Corrupt Motor City Mayor will be his own boss if paroled

Detroit – If state prison officials release him on parole next month, Kwame Kilpatrick says, he will make his living from public speaking engagements and running political campaigns for other candidates.

The ex-Mayor of Detroit will be eligible for parole on July 24, though parole authorities are loathe to release him because he is facing federal charges stemming from the same offenses he is serving time for in state prison.

Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan told an interviewer that “The part that makes them a little undeasy is they're paroling someone tht's facing multiple felony charges. It's typically something we don't do.”

The prosecutor in the case for which his parole was violated in a scandal over an e-mail says he opposes the proposed release because Mr. Kilpatrick has not only shown no remorse, he “has demonstrated that he will re-offend.”

He and three other city officials have been indicted by a federal Grand Jury on 38 counts of corruption involving kickbacks and improper use of campaign funds that constitute “far-reaching abuse of the public trust by a group of high-level city officials and their close associates,” said U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade.

According to prosecutors, Mr. Kilpatrick and his associate Bobby Ferguson, the ex-city water director Victor Mercado and close personal friend and ex-mayoral aide Derrick Miller squeezed the city government and taxpayers by holding up a $50 million sewer lining contract until the wining bidder agreed to bring Ferguson's business into the deal. Mr. Ferguson wound up getting $24.7 million in business as a result.

The indictment lists 13 allegedly fraudulent schemes in the award of contracts in the Detroit Department of Water and Sewerage. Former City Council President Monica Conyers and her said Sam Riddle, Jr., and Deputy Mayor Kandia Milton, as well as Milton's brother, DeDan Milton, have already been convicted of similar offenses.

The state parole board wants more information about the federal charges pending against Mr. Kilpatrick. The request could delay a decision by 30 to 90 days, according to Mr. Marlan.

“What makes this case unique is that the federal prosecutors have told us that they would not be opposed to community supervision while charges are pending...The fact that they don't have a strong desire to keep in in custody is a mitigating factor.”