DETROIT–Ex-mayoral aide Christine Beatty pleaded guilty Monday in a text-messaging sex scandal with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that gripped the city for nearly a year. She will spend four months in jail.
DETROIT–Ex-mayoral aide Christine Beatty pleaded guilty Monday in a text-messaging sex scandal with former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick that gripped the city for nearly a year. She will spend four months in jail.
“I lied under oath,” a tearful Beatty told the judge, echoing the words her former boss, Kilpatrick, uttered in a courtroom during his own guilty plea three months earlier. Both admitted lying when they claimed they were not romantically involved. They were both married at the time.
Beatty, 38, pleaded guilty to two obstruction of justice charges. Under the deal with prosecutors, she will be sentenced next month to serve four months in jail and five years of probation. She will also pay $100,000 in restitution to the city.
“Under the circumstances, it was the appropriate thing,” Beatty’s attorney, Mayer Morganroth, said after the hearing. Beatty had been charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said she was pleased with the outcome.
“We live in a society where greed is glorified,” she said. “There comes a time when you have to draw a line in the sand and say, ‘No more.’”
Kilpatrick is serving a four-month jail sentence as part of his plea, which also called for him to spend five years on probation, pay $1 million in restitution, surrender his law license and resign as mayor.
The scandal stems from a whistleblower lawsuit filed by two former police officers who accused Kilpatrick of retaliating against them for trying to investigate claims that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.
City Council members had said they were misled when they approved an $8.4 million settlement last year with the fired officers because they didn’t know the deal carried secret provisions to keep a lid on the text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty.
In one 2003 message released by the courts in October, she called Kilpatrick “the Love of my Life,” and in another from 2004 she asked him, “What do you get from (your wife) that you don’t get from me?”
As part of the plea, Beatty had to read aloud a statement saying Monday she lied in the whistle-blowers’ trial, in a deposition and at a 2007 hearing.
Beatty initially was unable to choke back tears, so Wayne County Circuit Judge Timothy Kenny gave her a moment to compose herself.
Admitting that she lied, Beatty said, “I did so with the intent to mislead the court and jury and to impede and obstruct the fair administration of justice.”
Beatty, who has two young daughters, has since divorced. AP
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