City Hall Corruption: Another one bites the dust.

[kraig]

December 10, 2009


Kandia Milton expected to plead guilty today
BY BEN SCHMITT AND JOE SWICKARD
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
Former Detroit Deputy Mayor Kandia Milton is expected to plead guilty to a federal bribery conspiracy charge this afternoon, according to a spokeswoman from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Milton was implicated last week when former Detroit police officer Jerry Rivers pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Detroit to bribery in connection with a real estate deal.
Rivers told a judge he took a $50,000 bribe and split it with Milton and Milton’s younger brother DeDan Milton to ensure that the Detroit City Council approved a $3.5-million sale of Camp Brighton, city-owned land in Livingston County, to the Chaldean Catholic Church.
The news of Milton's expected plea was first reported by freep.com at 7:45 this morning.
Milton’s lawyer Elliott Hall confirmed that he expects the plea to take place this afternoon, adding that his client “violated the law, but it’s a minimal violation.�
Hall said that Milton “enjoys a good relationship with the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office.�
The plea to corruption charges comes from someone within Kilpatrick’s inner circle. Milton and Kilpatrick were childhood friends and his mother, Sandra Ramsey, is also a close Kilpatrick friend.
Milton rose to deputy mayor under the Kilpatrick administration and was mayor for a day in August 2008 when Kilpatrick went to jail on a bond violation before pleading guilty in the text message scandal. Milton carried his own financial woes. He and his wife filed for bankruptcy in 2006, overcome by property taxes and credit card and mortgage debts.
Rivers told Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen during his plea that a representative of the church, Eddie Bacall, approached him in 2006, seeking help in getting the council to approve the sale. Camp Brighton was owned by Detroit and had been used as a summer camp before it closed in 1995.
Rivers said he introduced the representative to the Miltons and they later received a $50,000 payment from a church priest through a middleman that he identified as a relative of the Miltons.
Bacall, of Bacall Development in Farmington Hills, said today that he did nothing wrong and never paid any bribe, only consulting fees.
“I’m a developer,� Bacall said. “We were the only bidder. If the city council thinks they were cheated, they can have the property back and give us our money back. We did nothing wrong.�
Bacall said the church purchase 160 acres of Camp Brighton and uses it as a camp for the Chaldean community. He said the church also gave the city an option to use the land whenever they wanted.
The church also has denied wrongdoing.
Hall, formerly a Ford Motor Co. attorney in Washington, D.C. and a past chief assistant prosecutor for Wayne County, awoke at his son’s home in the Palmer Woods neighborhood this morning to find that all four wheels of his car were stolen overnight. Kilpatrick’s lawyer James Thomas said this morning that he “cannot comment on this except to wish the best for Kandia and his family.� DeDan Milton is not expected to appear in court this afternoon.

[Lorax]

It just goes to prove that being crooked and stupid can go hand in hand.

If you're going to risk going to jail over a bribe, and the value of the deal for the one making the bribe is 3,500,000.00 and you only accept half of 50,000, then you're stupid

10% I thought was the going rate for bribery, which in this case would have been 350,000 bucks.

How dumb can you be?

[econ expat]

How many Kruggerands can a Deputy Mayor buy for only $25,000?

[detroitchef]

WTF are they babbling about at the end of this story? What does the missing tires of the defending attorney have to do with Miller's plea or the church? Did some bunch of KK apologists sneak into Palmer woods overnight and steal the tires? Is this the Detroit version of the severed horses' head in the Godfather?

[kathy2trips]

It just goes to prove that being crooked and stupid can go hand in hand.

If you're going to risk going to jail over a bribe, and the value of the deal for the one making the bribe is 3,500,000.00 and you only accept half of 50,000, then you're stupid

10% I thought was the going rate for bribery, which in this case would have been 350,000 bucks.

How dumb can you be?

You can't fix stupid. You just can't.

[eno]

WTF are they babbling about at the end of this story? What does the missing tires of the defending attorney have to do with Miller's plea or the church? Did some bunch of KK apologists sneak into Palmer woods overnight and steal the tires? Is this the Detroit version of the severed horses' head in the Godfather?

I thought that was the best part of the story. Even the elite in this city are not exempt from the petty crime that permeates the city and wears it's citizens down until they're ready to bolt for some peace of mind in the nearest affordable suburb.

I have to believe the Feds are giving Kandia Milton some time to talk his brother Dedan into pleading guilty for his part in this crime.