After five months of testimony from 90 witnesses, the panel of eight women and four men concluded that Kwame Kilpatrick and Ferguson engaged in a pattern of racketeering that lasted for years. But the panel could not unanimously agree that Bernard Kilpatrick was part of this criminal enterprise, which originally included five defendants.
Ex-city water department director Victor Mercado pleaded guilty to conspiracy during trial. The fifth defendant, former Kwame Kilpatrick right-hand man Derrick Miller, cut a deal before trial and testified against the remaining three. Both await sentencing.
Bernard Kilpatrick, who faces up to three years in prison and remains free pending sentencing, was overcome with emotion after the verdicts were read. In the courtroom, he sobbed as he hugged his son, who smiled and kept saying, “It’s OK, Pops. It’s OK.”
Kilpatrick and Ferguson each face up to 20 years in prison but could get more, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. This far outweighs the punishment he received for his unrelated crimes in the text message scandal that the Free Press first exposed in 2008, triggering his eventual resignation and imprisonment.
Kilpatrick shook his head at times as the verdicts were read Monday, at one point mouthing, “Oh my gosh.” He appeared stunned as he left the courtroom and declined to comment.
Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, and his three sons were not in the courtroom. But his mother, former U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick, sat alongside friends and other relatives who cried as they watched Kilpatrick and Ferguson leave the courtroom in handcuffs.
“Love you, baby. We love you,” one woman shouted as Kilpatrick was led away.
“Stay strong,” Kilpatrick responded, later turning his head and adding: “No doubt. No fear.”
The woman shouted back: “None.”
For McQuade, Monday’s verdict was long overdue.
She echoed the theme that prosecutors hammered away repeatedly at trial: that the case was about greed.
“Kwame Kilpatrick stole money from the people of Detroit. And while Kwame Kilpatrick enjoyed a lavish lifestyle, he watched the quality of life erode for the people of Detroit,” McQuade said. “The mayor cheated the system.”
He did that, McQuade said, with the help of Ferguson, who secured $127 million worth of contracts while his friend was mayor — the bulk of it illegally.
“Our community has spoken,” McQuade said. “Our community has said you can’t cheat the city and get away with it.”
Detroit FBI chief Robert Foley said Monday was “an important day for justice and an important day for the city of Detroit.”