Judge throws the book at Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

Here is the video of the sentencing:

The Story via The Detroit Free Press:

10:46 a.m. | An audible gasp erupted in the courtroom as Judge David Groner sentenced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to 18 months to five years in state prison for probation violation.

Deputies rushed up to a row where Kilpatrick friends and relatives are sitting. They escorted one unidentified woman out.

“Your testimony in this court amounted to perjury,” the judge told Kilpatrick. “Most compelling is that you lied to this court, continue to lie, after you pleaded guilty to lying….

“The initial 120 days incarceration did nothing to rehabilitate you.”

After the gasp from the audience, Kilpatrick was ordered to sign papers. Some reporters saw his hands shaking. Groner asked Kilpatrick’s lawyer, Schwartz, to assist the former mayor.

As the courtroom began to buzz, Groner raised his voice and ordered Kilpatrick to be swift.

“Sergeant could you secure the defendant please and put him in the back?” Groner said. A deputy then handcuffed Kilpatrick behind his back and led him to a side room. The former mayor kept looking over his shoulder, mouthing words toward his sister.

His attorneys vowed an immediate appeal of Groner’s sentence.

Comment from Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Athina Siringas: “We always felt a department of corrections sentence was appropriate. We are pleased.”

The judge’s order also raises questions about whether Kilpatrick will continue to have a job with a Compuware subsidiary in Texas. Compuware chief Peter Karmanos had given Kilpatrick a six-figure sales job with Covisint in an office just outside Dallas after the ex-mayor’s release from jail in February of last year. But Karmanos said at the time that Kilpatrick’s continued employment was contingent upon Kilpatrick staying out of further trouble.

….and if that was not bad enough; Kilpatrick got fired from his Job too! Ouch!

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was fired from his job today after being sentenced to prison for probation violation.

“Kwame Kilpatrick will be off the Compuware Corporation payroll at the end of the month,” said a company statement. “We don’t have any choices. It’s an unfortunate situation, and we feel bad for his family, but our hands are tied.”
Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos Jr. hired Kilpatrick for his Detroit-based company the day after the former mayor was freed from jail in February 2009. The job paid a base salary of $120,000 with potential for bonuses.

Of course, the Kilpatrick enablers and supporters are now crowing:

Rep. Shanelle Jackson, D-Detroit, today criticized former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s sentence as too harsh for a nonviolent parole violation.

She said it would be better to have Kilpatrick repay the city and require him to do community service than sit in a costly prison cell.

“This sentence shows there is no mercy in society and no grace in the judicial system,” Jackson said. “We are looking at ways to reduce the prison population because of a lack of revenue, yet we’re giving this to someone who could ideally have more to contribute to society if we looked at restorative justice.”

She goes on:

Womack said the sentence perpetuates a common public perception that politicians are crooked.

Um, Mrs. Jackson? That because Kilpatrick WAS a damned crook and he is getting just what is coming to him. It is about damned time, that this idiotic thug was put right where he belongs. The video is priceless and is one that should be shown to anybody thinking of running for Mayor of Detroit or any other city. You decide to lie, cheat or steal and you get caught; your ass is going to jail. Here is hoping that he will get the FULL 5 years in jail, as that is just what this goldbricking jack ass needs.