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2005 ‘Lynching’ Ad May Help Send Kilpatrick Back to Prison
Published : Thursday, 19 Jan 2012, 6:40 PM EST
By ROBIN SCHWARTZ
WJBK | myFOXDetroit.com
DETROIT (WJBK) — The feds continue to build their corruption case against Detroit’s former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, and they’re looking at a controversial political ad. The so-called “lynching” ad helped get Kilpatrick re-elected, but it could also help send him back to prison.
It ran in the Michigan Chronicle just days after the death of civil rights icon Rosa Parks. A racially charged ad with a photo of three men hanging from ropes accused the media of lynching Kilpatrick.
Political consultant Adolph Mongo says Kilpatrick paid him to create it and he’s proud of it.
“It got [people’s] attention. That’s what it was all about,” he said.
The 2005 message was credited with helping Kilpatrick get re-elected, but now it’s also part of the federal case against him.
Mongo was called to testify before a grand jury about who paid for the ad and where the money came from. At the time, Kilpatrick said it wasn’t him and he didn’t condone it, but Mongo says Kilpatrick did pay for it out of his civic fund.
“The issue is did the money go for the intended purpose? If I am a donor to the civic fund, I want that money to be used for civic purposes,” said FOX 2 legal analyst Charlie Langton.
“That was something that the mayor’s people should have been aware of that you can’t spend money out of that account on ads, consultants,” Mongo said. “When a mayor gives you a check, you don’t think about where it came from. You take it.”
Mongo’s not in any legal trouble, but Kilpatrick faces a federal indictment accusing him of misusing the money in the civic fund like a slush fund for personal gain. He faces up to 20 years in prison.
Kilpatrick’s racketeering trial is set to begin in September. The former mayor has said he’s looking forward to clearing his name, but Langton says that may be easier said than done.
“There’s a money trail. There’s a paper trail. You make deposits, and we’re talking millions of dollars, and all the feds have to do is just get one or two little connections where the money went to someplace improperly and that’s going to be bad for Kwame Kilpatrick,” he explained.
