From Detroit Free Press
On Jan. 24-25, 2008, Detroit Free Press investigative reporters Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick revealed that Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty, had had an affair and lied about it under oath in a police whistle-blower lawsuit. The mayor agreed to a secret deal to settle the lawsuit for more than $9 million in order to keep private revealing text messages between them. After months of court battles to keep the messages and secret settlement documents from the public eye, Kilpatrick pleaded guilty in September to two felonies and is now serving 120 days in jail. Beatty pleaded guilty to two felonies in December and will be sentenced to 120 days in jail on Jan. 5, 2009.