Text messaging

Two local newspapers that have been covering the ongoing saga of Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his alleged relationship with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, may request hard-copies of email, text messages and other electronic communications between the two going back to last August, a Wayne County Circuit judge ruled Friday.

For the seemingly dozenth time in the last few months, yet another move toward secrecy by embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is making headlines. 

Embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick revealed to city employees last week a policy, which he implemented last month, making private all text messages from publicly-funded devices. The policy, which took effect on April 15, will prevent the public from accessing messages and pages under the Freedom of Information Act.

An attorney testified during a city council inquiry today that embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s lawyer acted to evade a public records request from the Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick today was charged with perjury and other counts after sexually explicit text messages contradicted what he said under oath regarding an affair with former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty.

The New Hampshire House sent the state Senate a bill on Wednesday aimed at balancing the public’s right to government access while still giving officials freedom as well.

Efforts to pass versions of the bill have been going back and forth for years. Two previous attempts have failed due to the discrepancy over what type of communication officials can have outside authorized meetings.

Defiant and refusing to step down, embattled Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick continues to assert that records showing public funds financed an $8.4 million settlement between the city and terminated police officers are not public records.  The deal included a confidentiality agreement forbidding the three officers from discussing text messages exchanged between Kilpatrick and former chief of staff and alleged paramour Christ

Following a judge's ruling Tuesday morning, Detroit citizens will now get to view more of the sordid details of their mayor's recent affair and the secret settlement deal reached with two of his former bodyguards that gave the men $8.4 million of city funds to walk away and keep quiet about it.

The Detroit Free Press' marvelous investigation into the veracity, or lack thereof, of testimony by Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Chief of Staff Christine Beatty during a multi-million dollar whistleblower retaliation trial was all made possible due to Michigan's open records laws, and The Free Press' dogged pursuit under the law to obtain these public employee's text messages.