Kilpatrick makes another half payment on restitution

Doug Guthrie / The Detroit News

Detroit -- Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick continues to pay half the amount of his monthly restitution payments he promised to give the city when he took a plea deal stemming from the infamous text messaging scandal.

Kilpatrick made a $3,000 payment on Nov. 6 instead of the $6,000 required, according to the Michigan Department of Corrections Probation Department. That's three months in a row Kilpatrick has paid at the reduced rate his lawyer says he was entitled to claim because his paychecks have been reduced.

Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner ordered Kilpatrick back from his Texas home last month for a hearing on claims that he willfully violated terms of his probation by failing to provide complete answers about his wealth and by cutting in half his $6,000 monthly contributions toward $1 million in restitution as part of a plea deal that included jail time and his resignation as Detroit mayor.

Kilpatrick is expected to be back in the witness seat inside a Wayne County courtroom this afternoon, answering more questions about his personal finances as result of his reduced payments.

On Oct. 29, Kilpatrick testified he has little knowledge of his finances because he has turned them over to his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick. The prosecution contends more than $1 million flowed through family accounts last year, while Kilpatrick claimed he had only $6 a month left for restitution payments after expenses for living in Southlake, Texas. He said Carlita Kilpatrick leased a Cadillac Escalade and $1 million home in the town described as the most affluent community in America.

A prosecutor expressed surprise when Kilpatrick said he didn't even know if his wife has a job.

His lawyer, Michael Alan Schwartz, later explained Kilpatrick remains "in the dog house" with his wife and is in a delicate position when it comes to demanding answers about how the family should run.

The prosecutor could call Carlita Kilpatrick as a witness because rules for a probation violation hearing are different than at trials, but that's unlikely, said Cooley Law School Professor Curt Benson.

"His tactic now is to deny any knowledge," said Benson. "He doesn't have a shred of credibility anymore, but that doesn't matter. After the prosecution asks him some more questions, they will go about the less exciting task of showing where the money came from and where it went.

"The reality is Kwame Kilpatrick is now a sideshow. This is now about collecting the money, and the reality will be found buried in the bank records and transactions."