of more than $120 million, at least $73 million of which came from extortion and bidrigging. The relationship was not a one-way street.
The 28 year sentence falls in line with the 28 year sentence handed out last year in Ohio to former Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, who was 57 at the time of sentencing. In Dimora’s world, his influence was for sale.
Frank Russo, the former Cuyahoga auditor, was sentenced to 22 years in prison in 2010 after he admitted that he and cohorts accepted more than $1 million in bribes and kickbacks, partied with co-conspirators' money and used his influence to get friends jobs and county contracts.
In some other high-profile cases, the sentences were tough, but not as harsh.
Ex-Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was shaking down people for campaign contributions, and who tried to sell President Obama’s U.S. Senate seat, got 14 years in prison. I thought that was a pretty stiff sentence.
Ex-New Orleans Congressman William Jefferson, whose case I covered from start to finish, got 13 years for using his Congressional position to sell technology to African nations through a company in which he had a financial interest. He was the guy who stashed $90,000 in his freezer that happened to be marked FBI bills.
