Don't Hate the Playa?

This is an interesting story. Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appears to have gotten "caught up" as the young folks say. According to my Detroit folks, Mayor Kilpatrick has all the attributes of a playa playa so I am interested to see how this situation pans out.
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Detroit mayor's steamy texting puts him in Clinton-style scandal

PERJURY? | He swore he wasn't having affair with aide

January 25, 2008

BY COREY WILLIAMS

DETROIT -- Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick bristled in the witness chair last year when asked whether he had an affair with a top aide. No, the mayor confidently told jurors, the two were never romantically involved.

But a trove of 14,000 text messages that emerged this week tell a different story: The mayor and his chief of staff carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their numerous trysts.

'You made me feel so damn good'

The Detroit Free Press obtained nearly 14,000 text messages from the pager of Christine Beatty, chief of staff of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, many of which describe a sexual relationship. Excerpts posted on the paper's Web site:

9/28/2002, 11:53 p.m.
Beatty: Where are you now?
Kilpatrick: At home waiting for all [executive protection unit officers] to leave. Where are you?
Beatty: At the residence inn in Madison hgts.
Kilpatrick: What rm?
Beatty: I'm in room 311 in bldg 3 in the back.

10/7/2002, 11:20 p.m.
Beatty: OK, I'm feeling like I want another night like the most recent Saturday at the Residence Inn! You made me feel so damn good that night. As you can see I can't let it go!

10/16/2002, 11:48 p.m.
Kilpatrick: I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days ... relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love.

AP

Now the mayor's indiscretion has landed him in a Clinton-style scandal that could cost him his job and his law license and even bring perjury charges.

The Detroit Free Press did not explain how it obtained the messages, which were sent or received in 2002-03 from Chief of Staff Christine Beatty's city-issued pager.

The mayor's denial came last summer during testimony in a lawsuit filed by two police officers who alleged they were fired for investigating claims from two former bodyguards that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.

'Profoundly embarrassing'

On the witness stand, the mayor also went on the offensive about the allegations, defending his reputation and that of Beatty. ''I think it was pretty demoralizing to her ... but it's demoralizing to me as well,'' he testified. ''My mother is a congresswoman. There have always been strong women around me. My aunt is a state legislator. I think it's absurd to assert that every woman that works with a man is a whore.''

Late Wednesday, Kilpatrick issued a more subdued statement. ''These five- and six-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life,'' he said. ''It is profoundly embarrassing to have these extremely private messages now displayed in such a public manner.''

Kilpatrick is married with three children. Beatty was married at the time and has two children.

Last summer's lawsuit ended with the jury awarding $6.5 million to the officers.

Judge Michael Callahan, who presided over the lawsuit, said it is up to prosecutors to decide whether to seek perjury charges against the mayor. The county prosecutor's office declined to comment on Thursday, but scheduled a news conference for today. AP

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