5 lawyers in Kilpatrick saga face ethics charges

[kraig]

May 20, 2009


5 lawyers in Kilpatrick saga face ethics charges

By David Ashenfelter, Joe Swickard, M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS Updated at 11:27 a.m.
Five lawyers who engineered a secret $8.4-million lawsuit settlement to conceal the text messages that drove Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick out of office have been charged with professional misconduct.
The lawyers – assistant city attorney Valerie Colbert-Osamuede; her ex-boss, former city corporation counsel John E. Johnson; city-retained private lawyers Samuel McCargo and Wilson Copeland II, and Mike Stefani, who represented three cops in lawsuits against the city – were charged with misconduct today by the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission after a 14-month investigation.
The Michigan Attorney Discipline Board, which tries and disciplines lawyers for professional misconduct, released the documents today and set hearings in the case for July 8-14.

Reached this morning, Stefani said he had received the legal papers, but was not yet ready to respond. Among other things, the grievance commission accuses Stefani of committing a criminal misdemeanor, contending that he covered up a felony by agreeing to “conceal irrefutable evidence of Kilpatrick’s perjury in return for� the $8.4-million lawsuit settlement for his police clients.

“We just received this and we’ll be preparing our response,� said defense lawyer Gerald Evelyn, speaking for Johnson.

There was no immediate response from the other lawyers. The five face possible suspension or revocation of their law licenses if they’re found to have committed the misconduct.

Robert Agacinski, head of the Attorney Grievance Commission, said the charges were the result “in the most part of very good lawyers confusing their duty to the people of Detroit, the City Council and the Office of Mayor with the individual, Kwame Kilpatrick.�

The charges mark a chapter in the scandal, but do not close the book, Agacinski said.

“With testimony and discovery there may be more insights to be gained,� he said.

Their cases will be handled by three-lawyer panels appointed by the discipline board.

The charges grew out of a 2007 whistle-blower trial in which former Detroit cops accused Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, of forcing them from their jobs in 2003 after the officers began asking questions about a never-proven wild party at the mayoral Manoogian Mansion and alleged misconduct involving the mayor’s security team.

A jury awarded two of the cops $6.5 million in September 2007. Although Kilpatrick vowed to appeal, he abruptly settled the suit and a second one for $8.4 million in October 2007, hours after learning that Stefani had obtained a copy of text messages showing Kilpatrick and Beatty had lied at trial when they denied having an extramarital affair. Stefani planned to make the text messages public in court papers justifying his request for legal fees from the trial.

After the Free Press requested a copy of the settlement under the Freedom of Information Act, the lawyers tore up the original agreement and created two new ones – one secret and the other public – to conceal the existence of the messages. As part of the agreement, Stefani agreed to turn over his copy of the text messages and not publicly disclose their existence.

Detroit’s City Council then approved the $8.4-million settlement, without ever being told by the city lawyers about the text messages or the existence of the secret agreement.

A Wayne County judge last year ordered the lawyers to divulge the secret agreement in response to a Freedom of Information lawsuit filed by the Free Press.

Here are the details of what the lawyers are accused of:

Colbert-Osamuede is charged with five counts of professional misconduct, including concealing the secret agreement from the city council; engaging in a conflict of interest after learning that the mayor’s interests conflicted with those of the council; lying to a judge about the existence of the messages; obstructing the Free Press in its FOIA lawsuit to obtain the agreement, and lying to the grievance commission about whether she and McCargo ever discussed the newspaper’s FOIA suit.

Johnson is charged with two counts: hiding the secret agreement from the city council and continuing to conceal the agreement from the Free Press and the court after the Free Press sued for the document.

McCargo, Kilpatrick’s private lawyer in the whistle-blower case, is charged with covering up Kilpatrick’s and Beatty’s perjury, hiding evidence and making false statements to the AGC in its investigation. He also is accused of not reporting misconduct by other attorneys.

The alleged cover-up of Kilpatrick’s perjury is a criminal misdemeanor, the AGC said. While the commission made the accusation of a crime, it does not have authority to criminally charge lawyers.

Copeland, a private lawyer whom the law department hired to help represent the city in the whistle-blower suit, is charged with failing to advise the city council about the secret agreement even though he helped draft it.

Stefani is charged with five counts including instructing Skytel, the city’s Mississippi-based text message provider, to send the messages to him rather than the judge who presided over the whistle-blower trial, despite the judge’s repeated order that he wanted to see any text messages first before deciding whether they would be released to Stefani. Stefani is also accused of failing to notify the grievance commission about “irrefutable evidence of Kilpatrick’s perjury.�

The misconduct charges against the lawyers do not recommend any specific disciplinary action.

The grievance commission previously cleared three other lawyers in its probe: city attorney Ellen Ha, who said she was kept in the dark about the agreements; Deputy State Treasurer Valdemar Washington, then a Flint lawyer who was called in to help facilitate a settlement of the whistle-blower suit; and Stefani partner Mike Rivers, who helped represent the cops in the whistle-blower case.

The status of a 10th lawyer who was investigated, William Mitchell III, remains unclear. Mitchell had traveled to SkyTel headquarters at Kilpatrick’s behest to find out why the company had released the mayor’s text messages to Stefani. After the trip, Mitchell took a folder believed to contain the messages to Kilpatrick and later to a high-profile criminal lawyer in the Washington, D.C., area. Mitchell was not charged in the legal papers released this morning.

Mitchell did not immediately respond to a call and e-mail requesting comment.

Kilpatrick and Beatty pleaded guilty last year to obstruction of justice for lying in the whistle-blower case and were sentenced to 120 days in prison. Kilpatrick agreed to resign, surrender his law license and pay $1-million restitution to the city. Beatty, who resigned in February 2008 after the scandal broke, agreed to pay $100,000 restitution.

Kilpatrick was released from jail in February and took a job with Compuware and lives in Southlake, Texas. Beatty was released in March.

After details of the secret agreement became public, legal experts said some lawyers in the scandal seemed more interested in protecting Kilpatrick’s reputation than safeguarding the city’s interests and keeping the Detroit City Council informed about the reasons for settling a multimillion-dollar case.
Experts said lawyers involved in the settlement talks were required to notify legal authorities upon learning that Kilpatrick, a lawyer, had lied in court or engaged in other misconduct.
Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER: dashenfelter@freepress.com. Contact JOE SWICKARD: 313-222-8769 or jswickard@freepress.com.




All of them look dirty. Andy Linn, Mischievous and all of you others running for Charter Commission, I hope you see that John Johnson, the former Corporation Counsel and one of the five facing charges, is running to be a Charter Commissioner.

You gotta love this city.

[heedus]

This is great news!

[exdetroiter]

I forgot all about this! I realized that had violated their Lawyer code of conduct/Ethics. I hope Stefani beats this, because he's a good lawyer and wasn't afraid to take on the corrupt city of Detroit government. All the rest should lose their licences permently for kissing Kwames ass and risking their careers.

[DetroitPlanner]

I forgot all about this! I realized that had violated their Lawyer code of conduct/Ethics. I hope Stefani beats this, because he's a good lawyer and wasn't afraid to take on the corrupt city of Detroit government. All the rest should lose their licences permently for kissing Kwames ass and risking their careers.

Stephani is not exactly a choir-boy here. He was basically using evidence [[text messages) to extort money from the City for his client's silence.

[Crumbled_pavement]

Stephani is not exactly a choir-boy here. He was basically using evidence [[text messages) to extort money from the City for his client's silence.

Shhhh! He's DetroitYes' exaulted hero. I mean he exposed Kwame, what more do you need to worship Stefani at the altar?

[thefishwrap]

I hope Stefani beats this, because he's a good lawyer and wasn't afraid to take on the corrupt city of Detroit government.

The real truth is this whole thing came unraveled as a result of Stefani attempting to squeeze more money out of the city. The city wouldn't budge on Stefani's fee, and so he slipped them the documents showing Kilpatrick lied. The bottom line is, what he did is very wrong, and should be punished -- regardless if the clients he was representing were on the "right" side of the issue.

[SWMAP]

There is no way that the AGC could bring ethics charges against four black lawyers and not have a white lawyer also face the charges. There would have been a huge public relations problem.

So, Stefani got charged. Let's wait to see if he beats it.

By the way, the same quid pro quo arrangement is rumored to be operative for the Feds.

[exdetroiter]

Shhhh! He's DetroitYes' exaulted hero. I mean he exposed Kwame, what more do you need to worship Stephani at the altar?

Those are my sentiments!

[daddeeo]

Hey baby when you sleep with dogs , you may get fleas.

[kraig]

There is no way that the AGC could bring ethics charges against four black lawyers and not have a white lawyer also face the charges. There would have been a huge public relations problem.

So, Stefani got charged. Let's wait to see if he beats it.

By the way, the same quid pro quo arrangement is rumored to be operative for the Feds.

Very disappointing, you had to do an imitation of the Detroit City Council and bring race into this.

The truth is, Stefani probably broke more state laws than anyone involved. And keep in mind, he didn't do it for his clients, he did it at the point where they were negotiating his attorney fees.

We can all love him for beating Kwame, but, how he did it is the problem. You can't bust the prostitute without busting the John, unless he's married to a U.S. Senator.

[MsChievous]

Kraig,

Yes, I recognized his name immediately when the charter commissioner list only had 14 folks on it. The State Bureau of Elections and the County Clerk's office had a 2 hour training piece today. He was one of the attendees and a number of other attendees ran up to shake his hand and wish him well. It will be interesting to see just who's left on the list after the signatures are certified.

BTW, I received my letter today. It's official, my name will be on the ballot. Now I need to strap on my roller skates, inflate the tires on the bike, get the oil changed in the truck and try to meet each and every single individual in the city of Detroit, spreading the message about charter change! I'll be exhausted by August 4th but I'm going to get this job done. If you've got a group meeting, I've got the time!

[kraig]

Kraig,

Yes, I recognized his name immediately when the charter commissioner list only had 14 folks on it. The State Bureau of Elections and the County Clerk's office had a 2 hour training piece today. He was one of the attendees and a number of other attendees ran up to shake his hand and wish him well. It will be interesting to see just who's left on the list after the signatures are certified.

BTW, I received my letter today. It's official, my name will be on the ballot. Now I need to strap on my roller skates, inflate the tires on the bike, get the oil changed in the truck and try to meet each and every single individual in the city of Detroit, spreading the message about charter change! I'll be exhausted by August 4th but I'm going to get this job done. If you've got a group meeting, I've got the time!

Great attitude. Change that charter from cover to cover. If you get the opportunity, check out some of the old charters at the Municipal Reference Library. Some of them contain commentary from the some of the previous charter commissions that will give you an idea of why they did what they did. I don't know if the Commission from 1997 did that.

[MsChievous]

The day Jessica Pfeiffer & I were on WDET, one of the guests was George Ward who said he helped write the 73-74 charter. He was holding an original copy [[if there is such a thing) of the commission's final report in his hot little hands and I wanted to see it so badly [[I think he could tell too, he seemed to pull back a little , I think I worried him)! I'm on a mission to get a copy after I get back from a short vacation.

[daddeeo]

I'd bring a bodyguard and some heat if you are going to canvas some neighborhoods.

[kraig]

I'd bring a bodyguard and some heat if you are going to canvas some neighborhoods.

The only thing candidates are going to get assaulted with are people running off a lot of complaints about how things are and ideas about how things should be.

[softailrider]

Stephani is not exactly a choir-boy here. He was basically using evidence [[text messages) to extort money from the City for his client's silence.

Not exactly on the subject, but, I think Stephani is really liked by the juries because he isn't that well- spoken or articulate. He comes across like an average guy, not a hotshot attorney. I think that jury members relate well to him.

[Bloomfield Pills]

If it's proven that Stefani slipped the text messages to the Free Press, then doesn't the paper also have some things to answer for?

Is it ethical for a newspaper to print documents that obviously were illegally obtained? I'm certain the Freep consulted their attorneys several times before printing the text messages, so they had to know what Stefani did was illegal [[if he indeed did it).

Is it okay for journalists to be a party to illegal behavior if it means a good story? And let's not quibble: There's no question that the Freep was a party to this; Stefani wouldn't have given them the messages if he didn't think they'd run them.

I'm not asking if what the Freep did was legal. They didn't break any laws that I'm aware of. The question is: Was it ethical? And if so, where does that line end? At what point does it become not okay for journalists to be a party to illegal behavior?

[SWMAP]

Are you assuming that Stefani gave copies of the messages to the Free Press or do you have a reference that you can cite? Perhaps Skytel sent the first copy that had been requested by the court to the court [[as requested) and THAT copy was intercepted in the Courthouse and sent to the Freep. Such a scenario is just as likely, as the first copy seems never to have arrived at the judge's office from Skytel.

Stefani, on finding out that the judge did not have the messages during the trial, asked to have them requested again. The disks came after the trial was over, after he won the settlement, but before the negotiations on getting the money began.

[thefishwrap]

If it's proven that Stefani slipped the text messages to the Free Press, then doesn't the paper also have some things to answer for?

Is it ethical for a newspaper to print documents that obviously were illegally obtained? I'm certain the Freep consulted their attorneys several times before printing the text messages, so they had to know what Stefani did was illegal [[if he indeed did it).

Is it okay for journalists to be a party to illegal behavior if it means a good story? And let's not quibble: There's no question that the Freep was a party to this; Stefani wouldn't have given them the messages if he didn't think they'd run them.

I'm not asking if what the Freep did was legal. They didn't break any laws that I'm aware of. The question is: Was it ethical? And if so, where does that line end? At what point does it become not okay for journalists to be a party to illegal behavior?

On a micro level, it printing something that was possibly illegally obtained seems unethical. But on a macro level, for the greater good and/or the region, I would say it would be unethical for them not to print them. The matter was simply too important.

That is the paper's job as the fourth estate.

[Bloomfield Pills]

SWMAP, I said up front I was just speculating. The first three words of my post were IF IT'S PROVEN Stefani sent them to the Freep; I again referened "if he indeed did it."

Apparently you didn't read my post. Read it again.

[kraig]

Are you assuming that Stefani gave copies of the messages to the Free Press or do you have a reference that you can cite? Perhaps Skytel sent the first copy that had been requested by the court to the court [[as requested) and THAT copy was intercepted in the Courthouse and sent to the Freep. Such a scenario is just as likely, as the first copy seems never to have arrived at the judge's office from Skytel.

Stefani, on finding out that the judge did not have the messages during the trial, asked to have them requested again. The disks came after the trial was over, after he won the settlement, but before the negotiations on getting the money began.

BloomfieldPills did say, "if indeed he did", and based comments on that. Just relax.

You're right, the disks did arrive after the trial. The problem for Stefani is that he was legally obligated to turn them over to the court. He did not, instead, he kept them and used them to blackmail Kilpatrick into paying his attorney fees. Practically everything that Kwame did wrong after the trial, Stefani was a party to. Mike and Valerie are the ones in the most trouble. The only reason that Kilpatrick is not alongside them is that he's no longer a lawyer. But, they're three peas in the same pod as far as the MAGC is concerned.

[Bloomfield Pills]

On a micro level, it printing something that was possibly illegally obtained seems unethical. But on a macro level, for the greater good and/or the region, I would say it would be unethical for them not to print them. The matter was simply too important.

That is the paper's job as the fourth estate.

I don't know if the "importance" of a story should dictate that sort of thing.

I ask again: If it's okay to do it in some instances, at what point does it become not okay for journalists to be a party to lawbreaking?

[SWMAP]

What law was broken by the Free Press? I am mystified. The attorneys violated their ethics, iIguess - but the Free Press broke no law that I am aware of. Libel? The absolute defense of a libel accusation is that the statement made is the truth. So it wasn't any libel law that was broken.

[thefishwrap]

I don't know if the "importance" of a story should dictate that sort of thing.

I ask again: If it's okay to do it in some instances, at what point does it become not okay for journalists to be a party to lawbreaking?

Bloomfield Pills: the simple fact is this case has been fought and won by reporters and journalists in the 1970s with the Pentagon Papers. The Supreme Court ruled journalists have right to publish information significant to the people's understanding of their government's policy.

Do you feel that confidential information that leads to a greater truth shouldn't be published?

[Bloomfield Pills]

What law was broken by the Free Press? I am mystified. The attorneys violated their ethics, iIguess - but the Free Press broke no law that I am aware of. Libel? The absolute defense of a libel accusation is that the statement made is the truth. So it wasn't any libel law that was broken.

No offense, but you really should read posts before you respond to them. I said point-blank that the Freep didn't break any laws; I merely questioned whether they violated any ethics.