Labor leader: Unions may ask for Mayor Kilpatrick's resignation TEXT MESSAGE SCANDAL

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080125/NEWS01/801250427/&imw=Y

January 25, 2008

By JOE SWICKARD, SUZETTE HACKNEY, JIM SCHAEFER and ZACHARY GORCHOW

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

The heads of 17 Detroit municipal unions may ask Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to resign or face a recall effort, one of them said Thursday, following a Free Press report that Kilpatrick and his chief of staff lied under oath at a police whistle-blower trial last summer.

The trial's outcome cost the city $9 million.

The revelations rocked City Hall, where officials weathered angry phone calls from residents and City Council members started poring over the city's charter to study under what conditions a mayor can be removed.

The report also prompted heated debate across the metro area.

This morning, many eyes will be on Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, who has scheduled a news conference to discuss a possible criminal investigation into the apparent lies under oath by Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty. Legal experts say previously secret text messages between the two may support perjury or obstruction of justice charges against the pair.

Alternatively, Worthy, who has declined comment so far, could ask for the appointment of a special prosecutor by state Attorney General Mike Cox. Cox, who was in Washington on Thursday to testify before a Senate committee on an unrelated matter, told reporters that he had read accounts of the scandal but wasn't planning any investigation.

FULL story at link.