WASHINGTON: Detroit's once-flashy "Hip-Hop Mayor" Kwame Kilpatrick will spend four months in jail after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice charges stemming from a torrid sex scandal case.
In a plea deal capping the scandal that has brewed for months, Kilpatrick, 38, resigned his position and accepted a jail sentence of four months after he pleaded guilty to lying in the investigation of the case involving a hushed-up stripper party and an affair he had with his chief of staff.
He was also ordered to pay the city restitution of one million dollars.
"You understand that by pleading guilty, that you're going to give up certain constitutional rights, and one is the right to be tried by a jury. Do you understand that, sir?" the Wayne County, Michigan court judge asked him.
"You're also giving up the right to being presumed innocent until proven guilty," the judge added.
"I think I gave that up a long time ago, your honor, yes," Kilpatrick responded.
Dubbed the "Hip Hop Mayor" when first elected seven years ago for his flashy lifestyle and diamond earring, Kilpatrick was indicted in March for lying under oath about a case stemming from an alleged wild party he hosted with strippers at the mayor's mansion in 2002.
The charges were filed after Kilpatrick abruptly instructed the city to award 8.4 million dollars to settle wrongful dismissal charges by three police officers who said they had been fired for investigating the mayor and the party.
Kilpatrick faced eight felony counts ranging from conspiracy to perjury to misconduct in office to obstruction of justice.
