Key Kilpatrick Attorneys Refuse to Testify in Granholm Hearing: McPhail Says Moves Are Blow to Mayor's Defense

Detroit Free Press

Aug. 28--Attorneys who represented Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and the City of Detroit in the police whistle-blower suit at the heart of the text message scandal are refusing to testify at the removal hearing against the mayor before Gov. Jennifer Granholm next week.

Sharon McPhail, the Kilpatrick administration's general counsel, informed Granholm legal counsel Kelly Keenan in a Wednesday letter that was released today that Samuel McCargo, who represented the mayor in the lawsuit, and Wilson Copeland II, who represented the city, have advised her they will not testify at the hearing, which begins Wednesday. McPhail also told Keenan that John Johnson Jr., the head of the city's Law Department, does not plan to appear.

Bill Goodman, the attorney for the City Council -- which has asked Granholm to oust Kilpatrick, said he also has been notified that William Mitchell, a criminal attorney hired by the mayor after the whistle-blower trial, will not appear.

Goodman also said he has been told that city attorney Valerie Colbert-Osamuede, who represented the city during the trial, will be out of town and unable to appear.

Councilman Kwame Kenyatta told the Free Press this week he would not testify, and McPhail -- called as a witness by Goodman -- also has said she would not testify.

McPhail said McCargo and Copeland are "critical to the defense" of Kilpatrick. Granholm has said she lacks subpoena power to compel testimony.

"The fact is that the inability to compel the attendance of the witnesses is a serious, if not fatal, blow to the defense in the removal proceedings," she wrote.

"The governor's refusal to seek subpoena power, combined with the refusal of the witnesses to appear voluntarily, deprives" the mayor "of the ability to properly defend."

McPhail asked Granholm to stay the proceedings until the governor can receive court approval to subpoena witnesses or obtain their agreement to appear.

McPhail attached a copy of an Aug. 20 letter from McCargo's attorney, George Bedrosian, that states McCargo already testified under oath in the City Council's investigative hearings and in a deposition by the Free Press and Detroit News.

"To present Governor Granholm with duplicative testimony from him would be time-consuming, unwarranted and unnecessarily burdensome," Bedrosian said.

"Although it would be a pleasure to appear before the governor, Samuel McCargo is confident that to testify again in this matter would be unduly repetitious."

Goodman said the loss of those witnesses does not compromise the hearing.

"All that it does is change the form of the testimony," he said. "Most of these people have already testified under oath with their own lawyers present."

Several of these attorneys testified in the council's investigative hearings or the newspapers' Freedom of Information Act lawsuit depositions.

"The evidence will get out there," Goodman said. "I think it will be a full, fair and complete hearing of the evidence."

Earlier today, attorneys for the council and the mayor held a prehearing conference call with Keenan that lasted more than an hour. Goodman said the issue of witnesses refusing to appear was discussed, but "the resolution was to put on what evidence you have." Transcripts from previous sworn testimony can be used, Goodman said.

Granholm press secretary Liz Boyd said the conference call was "productive and cordial." She declined to comment on McPhail's request for a delay because of the witness situation, saying, a response, if there is one, would be made in a formal letter to McPhail.

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