Union calls for Kwame to step down

Union calls for Detroit mayor to resign Municipal Workers Union Calls for Detroit Mayor to Resign After Text Messages Reveal Affair COREY WILLIAMSAP News Jan 25, 2008 10:08 EST A union on Friday called for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to resign amid reports that he exchanged steamy text messages referring to sexual trysts between him and a top aide. John Riehl, president of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 207, said the union wants the mayor to step down right away. It has 900 members and represents workers in the city's water and public lighting departments. "He's compromised the public trust," Riehl said. "Nobody can believe a single thing he says from now on." The scandal also could result in perjury charges. The county prosecutor scheduled a press conference Friday regarding Kilpatrick and his chief of staff, Christine Beatty. Kilpatrick and Beatty testified last summer in a police whistle-blower lawsuit and denied any sexual or romantic ties in 2002 and 2003. But the Detroit Free Press examined about 14,000 text messages on Beatty's city-issued pager from those years that tell a different story. They reveal the two carried on a flirty, sometimes sexually explicit dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their numerous trysts. "I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002. "I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!" On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote Beatty: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love." Kilpatrick is married with three children. Beatty was married at the time and has two children. A call seeking comment from Beatty was made Thursday evening, but her voicemail was full. The Free Press did not explain exactly how it obtained the messages. The newspaper said it cross-referenced the messages with the mayor's private calendar and credit card records to verify events in some of the notes. A county jury awarded $6.5 million to the two officers in the lawsuit against the city and Kilpatrick. The jury said Kilpatrick and the city unlawfully dismissed two officers, who claimed they suffered after investigating allegations of wrongdoing within Kilpatrick's security unit. The events happened in Kilpatrick's first four-year term. He was elected to a second term in November 2005. On Thursday, mayoral spokesman James Canning said in a statement that Kilpatrick and his family were returning from Florida "and plan to continue their private time for the next several days."