Exclusive: Kilpatrick Says He Was 'Ignorant' To Downplay Money Gram Flap
DETROIT (WWJ) - Embattled ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is backpedaling on comments he made last week when he called not reporting a $2,000 wire transfer from a Chicago pastor a trivial matter.
Speaking exclusively with WWJ City Beat reporter Vickie Thomas on Monday, Kilpatrick said he now realizes that it's a "huge deal."
Listen to the full interview:
Kilpatrick's change of heart about the money gram comes after five days on a GPS tether, being placed under house arrest at his mother's Detroit home and unable to return to Texas to be with his wife and children.
"When Daddy once again has to break a promise that sets up a whole new set of problems, and so we've been doing a lot of calling back and forth and, you know," Kilpatrick said.
"I actually have to take back my remarks from the first day when I even called this, you know ... like it was not that big of a deal. This is a huge deal. That was an ignorant misstatement of fact -- this is big," he said.
Kilpatrick said he had no idea that he would be facing a chance of going back to prison over the incident.
Kilpatrick, in December, was caught on camera at a Chesterfield Township Walmart counting out $2,000 in cash. A Department of Corrections spokesman said Kilpatrick failed to report the money as income and not doing that could be a parole violation.
Kilpatrick still owes Detroit more than $800,000 in restitution from a 2008 plea in a criminal case. He lost his job and served state prison time for lying on the state about his affair with an aide. He is currently on trial in Detroit federal court in a separate case, charged with fraud, bribery, tax crimes and a racketeering conspiracy
MORE: Kilpatrick: I'm A Much Better Person After All That's Happened
