Mayor, aide's text messages ignite scandal

DETROIT — Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick bristled in the witness chair last year when asked whether he had an affair with a top aide. No, the mayor testified, the two were never romantically involved.

But 14,000 text messages that emerged this week tell another story: The mayor and his chief of staff carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to hide the trysts.

The revelation has embroiled Kilpatrick in a scandal that could cost him his job and his law license and result in perjury charges.

The Detroit Free Press did not explain how it obtained the messages, which were sent or received in 2002-03 from Chief of Staff Christine Beatty's city-issued pager.

The mayor's denial came last summer during testimony in a lawsuit filed by two police officers who alleged they were fired for investigating claims from two former bodyguards that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.

Mike Stefani, a lawyer for the officers, asked Beatty if she and Kilpatrick were "either romantically or intimately involved" during the period covered by the case.

"No," she replied.

On the witness stand, the mayor defended his reputation and that of Beatty.

"I think it was pretty demoralizing to her — you have to know her — but it's demoralizing to me as well," he testified. "I think it's absurd to assert that every woman that works with a man is a whore."

Late Wednesday, Kilpatrick said, "These five- and six-year-old text messages reflect a very difficult period in my personal life," he said.

Last summer's lawsuit ended with $6.5 million awarded to the two officers.

The text messages published by the Free Press revealed a romantic discourse that at times became sexually explicit.

"I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote Oct. 3, 2002.

"I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"

On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote Beatty: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

Kilpatrick is married with three children. Beatty was married at the time and has two children.

The two, both 37, have been friends since they attended the same Detroit high school. Kilpatrick also appointed Beatty as his chief of staff when he became state House minority leader in 1999. She also managed his election campaigns.

The content of the text messages "astounded" Judge Michael Callahan, who presided over the lawsuit. He said the messages would have been admitted into evidence if they had been presented.

He said it would be up to local prosecutors to decide whether to seek perjury charges against the mayor. A conviction of lying under oath is punishable by up to 15 years' imprisonment.