state to recommend less than a year in jail for kilpatrick

[The Streets Don't Love You Back]

State to recommend less than a year in jail for Kilpatrick

Detroit -- Michigan Department of Corrections probation authorities will likely recommend incarceration but not prison for former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick when he is sentenced next month.

A corrections spokesman indicated today the state will recommend the former mayor should serve less than one year behind bars in a county jail for his probation violations. Sentences of a year or longer require prisoners to be sent into the state's prison system.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Groner was expecting to receive a presentence report containing a guideline that recommends a sentencing range before he decides how to punish Kilpatrick on May 25

The judge found Kilpatrick guilty of probation violations on Tuesday. The judge warned Kilpatrick then to "have his affairs in order," when he returns to court next month.

"We are leaning in that direction and that will likely be the recommendation," Russell Marlan, spokesman for the state's corrections and probations departments said today. "I doubt we will be recommending a specific amount of time, but we will be recommending a period of incarceration in a jail."

Groner found Kilpatrick guilty of probation violations on Tuesday. The judge warned Kilpatrick then to "have his affairs in order," when he returns to court next month. Beverly Smith, probation supervisor for the Department of Corrections in the Detroit area, told Groner that preparing the report would take up to four weeks. She promised to have it to the judge by May 18.

No matter what the corrections department recommends, the judge has the final say.

"My educated guess is that the sentence will clearly be something under a year, 30 to 90 days, maybe," said attorney Charley Langton, who serves as WJBK-TV Fox 2's legal analyst.

"These aren't criminal violations, as opposed to going out and assaulting someone again," Langton said about the felony assault charge for shoving a Wayne County prosecutor's investigator on his sister's porch, which Kilpatrick pleaded no contest to in 2008. "A sentence of 30 to 90 days sends the message he probably doesn't lose the job. He might even be able to work out some kind of work release. You have to punish the guy for the system to have credibility, but I would be very shocked if it was over a year."

Groner had authority to jail Kilpatrick on Tuesday, but didn't. Instead he chose to wait for probation agents to make their recommendation.

When Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to two counts of obstruction of justice in 2008 to avoid trial on a host of felony charges stemming from the text message scandal, his sentencing guideline called for anything between zero and 17 months. Kilpatrick's plea-bargain called for his resignation as mayor and $1 million restitution to be paid during five years of probation. Kilpatrick served 99 days of a 120-day sentence and moved to Texas after his release early in 2009 for a sales job with Compuware subsidiary Covisint.

Groner on Tuesday found Kilpatrick guilty of hiding assets that could have been applied to restitution, including gifts and loans he failed to report to the court and political funds and tax returns he failed to turn over as ordered.

The judge has the authority to issue a sentence above or below guidelines on May 25, if he sees extenuating or mitigating circumstances. The 2008 guideline of zero to 17 months was based on Kilpatrick's personal history, which at that time didn't include a record of felony convictions. Kilpatrick's record with the court is now far more complex.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy's assistants have repeatedly argued that Kilpatrick's actions were aimed at deliberately misleading the court, and that Kilpatrick lied to the court when he testified during a lengthy restitution hearing.

Kilpatrick and his lawyers have said the charges were the result of misunderstandings and vindictive prosecution.

That hearing resulted in the judge finding Kilpatrick hid funds by fraudulently conveying them to his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick. Groner ordered Kilpatrick to make payments of more than $300,000 toward restitution, above his normal $3,000 per month payments. Kilpatrick has paid nothing, claiming he doesn't have the money. Supporters paid about $40,000 on his behalf.

Carlita Kilpatrick this week asked a federal judge in Texas to exempt portions of her family's finances from the Michigan court's attempts to obtain payment toward her husband's restitution. think