  Lodgedodger Member Username: Lodgedodger Post Number: 1746 Registered: 05-2008 |
The "victim" is at it, again. Is Mr. Goodman next on the list of "People who have done KK wrong"? http://freep.com/article/20090 330/NEWS01/90330059/Kilpatrick +adds+cops++attorney+as+defend ant+to+lawsuit By SUZETTE HACKNEY • FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER • March 30, 2009 Former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is suing the lawyer who negotiated an $8.4-million police whistle-blower lawsuit settlement that eventually led to Kilpatrick’s resignation and guilty criminal plea. Kilpatrick, who already sued SkyTel Inc. — the city's onetime communications provider — has added attorney Mike Stefani as a defendant to the lawsuit. The lawsuit alleges that SkyTel and Stefani violated Kilpatrick’s privacy rights by releasing text messages and “either individually or in concert disclosed information which was highly offensive to a reasonable person.” “Stefani’s actions, in part, led to the illegal release of those messages,” C.K. Hoffler, a partner in the Florida law firm of Willie Gary told the Free Press today. Gary is representing Kilpatrick. “His liability was clear from the beginning,” Hoffler said of Stefani. In 2007, SkyTel turned over thousands of messages from the paging device used by Kilpatrick's top aide, Christine Beatty, in response to a subpoena in a police whistle-blower lawsuit. Text messages were subsequently obtained by the Free Press, which broke news of the scandal last year. They showed the mayor and Beatty lied at the whistle-blower trial. Stefani represented the three cops who successfully sued the mayor and the city. Kilpatrick pledged to appeal the judgment but abruptly settled for $8.4 million after discovering Stefani had obtained the text messages. That prompted lawyers for Kilpatrick and the city to engineer a secret settlement to keep the messages hush-hush. Hoffler said Kilpatrick’s lawsuit speaks to injustice and invasion of privacy the ex-mayor experienced, but it also raises “a separate and important issue that concerns all Americans who use this technology.” Kilpatrick is claiming as damages the loss of earnings, mental suffering, shame, humiliation and emotional distress. The lawsuit does not identify a damage amount, but Kilpatrick's attorneys have said he is owed $100 million. Kilpatrick resigned in September and subsequently went to jail after pleading guilty to criminal charges stemming from the text message scandal. | ||
Dannyv Member Username: Dannyv Post Number: 633 Registered: 08-2007 |
Why stop there? Why not sue the judge who allowed the text messages to be released to the public? Everyone else seems to be held responsible for what happened to the former Mayor, except the Mayor. A classic case of narcissism. | ||
Retroit Member Username: Retroit Post Number: 1116 Registered: 04-2008 |
If Kwame wins any of these lawsuits, I hope the defendants pay restitution at the rate of $6 per month. |
