Kwame Kilpatrick

From Staff Reports

Reports that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick spent the night with a woman other than his wife during a stay at the Grove Park Inn prior to speaking at the Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast have left the event’s organizers disappointed.

The accusations were made by Detroit television station WXYZ, which aired a report last Friday alleging that Kilpatrick had been at the hotel with a woman who called herself Carmen Slowsky and that the two had enjoyed a whirlpool bath and champagne together at a cost of more than $500.

Oralene Graves-Simmons, chairwoman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, which sponsors the annual prayer breakfast, said that the group pays travel, hotel and meal expenses for its keynote speaker each year.

The group also typically pays up to $5,000 for the speakers, but Kilpatrick did not charge for his speech, she said.

Furthermore, she said she never saw him with a woman during his stay.

Asheville Mayor Terry Bellamy expressed disappointment at the allegations, saying the scandal has distracted focus from King’s legacy. Bellamy had reccommended Kilpatrick to be the event’s keynote speaker. She later said she did not know of his extramarital affairs.

The money raised by the prayer breakfast — which was attended by more than 1,100 people this year — funds the association’s events and pays for scholarships for young people to take the Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Tour.

Kilpatrick’s alleged extramarital affairs have been a source of controversy in Detroit in recent months. The Detroit Free Press on Jan. 23 published copies of text messages exchanged between Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, in which numerous references are made — often in graphic detail — to their sexual relationship.

Beatty resigned from her position last Monday, saying she could no longer carry out her duties effectively because of the scandal.

The messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, both of whom are married, were exchanged between October 2002 and May 2003.

Kilpatrick currently is under investigation for perjury, because the text messages seem to imply that he lied under oath during a trial at which he was sued by three former members of his bodyguard staff for violating the so-called Whistleblower Law. The plaintiffs, all former police officers, said that Kilpatrick and Beatty retaliated against them for investigating possible misconduct by the mayor’s staff.

During that trial, Kilpatrick denied that he was sexually involved with Beatty. He lost the suit and the plaintiffs were awarded more than $8 million in damages.

Last Monday, two Detroit City Council members called for an investigation into the text-message scandal that would center on whether council was misled into approving the settlement with the former officers. A vote on whether to begin an investigation was expected at council’s meeting last Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, Beatty, Kilpatrick and police chief Bully-Cummings also are named in a slander lawsuit filed by two police officers who claim that city officials made false statements about them related to a traffic stop involving Beatty.

The officers claim Beatty was irate when they stopped her and that Bully-Cummings, at Kilpatrick’s request, ordered her released.