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KWAME KILPATRICK PLEADS GUILTY, RESIGNS: Detroit mayor will serve four months in jail to settle 10 felony counts in two criminal cases.
*After months of stubbornly holding onto his job amid an embarrassing sex scandal, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to felony charges Thursday and has agreed to resign immediately and go to jail.
Kilpatrick admitted that he lied under oath when he and his former top aide Christine Beatty were accused of having an affair and denying their roles in the firing of a deputy police chief.
As part of his plea deal, the mayor will serve four months in jail and five years of probation. He was also fined $1 million to be paid over the five-year probationary period.
Kilpatrick had faced 10 felony counts in the two different criminal cases. During a separate hearing moments after Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Groner accepted the mayor's plea, Kilpatrick offered a no contest plea in an assault case.
The judge also accepted that plea, which called for Kilpatrick to serve a four-month jail sentence that would run at the same time.
Groner asked Kilpatrick if he understood he was giving up the right to be innocent until proven guilty.
"I gave that up a long time ago," Kilpatrick replied.
The mayor will be sentenced on Oct. 28. He will report to jail that day, said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy. Beatty did not plead guilty and next will appear in court on Sept. 11. Groner said a plea deal in Beatty's case appeared likely.
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