‘Sex, Lies and Texting’

It's bone-chillingly cold in Detroit, and the big auto show is going on, but all anyone can talk about is the scandal consuming Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick--the one a local TV station calls "Sex, Lies and Texting." Once known as America's first hip-hop mayor, Kilpatrick, 37, had notably toned down his living-large lifestyle in his second term as the mayor of Motown. But this week, his partying past caught up with him. The Detroit Free Press published text messages between Kilpatrick (who is married with children) and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty (divorced with children), that seem to confirm what both have denied under oath: that they had an illicit affair. "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for three days," Kilpatrick texted Beatty on his city-issued pager in 2002, according to the Free-Press findings. "Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

Politics and sex scandals go together like peanut butter and jelly. Just ask Larry Craig and Bill Clinton. But what makes this one extraordinary are the lengths to which the forbidden lovers went to cover up their trysts. Back in April 2002, only four months into Kilpatrick's first term, rumors emerged of a wild party involving a stripper at the mayoral mansion. Around the same time, one of the mayor's bodyguards, Harold Nelthrope, reported that the mayor's personal police posse was running amuck, crashing cars and racking up overtime. Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown launched an investigation, which could have uncovered the clandestine couple. But two weeks into his investigation, Brown was fired. A month later, Brown and Nelthrope filed a whistleblower lawsuit against Kilpatrick and the city, which finally came to trial last summer. Kilpatrick and Beatty insisted under oath there was no affair and that they hadn't fired Brown. Even without the text messages that appear to maker liars out of them now, the jury found against Kilpatrick and the city. The case ended up being settled for $9 million of Detroit taxpayers' dollars--or, as the Free Press figured it, the equivalent of 126 police officers' salaries.

Now, Kilpatrick and Beatty could face perjury charges--a 15-year offense. The county prosecutor, Kym Worthy, announced Friday she is launching an investigation, which is expected to include how the Free Press obtained the text messages the city failed to turn over during the trial last summer. Worthy is promising to be "fair, impartial and thorough. We will not be rushed by anyone or anything."

Predictably, there is outrage all over Detroit and calls for the mayor's head. "He's an embarrassment and now it's proven he's a habitual liar," city union boss John Riehl, told NEWSWEEK. Riehl, who represents 900 Detroit workers in the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, is having them picket city hall on Wednesday to demand that Kilpatrick resign. "He's put Detroit's national image in the gutter."

You might think this down-on-it-wheels city of nearly 1 million people didn't have that far to fall, given the economic wreckage left by its sputtering signature industry. But after nearly losing his re-election bid in 2005, the mayor seemed to be maturing. The strapping former collegiate football player toned down the bling (he took out his big diamond stud earring) and subdued the swagger. He started to gain some traction in his efforts to clean up the city and attract new business. Super Bowl XL went off without a hitch two years ago, and Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert recently announced plans to move the headquarters of his company, Quicken Loans, to downtown Detroit. "This does not in any way alter Quick Loans or its sister companies from proceeding full speed ahead with our plans to build a headquarters in downtown Detroit," Gilbert said in a statement. "Our commitment is long term, and transcends any short-term event or challenge."

Still, if Kilpatrick is forced to resign, all business bets are off. Efforts could stall to upgrade and expand Cobo Hall, home to the annual Detroit Auto Show, which pumps a half billion much-needed dollars into the local economy. Already, the threadbare convention center is losing business to other auto shows in Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. Porsche, for example, skipped the Detroit show this year for the first time in 20 years. "If he leaves, I would hope we don't reverse the progress that's been made," says economist David Sowerby of Loomis Sayles, who just appeared with Kilpatrick at a press conference on Cobo Hall. "He was as gregarious and engaging as ever, but that was last week."