Read excerpts from the text messages (sexually explicit passages are omitted):
January 23, 2008
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In public statements and under oath, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has denied repeatedly over the past four years that he had a sexual relationship with his chief of staff, Christine Beatty. The issue was central to claims by former police officers who sued the city and Kilpatrick, accusing the mayor and Beatty of retaliation in part because of what the cops knew about Kilpatrick's private conduct. The Free Press obtained nearly 14,000 text messages from Beatty's city-issued paging device. The messages reveal hundreds of personal exchanges between the mayor and Beatty in September-October 2002 and April-May 2003. Many describe a sexual relationship, often graphicly. The two of them arranged trysts, plotted to spend nights together while traveling on city business and discussed their fears of being caught by the mayor's security team. The Free Press is excerpting some passages, but is withholding exchanges that refer explicitly to sex acts.

WHAT KILPATRICK TESTIFIED

Aug. 29, 2007, Wayne County Circuit Court

Mike Stefani, lawyer for ex-cops Gary Brown and Harold Nelthrope: Mayor Kilpatrick, during 2002 and 2003 were you romantically involved with Christine Beatty?
Kilpatrick: No.

Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, lawyer for the City of Detroit: And would it be fair to say, sir, that in your professional relationship as mayor and Christine Beatty's professional relationship as chief of staff, that you in fact have conducted yourself in such a way as professionals in a non-sexual way?

Kilpatrick: Yes.

WHAT KILPATRICK SAID IN PUBLIC

May 21, 2004

After a judge unsealed depositions in which former mayoral bodyguard Walt Harris said under oath that Kilpatrick cheated on his wife with Beatty, Kilpatrick said: "All of the allegations are completely false."

Referring to Harris and other accusers, Kilpatrick added: "They will say anything to get money. They are suing the city. ... They want the taxpayer dollars and we're refusing to give it."

WHAT BEATTY TESTIFIED

Aug. 28, 2007, Wayne County Circuit Court

Stefani: During the time period 2001 to 2003, were you and Mayor Kilpatrick either romantically or intimately involved with each other?

Beatty: No.

Dec. 9, 2003, deposition in the whistle-blower suit

Stefani: So you've not dated the mayor at all?

Beatty: No, I've not dated the mayor at all.

Stefani: Do you have any knowledge of the mayor philandering?

Beatty: No, I do not.

Stefani: Do you believe that he does philander?

Beatty: Is this something I have to answer? OK. No, I do not.

Stefani: During the trip (referring to a Sept. 9-15, 2002, trip to Washington, D.C.), did you and the mayor spend time alone together in his hotel room?

Beatty: I don't recall that at all.

Stefani: Is it possible you could have?

Beatty: I doubt it. ...

Stefani: Did you use the message device to arrange social meetings between you and the mayor?

Beatty: No.

Stefani: Did you ever send the mayor, or receive from the mayor, a text message which was of an intimate or sexual nature?

Beatty: No.

WHAT TEXT MESSAGES SHOW

9/12/02, 10:38 p.m., during trip to Washington, D.C.

Christine Beatty: Can I just come and lay down in your room until you get back?

Kwame Kilpatrick: Yes.

9/13/02, 9:02 a.m. (the next morning)

KK: They were right outside the door. They [the mayor's bodyguards] had to have heard everything...

CB: So we are officially busted! LOL

KK: LOL LOL! Damn that. Never busted. Busted is what you see! LOL. ...

CB: LOL, LOL. Damn, so they have to walk in before you conceed busted! LOL.

KK: Hell yeah. Walk in.

9/15/02, 3:38 a.m. (still in Washington)

CB: I'm on my way to your room now. But by the time you get there I'll be sleep and it will be 5am!

KK: I got something for you.

CB: LOL. Is that so? I'm in your room. Don't let Mike check it [an apparent reference to Mike Martin, a bodyguard who often traveled with the mayor]. Are you in route or still hanging? What do you have for me?

9/24/2002, 6:56 p.m.

CB: This is one of those little things I had to tell you. Last night when I was laying on your shoulder in the car and you held my face and sang whatever song it was, that felt so good. It was just one of those little moments when you just made me fall some more.

9/28/2002, 11:53 p.m.

CB: Where are you now?

KK: At home waiting for all EP [executive protection unit officers] to leave. Where are you?

CB: At the residence inn in Madison hgts.

KK: What rm?

CB: ...I'm in room 311 in bldg 3 in the back.

10/7/2002, 11:20 p.m.

CB: OK, I'm feeling like I want another night like the most recent Saturday at the Residence Inn! You made me feel so damn good that night. As you can see I can't let it go! ...

KK: I feel that we can do that in WV [West Virginia] + just relax together. I need you soooo bad. I want to wake up in the morning and you are there. Make it happen. Love ya.

10/8/2002, 10:18 a.m.

KK: I'm fine. Need a break. I want to get out of town w/you. Check on resorts outside of Houston.

10/16/02, 11:48 p.m.

KK: I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days...relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love.

10/31/2002, 5:28 p.m.

KK: I'll feel better once I'm holding you.

CB: You didn't say whether or not we are trying for some time tonight.

KK: Definitely. I'm getting a room. Damn that!

CB: LOL. Okie dokie.

(Kilpatrick later tells her to pick up room key at Marriott)

11/1/2002, 12:28 a.m.

KK: 6301 or 6302?

CB: Definitely 6302! 6301 has two double beds.

4/8/2003, 8:55 p.m.

KK: I'm at Laker game. The security doesn't believe I'm mayor. Mike is pulling out all kind of shirt to prove it.

CB: And, did you miss me, sexually?

KK: Hell yeah! You couldn't tell. I want some more. Don't sleep!

5/5/2003, midnight

KK: That's the first time that I couldn't fully seduce you. My game is off. LOL! Thanx for the conversation and the QT! Love you!

CB: LOL! Your game is way on baby! "you had me at hello!" Jerry McGuire 2000. LOL. I just didn't want to get caught.

The termination of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown

Under oath at trial and in depositions, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied firing Brown for pursuing an internal affairs investigation involving the mayor, his police bodyguards and staff. Brown said he was fired in part because the mayor and Beatty feared their relationship would be exposed. Kilpatrick and Beatty testified that the mayor merely revoked Brown's appointment as a deputy chief, effectively demoting him to lieutenant, and that Brown then chose to retire.


WHAT KILPATRICK TESTIFIED

Aug. 29, 2007, Brown whistle-blower suit, Wayne County Circuit Court.

Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, lawyer for the City of Detroit: Did you terminate Mr. Brown?

Kilpatrick: No. I did not terminate Mr. Brown. I did not fire Mr. Brown.

Colbert-Osamuede: When you removed Deputy Chief Brown from his appointment, was it your intent to harm him?

Kilpatrick: Not at all.

Colbert-Osamuede: What was your intent, sir?

Kilpatrick: My intent was to move him out of the public, I mean professional accountability, bureau, and find a more professional person who understood that. That had grew up in that process, and get that person in there. But it wasn't to damage him in any way. And it was a tough decision. These decisions are always tough. But it wasn't to hurt him, step on him, do things to him.

WHAT BEATTY TESTIFIED

Aug. 28, 2007, at the whistle-blower suit.

Beatty: Again, Mr. Brown was not fired.

Dec. 9, 2003, in deposition taken by Brown's lawyer, Mike Stefani.

Beatty: Gary Brown wasn't fired.

Stefani: He was what again?

Beatty: He was unappointed from his position as deputy chief and has since retired from the Detroit Police Department. He wasn't fired.

WHAT TEXT MESSAGES SHOW

The following is an excerpt from Beatty's city-issued paging device. The exchange came two days after Brown said at a press conference that he was fired.

May 15, 2003, 11:02 a.m.

Beatty: I'm sorry that we are going through this mess because of a decision that we made to fire Gary Brown. I will make sure that the next decision is much more thought out. Not regretting what was done at all, but thinking about how we can do things smarter.

Kilpatrick: True! It had to happen though. I'm all the way with that!


February 9, 2008
Document’s Disclosure Adds to Scandal Over Detroit Mayor
By MONICA DAVEY, NY TIMES

DETROIT — During negotiations over lawsuits by three former police officers who said they had been unfairly fired, Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick reached a confidentiality agreement with them in which they agreed never to reveal text messages that suggested he had conducted an extramarital affair with an aide.

When the talks were finished last fall, the city and the mayor — who had vowed months earlier to continue fighting the officers’ claims — agreed to pay $8.4 million in taxpayers’ money to end the cases. The confidentiality agreement was one of several documents a judge made public here on Friday morning, the latest in a series of revelations that have bruised Mr. Kilpatrick and his administration this year.

In January, The Detroit Free Press published a series of text messages, some of them racy, between Mr. Kilpatrick and the aide, Christine Beatty, his chief of staff. That set off an investigation by the county prosecutor, Kym L. Worthy, into whether the pair had lied under oath when, during a trial of the former officers’ claims, they denied having had an affair. The officers said in part that they had been fired to block an investigation that could have brought the affair to light.

The perjury investigation is continuing.

Ms. Beatty has since resigned.

The Free Press and The Detroit News are seeking the release of more documents connected to the legal settlement that city lawyers have said are not subject to public records laws.

Robert Colombo Jr., a Wayne County circuit judge, released the confidentiality agreement on Friday and said he would make the other documents public as well, but city officials have taken their case to an appeals court.

Neither a spokesman for Mr. Kilpatrick nor his legal adviser, Sharon McPhail, returned telephone messages Friday seeking comment.

But Mr. Kilpatrick, who appeared on television on Jan. 30 beside his wife, Carlita, to issue a public apology for his failings, went on a local radio show Friday afternoon. There, Mr. Kilpatrick, who is in his second term as mayor, apologized once more, praised his wife, said he loved his city, and indicated that he had no intention of resigning.

Mr. Kilpatrick also questioned how The Free Press had obtained the text messages from 2002 and 2003 and accused the newspaper of wrongdoing.

Some members of the City Council, meanwhile, seemed increasingly weary of the continuing effects of the mayor’s troubles. The council is expected to meet Monday to decide whether to hire its own lawyer in the case, separate from the city law department and separate from the mayor’s lawyer.

“I believe that we have a crisis in leadership in the city, in the mayor’s office,” Kwame Kenyatta, one council member, said this week. “We’re just trying to see our way through it.”

Much conversation — in a coffee shop in Detroit’s suburbs or along the street outside the mayor’s downtown office — has turned to the unfolding scandal, the possibility of more text messages, the prospect of more legal documents.

“This has all been dribbling out, bit by bit,” said William S. Ballenger, the editor of Inside Michigan Politics, a political newsletter.

“Knowing the city and knowing Kilpatrick, when this first started, I really thought he would just tough it out and probably could,” Mr. Ballenger said. He added that now he was not as certain.

Nick Bunkley contributed reporting.

Judge releases documents in Detroit mayor text-message scandal
AP; Posted: 2008-02-08 10:11:03

DETROIT (AP) - A judge has released some previously sealed documents that detail the confidentiality agreement between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former top aide in an $8.4 million whistle-blower settlement.

Kilpatrick and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty signed a deal - as private citizens, not in their official capacity - that would conceal intimate and sometimes sexually explicit text messages as part of the city's settlement of the lawsuit filed by two former police officers.

Those messages show Kilpatrick and Beatty had an intimate physical relationship in 2002-03, something they both denied under oath during the whistle-blower lawsuit. A prosecutor is investigating whether they committed perjury.

Detroit mayor: Text message scandal hurts city's image but doesn't interfere with operations
By COREY WILLIAMS,AP; Posted: 2008-02-01 17:20:07

DETROIT (AP) - Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Friday that a text messaging sex scandal involving him and a former aide has hurt the city's image but has not interfered with its daily operations.

Kilpatrick's comments came at a ribbon-cutting for a refurbished trash drop-off facility. It was the first time he had taken questions from the media since the Detroit Free Press broke the text messaging story last week.

"The events of the last week have had an incredible impact on the city, and I believe in a negative way, from the large amounts of press, national press," Kilpatrick said. But, he noted, the city continues to run.

Kilpatrick also said that his office will comply with any requests by the City Council for financial records from his first six years as mayor. The council may vote Tuesday on whether to start an audit of Kilpatrick's office.

A prosecutor is investigating whether the mayor and chief of staff Christine Beatty lied on the stand during a whistle-blower's lawsuit last summer in which both denied having a physical relationship. The questioning was tied to allegations that the mayor used his security guards to cover up extramarital affairs.

Kilpatrick said Friday he was paying his own legal fees, not the city.

In court, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied having a physical relationship, but the text messages that came to light last week reveal that they carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their trysts.

Kilpatrick wrote Beatty in 2002: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

On Monday, Beatty announced she would resign. She will not receive a severance package from the city, mayor's spokesman James Canning said Friday.

"She was a great asset to our organization," Kilpatrick said Friday of his longtime friend. "She's going to be missed, terribly. At this particular time, it was obvious for her to have to make that decision, and we wish her well."

Kilpatrick made a televised speech Wednesday apologizing to family and constituents but avoiding direct mention of the allegations. His wife, Carlita, sat by his side. He returned to work Thursday morning after a weeklong, self-imposed exile.

Kilpatrick back to work as perjury investigation continues
By COREY WILLIAMS,AP; Posted: 2008-01-31 18:14:15

DETROIT (AP) - Racy text messages on the city-issued pager of Kwame Kilpatrick's top aide could be the strongest evidence against the Detroit mayor in an ongoing perjury investigation.

Those messages allude to a physical relationship Kilpatrick and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty denied under oath last summer and will serve as ammunition for Prosecutor Kym Worthy, legal experts say.

"The prosecutor will argue the text messages are effectively admissions by the author," Washington lawyer Adam Hoffinger says. "Text messages are the same as if someone said it on tape."

Worthy announced last week that her office would investigate whether Kilpatrick and Beatty falsely testified about their relationship during a whistle-blower's lawsuit last summer. Their testimony was called into question following a Detroit Free Press report last week of 14,000 text messages from 2002-2003. Some of the messages were sexually explicit.

Two former Detroit police officers who successfully filed the civil suit claimed they were fired or forced out because of their allegations that Kilpatrick's security unit covered up the mayor's extramarital affairs and committed other misdeeds.

The suit cost the city more than $8.5 million in a settlement.

Worthy still would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Kilpatrick and Beatty knowingly made false statements under oath during the whistle-blower's trial, University of Detroit-Mercy's School of Law professor Lawrence Dubin said.

"In many cases, it's difficult to prove the person intentionally testified falsely," Dubin said. "In this case, Worthy is going to have more evidence available to scrutinize."

There are risks for a prosecutor, added Hofessor and former U.S. Attorney Gary Maveal says is an under-prosecuted offense.

"I don't think that's because these are difficult cases," he said. "Usually, the lies are revealed at the first trial."

Monday, January 28, 2008
Christine Beatty resigns, regrets 'devastation'
Christine MacDonald / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- Christine Beatty announced this morning that she will resign her position as Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's chief of staff.

The mayor's office received the letter today and made it public.

In the letter, Beatty said it is "clear that I can no longer effectively carry out the duties of chief of staff.

"Therefore, this letter serves as my resignation effective Feb. 8, 2008 to allow for an orderly transition of my duties with the new chief of staff," she said.

"I painfully regret the devastation that the recent reports have caused to the citizens of Detroit, to my co-workers to the mayor's family and to my family and friends."

Beatty, Kilpatrick's chief of staff and an old friend from high school, has been the center of a sexual scandal involving her and the mayor. Both Kilpatrick and Beatty swore under oath in an earlier trial that they have never been involved in an affair. However, scores of text messages between Beatty and Kilpatrick -- dating back to 2002 -- seem to contradict their denials.

Mayoral spokesman James Canning was terse and tight lipped when he appeared at Detroit City Hall this morning, deflecting questions from reporters who wanted to know if Kilpatrick would appear at work today.

"The mayor doesn't have a public schedule today," said Canning. Deputy Mayor Anthony Adams, who has been officially running the city during Kilpatrick's absence, would not respond to the same question.

Sam Riddle, a political consultant and chief of staff to Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers, said he has recommended to the councilwoman that she draft a resolution, which could be introduced as soon as Tuesday, to officially launch an investigation into whether the mayor cut a side deal to keep scandalous information private.

The council had already been informally looking into whether the mayor would be forced to repay the city the $8.4 million in settlements paid to ex-cops who claim they were retaliated against for looking into allegations that may have uncovered the mayor's affair with Beatty.

Sharon McPhail, Kilpatrick's general counsel, confirmed that she hadn't had a chance to read the text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty, but said she thought the mayor would survive the ongoing scandal and "won't face any criminal charges."

"I'd be awfully surprised if there are any criminal charges from what I'm hearing," McPhail said.

"When the facts are known, this is going to be a blip on the screen of all the wonderful things that he's done for the city."

McPhail said she had spoken with the mayor several days after news of the affair broke.

"He was all about business," said McPhail, who said Kilpatrick urged her to "just get the job done."

McPhail said Kilpatrick indicated he had talked with his staff and was "very regretful" about the current situation.

You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2396 or cmacdonald@detnews.com.

FREE PRESS SPECIAL INVESTIGATION

Mayor Kilpatrick, chief of staff lied under oath, text messages show
Romantic exchanges undercut denials
January 24, 2008
BY JIM SCHAEFER and M.L. ELRICK
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS COPYRIGHT ©2008, DETROIT FREE PRESS
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Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied about their relationship last summer at a police whistle-blower trial that has cost the cash-strapped city more than $9 million, according to records obtained by the Free Press.

The false testimony potentially exposes them to felony perjury charges, legal experts say.

Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty denied during testimony in August that they had a sexual relationship. But the records, a series of text messages, show them engaged in romantic banter as well as planning and recounting sexual liaisons.
The messages are also at odds with the pair's trial testimony that they did not fire Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown in 2003, an ouster that led him to sue. The text messages show Beatty recalling the "decision that we made to fire Gary Brown."

The newspaper examined nearly 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager. The exchanges, which the Free Press obtained after the trial, cover two months each in 2002 and 2003.

The Kilpatrick-Beatty relationship and Brown's dismissal were central to the whistle-blower suit filed by Brown and Harold Nelthrope, a former police officer and mayoral bodyguard. The two cops accused Kilpatrick of retaliating against them because of their roles in an internal affairs investigation of the mayor's security team -- a probe that potentially could have exposed the affair.

The Free Press sought interviews with Kilpatrick and Beatty, but they declined.

Late Wednesday, the mayor released a statement that said the text messages were "profoundly embarrassing" and "reflect a very difficult period" in his life.

"My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago," he wrote.

The mayor's statement did not address his or Beatty's trial testimony.

The text messages cover a range of issues, from the daily minutiae of city business to political gossip to the latest doings on "American Idol." Kilpatrick and Beatty, both 37, exchanged personal messages almost daily, including romantic notes.

"I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002.

"I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty answered. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"

Other texts contain sexual content, like this exchange on April 8, 2003:

Beatty: "And, did you miss me, sexually?"

Kilpatrick: "Hell yeah! You couldn't tell. I want some more. "

SkyTel, the Mississippi-based company that provided text devices to the city, confirmed the existence of messages to the Free Press.

The city has tried since 2004 to keep the text messages under wraps. It fought in court to keep them from being provided to the legal team for the former cops and went to court this month in an effort to kill a subpoena issued in a Free Press suit to learn more about the settlement.

If Kilpatrick and Beatty are found to have committed perjury, they could face up to 15 years in prison under state law.

Peter Henning, a professor of criminal law at Wayne State University, said "there is a basis to raise a question whether this is perjury." He added that proving perjury is difficult. "It's rare that you get a question that is so clear that it is obviously perjury," he said.

He added that prosecutors may initiate an investigation on their own.

Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, declined comment Wednesday.

Wayne County Circuit Judge Michael Callahan, who oversaw the whistle-blower trial, was shown excerpts of text messages Wednesday. It was the first time he had seen them.

He said he is unlikely to take action, given that the case has been settled, but would cooperate if a prosecutor decides to investigate.

"If it happened during the case, they would feel the fury of my wrath, but it's over," Callahan said. "Now, I wish I had seen the messages."

Kilpatrick, a lawyer, could also face discipline if the state Attorney Discipline Board finds he lied in court.

Lying under oath is one of the worst sins a lawyer can commit -- akin to stealing a client's money, legal experts said.

"It's literally the equivalent of the death penalty for a law license," said Michael Schwartz, former administrator of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, which investigates lawyers.

The head of the grievance commission, Robert Agacinski, declined to say Wednesday if he would investigate.

Beatty, a Wayne State law student, may face hurdles to obtaining a law license if she lied to or deceived a court.

Mike Stefani, the lawyer for the former cops, said he was not surprised the mayor's testimony was contradicted by the text messages.

"I know he perjured himself," Stefani said. "And I was maintaining that throughout the trial."

Taxpayers hit

The costly settlement of the whistle-blower suit was a financial blow to a city that is struggling to provide services to residents and is selling assets to raise money.

Kilpatrick balked at early efforts to settle the 2003 suit and continued to fight even after his attorneys learned in 2004 that the damaging messages might eventually surface in the case.

In June of that year, a mediation panel urged the city to pay Brown and Nelthrope $2.25 million to drop the suits. The city and Kilpatrick rejected the recommendation. So did the cops, although Stefani, their lawyer, said the city never made a settlement offer over the next three years.

At the trial last summer, the mayor and Beatty denied a romantic relationship. Both were married at the time of the text messages; Beatty later divorced.

Stefani asked Beatty the following question when she was on the stand Aug. 28:

"During the time period 2001 to 2003, were you and Mayor Kilpatrick either romantically or intimately involved with each other?"

Rolling her eyes, Beatty answered: "No."

Kilpatrick testified for more than three hours the next day.

Stefani asked him: "Mayor Kilpatrick, during 2002 and 2003 were you romantically involved with Christine Beatty?"

Kilpatrick's response: "No."

The messages show otherwise: They arranged trysts in area hotels and on business trips and exchanged messages that were unmistakably sexual.

The Free Press is not publishing some of those exchanges because of their explicit nature.

"I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days," the mayor wrote on Oct. 16, 2002. "Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."

During the trial, Kilpatrick bristled when testifying about speculation that he and Beatty were lovers.

"I think it was pretty demoralizing to her -- you have to know her -- but it's demoralizing to me as well," he said. "My mother is a congresswoman. There have always been strong women around me. My aunt is a state legislator. I think it's absurd to assert that every woman that works with a man is a whore. I think it's disrespectful not just to Christine Beatty but to women who do a professional job that they do every single day. And it's also disrespectful to their families as well."

Times of conflict

The dates covered by the text messages are significant because they surround two controversial periods of the mayor's first term in office.

The first batch -- September through October 2002 -- book-ends the purported date of a never-proven wild party at the Manoogian Mansion, the city's mayoral residence. Nelthrope mentioned rumors of strippers and an assault at the alleged party to internal affairs investigators. The second batch -- April-May 2003 -- covers the weeks before and after Brown's ouster as head of internal affairs. Brown had wanted to investigate Nelthrope's allegations.

The text messages suggest Kilpatrick and Beatty intended to fire Brown, even though they and their lawyers said in court they meant only to remove him from his post overseeing internal affairs.

"He was not fired," Kilpatrick testified. "My understanding is he could go back to lieutenant ... but I think Mr. Brown chose to retire."

The text messages, however, use "fire" to describe Brown's departure. On May 15, 2003, Beatty wrote to Kilpatrick: "I'm sorry that we are going through this mess because of a decision that we made to fire Gary Brown. I will make sure that the next decision is much more thought out. Not regretting what was done at all. But thinking about how we can do things smarter."

Kilpatrick replied: "It had to happen though. I'm all the way with that!"

Personal history

Beatty and Kilpatrick have been friends since attending Detroit Cass Technical High School together in the mid-1980s. Beatty has run all of his election campaigns, including his winning bid for state representative in 1996. He has praised her as an indefatigable and tough negotiator who helped the city wrest concessions from labor unions.

But she has also been a source of controversy. One notable example came in 2004, after Detroit police pulled her over for allegedly speeding.

The cops say she pointedly asked them: "Do you know who the (expletive) I am?" before calling Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings. Beatty later acknowledged calling the chief from her cell phone, but denied pulling rank on the officers. She was never ticketed.

Kilpatrick also has been a longtime friend of Lou Beatty, who was married to Christine Beatty until their 2006 divorce.

At the trial in the whistle-blower suit, Kilpatrick testified: "Lou Beatty grew up three houses down from me. We played on the same Little League team. He played football with me, yes, at Cass Tech. ... At 6 o'clock he'll be coaching my sons."

In Washington

In 2002, among their intimate text conversations, Kilpatrick and Christine Beatty planned a clandestine meeting in the mayor's Washington hotel room during the Congressional Black Caucus annual legislative conference.

Beatty asked the mayor, on Sept. 12, 2002, if she could "come and lay down in your room until you get back?"

The next morning Kilpatrick, referring to his bodyguards, wrote: "They were right outside the door. They had to have heard everything."

Beatty replied: "So we are officially busted!"

"Damn that," Kilpatrick responded. "Never busted. Busted is what you see!"

The text traffic appears to lend credence to allegations made by Walt Harris, a former mayoral bodyguard who filed his own whistle-blower suit. Harris said he was punished for supporting Nelthrope's reports of wrongdoing by Kilpatrick and his bodyguards.

His lawsuit claimed, among other things, that Beatty met alone with the mayor in Kilpatrick's hotel room during the Washington trip in 2002.

Kilpatrick later told reporters Harris was making up stories to get money from the city.

On May 14, 2003, Kilpatrick and Beatty traded text messages about another late-night tryst in a Washington hotel. The next day, Kilpatrick stood on the steps of the Manoogian Mansion and spoke of his devotion to family and God amid a frenzy of news reports that Brown was fired for looking into rumors of the Manoogian party.

The verdict

In September, a Wayne County jury concluded Brown and Nelthrope were victims of retaliation and found in their favor, awarding Brown $3.9 million and Nelthrope $2.6 million.

Kilpatrick's public response was: "I'm absolutely blown away at this decision, and I know Detroiters are, too."

The next morning, on Sept. 12, Kilpatrick told a WJLB-FM (97.9) radio audience why he had refused to settle the case.

"I thought that the people of the city of Detroit needed to have an opportunity to hear the truth, they needed to see me sit in the chair," he said. "They saw that." He vowed an appeal.

Then, in October, Kilpatrick abruptly settled the case, as well as the suit brought by Harris, for a combined $8.4 million. Legal costs have pushed the total to more than $9 million.

"Since the verdict," Kilpatrick told residents in a statement, "I've listened to pastors, business leaders and so many Detroiters who genuinely love and care about me and this city. I've humbly concluded that a settlement ... is the correct decision for my family and the entire Detroit community."

Kilpatrick's decision to settle pleased Detroit City Council members, who swiftly approved the deal.

Harris received $400,000. Records show Kilpatrick could have settled that case two years ago for $100,000 -- but he rejected the mediators' recommendation.

Because they were sued in their roles as city officials, Kilpatrick and Beatty did not personally have to pay the costs from the $9-million legal fight.

Contact JIM SCHAEFER at 313-223-4542 or jschaefer@freepress.com. Contact M.L. ELRICK at 313-222-6582 or mlelrick@freepress.com. Staff writers David Ashenfelter, Zachary Gorchow and Todd Spangler contributed to this report.