Kilpatrick vows he won't quit as mayor

2/9/2008

DETROIT - A defiant Kwame Kilpatrick said yesterday that he believes he's "on an assignment from God" and vowed not to resign as Detroit mayor despite a sexually charged text-messaging scandal.

He said, however, that he had disobeyed God and "I'm getting my whipping for it."

Mr. Kilpatrick made the comments in a radio interview hours after a once-secret agreement between the mayor and three former police officers in a whistle-blowers' lawsuit settled for $8.4 million were made public.

The text messages were to be kept secret under the agreement approved by Mr. Kilpatrick.

The mayor also is facing a prosecutor's investigation into whether he committed perjury during the whistle-blowers' trial when he denied he had a physical relationship with his chief of staff.

Mr. Kilpatrick said his battle is "going to get uglier before it gets better."

The city still is fighting the release of other documents from the lawsuit settlement.

As he did in a televised public apology a week after the text messages first were reported by the Detroit Free Press, Mr. Kilpatrick took the blame for his actions, but defended his decision to keep the documents secret.

"I'm a guy. I'm a dude. I'm a man. I'm a person. I have a wife and children. There are things I don't want out on the street," he said during the 62-minute interview with WMXD-FM host Frankie Darcell.

The newspaper obtained 14,000 text messages from Ms. Beatty's city-issued pager and published some of them last month. The newspaper did not say how it obtained the messages.

The Free Press and The Detroit News filed Freedom of Information Act requests to force the city to release details of the confidential agreement and other documents from the whistle-blowers' settlement.

The city is appealing the release of other documents from the settlement, including the deposition of the lawyer representing two former officers who alleged they were fired or forced to resign for investigating claims that Mr. Kilpatrick used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.

The mayor and Ms. Beatty both denied under oath during last summer's trial that they had been physically intimate in 2002-2003.

The text messages left between 2002-2003 show Mr. Kilpatrick and Ms. Beatty had an intimate physical relationship.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is investigating whether they committed perjury.

Ms. Beatty announced her resignation Jan. 28, effective yesterday.