"I don't know if I would have done anything any different," Kilpatrick said in a March 9 deposition in his lawsuit against Mississippi-based SkyTel over the release of text messages that set the stage for perjury charges that drove him from office in 2008. "I thought it was more important to protect my wife, and so I did not tell the truth about that."
SkyTel filed the deposition in U.S. District Court in Mississippi on Thursday in an effort to get the lawsuit dismissed.
• PDF: Read Kilpatrick's 46-page deposition.
Among other things, SkyTel said Kilpatrick's conduct -- not the release of the text messages -- led to his demise. Further, the company said Kilpatrick has no standing to sue because he won't even acknowledge the text messages were his.
Kilpatrick, who pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice for perjuring himself during proceedings in a lawsuit against the city, is imprisoned for violating probation and is under federal indictment on charges of fraud, tax evasion and rigging city contracts.
Thursday's release of the deposition revealed his first detailed reaction to the events that occurred after the Free Press published text message excerpts showing he had lied under oath.
In a 175-page deposition, Kilpatrick blamed the news media, the judge, prosecutors and especially SkyTel for his downfall.
"I would not be sitting here but for you releasing those text messages," Kilpatrick told SkyTel's lawyer.
How the text message scandal unfolded behind the scenes
It was around Christmas in 2007, and life was about to get ugly for then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
It was around that time, he said in a sworn deposition taken earlier this month, that he told his wife, Carlita, he had been having an affair with his chief of staff at the time, Christine Beatty.
A few weeks later, Kilpatrick found out that the Free Press was going to publish stories about text messages -- from city-issued paging devices -- that showed he had lied at a police whistle-blower trial several months earlier when he denied having an affair with Beatty.
"I was actually at dinner with my wife and children," Kilpatrick said in the deposition. "We were laughing and joking at Chili's restaurant."
Kilpatrick learned about the impending newspaper article after getting a call from mayoral media consultant Bob Berg, who had been contacted to try to arrange an interview with the mayor.
"When my wife saw the look on my face, we ended the dinner. ... We went home, and I told my wife what was coming the next day. The second hardest conversation I ever had to have with her."
Kilpatrick recalled the episode in a 175-page sworn deposition taken March 9 in his lawsuit against SkyTel, the City of Detroit's former text messaging provider.
SkyTel filed the deposition in federal court in Mississippi on Thursday along with its request that a judge dismiss Kilpatrick's lawsuit against the company.
The suit accuses SkyTel of illegally releasing the text messages in response to a subpoena that resulted from a 2007 whistle-blower trial arising from a lawsuit filed by former Detroit police officers. In January 2008, the Free Press published excerpts of Kilpatrick's messages.
Reporting by the paper eventually revealed that Kilpatrick tried to orchestrate a cover-up of his false testimony by arranging to settle lawsuit issues with whistle-blower cops. In all, the episode cost taxpayers more than $9 million.The deposition -- filed in federal court in Mississippi on Thursday -- was conducted at a federal prison in Milan, where Kilpatrick is serving an 18-month probation violation sentence resulting from the text message and perjury scandal while he awaits trial on federal corruption charges for running what the feds have dubbed the "Kilpatrick enterprise."
Kilpatrick's attorney in the pending public corruption case, James Thomas, would not comment on Kilpatrick's deposition: "Having not been in a position to have read it, I am not able to comment."
During the wide-ranging deposition, Kilpatrick:
• Blamed Sky-Tel for ruining his life by releasing the texts.
"I don't believe that I'd be sitting right here in front of you in this prison but for your action," Kilpatrick said.
• Denied firing former Detroit Police Officer Harold Nelthrope and Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown, whose whistle-blower lawsuit resulted in Kilpatrick's perjured testimony about Beatty.
"He never was fired," Kilpatrick said of Nelthrope. And "Gary Brown was unappointed. ... He just fell back to his lieutenant's position, so he was still on the job."
• Admitted having a one-night stand in a hotel with Sheryl Robinson Wood, who resigned in 2009 as the court-appointed monitor of federally mandated Detroit police reforms after a federal judge learned about the sexual liaison.
"I wouldn't call it an affair," he said. "We had an intimate session one night in a hotel room."
• Said he, his wife and children have had to seek counseling because of SkyTel's conduct. "It's all been done through spiritual-based counseling, Christian-based counseling."
• Denied assaulting Wayne County sheriff's deputies trying to serve a subpoena on a relative at the home of his sister. The incident resulted in assault charges. He pleaded no contest to one count.
"There was absolutely no assault," he said.
• Blasted the news media for, as he put it, "creating an incredibly different me."
• Disputed claims that he never accepted responsibility for his actions.
"I accepted responsibility for not being truthful about a romantic relationship," he said. "I accepted responsibility for letting people down in that regard, because as the highest elected official in the City of Detroit, people trust that I would effectuate my job, yes. But also I think that there's a certain expectation that I would be truthful in the courtroom, and I let them down on that."
• Took a shot at Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner, who ultimately jailed Kilpatrick for violating his bond conditions. He said Groner's restitution order "seemed a little excessive." He was ordered to pay $320,000 within 90 days, or go to jail.
"There was nothing remotely in evidence to suggest that I'd be able to do that," said Kilpatrick, noting he did manage to come up with $42,000. "I begged, borrowed, I went out, I asked people, I jumped over hoops, I went and cleared out all my bank accounts, and I paid $42,000, and he still violated my probation and sent me to prison, away from my wife and children."
Meanwhile Thursday, SkyTel urged the court in Mississippi to dismiss Kilpatrick's lawsuit, claiming he had no standing given that he wouldn't acknowledge that the texts were his.
"In reality, Kilpatrick's own actions -- and his ongoing deceit -- cost him his job as mayor and his law license, and landed him in jail (twice)," SkyTel said.
SkyTel also sought in another filing Thursday to exclude the testimony of a psychiatrist who says Kilpatrick is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder because of the text scandal. It also sought to exclude testimony from Kilpatrick experts who said he suffered from $2.5 million to $2.78 million in damages as a result of the scandal.
The company said the psychiatrist, Dr. Norman Miller, drew his conclusion from conversations with Kilpatrick's wife, mother and sister -- not Kilpatrick. Miller did not speak with Kilpatrick until this month, when they had a six-minute phone conversation, SkyTel said.
"The man had a reasonable expectation of privacy as any individual in this country would have," Miller testified during a deposition March 10.
Detroit Free Press