Jurors punched out at 4:30 p.m. after an eighth day of deliberations in the Kwame Kilpatrick corruption case.
The jury has spent about 44 hours deliberating following a five-month trial.
Jurors will return to federal court at 9 a.m. Friday.
Update: To read all of Kilpatrick’s emails to his parole agent, click here and here.
Live Updates Ended
Please read below for an archived view of this event.
Former Chief Justice Conrad Mallett, Jr. tells friends where he wants them to stand around his official portrait after it was presented to the Michigan Supreme Court last May in the court’s chambers in Lansing. (Dale G. Young / Detroit News)
Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Conrad Mallett Jr. does not regret giving $1,000 to Kwame Kilpatrick, one of several undisclosed gifts from people that could send the former Detroit mayor back to prison.
Mallett, who is running Mike Duggan’s mayoral campaign, spoke this afternoon in the wake of news that Kilpatrick received $10,750 in cash gifts that were hidden from state parole officials.
Kwame Kilpatrick, wife Carlita and their three sons.
Kilpatrick revealed the gifts in emails to his parole agent. Mallett’s gift allegedly was for Kilpatrick’s three sons, according to emails obtained by The News.
“No man, I don’t regret it,” Mallett told The News. “Those kids, man, are really great kids and (Kilpatrick’s wife) Carlita is obviously a strong and wonderful person, man.”
Mallett does not remember when he gave the gift.
“He reached out to me and indicated he needed help to provide for his family and I responded,” Mallett said. “I was raised to help a person in need.”
Mallett said he wired the $1,000 via Western Union.
“That’s how he asked me to do it,” Mallett said.
The wire payment was not an attempt to hide the money from parole officials, Mallett said.
“Not at all,” Mallett said.
Kilpatrick is required to disclose gifts and income as a condition of his parole.
“I didn’t have any idea at the time that there was a requirement that these kinds of items be reported,” Mallett said. “All I got from Mr. Kilpatrick was, and I believe him, that there was some immediacy to the request he was making.
“All I can say, man, is were I aware that there was a requirement to report, I would have encouraged Mr. Kilpatrick to do that,” he added. “I mean, those of us who provided him that support were not trying to hide it. It is what it was, man.”
Mallett, a longtime friend of Kilpatrick’s, was asked about whether he hopes the City Hall corruption jury acquits the former Detroit mayor.
“No, man, I don’t have any comment on that at all,” he said.
Kwame Kilpatrick
Kwame Kilpatrick has identified more secret donors who gave him $6,700 in cash gifts, money that was hidden from parole officials and not applied toward the $854,000 in restitution owed to Detroit.
Conrad Mallett Jr.
Former Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Conrad Mallett Jr. gave $1,000 and Kilpatrick’s mother, ex-Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, gave $5,000, according to emails obtained by The News through the Freedom of Information Act.
Mallett is a long-time Kilpatrick friend and former aide who is running Mike Duggan’s campaign for Detroit mayor.
The previously undisclosed gifts bring to a total of $10,750 that was hidden from parole officials. A state probe of Kilpatrick’s finances continues and it is unclear whether the newly disclosed cash gifts will lead to additional punishment.
“It’s perfectly clear: He was required to disclose it,” Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan told The News on Thursday. “Any income, including gifts.”
Kilpatrick was jailed briefly last month, ordered to wear an ankle tether, placed under house arrest and barred from traveling home to Texas during breaks in the City Hall corruption trial after failing to disclose cash gifts.
Kilpatrick tried to justify hiding the money, saying he received the gifts while his parole was being supervised by Texas officials.
Not true, Marlan said.
The cash gifts are outlined in emails Kilpatrick sent this month to his parole agent, Charles Wright (dubbed “C-Wright” by Kilpatrick), who is investigating whether the former mayor committed other parole violations.
Kilpatrick told Wright that the former Supreme Court justice gave a $1,000 check. The money was for Kilpatrick’s three children, according to a Feb. 6 email.
Kilpatrick couldn’t remember when he got the check but it was before Sept. 1.
Former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick
Mallett’s name surfaced during the City Hall corruption trial. He stepped down as Detroit’s chief operating officer during Kilpatrick’s tenure as mayor in April 2002.
Kilpatrick also said he has received $5,000 from his mom since August 2011. Some of the money was spent paying restitution and on flights between Texas and Detroit, according to the emails.
Until last month, Kilpatrick was flying home on weekend breaks using Buddy Passes on Delta Air Lines.
The passes let him fly for free. All he had to pay was $197 tax, according to the emails.
It’s unclear from the emails whether the tax is per flight or round trip.
There were other newly disclosed cash gifts.
Kilpatrick said a woman named Karen Anderson wired $500 sometime before September. The money was for his wife and children, according to the emails.
A man named Greg Jones, meanwhile, wired $200 late last year, Kilpatrick said. The money allegedly was a birthday gift for the former mayor’s twins, Jalil and Jelani.
Kwame Kilpatrick and his wife, Carlita, share a laugh before the former Detroit mayor’s sentencing hearing begins on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2008. Kilpatrick was sentenced to serve the full 120 days in jail as stipulated by his plea agreement by Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner in the basement courtroom at the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Detroit.
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is complaining about wearing an ankle tether and living under house arrest and has repeatedly begged to fly to Texas to visit his wife and children, The Detroit News has learned.
The complaints started almost immediately after Kilpatrick was charged with 14 counts of violating parole last month, charges that were filed while he stood trial in the City Hall corruption case.
He violated parole by failing to disclose cash gifts that could have been used toward the $854,063 restitution he owes the city from the text-message scandal.
Kilpatrick was placed under house arrest, ordered to spend a weekend in jail and wear the tether amid a continuing investigation into the ex-Detroit mayor’s finances.
“PLEASE UNCHAIN ME,” Kilpatrick wrote to his parole agent Charles Wright on Feb. 19, according to emails obtained by The News through the Freedom of Information Act.
Wright said no.
Kilpatrick has asked to fly home again this weekend and a decision could come as early as today.
It is the latest plea from Kilpatrick, who is awaiting a verdict from jurors in the City Hall corruption trial. Kilpatrick, his father Bernard and contractor Bobby Ferguson face up to 20 years in federal prison, if convicted.
Kilpatrick and his family are renting this 5,000-square-foot home in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Kilpatrick, 42, was charged with violating parole Jan. 25.
Almost immediately, he started complaining about the ankle tether and having to live, essentially under house arrest, at his mother’s home in Detroit.
Kilpatrick has asked repeatedly since Feb. 2 — a week after he was charged with parole violations — to have the restrictions relaxed so he could fly to his family’s 5,000-square-foot rental home in Grand Prairie, Texas.
Kwame Kilpatrick’s father Bernard is flanked by his grandsons Jelani, left, and Jalil.
The parole agent refused to let Kilpatrick fly home.
Kilpatrick tried again days later.
“My sons are playing one of their remaining 2 varsity basketball games on Friday,” Kilpatrick wrote on Feb. 6. “I have only seen them play in one game this season. It would be amazing for them, as well as me, if I’m allowed to attend this activity. I humbly request to travel to my home. would return on Sunday evening…”
Kilpatrick also griped about being separated from his family and referenced the corruption trial.
“This is the last weekend before closing arguments in the biggest political trial in the history of Detroit,” Kilpatrick wrote to his parole agent. “I am going to be prevented from seeing my family, yet again, for the duration of jury deliberation.”
Kilpatrick tried again on Feb. 7, telling his parole agent he had booked a flight that night.
Kilpatrick waited for an answer as the 7:46 p.m. flight departure came and went.
At 9:08 p.m., Kilpatrick sent his parole agent another email.
Kilpatrick wore an ankle tether to a preliminary examination on assault charges in August 15, 2008, amid the text-message scandal.
“Of course there is no way for me to go home tonight,” Kilpatrick wrote. “I want to humbly request to be allowed to travel tomorrow. I am a husband and father that is desperately trying to spend some time with my wife and children before jury deliberations begin.
“I have not been able to see them for more than a month. I have worn a GPS device for nearly a month, been on house arrest, spent the weekend in prison, and been denied to go to my own home.
“I have completely cooperated with your investigation,” he continued. “I am humbly requesting that, even during this very narrowly focused part of your investigation, that I be allowed to travel to my home tomorrow…”
The agent said no, triggering a bitter response from Kilpatrick.
Kwame Kilpatrick’s family as they leave US District Court in downtown Detroit on Feb. 12. In the foreground is his mother Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick and his three sons. (Clarence Tabb, Jr./The Detroit News)
“Parole issues have already negatively affected my preparation for the case and has significantly hindered my ability to properly defend myself,” wrote Kilpatrick, who did not testify during the corruption trial and only a handful of defense witnesses were called.
Kilpatrick asked for another favor Feb. 16 after his wife, Carlita, and their three children flew into Detroit to attend closing arguments in the corruption trial.
Since Kilpatrick was under house arrest, he was unable to leave his mother’s home.
“I HATE asking this question,” Kilpatrick wrote. “It is absolutely against any notion of humanity and freedom that I have left within me, but I have been requested to ask you for this by my family. Again, I HATE it. I am requesting to take my family to the airport in the morning…”
No dice, his parole agent said.
Two days later, Kilpatrick asked for permission to fly to Texas, arguing that he is not a flight risk or accused of violent crimes, drugs or “sexual deviance.”
Again, the agent refused.
The next day, Feb. 19, Kilpatrick complained again about the ankle tether malfunctioning.
“Please take this thing off!” he wrote.
Marlan, the state prisons spokesman, justified why Kilpatrick’s agent has refused to approve travel requests.
“(Kilpatrick) is charged with a number of parole violations for failing to disclose income, so letting him fly all the way across the country to Texas is something his parole agent was not ready to do,” Marlan said. “He’s asking to go home again this weekend, but his parole agent has not made a decision yet.”
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