Detroit Mayor Charged in Text-Message Sex Scandal

Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his ex-chief of staff were charged today with perjury, obstruction of justice, and misconduct in office related to their denials under oath that they were romantically involved, the Detroit News reports. Kilpatrick, who faces eight felony counts, said at a press conference shortly after the county prosecutor announced the indictments that he expects "full and complete vindication."

A perjury conviction would cost Kilpatrick his office as well as carry a 15-year prison sentence. Besides perjury, prosecutors are interested in a deal Kilpatrick’s lawyers made to try to hide evidence as part an $8.4 million city-funded settlement payout to three whistle-blowing cops. "This is as far from being a private matter as one can get," said prosecutor Kym Worthy. “Public dollars were used, people's lives were ruined and the public trust trampled on." (More Kwame Kilpatrick stories.)