Chair Leg Carlita Kilpatrick
was Detroit's First Lady, as wife of then Detroit Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick.
One late night she came back to one of the infamous after parties at her home,
which was the famous Manoogian Mansion, the Mayor of Detroit's official residence.
She came home early to find Kilpatrick, let's just call it, appreciating the art of dancing
by a woman that wasn’t Mrs Kilpatrick. Carlita was definitely less appreciative of the skill
involved, reacted like you would any reasonable wife would react. By grabbing a blunt object
rumored to have been a chair leg, and then going after Kwame and the dancer.
Mama Kilpatrick Kwame Kilpatrick wasn’t
a politician strictly because it was his idea. That’s because politics is the family business.
His mom is Michigan politician Carolyn Kilpatrick. She spent most of her career
as a favorite among voters. In 1979 she became a member of the Michigan House of Representatives.
Her popularity spanned six reelections, and during election time, she never dropped below
80 percent of the vote. In 2004 she had no major-party opposition, and in 2006 she was
completely unopposed. By the time 2010 arrived, she was rechallenged in the Democratic primary.
However her 2010 campaign was different.
She was asked fewer questions about her policies and more about the countless
scandals surrounding her son, Kwame, such as the story we just told you getting out in the paper.
Because outraged voters could no longer separate her actions from
the scandalous ones of her son Kwame, she was now out of a job.
Kwame’s record seemed more like the record of a career criminal instead of a career politician.
Kwame Kilpatrick Kwame Kilpatrick was born in Detroit,
Michigan, on June 8th, 1970. His mother was a politician, and his father was a semi-professional
basketball player and a politician as well. He was just nine years old when his mother,
Carolyn, began representing Detroit in the Michigan House of Representatives.
His father, Bernard Kilpatrick, served as head of Wayne County
Health and Human Services Department and as chief of staff to Edward H. McNamara.
Following in his parent's footsteps,
Kwame got his Bachelor's Degree in political science from Florida A&M University in 1992.
He married his wife Carlita Poles in 1995, and the pair had three children.
In 1996 his mother vacated her seat at the Michigan House of Representatives,
making way for Kwame, who was elected as her replacement. From there,
Kwame was elected minority floor leader for the Michigan Democratic Party and was
the first African-American to hold the position of house minority leader in 2001.
Mayor of Detroit At 31, Kilpatrick was the
youngest-ever mayor of Detroit when he was elected in 2001. He was youthful and full of ideas,
it just so happened that his ideas tended to benefit him more than the city. From the very
start of Kwame’s term Detroit was plagued with a growing deficit. So Kwame’s quick solution was to
simply close the beloved Belle Isle Aquarium and the Belle Isle Zoo. The city's deficit
meant he had to make cuts from somewhere if he was going to free up any money, but the
decision was so unpopular that the city council overruled him and actually increased funding.
However, that growing deficit may have been contributed to by Kilpatrick himself,
when leased a Lincoln Navigator for his family using city funds. And when he charged thousands
of dollars for spa massages. And when he ate extravagant meals at high end restaurants. And
when he bought pricey bottles of wine. And when he charged all of that to his city credit card.
Unlike his mother, Kwame was so unpopular that Time Magazine actually named him one
of the worst mayors in America. ‘Diamond’ Joe Quimby never even got that title.
Manoogian Mansion Party The lore surrounding the
Manoogian Mansion Party would later be a defining part of Kwame's career. The
urban legend is that a huge, raucous party broke out inside the Manoogian Mansion,
as we had mentioned at the beginning of the video. To quickly recap, then Detroit First Lady Carlita
came home early to find Kwame appreciating the art of the dance in a very up close and personal way.
Carlita, less appreciative of the skill involved, reacted like you would expect someone from Detroit
to react, by grabbing a blunt object rumored to have been a chair leg, and attacked the dancer.
The Attorney General at the time, Mike Cox, investigated the party and denied
claims that it ever happened. Rumors spread throughout the city that Cox was covering up
for Kwame because he was at the party too. There’s a lot of jokes here that
we’re just not going to make. We’ll just leave it at Kwame had Cox in the palm of his hand.
The public didn't find out about the 2002 event until May 2003,
when Kwame fired Deputy Chief Gary Brown after an investigation
into indiscretions by the mayor's security detail. This prompted Brown to release a
memo where he accused Kwame's bodyguards of misconduct and the afore-mentioned party.
Tamara Greene The dancer that
got into the fight with Kwame's wife was Tamara Greene, also known as ‘Strawberry’, a 27-year-old
mother of three. Two men had to step in and physically restrain Carlita at that time. In
the early morning of April 30th,2003, a few months after the alleged party, Greene was sitting at an
intersection with her boyfriend. Greene was about to drop him off, when someone shot into the car in
an apparent drive-by. The pistol was the same one used by the Detroit Police Department at the time.
Before her passing, Greene spoke out about the Manoogian Mansion party,
and her family was sure her murder was to stop her from testifying about it.
There was plenty of evidence that the assault happened- three paramedics
signed affidavits concerning the incident. One of those paramedics admitted to seeing
Kwame and his bodyguards at the hospital, where Greene was being treated. Another
paramedic saw an injured woman who said she was attacked by Kwame's wife.
Strangely, however, any evidence of Greene ever being treated at any
hospital that night had vanished and local hospitals deny having ever treated her.
The family's attorney, Norman Yatooma, struggled to access information from authorities regarding
the murder. Evidence pointed towards it being a member of the police department,
but his investigation was sabotaged by authorities- dirty cops gonna dirty cop.
No tipster or witness wanted to come forward as they were too frightened of retribution.
The judge ultimately dismissed the suit over lack of evidence.
Yatooma offered $100,000 for any information about the case, but it remains unsolved.
Abuses of Power Despite his best efforts, Kwame just couldn't keep
himself out of trouble. Allegations of abuse of power started when an influential Baptist minister
was arrested after soliciting a prostitute, and Kwame used his power to get him out of trouble.
Antoinette Bostic was the arresting officer and received multiple phone calls from the mayor
and police chief, persuading her not to show up at court so the case would be dismissed.
Kwame funneled money from Michigan legislature state grants to two companies with barely any
information in their project descriptions. One was called U.N.I.T.E., owned by his wife,
Carlita, who was the organization's sole employee that received $175,000. The other was Detroit 3D,
a company that wouldn't give details on how it was spending its funds. So not at all suspicious.
Kwame cut thousands of city jobs but found jobs for friends and family members,
despite their lack of experience. Their average annual salary increases were 36%,
rather than the 2% that the rest of the city workers received.
Kilpatrick was hit with a slander suit relating to a 2004 incident when police pulled over Christine
Beatty, his Chief of Staff, for speeding. She was furious, scolding officers who she made clear
should have known who she was- because that always works with the police when they pull you over.
Officers claimed Beatty called the chief of police directly to have the officers called off,
which they were. The incident leaked to the media,
and the chief said Beatty was harassed, and Kwame implied that she was set up.
The Whistleblower Trial The Whistleblower Trial began
in August 2007 after Kwame's ex-bodyguard Harold Nelthorpe and Deputy Police Chief
Gary Brown were fired during an internal probe into the mayor's actions. After three
hours of deliberation, the plaintiffs were awarded $6.5 million in damages.
Kwame said he'd appeal the verdict but approved an $8.4 million settlement a few weeks later
when he discovered that lawyer Mike Stefani had evidence that he and Beatty committed
perjury during their deposition. The City Council voted to pay the lawsuit that involved Nelthorpe,
Brown, and a third officer from a separate case against Kwame. At the time, The City Council had
no idea of the confidentiality agreement that Kwame put in place as a part of the settlement.
The City Council requested that all documents used in the suit be unsealed.
Mike Stefani was deposed and revealed the existence of the confidentiality agreement
that was supposed to keep intimate texts sent between Kwame and Beatty private. If those
involved told anyone about the agreement, they would forfeit the $8.4 million dollar settlement.
Kilpatrick and Beatty were charged with obstruction of justice, conspiracy,
misconduct in office, and perjury. The City Council requested Kwame resign but he refused.
The text message scandal revealed that Kwame and Beatty, both married at the time, were in
the midst of an affair. They admitted in their texts to using city funds for romantic getaways,
and the texts contained evidence about them conspiring to fire Brown.
Beatty quickly resigned, but Kwame wasn't as easy to get rid of. The City Council passed a
resolution asking for Kwame to resign, with a vote of 7-1, that also contained 33 reasons he
should step down. Kwame didn't comply, saying he wouldn’t leave and the vote was irrelevant.
In March 2008, Kwame was charged with eight felonies and Beatty with seven.
Kwame pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction and no contest to
assaulting a deputy. He finally resigned as mayor.
Jail Time Kwame showed no
signs of humility during the trial, acting cocky and insincere. Judge David Groner sentenced him
to four months in jail as well as restitutions for the sex-and-text scandal and an additional 120-day
sentence for assaulting a sheriff's officer in an unrelated incident. Much to the judge's disgust,
Kwame snickered while he was being sentenced, clearly not taking the proceedings seriously.
Kwame didn't receive special treatment in jail, but after serving 99 days,
he was released. Immediately afterward, he boarded a private jet headed for Texas,
where he joined his family in their $3000 a month rental home.
Kwame told Judge Groner that he only made $3000 a month for restitution payments,
prompting Groner to request his financial records. Kwame was back on the stand to justify
his claims of poverty. His financial records told a different story: he owned a million-dollar home,
frequently made lavish purchases, and owned more than one Cadillac Escalade.
When questioned, Kwame amusingly pretended to not know who paid for all of those things.
The court learned that the true source of his money was from business leaders
in Detroit who paid Kwame a substantial amount to get him to resign as mayor
and plead guilty. Judge Groner then ordered Kwame to pay $300,000 to the city of Detroit.
Prison Time Kwame missed his first restitution
payment of $79,000, only paying the court $14,000, then an extra $21,175 a few days later. However,
this meant Kwame had violated the terms of his probation, and Groner approved a warrant. Kwame
was sentenced to one and a half to five years in prison and was indicted on new corruption charges.
Kilpatrick lobbied for a transfer from the Oaks Correctional Facility and bounced
around facilities before he was eventually released in August 2011,
a little over a year after being sentenced.
Kickbacks Kwame's next trial was
in September 2012 for fraudulent schemes where he awarded contracts to the city's Department
of Water and Sewage. During that time, he was also suspected of pocketing nearly $1,000,000 in
kickbacks. The prosecution had many witnesses that spoke out against Kwame and the others accused,
including his father. Kwame was found guilty on 24 counts, including extortion, mail fraud,
tax evasion, extortion, and many others. The judge sentenced him to 28 years in prison.
He didn't have the option for parole as he was arrested in the federal prison system,
serving his sentence in a Federal Correctional Institution.
Kilpatrick appealed the decision, but the United States Court of Appeals for
the Sixth Circuit upheld his convictions, and the Supreme Court denied his appeal- but he'd
been mentioned in an Eminem song that year, so, you know, silver lining and all that…
Desperate, Kwame turned to none other than President Donald Trump for help.
Commutation With 12 hours left
in office, President Trump commuted Kwame's sentence. The White House statement about the
commutation mentioned that he'd used his prison time to teach public speaking and
led bible study groups- obviously the only needed criteria for any sort of commutation.
However, the commutation of his sentence didn’t erase his conviction,
and Kwame can’t run for office until 2033, 20 years after his conviction. Detroit,
sadly, is going to have to find someone else to run things.
Crowdfunded House As of June 2022,
Kwame and his current wife asked the public to help them in a crowdfunding campaign for
what was titled ‘baby fund’, as the happy couple has just welcomed a new child. It
had a reasonable goal of $800,000 and included less stuff about babies, and more stuff about a
luxury home in a gated community- you know, the kind of thing most people use crowdfunding for.
But their humble dreams of a new luxury house paid for by people who thought they were helping
a baby were short-lived. Kwame still owed a large amount of money to the city of Detroit, and when
authorities discovered the campaign, the crowdfunding account was tragically seized.
It’s unclear if he will run for office in 2033 when he’s legally able.
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Let us know in the comment section whether or not
scamming is a learned behavior or it’s something someone’s born with!