Detroit Mayor Apologizes but Says He Won't Resign

Jan 31, 05:00 AM

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick held hands with his wife Wednesday at his church and apologized repeatedly in his first public remarks over steamy text messages that appear to contradict his sworn denials of an affair with a top aide.

"I want to start tonight by saying to the citizens of this great city: I'm sorry," Kilpatrick said in a live evening television address from his church on the city's west side.

The mayor never said what he was apologizing for, however. His remarks came amid a scandal over text messages between him and former chief of staff Christine Beatty. The Free Press reported Jan. 23 it had obtained 14,000 text messages from Beatty's city-issued pager in 2002-03. The documents contained racy text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said last week her office would investigate whether Kilpatrick and Beatty lied under oath last summer during the trial of a lawsuit filed by two Detroit police officers. The officers said they were fired for looking into claims that the mayor used his security unit to cover up affairs. During the trial, Beatty and Kilpatrick denied having a sexual relationship.

Beatty quit Monday. Kilpatrick insisted he would not resign.

"I would never quit on you," he declared. "Ever."

Kilpatrick said that for legal reasons he could not comment on the issues that prompted his apology. He did say that he had fallen in love with his wife when he was 19 and apologized to her and his three sons.

"Like all marriages, ours is not perfect," Carlita Kilpatrick said. "Like all people, we are not perfect, but through our commitment to God and each other, my husband and I will get through this."

The mayor and his wife spoke in a mostly empty banquet room in the Greater Emmanuel Institutional Church of God in Christ. There was no audience and reporters were barred from his address.

"I'm not ready to kick him to the curb just yet," said Jim Holley, pastor of Little Rock Baptist Church and a Kilpatrick supporter whom the mayor appointed to the Detroit police commission. Referring to Carlita, Holley said, "If she can say what she said tonight and live with him, I ought to be able to live with him."

Emily Kunze, president of an AFSCME local union, whose members are clerical workers in the water and lighting departments, was not as forgiving.

"He did not address the fact that he wasted money, that he lied on the stand or that he lied to the public. I still wholeheartedly believe he should resign," Kunze said. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc. Detroit Mayor Apologizes but Says He Won't Resign
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