By Joel Thurtell
Reading the Detroit Free Press, you’d think Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was already behind bars, convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice in the text message scandal.
Maybe that’s where the paper’s staffers would like him to be, on the assumption that a jailed Kwame would enhance their claim on a Pulitzer Prize for breaking the story.
Hold on, guys! He hasn’t even had his preliminary examination. That’s the hearing set for Sept. 22 in Detroit’s 36th District Court when Judge Ronald Giles will decide whether Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy has enough evidence to show that crimes were committed and that hizzoner and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty probably committed them.
Following the hearing into evidence in the probable cause hearing, Judge Giles could either bind one or both of the defendants over for trial in Wayne County Circuit Court, or he could release them, ruling Worthy’s evidence didn’t pass the probability test.
But that’s not quite how it’s seen in the newsroom of the Free Press, apparently. In a summary of the text message scandal and an offhand pat on its own back, the paper today (July 3, 2008) stated that “The case began when the Free Press discovered text messages showing Kilpatrick and Beatty committed perjury during a whistle-blower lawsuit last year.”
At another spot in the story, the paper states that “Kilpatrick and Beatty were charged with perjury and misuse of office after the Free Press published text messages from Beatty’s pager showing they lied under oath and tried to mislead jurors in a police whistle-blower trial.”
Now, reporters and editors may BELIEVE that Kwame and his alleged paramour perjured themselves. But to date, it has not been proven that they actually did.
No court has so far ruled that the text messages “show” anything.
What they “show” is in the eye of the beholder, including the many Pulitzer-hungry eyes of the Free Press editorial staff.
Kwame’s lawyers are planning to argue that he didn’t write the messages. They were, after all, taken from Beatty’s pager account, not the mayor’s. And his lawyers plan to argue that the city had an expectation that wireless communications records kept by its electronic communications provider, a company called SkyTel, would not be disclosed. It appears that SkyTel may have violated federal communications law in releasing the text messages. Those may seem like dubious and fragile arguments, but hey, he’s entitled to make them.
Nobody so far has PROVEN anything. Not even the Free Press.
If the case ends up in circuit court, Prosecutor Worthy will face a stiffer test: She must prove not that Kwame and Beatty probably committed perjury. She must prove beyond a REASONABLE DOUBT that they did it.
If a jury agrees, then it will be safe to say, with the Free Press, that the text messages “show” that the two committed perjury.
Until then, we’ll just have to wait.
I know that’s hard on folks at the Free Press.
What if the trial is held AFTER the Pulitzer judging?
Contact me at joelthurtell(at)gmail.com
