ON DEPUTY POLICE CHIEF GARY BROWN’S JOB LOSS

WHAT KILPATRICK TESTIFIED AUG. 29

KILPATRICK: No. I didnot terminate Mr.Brown. I did not fireMr. Brown.

WHAT THE TEXTMESSAGES SHOWExcerpts from ChristineBeatty’s messages on May15, 2003

BEATTY: I’m sorry that we are going throughthis mess because of a decision that we madeto fire Gary Brown. I will make sure that thenext decision is much more thought out. Notregretting what was done at all, but thinkingabout how we can do things smarter.

KILPATRICK: True! It had to happen though. I’mall the way with that!

ON THE MAYOR’S RELATIONSHIPWITH CHRISTINE BEATTY

WHAT KILPATRICK TESTIFIED AUG. 29

MIKE STEFANI, LAWYERFOR GARY BROWN: May-or Kilpatrick, dur-ing 2002 and 2003were you romanti-cally involved withChristine Beatty?

KILPATRICK: No.

WHAT THE TEXT MESSAGES SHOW

OCT. 31, 2002, 5:28 P.M.

BEATTY: You didn’t say whether or not we aretrying for some time tonight.

KILPATRICK: Definitely. I’m getting a room. ...(Kilpatrick later tells her to pick up roomkey at Marriott.)

NOV. 1, 2002, 12:28 A.M.

KILPATRICK: 6301 or 6302?

BEATTY: Definitely 6302! 6301 has two doublebeds.

MORE EXCERPTS, PAGE 15A

50 CENTS WWW.FREEP.COM THURSDAY JAN. 24, 2008 METRO FINAL � �

ON GUARD FOR 176 YEARS

C M Y K

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief ofstaff lied about their relationship last summer at apolice whistle-blower trial that has cost the cash-strapped city more than $9 million, according to re-cords obtained by the Free Press.

The false testimony potentially exposes them tofelony perjury charges, legal experts say.

Kilpatrick and chief of staff Christine Beatty de-nied during testimony in August that they had a sex-ual relationship. But the records, a series of text mes-sages, show them engaged in romantic banter as wellas planning and recounting sexual liaisons.

The messages are also at odds with the pair’s trialtestimony that they did not fire Deputy Police ChiefGary Brown in 2003, an ouster that led him to sue.The text messages show Beatty recalling the “deci-sion that we made to fire Gary Brown.”

The newspaper examined nearly 14,000 text mes-sages on Beatty’s city-issued pager. The exchanges,which the Free Press obtained after the trial, covertwo months each in 2002 and 2003.

The Kilpatrick-Beatty relationship and Brown’sdismissal were central to the whistle-blower suitfiled by Brown and Harold Nelthrope, a former policeofficer and mayoral bodyguard. The two cops ac-cused Kilpatrick of retaliating against them becauseof their roles in an internal affairs investigation of themayor’s security team — a probe that potentiallycould have exposed the affair.

The Free Press sought interviews with Kilpatrickand Beatty, but they declined.

Mayor lied under oath,text messages show

COST: City paid more than $9 million after ex-cops’ suit

Romantic exchangesundercut denials bymayor, chief of staff

Gary Brown ran the policeinternal affairs section.

KILPATRICK RESPONDSON PERSONAL ISSUES

Late Wednesday night, Mayor KwameKilpatrick issued a statement to mediaoutlets that said, in full:

“These five- and six-year-old textmessages reflect a very difficult periodin my personal life. It is profoundly em-barrassing to have these extremelyprivate messages now displayed in sucha public manner.

“My wife and I worked our waythrough these intensely personal issuesyears ago. I would now ask that thepublic and the media respect the privacyof my wife and children and of ChristineBeatty and her children at this deeplypainful moment for our families.”

For its report, the Free Press madenumerous efforts Tuesday and Wednes-day to interview Kilpatrick and Beatty,without success.

STEPHEN HENDERSON:THIS IS BETRAYAL

Kwame Kil-patrick blatantlydisregarded hismayoral, legaland moral obliga-tions. Page 16A.

EDITORIAL: A breathtaking breach offaith by the mayor. Page 16A.

CITY FOUGHT TO KEEP TEXTMESSAGES SECRET 14A

HOW $9 MILLION COULD HAVEHELPED THE CITY 14A

FREEP.COM: SEE EXCERPTSOF THE MESSAGES, VIDEO

SECRECY: Kilpatrick-Beatty relationship was key in case

By JIM SCHAEFER and M.L. ELRICK

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERSCOPYRIGHT ©2008, DETROIT FREE PRESS

WHAT THEY TESTIFIED VS.WHAT THEY MESSAGED

Christine Beatty has workedwith the mayor since 1996.

See KILPATRICK, 14A

BRIAN KAUFMAN/Detroit Free Press

On the witness stand last Aug. 29, Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick responds to questions from opposinglawyer Mike Stefani. Questions included the relationship of the mayor and his top aide, Christine Beatty.

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INDEXVol. 177, Number 265© 2008Detroit Free Press Inc.Printed in the U.S.

Conventional wisdom in automotivecircles not long ago held that Toyo-

ta Motor Corp. would flash past Gener-al Motors Corp. like a blur to becomethe global sales leader, perhaps in 2006and certainly by 2007, as Toyotamarchedrelentlesslytowardworld dom-ination.

GM defiedthat wisdomWednesday,remaining No. 1 and holding Toyota offby about 3,000 vehicles in 2007 byreporting worldwide sales of 9,369,524cars and trucks, up 3% from a year ago,and serving notice that it intends tokeep battling for the sales crown inyears to come.

Meanwhile, a gaggle of nervousNellies has raised such a ruckus overhousing prices, loan defaults and stockmarket gyrations that a U.S. recession,if not a worldwide economic panic, nowseems like a foregone conclusion.

But again, up steps GM, that Ameri-

TOM WALSH

� GM edges Toyota by 3,000 sales. 7A

� Where GM must grow sales abroad. 1D

See WALSH, 7A

GM doesn’t letToyota simplywaltz to No. 1

WHY LIONS MUST SAY GOOD-BYE TO ROGERS DREWSHARP, 1C

$30-MILLION REPAIRI-75 bridge work toreduce lanes for driversLOCAL NEWS, 1B

Brown said he was fired by the Kilpatrick administration.

Brown said his firing came, in part, because of fears hewould expose a Kilpatrick-Beatty relationship.

Ford Motor Co. will soon offer buy-out packages and sweetened early-re-tirement deals to its hourly workers inan apparent effort to replace currentworkers with lower-paid factory em-ployees under the new labor contract,an official briefed on the packagesWednesday told the Free Press.

The news means that both Ford —which will report its full-year financialresults today — and General MotorsCorp. are now offering all of their high-er-paid union workers an opportunityto leave the company. Again.

More than 60,000 workers have leftGM and Ford under prior buyouts inrecent years. That has left Ford withabout 54,000 hourly employees in theUnited States, while GM has 73,000.

For those workers, most of whomare located in metro Detroit, it is deci-sion time déjà vu.

For this round of buyouts, though,Detroit’s automakers are scraping tomake a comeback in a year that manywould like to forget about, economical-

Ford isbuildinga betterbuyoutAutomaker to boostlump-sum payments

By SARAH A. WEBSTER

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

See FORD , 8A