[Previously, at WEJB/NSU, on Kwame Kilpatrick:
“Detroit’s Gangster Mayor Reportedly to Accept Plea Today: Kilpatrick Era Over … for Now”;
“(Kwame) Kilpatrick Enterprise” in Detroit: Most Corrupt Municipal Administration Anyone Had Ever Seen”;
“Carlita Kilpatrick, Wife of Convicted Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Fights Paying One Dime of the $1 Million Restitution He Agreed to, as Part of His Plea-Bargain”;
“Feds Declare War on Detroit’s Gangster Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, Charge Him with Everything but the Murder of Tamara Greene”;
“In Detroit, to Find the Biggest Crooks, Look to the Highest Offices: Judge Carlos Powell Charged with Being City’s Drug Kingpin.”]
By Nicholas Stix
Detroit’s convicted felon ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick says he’ll file his taxes going back to 2009 this year. That’s called tax evasion. He says he was in prison during 2009 and 2010 (but wasn’t inside during all of that time), but that doesn’t matter, as he had secret income at the time from a loan that he refuses to divulge, and about which says he will “take the Fifth.”
So, his criminal ways haven’t changed in the least.
Tamara “Strawberry” Greene was the voluptuous, high-priced, stripper-prostitute who reportedly performed at a secret party for Mayor Kilpatrick and friends at the mayor of Detroit’s official residence, Manoogian Mansion, in the late fall of 2002. The mayor’s wife, Carlita, was supposed to be away, but reportedly showed up unexpectedly, and brutally beat Greene with a blunt object. Several first-responders who were at a hospital emergency room that night have reported that a black woman was brought in who supposedly had been beaten up by Mrs. Kilpatrick. Greene was shot three times and killed on April 30, 2003, by a member of the Detroit PD; whose murder’s files weren’t all stolen from a locked file at DPD headquarters.
Greene’s son sued the city over his mother’s death, but Michigan’s white attorney general, Mike Cox, a judge, and the Detroit newspapers all struck down or lambasted the son’s suit, insisting that there was no evidence of official misconduct.
The Kilpatricks have denied that any party was ever held at Manoogian, in which Tamara Greene performed, was beaten, etc. You know what? Forget that I even mentioned Tamara “Strawberry” Greene. She never existed.
Emails ex-mayor wrote to say he's broke also reveal he hasn't filed taxes since 2008
By Robert Snell
February 20, 2012 at 1:27 a.m.
The Detroit News
128 Comments
Detroit— Texas parole officials have a message for former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick: Get a job.
The message was revealed in Kilpatrick's personal emails to Texas and Michigan prison officials, which were obtained by The Detroit News. Kilpatrick said he is so broke he had to borrow money to pay his $160 restitution to the city last month and hasn't repaid $240,000 in loans from Compuware co-founder Peter Karmanos Jr. and businessmen Roger Penske, Dan Gilbert and James Nicholson.
"The money is gone," Kilpatrick said, adding he has not made a single loan payment.
The emails — along with news that Kilpatrick has not filed his tax return since 2008 — are surfacing as officials in Michigan are poised to increase his court-ordered restitution to about $500 a month. The review was prompted by concerns he is hiding assets and living beyond his means.
Michigan Corrections officials have made a decision on the restitution and instituted new parole conditions and are mailing them to him Tuesday. They won't announce what they are until he gets the letter in the mail, said Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan. Kilpatrick owes $860,222.
In a Feb. 3 email to a Texas parole official, sent from his personal account "The Real KMK!" Kilpatrick complained about being told to look for a job. He said Texas officials have rejected appearances and trips to New York and Cleveland and that he earned no money in January.
"I understand that I am a 'high-profile' parolee, but I am incredibly confused as to why I'm being treated differently than ANYONE else," he wrote. "I have never asked for any special treatment, nor do I want to be treated especially bad."
The emails were obtained by The Detroit News from the Michigan Department of Corrections through the Freedom of Information Act.
The ex-con, who resigned in disgrace in 2008 amid a text message scandal and who faces racketeering conspiracy charges in federal court, complained the Corrections crackdown and canceled appearances are hurting his reputation.
"This has not only hurt my ability to earn income, but has begun a conversation in this industry that I am unable to commit in a timely fashion," Kilpatrick wrote.
He said he was confused about being ordered to report to the Texas Workforce Commission earlier this month to register for a job. Kilpatrick insists he has a job giving speeches and making public appearances.
"We would not consider occasional speaking engagements to be steady employment," Texas Criminal Justice Department spokesman Jason Clark told The News.
Kilpatrick was making $120,000 a year as a salesman for a division of Detroit computer software giant Compuware until 2010. He was fired after Wayne County Judge David Groner put him back behind bars for violating probation by hiding assets that could have been applied to the $1 million restitution he agreed to pay the city.
"He had a job," Kilpatrick attorney James C. Thomas said Friday. "They took it away from him."
The emails also shed light on Kilpatrick's controversial move last year to Grand Prairie, Texas.
In a Feb. 3 email, Kilpatrick said his wife, Carlita, is leasing the $372,000 home.
The 5,000-square-foot home is larger and more expensive than the family's last rental, but Kilpatrick is claiming poverty to qualify for taxpayer-funded criminal defense lawyers and low restitution payments.
"I HAVE NOTHING TO HIDE," he wrote.
Wayne County prosecutors disagree. Prosecutor Kym Worthy wants Kilpatrick to pay at least $1,000 a month toward the $860,000 restitution balance.
The job demand is appropriate, Assistant Wayne County Prosecutor Maria Miller said Sunday.
"Although long overdue, requiring Kilpatrick to seek gainful employment to pay his restitution obligation is certainly a step in the right direction," she said.
Worthy had asked Michigan Corrections officials to review and modify his restitution payments after a November report in The News about Kilpatrick's move into the larger home.
Following media reports, Texas parole officials made "abrupt sweeping changes," Kilpatrick complained in an email.
Those changes include increasing the number of times he has to check in with parole officials.
"This has caused severe harm, in my ability to earn income, pay my court ordered restitution and even the overall scheduling of my professional, personal and family obligations," he wrote.
Kilpatrick's parole conditions have not changed, Clark said.
In the Feb. 3 email, Kilpatrick said the travel restrictions are a concern because he has $11,000 worth of appearances and book signings lined up this winter, including stops in Chicago, Detroit and a cruise to Jamaica and the Bahamas.
Kilpatrick was offered $1,500 to appear at a six-day Caribbean cruise and sign books during the Tom Joyner Foundation Fantastic Voyage in late March.
Along with his appearance fee, Kilpatrick gets a free cabin and can sell copies of his autobiography during the nationally syndicated radio host's cruise.
Kilpatrick also was offered $5,000 to participate in an "ethics workshop" in April at a forum in Virginia for black public administrators.
"I don't believe that there are ANY jobs at the Texas Work Commission, where I could earn as much income as I could from what I am doing now," Kilpatrick wrote. Clark denied that Texas officials rejected Kilpatrick's request earlier this month to travel to Cleveland.
The emails reveal new demands placed on Kilpatrick by Michigan prison officials.
They recently requested copies of tax returns for 2008-10.
Kilpatrick submitted his 2008 tax return but said he didn't file in 2009 or 2010 because he was incarcerated for violating probation on felony charges from the text message scandal.
He said he will file for those years and 2011 by April 15.
Michigan prison officials also wanted a list of all bank and credit union accounts he accessed last year. They also demanded an update on the personal loans he received from Karmanos and the other businessmen in February 2009.
He was supposed to start repaying those loans in November 2010. As of last month, he hadn't made a single payment.
Michigan prison officials didn't ask about a second mysterious loan, however.
During a November 2009 court hearing, Kilpatrick testified he received a $150,000 loan after being released from jail. He refused to talk about the loan during the hearing.
"I'm going to take the Fifth," he said.
rsnell@detnews.com
(313) 222-2028
[Thanks to reader-researcher RC for this article.
From WEJB/NSU’s Detroit File:
“Detroit’s Gangster Mayor Reportedly to Accept Plea Today: Kilpatrick Era Over … for Now”;
“White Detroit News Columnist (Almost) Tells the Truth about Former Motor City’s Decline!”
“Justice, Detroit-Style: Is Black Judge Vanessa Bradley a Racist? Do Cows Fart?”;
“Detroit: No-Name Clearances of No-Name Murders”;
“Detroit’s Convicted “Hip-Hop Mayor,” Kwame Kilpatrick, is Livin’ Large While Pleading Poverty”;
“(Kwame) Kilpatrick Enterprise” in Detroit: Most Corrupt Municipal Administration Anyone Had Ever Seen”;
“Carlita Kilpatrick, Wife of Convicted Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Fights Paying One Dime of the $1 Million Restitution He Agreed to, as Part of His Plea-Bargain”;
“Feds Declare War on Detroit’s Gangster Mayor, Kwame Kilpatrick, Charge Him with Everything but the Murder of Tamara Greene”;
“Detroit: New Crime Stats Fail Smell Test; How Could Crime Go Down 7% Overall Last Quarter, While Homicides Went Up 31%?”;
“Are White Gangs Making It Impossible to Drive City Buses in Detroit? Inquiring Minds Want to Know”;
“Detroit: Buses are So Dangerous and Unreliable That Disabled Mom of 6 Traded Her House for a Minivan”;
“Detroit: Three Men in Their 20s Allegedly Kidnapped and Gang-Raped Girl, 13, for at Least Three Days”;
“Mysterious, Anonymous Detroit News Story About Arrest of Triple Shooting Suspect, Nasir Banks”;
“Happy New Year, Detroit-Style: Club Manager was Killed, Trying to Break Up a Fight; FREEP Writer Knows Facts, but Refuses to Report Them”;
“Detroit: Serial Killer is Murdering Prostitutes Who Advertised Online in Pairs, and Stuffing Them in Car Trunks”;
“Blackberry: Detroit’s Murder Bar—Demesha Hunt, Renisha Landers, and Now, Claudia Benson Last Seen Alive There”;
“Detroit: Family of Murder Defendant Jacob Wells, Threatens to Murder Family of Murder Victim, Claudia Benson—on Camera!”;
“Detroit: Murder Up 12%, but ‘Serious’ Crime is Down; Broken Windows Policing is on the Way”;
“The Onion: Detroit Has One of America’s Top 10 Downtowns”; and
“In Detroit, to Find the Biggest Crooks, Look to the Highest Offices: Judge Carlos Powell Charged with Being City’s Drug Kingpin.”]
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