ABA Journal - Law News Now

Legal Ethics

Sex, Lies and Text Messages: Side Deal a Secret in $8.4M Pact, Detroit Lawyer Says

Posted Apr 8, 2008, 05:44 pm CDT
By Martha Neil

During a hearing that began today over a controversial $8.4 million settlement by the city of Detroit of police whistle-blower cases, a lawyer representing the mayor told the city council he had no ethical obligation to inform the governing body about a secret side deal about text messages between the mayor and a top aide, reports the Detroit Free Press.

The messages, which eventually were determined to be public-record materials and ordered released, reportedly show that Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his then-chief of staff, Christine Beatty, lied under oath and elsewhere concerning conduct at issue in the whistle-blower cases. Critics contend that the city agreed to the expensive whistle-blower settlement in an effort to keep the text messages—and an affair that they reveal between Kilpatrick and Beatty—out of public view.

At last report, 10 lawyers were being investigated concerning questions about whether they properly handled their role in the case.

• Comments: 0
• E-mail / Share
• Permalink
• Print

Subscribe

Get the ABA Journal the way you want it — in print, online, by e-mail — and when you want it — monthly, weekly, daily or as news breaks.

Subscribe via RSS
Subscribe to the mobile edition
Subscribe to the monthly magazine