Kwame Kilpatrick and his family
Prosecutors rebutted a key defense point Wednesday, suggesting Kwame Kilpatrick’s twin boys were enrolled at a preschool in 2002 when nonprofit money paid for their schooling.
IRS Special Agent Ron Sauer testified about two Kilpatrick Civic Fund checks issued in 2002 to A Step Ahead pre-scshool, where the ex-mayor’s twin sons attended.
One $156 check from his personal account paid for his sons’ trip to Cedar Point, the agent testified. And a $5,000 Civic Fund check paid for graduation week activities in 2002, including a party tent.
“Do parents contribute large checks in that range?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Bullotta asked the school’s co-owner Linda Byrd.
“I cannot recall one,” she said.
Jelani Kilpatrick
She said the $5,000 check was hand-delivered by the ex-mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick.
Byrd testified the twins, Jelani and Jalil, graduated in June 2002.
Jalil Kilpatrick
The testimony comes a week after Kilpatrick lawyer James C. Thomas said the mayor’s sons had graduated a year earlier, in 2001, and were no longer there in 2002.
Anyway, Thomas suggested nonprofit group payments were legitimate because the Civic Fund was established to support educational and community activities.