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Five Lawyers Involved in Detroit Text Message Scandal Charged With Professional Misconduct
The National Law Journal
May 21, 2009
Five lawyers involved in the text message scandal that put former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick behind bars and cost him his job and law license have been charged with professional misconduct.
At the heart of the misconduct charges, announced on Wednesday, is the allegation that the lawyers knew Kilpatrick had committed perjury in a police whistleblower trial, but didn't notify the court.
The Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, which tries and disciplines lawyers for professional misconduct, announced the charges after a 14-month investigation. Hearings have been set for July 8 to 14.
The lawyers cited for wrongdoing allegedly took part in, or knew about, a secret $8.4 million lawsuit settlement to hide text messages that showed Kilpatrick lied under oath about an affair with a former aide during a police whistleblower trial, a revelation that led to perjury and obstruction of justice charges, and his resignation in September.
"I don't think it's in the public's interest to have a cover-up of a multimillion-dollar settlement involving the misdeeds of this mayor, and because this arrangement involved the workings of a group of lawyers, I think it was appropriate for their conduct to have been investigated," said Larry Dubin, a University of Detroit Mercy School of Law professor and former chairman of the state Attorney Grievance Commission.
Dubin said that the Detroit text messaging scandal raised several serious questions about attorney behavior, among them: Did the lawyers involved know perjury had been committed, and did they notify the court once that became known, as required by state rules of professional conduct? Was a newspaper Freedom of Information Act request for the text messages properly handled? Did lawyers engineer a settlement merely to mislead the city council, which approved the $8.4 million settlement on behalf of two police officers who claimed the mayor had retaliated against them for investigating his inner circle?
Dubin believes the misconduct charges will "make lawyers perhaps more aware of their ethical duties, especially when representing public figures."
"This whole episode has been a mini Watergate, where the representation of the former mayor caused some serious ethical problems for a number of the lawyers who were involved in that representation," he said.
The lawyers cited for misconduct are chief assistant corporation counsel Valerie Colbert-Osamuede; former city corporation counsel John E. Johnson; city-retained private lawyers Samuel McCargo and Wilson Copeland II; and Mike Stefani, who represented three police officers in the whistleblower trial that triggered the text message scandal.
As of press time, none of the lawyers were available for comment.
The five face possible suspension or revocation of their law licenses.
Kilpatrick resigned as mayor on Sept. 18 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice and no contest to assault for allegedly shoving a detective on his sister's porch as the detective was trying to serve a subpoena in the text message case.
For the next five years, Kilpatrick will be on probation, and he has to pay off $1 million in restitution to the city of Detroit.
Editor's note: Tresa Baldas' husband, M.L. Elrick, reported on the text messages for the Detroit Free Press.
