If you go by what the feds say, ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will stew behind bars a long long time.
In a court document filed Thursday in the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bullotta wrote that Kilpatrick should remain behind bars pending sentence, and that he'll "likely spend the next couple of decades in prison." The motion was filed in response to Kilpatrick's appeal of a decision by U.S. District Court Judge Nancy G. Edmunds to keep him behind bars pending sentencing.
"First, as the district court correctly found, Kilpatrick failed to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that he is not a flight risk," Bullotta wrote. "Kilpatrick has a long record of lying under oath and misleading the court system. He also continues to access large, unexplained quantities of cash. And because of the jury’s verdict in this case, And because of the jury’s verdict in this case, Kilpatrick will likely spend the next couple of decades in prison. Those factors significantly increase Kilpatrick’s ability and incentives to flee."
Bullotta further writes:
Given the jury’s verdict, Kilpatrick’s sentencing guideline range here will likely fall somewhere between 20 and 30 years’ imprisonment. As the district court aptly noted, the prospect of such “a drastic change in lifestyle” gives Kilpatrick every incentive to flee.
The sentencing guidelines are recommendations, but are not mandatory. The judge could conceivably give less than 20 years, perhaps 15. But it's anyone's guess at this stage.
Bullotta also dismissed any suggestion in his motion that Kilpatrick's injured knee would prevent him from fleeing. Kilpatrick recently had it operated on after he damaged it while stepping into a U.S. Marshals van in March.
Bullotta writes:
"Most defendants who “decide to run” do not, literally, run; they drive a car, board a plane, or get on one of the many other forms of modern transportation. So even if Kilpatrick’s knee injury restricted his physical movement, it would do little to impede him from fleeingphysical movement, it would do little to impede him from fleeing."
