Detroit mayor: I'm not resigning

[Jahness]

Detroit mayor: I'm not resigning

By COREY WILLIAMS,
Associated Press Writer

Embattled Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said Thursday he won't resign because of a text-messaging scandal that has engulfed his administration, but acknowledged the uproar has reduced him to tears.

Kilpatrick, during an appearance on a morning radio show, was asked whether he would step down.

"Absolutely not," Kilpatrick said on "The Paul W. Smith Show" on WJR-AM. "I don't understand when people say `resign.'"

The mayor's comments came a day after the state's highest court rejected an attempt by Kilpatrick to prevent documents from being made public that detail a city settlement that helped conceal an apparent affair with a top aide.

The Michigan Supreme Court unanimously upheld two lower court rulings ordering the release of documents. They were made public hours after the ruling.

During the radio interview, Kilpatrick described the anguish he has felt over causing hurt for those close to him as well as to the city as a whole. "It's been a tremendously emotional process for me," he said. "I haven't cried this much since I was a baby."

The papers released Wednesday concern an $8.4 million settlement between the city and two former police officers who alleged they were fired or forced to resign for investigating claims that Kilpatrick used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.

They include the initial settlement agreement between the city and the former officers, which makes reference to embarrassing and sexually explicit text messages between Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty. The unsealed documents do not include transcripts of the actual messages.

The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News sued the city to get the sealed documents. The city argued the documents should remain sealed because they involved communications between attorneys during court-ordered mediation, but the high court ruled "there is no FOIA exemption for settlement agreements," referring to the state's Freedom of Information Act.

The Free Press first reported last month about the text messages between the married mayor and Beatty, who also was married at the time. The newspaper has not said how it obtained the messages.

During a second interview on another radio show, Kilpatrick said he didn't think the documents shed any light on anything.

"I think people were waiting for this big smoking gun," Kilpatrick said on WWJ-AM. "Nothing new came out yesterday."

Both Beatty and Kilpatrick denied under oath having a physical relationship during the former officers' lawsuit, and the unsealed documents could be used in an ongoing perjury investigation of Kilpatrick. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy is investigating and has said she expects to have a decision by mid-March.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080228/....BiT_ezoZH2ocA

Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.