By Allan Lengel For Deadline Detroit DETROIT — Back in 9th grade I remember a teacher yelling me and a classmate as we laughed uncontrollably. We were watching a movie about a 1960s psychological experiment at Yale on peoples’ willingness to obey authority. It was called the Milgram Experiment. A male volunteer was assigned to…
By Allan Lengel For Deadline Detroit DETROIT — U.S. District Court Judge Nancy G. Edmunds, who is overseeing the corruption trial of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in downtown Detroit has a reputation for being a first-rate judge. But Edmunds is attracting attention because she appears to be unusually concerned with what the media can report during…
By Allan Lengel For Deadline Detroit DETROIT –– Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick must have been frustrated on Thursday as he sat at the defense table in federal court in downtown Detroit during jury selection for his public corruption trial. Kilpatrick complained recently that there weren’t enough prospective black jurors in the jury pool. Lawyers will…
By Allan Lengel For Deadline Detroit DETROIT — Ex-Hip hop Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was nowhere to be seen. He wasn’t on trial. He wasn’t in the gallery. But his presence Tuesday was undeniable. His good buddy, contractor Bobby Ferguson, went on trial in downtown Detroit in a $12-million bid-rigging case involving a low-income housing…
By Allan Lengel For Deadline Detroit DETROIT –– Does race matter when it comes to jury selection? Yes, yes, yes. I can say so, at least from my first-hand experience as a juror. But before I go there, let me explain why I bring this up. Last week, during jury selection in the…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com DETROIT — In this cash-strapped city on the brink of financial collapse, seeing public corruption run wild is tough. On Tuesday, the feds struck back, indicting the city’s former treasurer Jeffrey Beasley for taking bribes and kickbacks in return for approving more than $200 million in investments for two city of…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com DETROIT — The feds in the Motown just keep digging a deeper and deeper hole for Kwame Kilpatrick, the ex-mayor Detroit who was once dubbed the “Hip Hop Mayor.” The Detroit Free Press reports that Kilpatrick and longtime friend Bobby Ferguson were charged Wednesday in a superseding indictment with extortion involving…
By Allan Lengel ticklethewire.com DETROIT — At this point it would be hard to tarnish the reputation of ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. But the feds heaped on some more serious allegations to his already pending public corruption charges. The Detroit News reports that new court filings in fed court in Detroit allege that Kilpatrick took a…
