DETROIT -- Less than a day after a group of community and business leaders organized a legal defense fund for Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, the fund suffered a surprise withdrawal Thursday.
Television personality Greg Mathis, a former Detroit 36th District judge and star of the "Judge Mathis" reality court show, announced that -- contrary to Kilpatrick's claim -- he would not help run the fund.
"I was contacted Wednesday afternoon by Mayor Kilpatrick. He asked if I could serve on his legal defense committee. I informed him I support due process, but I could not support him," Mathis said in a statement faxed to the media.
S. Martin Taylor, a retired DTE Energy executive and a fund member, said he supports the fund for "the limited purpose of ensuring that the mayor has appropriate, competent representation. That is everybody's right, whether they're popular or unpopular, government or private. It's a right. I think it's a cherished right."
Kilpatrick announced the formation of the legal defense fund Wednesday, two days after he became the first sitting mayor in Detroit history to be criminally charged.
The defense fund's Web site, detroitjusticefund.com, criticizes Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy for bringing "unprecedented charges of perjury ... arising out of events that occurred over five years ago."
Taylor said he is "absolutely not" endorsing any attacks on Worthy.
In 2006, Kilpatrick hired Taylor's stepson, Douglass Diggs, at $132,000 a year to lead the city's Planning and Development Department.
Turner told the Free Press that he decided to serve on the committee because "I've been involved in efforts to support access to justice ... my entire career." Turner, chairman of the city's ethics board, said he sees no conflict in serving on the ethics board and on the mayor's defense fund.
"There is no matter pending at the board of ethics related to Mayor Kilpatrick at this time," he said. "If any matter comes to the board of ethics ... I would not participate." Turner said the Detroit Justice Fund is to be a tax-exempt political organization. It can take unlimited contributions from individuals, as well as corporations. Contributions are not tax-deductible.
But Turner said the fund would cap contributions at $12,000. He said he did not know why, and referred questions to fellow committee member David Baker Lewis, who did not return calls.
Lewis' firm, Lewis & Munday, annually is among the top firms doing work for city agencies. One of the firm's lawyers, Sam McCargo, represented Kilpatrick in the police whistle-blower suit that led to several criminal charges against the mayor.
Peter Letzmann, a professor at Grand Valley State University and former municipal lawyer, said the fund could become a problem if city workers, contractors and business owners who depend on the city for jobs, contracts, permits and favorable code or building inspections are asked to contribute.
Judy Nadler, senior fellow in government ethics at the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University and that city's former mayor, said she, too, was troubled.
"In the wake of this series of events, which included the apparent retaliation against a city employee, it would be very difficult for people to have confidence in the independent and free-will donations that might be expected, that might be solicited," she said.
"I think that reasonable people might question whether or not your donation, or lack thereof, would have any influence on your business dealings with the city."
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