Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick returns to court Thursday to face what is likely to be one of the longer sentences in recent cases of public corruption, the result of two dozen convictions that range from bribery to extortion to tax crimes.

While the city’s finances foundered, Kilpatrick was shaking down contractors, ensuring that a pal got millions in city work and turning a nonprofit fund to help struggling Detroiters into a personal slush fund, according to evidence at his five-month trial.

Federal prosecutors are recommending Kilpatrick serve at least 28 years in prison, while defense attorneys are hoping the sentence doesn’t exceed 15 years.

“He created a ‘pay-to-play’ system for the provision of city goods and services, which compromised vast swaths of city government, including the water and sewer system, the convention center, the pension system, casino developments and recreation centers,” prosecutors said in a court filing last week. “City government essentially became up for grabs for the right price.”

Kilpatrick, 43, quit office in 2008 because of a different scandal involving sexually explicit text messages and an extramarital affair.

He was forced out while the auto industry was nearing collapse and Detroit’s unstable finances were deteriorating even more. The city now is run by a state-appointed emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, who took Detroit into Chapter 9 bankruptcy last summer as a last-ditch effort to fix billions of dollars in debt.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/10/10/36...s-for.html

RACISM!

Couldn't they fill one entire prison with Illinois politicians?
Always felt Barack came from the right place.

He was forced into asking for bribes because Republican Michigan State Representatives made it vewy vewy hard to run Detroit.

Even with the stuff sentences the people that follow tend to think it won't happen to them.

Kind of weird, Detroit and Chicago, both on the West side of Great Lakes, both known for political corruption, with Indiana right between them, with Indiana being known as top American heartland clean cut area pretty much.

(10-10-2013 11:03 AM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Kind of weird, Detroit and Chicago, both on the West side of Great Lakes, both known for political corruption, with Indiana right between them, with Indiana being known as top American heartland clean cut area pretty much.

You forgot: Notre Dame.