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Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Continues to Argue for His Privacy Rights
By Privacy Maven | February 10, 2008
The legal battle and verbal tug of war continues.
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his legal team insist there was nothing unusual about demanding a confidentiality agreement that concealed damaging text messages as part of an $8.4-million legal settlement with three former cops.
But legal experts say confidential side deals are virtually unheard of when governments settle lawsuits. They also disputed the mayor’s position that he had a privacy right in a settlement paid with public money.
“I’ve had hundreds of lawsuits against the City of Detroit, and this is the first time I’ve heard of anything like this,” said Southfield lawyer David A. Robinson, a former Detroit cop who specializes in police misconduct cases.
“I think he was pushing his own personal agenda, not the city’s,” Robinson said, adding that he thinks the arrangement put Kilpatrick in a conflict of interest with taxpayers who paid for the settlement.
The Detroit City Council approved the settlement last October, but members have said they were unaware that the mayor signed a secret side deal aimed at hiding embarrassing text messages that showed he and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty lied under oath at the police whistle-blower trial last summer when they denied having an affair.
The article continues.
The Detroit News reports on attorney Mike Stefani’s reaction.
In the weeks since news of a secret deal between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and three former police officers has surfaced, attorney Mike Stefani has watched local television news reports and listened to radio shows with growing contempt.
As the mayor and his advocates have moved to defend the city’s handling of the text-message scandal, Stefani has become a frequent target, along with the media and, Stefani said, the truth.
“They aren’t learning by their mistakes, they’re making additional false statements,” he said Friday during an extensive interview with The Detroit News. “They’re making up baloney.”
Stefani successfully represented former Detroit Deputy Chief Gary Brown and former officers Harold Nelthrope and Walt Harris, who claimed they were punished for attempting to look into inappropriate behavior by the mayor and his staff, including allegations of an affair.
After the verdict in September awarded Brown and Nelthrope $6.5 million, Stefani negotiated a settlement that included Harris’ case. That settlement has since been questioned with the revelation that with it came a secret “confidentiality agreement” between the parties designed to hide damaging text messages between the mayor and his former Chief of Staff, Christine Beatty.
In the text messages, Beatty and Kilpatrick share intimate exchanges that appear to contradict their assertion at trial that they were not romantically linked. One text message also shows them talking about their decision “to fire” Brown.
Stefani is most irked by the comments of Sharon McPhail, the mayor’s general counsel, who has made numerous statements about the agreement, including claims that the city must defend the release of some documents to “preserve” the integrity of the mediation process that produced the deal.
The article continues.
This brief video documents the unsuccessful efforts of the press to interview the mayor.
Topics: Public Figures and Privacy |