Rod Meloni Blogs From Inside Kilpatrick Hearing

 

Entry: 3:06 p.m.

Judge Groner continues questioning Kilpatrick:

Judge: How have you made the payments to the court?
Kilpatrick: Usually with a cashiers check or money order and depending on how late it is I mail it to someone here to take it down.

Judge: Have all the checks all said Kwame M. Kilpatrick?
Kilpatrick: Yes, I believe so.

Judge: Where did you get the money, the cash to pay the restitution, out of what accounts?

Kilpatrick: Several your honor. 30% of my gross income is far more of what I can pay. You’re starting out with $7,000 before the taxes. I have been using money cashing out of accounts, money I’ve borrowed and my income. I’ve had to do a lot of other things to make those payments because I know how important they are.

Judge: There is no paper trail for these payments?
Kilpatrick: Yes, sometimes. You will see months where three or four thousand dollars come out of checks. I don’t know that there is a paper trail as you say, but yes you can say I have been making these payments and probation can see where I make all of these payments.

Judge Groner offers prosecution opportunity to ask questions.
Recess request?

Prosecution makes a motion to admit one document, #38,  regarding accounts of defendant Kwame and Carlita Kilpatrick’s  joint accounts. There are five of them.

The prosecutor taking the stand is Robert Spada.

Battery about to die. Gotta go!
Rod Meloni

Entry: 2:58 p.m.

Kwame takes the stand.

Judge Groner asks questions:
Where he lives,
Who lives there,
Do you have a mortgage or lease?
Kwame says it’s a rental home, and he is not party to it.

Judge: Who is paying rent?

Kilpatrick: Um. I assume my wife is handling the rent.

Judge: Why do you assume that?

Kilpatrick: Because I’m not.

Judge: Never discussed it with her?

Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: Do you know how much the rent is?

Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: Do you have a lease agreement?
Kilpatrick: I don’t have a lease agreement.

Judge: Have you seen the lease agreement?

Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: Do you know how long you’re staying there?
Kilpatrick No.

Judge: Are you fully moved in or live out of a suitcase?
Kilpatrick: I’m fully moved in.

Judge: You don’t forsee living  there in the forseeable future?
Objection by Michael Schwartz:  says questions are irrelevant. Objection noted, overruled.
Schwartz: What is the plan? Objection. Overruled.

Kilpatrick: After the year I put my family through, I’m just trying to stay with them as long as I possibly can.

Judge: Do you work for anyone else besides Compuware/Covisint?

Judge: How much have they paid you this year unless you don’t know?

Objection… overruled.

Kilpatrick: My salary is $10,000 per month.

Judge: Has your wife worked over the past year?
Kilpatrick: I don’t know.

Judge: You paused, is there a reason?

Objection and overruled.

Kilpatrick: This case brought out some personal issues, I’m blessed to be with my wife so now that I am out of that
“that dungeon” I don’t know.

Judge: Is your wife working?

Kilpatrick: No, not for a company.

Judge: Does she have a source of income?
Kilpatrick: No… I don’t know.

Judge: Have any of your children worked this past year?
Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: How many cars do you have in your household?
Kilpatrick: I have a Dodge Ram and a Cadillac Escalade.
Judge: Paid for?
Kilpatrick: Both vehicles are leased.

Judge: How do you pay for them?

Kilpatrick: One lease is prepaid… the other lease came when the Aspen lease ended which I gave the court that information.

Judge: How many credit cards do you have?
Kilpatrick: One.

Judge: Which bank?
Kilpatrick: MasterCard

Judge: Who is on the card?
Kilpatrick: Me and my wife.

Judge: How many checking accounts in your name alone?
Kilpatrick: One. Bank of America. That’s the information you have your honor.

Judge: How many joint checking accounts with your wife?

Kilpatrick: None. After the harassment she dropped me from the account.

Kilpatrick: After the harassment?
Of all of this over the past year she dropped me from the account.

Judge: How many savings accounts in your name?
Kilpatrick: None.

Judge: How many checking accounts does your wife have?
Kilpatrick: No.

Judge: What are your current liabilities?
Kilpatrick: Restitution.

Sidenote: An audience member is ejected from the courtroom for talking.

Kilpatrick continues:  restitution; paid $86,000 and owes $914,000;  Lawyers, several of them I owe $650,000. I have a still outstanding student loan for law school.

Doesn’t know amount.

Has a personal loan of $240,000, not from a bank, but from an individual.

Signed paperwork Feb. 4th 2009, the day after I got out of jail.

Judge: Did you make payments on that loan?
Kilpatrick: The schedule starts in 2010

Judge: From Whom?
Kilpatrick: Several individuals.

Judge: How many?
Kilpatrick: Four. I also have other liabilities.

Judge: Let’s get back to the individuals.

Schwartz: Objection.

Judge: Who are they?
Kilpatrick: Roger Penske, Jim Nicholson, Dan Gilbert and Pete Karmanos.

Entry: 2:52 p.m.

Court is back in session. Attorney Schwartz is now pleading.  He says the mayor’s previous claims are true. They were true in March and true today. Schwartz says the mayor will not testify fearing it would subject him to further charges and therefore will assert his fifth amendment rights against self incrimination. Schwartz called the prosecution’s claims ”spurrious”.  Prosecutor Siringas comes back and says the mayor has committed perjury, and is willing to show records to prove the mayor’s claims are false.

Judge Groner wants to know whether a perjury charge is coming. Siringas, says she doesn’t know, but is putting Kwame Kilpatrick on notice a charge could be coming. The Judge wants to know how the mayor’s team can say the mayor swore truthfully and then decide not to testify fearing perjury?

Judge Groner says this is a civil hearing, not a criminal hearing. He believes the pleadings so far are not germain. He wants to know about known or unknown assets. Judge Groner says he can call him as a witness and Kilpatrick can not refuse to testify.

The mayor’s attorney says the prosecutor’s office will try to use incriminating information from any testimony and therefore does not want the mayor to testify.

Entry: 2:26 p.m.

The question about a further perjury charge stems from a March 24th affidavit sent to the court by Kilpatrick’s attorney Michael Schwartz and signed by the former mayor. It stated expenses and income, claiming that after monthly bills and expenses, the mayor had only $6 left to pay court ordered restitution. The mayor listed a large number of line items including student loan repayments, car payments, food, phone bills, and a cable television. The mayor listed overall income at $10,000 a month and his expenses came out to $9994.00 a month. The Prosecutor’s office believes it can prove that is a falsehood, and constitutes perjury.
The mayor is required to pay One million dollars to the city of Detroit in 5 years. The mayor right now is on a court ordered schedule to pay $6000 a month. Putting pencil to paper on that schedule, it will take the former mayor just under 14 years to pay off his million dollar fine.
So, now we wait yet again to find out whether these charges will move forward and where this hearing is headed

Entry: 2:17p.m.

Judge Groner called a 10 minute recess so the former mayor could consult with his lawyer. The Prosecutor pleading the case up until now is Athina Siringas. She is the lawyer who dropped the bombshell about a possible further perjury charge. One question arises in this situation, a prosecutor can proffer a charge at any time. Why broach it in this fashion in court?

Entry: 2:07p.m.

The courtroom is octagonal. Inch wide wooden strips act as wall cover. Audience benches circle the walls facing the Jjudge’s bench, the jury box to the judge’s immediate right. The courtroom is almost full, and half a dozen bailiffs stand at attention, intently watching the scene, bailiffs standing behind the judge’s bench staring at the former Mayor. The Prosecution takes the podium facing Judge Groner telling the judge there is sufficient evidence to show the former mayor perjured himself yet again!

Judge Groner is back on the bench. This is what is known as a restitution. The prosecution intends to present an unnamed witness. That being the case the Judge Decided he wanted to swear-in the former mayor. The mayor took the oath and then the stand. At that point, the prosecution asked for a side bar in the Judge’s Chambers. The former Mayor turned around as he was heading to the witness stand and then sat down in a chair behind the defense table.

Entry: 2:06p.m.

Judge Groner is back on the bench. This is what is known as a restitution. The prosecution intends to present an unnamed witness. That being the case the Judge Decided he wanted to swear-in the former mayor. The mayor took the oath and then the stand. At that point, the prosecution asked for a side bar in the Judge’s Chambers. The former Mayor turned around as he was heading to the witness stand and then sat down in a chair behind the defense table.

Entry: 2:05 p.m.

Judge Groner is back on the bench, the attornies with him. Hearing proceeding with the agreement any documents containing sensitive information will be “redacted” or covered up. The Judge said we are in Judge Skutt’s courtroom because of the large interest in this case. He thanked Judge Skutt for the use of his courtroom on short notice and asked if the media is comfortable. We are.

The judge left the bench to consult with his staff. We are awaiting his return.

Entry: 1:57 p.m.

Judge David Groner was handed documents just prior to the hearing by the prosecution.  He is deeply concerned about them because there is information he believes could go against a “protective order” he wrote trying to protect bank account numbers and other privileged and sensitive information. The prosecution says much of the information is not against the order and would be willing to cover up any sensitive information the judge is concerned about.

Kwame Kilpatrick’s attorney Michael Alan Schwartz requested a hearing in the Judge’s Chambers to further discuss the issue. The prosecution says everthing is fine, the records are releasable and wants to proceed. The Judge is hedging, still deeply concerned.  Now, the judge wants to see the attornies and the documents in a jury room to discuss how this will move forward. They are now heading into the jury room. The former mayor immediately got up from the defense table and walked into a back hallway to avoid the cameras pointed at him.

Entry: 1: 39 p.m.

The Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in Downtown Detroit is all abuzz, television news cameras all over the place awaiting Kwame Kilpatrick’s arrival.

Inside, the media throng is so large that Judge David Groner decided he needed to move from his cramped courtroom on the third floor to a larger fourth floor courtroom. That forced a massive mobilization of video and technical equipment in a very short time.

Meantime, outside the building about 1 p.m., the former Mayor appeared outside driving inside a white Escalade just behind his attorney Michael Alan Schwartz who drove in a much smaller sedan. They met in the street outside the building, spoke briefly and then walked up the stairs to the front door. Half a dozen cameras converged on them.

Kilpatrick did not answer any questions as he walked into the building he left exactly a year ago today for a jail sentence. Interestingly, as the cameras approached the mayor going in the courthouse door a process server attepted to hand the former Mayor a subpoena in some other legal matter. The server said “this is for you”. Kwame Kilpatrick saw the document being handed to him and circled his arm around as if doing a “swim move” playing football lineman [as he did in college] and pushed the document aside. It landed on the ground. Kilpatrick’s attorney picked it up and then proceeded into court.

Now upstairs in the courtroom, we await the judge’s arrival. The scene is a jury box filled with video and still cameras, 7 video, at least three still and a numver os technical standing behind them with computers. The mayor himself is seated at the defendent’s table wearing a grey business suit and white shirt. His hair is closely cropped as it was when he was mayor and unlike the pictures we have seen of him in the past year with longer har and even longer beard, both are closely cropped for today’s proceedings.

The prosecution has rolled in a cart with a video camera. The word in the building is the prosecutor’s office is preparing a lengthy presentation.

The judge has just taken the bench… he is now addressing the courtroom. 1:39PM

Stay tuned!

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