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Witnesses: Kwame Kilpatrick money trail led to cash in shoe, lavish lifestyle
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick leaves federal court in Detroit after the first day of his public-corruption trial on Friday. The trial is expected to last four months. / WILLIAM ARCHIE/DETROIT FREE PRESS
First, jurors heard about $90,000 stashed in a vacuum. Then came a story about cash in a shoe.
Just two days in, jurors in the public-corruption trial involving former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick have heard detailed testimony about hidden money. It's designed to bolster the prosecution's argument that Kilpatrick had a lot of money floating around, but no identifiable source to account for it.
The U.S. Attorney's Office called six witnesses to the stand Monday during the first day of testimony in what is expected to be a four-month trial. The prosecution is trying to prove that Kilpatrick; his father, Bernard Kilpatrick; contractor Bobby Ferguson, and ex-city water department director Victor Mercado ran a criminal enterprise through the mayor's office to enrich themselves -- charges the four defendants deny.
Three of Kwame Kilpatrick's former bodyguards gave jurors a glimpse of the ex-mayor's lavish lifestyle, which included jet-setting and using police officers to pick up dry cleaning, make bank runs and locate hidden money when a bill needed paying.For example, Kilpatrick had $1,500 tucked inside a shoe that was used to pay a credit card bill, testified ex-bodyguard Chad Smith, a high school friend of Kilpatrick's who guarded former first lady Carlita Kilpatrick and the couple's children. Smith said he found the money hidden in a shoe in the Kilpatrick family home -- right where Kilpatrick told him it would be -- and paid the ex-mayor's MasterCard bill with it.
The former bodyguards also offered testimony supporting the government's claim that Kilpatrick was lavished with perks from wealthy businesspeople who wanted political favors.
Dwayne Love, a former member of Kilpatrick's security detail, testified that Grosse Pointe businessman Anthony Soave flew Kilpatrick, Ferguson and others on his private jet to Bermuda for a three- to four-day trip in 2006. Soave didn't go on the trip, which was a thank-you gift for those who helped Kilpatrick win re-election, said Love, who was on the trip.
Love testified Soave also used his private jet to fly Kilpatrick and Kilpatrick's ex-mistress and former aide Christine Beatty to New York City for a one-day shopping spree during the Christmas holiday in 2006.
"We flew there and came back the same day," Love testified.
In court documents, Mercado has said Soave -- in an effort to win millions of dollars in contracts -- lavished Kilpatrick with private jet flights, $10,000 worth of courtside Pistons tickets, New York City shopping sprees and a $6,000 watch for his dad. Soave also helped Beatty lease a Land Rover by "buying down Beatty's bad credit," the court filing says.
Soave has denied bribing Kilpatrick and said he was extorted by the ex-mayor.
In court Monday, an Internal Revenue Service agent offered a detailed look at the money trail the government followed in investigating the ex-mayor's alleged bribes and kickbacks. IRS investigator Ron Sauer testified that while Kilpatrick was mayor, he made more than $531,000 in cash expenditures -- none of which was traced to his $176,000 annual mayoral salary. At the same time that Kilpatrick was making large deposits, he testified, Ferguson was withdrawing a lot of cash -- $2 million over six years.
"Mr. Kilpatrick did not have a source of cash that we could identify, and he was regularly depositing cash," Sauer testified.
Kilpatrick's ex-bodyguards all denied ever seeing Ferguson give Kilpatrick any money.
On cross-examination, Sauer admitted he couldn't find a correlation between Ferguson's and Kilpatrick's banking activities, but said that one explanation could be that money was kept in a safe.
In court Friday, jurors saw photos of stacks of money stashed into safes owned by Ferguson.
The defense, however, has countered that the images are just smoke-and-mirror tactics designed to inflame the jurors, and there is nothing illegal about having money in a safe.
Defense attorney James Thomas noted during cross-examination that a lot of Kilpatrick's money was from gifts for birthdays and other occasions. For example, he asked an IRS agent if it was possible for someone to accumulate a large amount of cash in a shoebox.
That depends on the size of the shoe, remarked the IRS agent.
"Well, this guy's got big feet," Thomas answered.
The trial resumes at 9 a.m. today.
Witnesses: Kwame Kilpatrick money trail led to cash in shoe, lavish lifestyle | Kwame Kilpatrick Public Corruption Trial | Detroit Free Press | freep.com
