Saying that Fox 2 reporter Charlie LeDuff spouts off mind colorfully may understate his brash, brazen style.
The bravura is on full display in a commentary on Detroit's "culture of deceit" and federal jury deliberations on "the fate of disgraced former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father Bernard and their contractor pal Bobby Ferguson. They stand accused of using the city coffers as their own private piggybank."
Here are excerpts of LeDuff's opinion essay at the station's website:
Charlie LeDuff: "It seems that Kilpatrick is guilty."It seems that Kilpatrick is guilty beyond any reasonable doubt. If so, he should go to prison for looting the city and its people. He is in part responsible for the state takeover of the city's finances. He is in part responsible for the death of children who wait for an ambulance that never comes.
But as one of the defense lawyers told me on the street early this winter: "It only takes one juror."
I pray that juror is assigned to another case. Because anything short of a conviction means this city has no future. It will say to the politicians and the contractors who grease those politicians that there are no laws, no consequences. It's business as usual. Detroit is for sale.
Anything short of a conviction means the Wayne County corruption investigation will stop dead in its tracks. If they can't win a case that seems as open and shut as this one, you can bet the house that the feds will not bring another public fraud case in this town for at least a generation.
