The Detroit City Council has taken the first step toward removing Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick over a scandal involving explicit text messages to his former aide. Kilpatrick and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty have been charged with perjury, misconduct in office and obstruction of justice. Excerpts of sexually explicit text messages between the mayor and Beatty were published in January by the Detroit Free Press after the pair denied having a romantic relationship in sworn testimony at a civil trial.
