DETROIT -- The Detroit City Council agreed to pay a $25,000 mediation recommendation to settle a three-year-old defamation lawsuit brought by two city police officers against Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty.
If the city had rejected the award and gone to trial -- and lost -- additional penalties would be assessed.
Mike Rataj, the attorney for the cops, said they accepted the offer previously.
The city must notify the court today that they will pay the mediation amount, Rataj said.
The vote was unanimous.
The City Council rejected the proposed $25,000 settlement three separate times last year.
The officers alleged they were slandered after a run-in with Beatty during a traffic stop. Officers Zach Weishuhn and Patrick J. Tomsic alleged in their lawsuit that when they pulled over Beatty for speeding in June 2004, she yelled at them and used profane language, and asked: "Do you know who ... I am?"
After details of the traffic stop became public, Kilpatrick told WJR radio the stop was "the biggest piece of crap" and implied the officers had violated Beatty's rights. Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings claimed the officers had harassed Beatty, according to the lawsuit.
The two officers, who are still working for the department, filed the lawsuit in 2005 in Wayne County Circuit Court, maintaining that the public comments by Kilpatrick and Bully-Cummings were slanderous.
You can reach Christine MacDonald at (313) 222-2396 or cmacdonald@detnews.com">cmacdonald@detnews.com.
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