Positions on proposals on November ballot
Starting next week, the Detroit Legal News is featuring opinion pieces in support of and in opposition to the six proposals that are on the November ballot. One proposal will be featured each day, Oct. 29-Nov 5.
Ex-mayor Kilpatrick may be unable to keep proceeds from memoir
DETROIT (AP) — Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s promise in a prison interview to give the city all proceeds from sales of his memoir may mean he can’t keep any profits from the book for himself, the Michigan Court of Appeals said Wednesday.
The court sent Kilpatrick’s case back to a Wayne County judge to decide whether to order Kilpatrick’s book’s proceeds go to the city.
Kilpatrick is challenging Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner’s order that all book proceeds go toward the $860,000 Kilpatrick owes Detroit as part of a restitution order for a perjury conviction. He has said the order violates his First Amendment right of free speech.
In its order sending the case back to Groner, the three-judge appeals court panel said Kilpatrick may have waived his right to challenge the order when he told The Associated Press in a 2011 prison interview that all his earnings from “Surrendered! The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick” would go toward restitution in his perjury case.
“Kilpatrick was quoted as stating, ‘Any money that I make — any dime, any penny I make — will go to pay restitution,’” the appeals court wrote. “If that quote is accurate, defendant has waived his objections to the order. ... Because defendant has publicly stated that he is committed to make restitution, he should not be permitted to complain about a court order that facilitates that restitution.”
Judge reprimanded for cellphone photo
DETROIT (AP) — A Detroit judge who sent a shirtless photo of himself to a female court employee and bragged about his buff image on television “brought shame” to the judiciary, the Michigan Supreme Court said Wednesday.
The court reprimanded Wayne County Circuit Judge Wade McCree, who accepted the public censure without a fight months after apologizing.
McCree sent a cellphone photo of himself to a female sheriff’s officer in 2011. It shows a very fit judge from the waist up and was taken a year earlier after he had finished a half marathon.
The officer kept it to motivate herself to improve her workouts, but her husband provided a copy to WJBK-TV reporter Charlie LeDuff, according to the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission, which investigated.
McCree was proud of the photo and told LeDuff in April: “No shame in my game.”
The Supreme Court voted 6-0 to accept the Tenure Commission’s recommendation to close the case with a censure.
McCree “conducted himself in a flippant manner and did not give the interview the seriousness he should have. As a result, he brought shame and obloquy to the judiciary,” the court said.
The judge issued a statement last spring, saying he had “made an extremely serious error in judgment.”
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