Ex-Detroit mayor gets parole, federal case looms

[The Northerner]

DETROIT (AP) — The Michigan parole board voted on Friday to release former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick from prison in late July, a decision that gives him plenty of time to prepare for a federal corruption trial that could land him back behind bars for years.

Kilpatrick, 41, will be freed from prison no earlier than July 24, said Russ Marlan, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Corrections.

Kilpatrick quit office in 2008 when he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in a case that was tied to his cover-up of an extramarital affair with his chief of staff. He has been in prison since May 2010 when a judge found he had misled authorities and failed to turn over certain assets toward his $1 million restitution to Detroit.

Parole cases typically are heard by three-member panels. Marlan said Kilpatrick's never got to a third member because the other two already were in favor of releasing him, including chairman Tom Combs.

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[John Paul Jones]

1. I empathize with the people of Detroit; however, when you consider that

they elected this guy to be their mayor, it is clear that many of their wounds are self-inflicted.

[demosincebirth]

2. +1