Former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick walks toward the U.S. federal courthouse in Detroit last week. The federal racketeering, bribery, extortion, fraud and tax evasion trial started Friday for Kilpatrick, Bobby Ferguson, Victor Mercado and Bernard Kilpatrick. (Robin Buckson / The Detroit News)
Once or twice a month when he was mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick would enter First Independence Bank in downtown Detroit with $3,000 stuffed in his pocket, a former bank employee testified Monday.
Kilpatrick visited the bank to make credit card payments, said Jerome Robinson, a former bank employee.
Robinson was the second witness to testify during the City Hall corruption trial, during, which prosecutors focused on the former mayor’s finances and banking activity.
Testimony Monday showed Kilpatrick had access to large amounts of unaccounted for cash.
“Would he hand the money to you from his pocket, or was the money in an envelope?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Doeh asked bank employee Jerome Robinson.
“He’d hand it to me from his pocket,” Robinson testified, adding the money was usually in $100 bills.
One time, Kilpatrick had his bodyguard — an on-duty police officer — bring in the credit card payment, Robinson testified.
Kilpatrick sat impassively at the defense table while Robinson testified, resting his head on his right fist.
Under cross examination by Kilpatrick lawyer James C. Thomas, the bank employee said he didn’t consider the cash payments unusual.