Detroit Mayor Denies Affair With His Chief of Staff

Aug 29, 08:20 PM

Current Headlines: DETROIT _ Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick Wednesday denied having a romantic relationship with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, while testifying in Wayne County Circuit Court in the whistle-blower trial of two former Detroit police officers who are suing the city and the mayor for allegedly ruining their careers.

The mayor answered questions about the alleged affair with a curt "No."

Kilpatrick said he's been friends with Beatty's former husband, Lou Beatty, since childhood and that the man will be coaching his sons in a sporting event Wednesday.

Lou Beatty and Christine Beatty divorced in 2006.

"She's my friend ... we have been through a lot together," the mayor said.

He spoke of meeting her in ninth grade at Cass Technical High School. Beatty worked as his campaign manager for his run in the state legislature. Afterward, Kilpatrick made her his chief of staff, and brought her with him as he ran for mayor of Detroit and won. Kilpatrick said his kids call Beatty "auntie" and that Beatty's kids call the mayor "uncle."

The mayor said he has visited Beatty's home several times because all of his campaign records are stored either at Beatty's home or at the mayor's home.

None of the visits were romantic in nature, he said.

The mayor also denied that he ever met with a woman, dressed only in a fur coat with nothing underneath, at the Lofts apartment complex on Jefferson in 2002.

Former bodyguard Walt Harris previously testified that he drove the mayor to an apartment complex on Jefferson Avenue and a woman wearing only a fur coat greeted them at a security gate. Kilpatrick denied it flatly, saying only security guards can open such a gate, and that he went there with Harris to visit Kilpatrick's brother, who lived there.

Regarding the testimony of Harris and former officer Harold Nelthrope that the mayor met a woman he described as his "Jamaican friend" at a westside barbershop, Kilpatrick also denied it.

He said he grew up in that neighborhood and lived just three doors down from the shop, on Leslie Street, at the time.

Under questioning by his attorney, Sam McCargo, the mayor said he had visited the barbershop on occasion, but "there is no occasion that I would be on the street ... where my wife and children are ... with a Jamaican woman."

The mayor was on the stand for more than three hours.

Kilpatrick, speaking softly but deliberately, said he stands by his decision in May 2003 to terminate then-deputy chief Gary Brown from his position as head of police internal affairs.

"I knew it was the right decision," Kilpatrick said. "I knew it then; I know it now."

Kilpatrick arrived about five minutes early for his testimony. He shook hands with some audience members, and during a break, he offered his hand to Harold Nelthrope, one of his former police bodyguards who is suing him. Nelthrope shook the mayor's hand.

While the testimony was fairly tame, the mayor and Michael Stefani, the lawyer for Brown and Nelthrope, sparred.

When Stefani started things off with a question about the mayor's father, Bernard Kilpatrick, having the nickname Killer, Kilpatrick corrected him on its origin.

Isn't it short for lady-killer? Stefani asked.

No, the mayor said, it's a name his father picked up on the basketball court.

When Stefani asked if the mayor believed that his upbringing in a political family means he is above the law, Kilpatrick replied: "No, it means the opposite, Mr. Stefani."

Stefani has said Kilpatrick's personal affairs are crucial to his clients' claim under the Whistleblower Protection Act. The suit claims Kilpatrick sought to end an internal affairs investigation because he knew it could turn up embarrassing information.

Among Nelthrope's 2003 allegations were that other police bodyguards fraudulently filed for overtime and wrecked city cars. He also reported never-proven rumors of a wild party at the Manoogian Mansion, the mayoral residence.

Brown, who ran internal affairs, says he was fired; Nelthrope says harassment and anxiety forced him to leave his job.

Nelthrope and another former police bodyguard, Walt Harris, have testified that Kilpatrick cheated with other women behind closed doors while they stood outside. However, neither claims to have witnessed any physical contact other than a kiss when Kilpatrick once greeted the woman he referred to as his "Jamaican friend."

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