DETROIT — He was Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s good buddy, his confidante, his favorite city contractor.
But Bobby Ferguson managed to turn off many in Kilpatrick’s inner circle.
Contractors and city officials — including Victor Mercado, the head of the water department — complained about Ferguson.
Even Kilpatrick’s sister, Ayanna, found Ferguson a big headache who wouldn’t go away.
“Here we go with the Bobby bull again,” Ayanna texted mayoral insider Derrick Miller, complaining that her brother kept feeding Ferguson city business — at the expense of her the clients she represented.
As the Kwame Kilpatrick trial moved into the New Year, prosecutors this week homed in on Ferguson, a co-defendant, who the feds have portrayed as a bully who illegally conspired with Kilpatrick to rig city construction contracts and extort contractors for a piece of their action.
In turn, the feds allege that Ferguson gave Kilpatrick kickbacks from the demolition and excavation work. Kilpatrick’s father, Bernard, a business consultant, is the other co-defendant in the trial that began in September and is likely to go at least into February.
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