Politics Elected Government Members Found Guilty #01

[superintelligentone]

http://www.google.co...OAtAEwD994FOHO0

Monica Conyers, Detroit City Council member and former president pro tempore resigned from office Monday, June 29, 2009, days after admitting in court that she accepted bribes from a company in exchange for her vote on a lucrative city sludge-treatment contract.

Conyers, the wife of powerful Democratic congressman John Conyers who was voted into office in 2005 largely on his name, submitted her resignation in a letter to the city clerk's office Monday. It will take effect July 6.

"I am glad she did the right thing and resign from the Detroit City Council," Council President Ken Cockrel Jr. said in a statement. "Now we as a council and a city, can move on and forward in focusing on the vital issues our city faces — and we will."

Monica Conyers did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Monday.

She pleaded guilty to federal bribery charges Friday and faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced. Conyers admitted she took bribes from Houston-based Synagro Technologies in exchange for her vote on a city contract. The council voted 5-4 in favor of the Synagro contract with Monica Conyers' support.

Prosecutors made clear that John Conyers, the 80-year-old chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, knew nothing of his wife's corruption.

Prosecutors said Monica Conyers accepted two payments in late 2007 from a Synagro Technologies official, Rayford Jackson, in exchange for supporting a 20-year, $47-million-a-year, contract that November to have Synagro recycle wastewater sludge and build a modern incinerator in a poor Detroit neighborhood.

The council voted 5-4 to approve the contract with Conyers' vote. It was rescinded in January amid the accusations of wrongdoing.

Monica Conyers is the most prominent person snagged in the Synagro investigation. Jackson and the company's Michigan representative, Jim Rosendall, also have pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the case. Rosendall's plea agreement described how he distributed cash and other gifts to officials.

 

[superintelligentone]

Monica isn't the first Detroit official convicted of a Felony.

http://en.wikipedia....wame_Kilpatrick

Kwame Malik Kilpatrick (born June 8, 1970) is the former mayor of Detroit, Michigan. When elected at the age of 31, he was the youngest mayor in the history of Detroit. Kilpatrick's tenure as mayor, from 2002 until 2008, was plagued with controversies which included allegations (not all against Kilpatrick himself) of maritial infidelity, conspiracy, perjury, corruption, and murder.

Kilpatrick is the only mayor in the history of Detroit to be charged with a felony while in office. On September 4, 2008, Kilpatrick announced his resignation as mayor, which became effective on September 18, as part of a plea bargain where he also pled guilty to two felonies for obstruction of justice.

Judge David Groner sentenced former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to four months in jail Tuesday, October 28, 2008, for the sex-and-text scandal, calling him "arrogant and defiant" and questioning the sincerity of a guilty plea that ended his career at City Hall.

At 12:35 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 3, 2009, Kwame left his jail after serving 99 days. He boarded a privately chartered Lear jet rumored to cost $30,000 and landed in Texas that evening. He was supposed to join his family in a $3,000 a month rental house in Southlake, Texas.[sup] [/sup]Within a couple of weeks, Mr. Kilpatrick had been offered and accepted a job at Covisint, a subsidiary of Compuware, which happens to be headquartered in Detroit.

Christine Beatty - Wikipedia

Christine Rowland Beatty was (born May 1970) and served as the Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2008 to Detroit Mayor Kwamae Kilpatrick.

In January 2008, Beatty resigned amid an emerging political sex scandal and criminal charges of perjury related to a whistleblower trial for lying under oath about their extramarital affair and that they sought to mislead jurors when they testified that they did not fire Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown. Kilpatrick has already pleaded guilty September 4, 2008 to two felont obstruction of justice charges, and was sentenced to four months in jail on October 28, 2008.

On December 1, 2008, Beatty agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts, serve 120 days in jail, pay $100,000 in restitution, and be on probation for five years. She was sentenced and began her jail term on January 6, 2009.

On March 16, 2009, Beatty was released from Wayne County Jail having served 69 days of her sentence.