Detroit ? Kwame Kilpatrick was fitted with a GPS tether Thursday, barred from traveling to see his family in Texas and placed on home confinement ? punishment for failing to disclose a $2,000 gift from a Chicago pastor.
The state is continuing to investigate and could send the former Detroit mayor to prison for two years if officials conclude he violated parole or received additional cash gifts. State and Wayne County officials are concerned Kilpatrick is hiding assets that could be applied toward the $855,000 restitution the former Detroit mayor owes the city.
"No more Texas trips, no more anything unless it's court- or attorney- or work-related," Department of Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said.
Kilpatrick took the situation in stride Thursday, thanking supporters and making reference to "Django Unchained," a popular movie about a former slave who takes violent revenge.
"Can't count all the blessings, words of encouragement & well wishes I've received 2night.Thank U...Love yall back! #DjangoChained4now," Kilpatrick wrote on Twitter.
The undisclosed gift and punishment overshadowed much-anticipated testimony Thursday from Derrick Miller in Kilpatrick's ongoing federal racketeering trial.
The mayor's most trusted aide testified he handed Kilpatrick a $10,000 payoff from a businessman in a Detroit restaurant bathroom in fall 2007.
Miller is set to spend a fourth day on the stand today.
The tether and travel restrictions were the most severe punishment imposed in a series of escalating incidents involving Kilpatrick's conduct while on parole. In recent months, Kilpatrick has made a late restitution payment, met with a felon and failed to prove he was performing community service.
Kilpatrick's notoriety likely played a role in the "fairly harsh" punishment, said Peter Henning, a former federal prosecutor and Wayne State University law professor.
The decision came two days after footage aired on television showing Kilpatrick collecting the wire transfer from a Chicago pastor. Kilpatrick failed to disclose the gift, an apparent violation of parole conditions.
"This is certainly questionable behavior, but it's not like he was robbing the Wal-Mart," Henning said.
Kilpatrick, who is on parole until August, was released from a Michigan prison in August 2011 after completing the minimum of an 18-month to five-year sentence for violating probation for crimes he committed during the text-message scandal.
The state reacted, Henning said, "because it's part of the pattern of prior violations."
"State authorities had to act," he said. "They can't simply wink and nod at this."
The Rev. Corey Brooks of Chicago said he wired Kilpatrick the money after the former mayor sent him a letter pleading poverty and asking for help.
On Tuesday, Kilpatrick called the incident trivial.
Under the new restrictions, Kilpatrick cannot leave his mother's 3,300-square-foot house in northwest Detroit except to meet with lawyers, attend the City Hall corruption trial or make paid speeches. Until The News started asking questions last fall, Kilpatrick was staying for free at the Atheneum Suite Hotel in Greektown.
He also had been regularly flying home on weekend breaks using Buddy Passes for nearly free on Delta to visit his wife and three sons in a Dallas suburb.
During Thursday's testimony, Miller, a groomsman at Kilpatrick's wedding, described a $10,000 cash payoff to Kilpatrick in the bathroom of a restaurant backed with city pension money.
The story about the payoff at the Asian Village restaurant marked the end of Miller's direct testimony and preceded several hours of cross-examination during which he showed emotion for the first time as he sparred with Kilpatrick's attorney James C. Thomas.
Miller has been the star witness thus far in the trial of Kilpatrick, his father, Bernard, and contractor Bobby Ferguson.
In a trial that has relied heavily on text messages and documents, Miller has taken jurors inside the Kilpatrick administration and detailed how the mayor's staff worked to steer work to Ferguson and allegedly received kickbacks and bribes from city contractors.
Miller said the city backed the Asian Village restaurant complex along the Detroit Riverfront and Kilpatrick asked him to get cash "from the Asian Village guys."
After Miller got the money, he made the transfer to Kilpatrick in a bathroom, Miller said. Inside an envelope: $10,000 in $100 bills, Miller said.
As he told the story, Kilpatrick looked stunned and leaned back in his chair.
In cross-examination, Thomas questioned Miller heavily on spending by a nonprofit, the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, that prosecutors allege was illegal. The fund paid for polling and focus groups that asked about the city and potential mayoral candidates in 2001.
Thomas contended the spending came before Kilpatrick was a candidate, making it allowable under IRS rules.
Not so, Miller said: Kilpatrick was already running for mayor.
"The Civic Fund polling was for the purpose of running for mayor," Miller said.
After court, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds issued a fresh gag order on trial attorneys, limiting where they can talk with the media and prohibiting them from commenting about witness credibility.
Edmunds' order appears to quash any more such comments until the trial ends.
Jurors have been told to avoid all media on the case since its inception.
mwilkinson@detnews.com
(313) 222-2563
Source: http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20130111/METRO/301110372/1006/rss01
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