Conyers admits trading Synagro vote for cash

Detroit -- Detroit City Council President Pro Tem Monica Conyers, who loudly proclaimed her innocence for months, spoke softly in federal court Friday when admitting she took bribes in exchange for her vote on a $1.2 billion sewage sludge contract.

Conyers, the wife of the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Detroit, became the scandal-rocked city's third official in less than a year to plead guilty to a felony that will put her behind bars.

Her plea to a bribery conspiracy charge spells the end of a colorful City Council career in which she publicly derided the council president as resembling the cartoon figure "Shrek," was accused of threatening to shoot a mayoral aide and allegedly had her hand out for favors to others besides Synagro Technologies Inc., which won the sludge contract after Conyers changed her position and cast the deciding vote, 5-4.

"Monica Conyers said today: 'I did it,' " said Andrew Arena, special agent in charge of the FBI in Detroit. "It's a historic day for the city of Detroit and this area."

Conyers became the sixth defendant to plead guilty in a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation that dates back at least four years and also has netted convictions related to corrupt contracts at the Cobo Center, the home of the North American International Auto Show.

Her plea to taking $6,000 in bribes lifted a cloud that hung over her council colleagues for almost a year. Federal prosecutors announced no other City Council members will face charges in connection with the Synagro contract, but stressed the investigation is not over.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who resigned after pleading guilty to a felony last fall; his business consultant father Bernard N. Kilpatrick; former Conyers aide Sam Riddle; and former Kilpatrick aide Derrick A. Miller are among those who also have been under investigation in connection with the Synagro contract and a related recycling agreement but have not been charged, people familiar with the investigation said. It was not clear Friday whether any of them will be charged.

"It doesn't make me a crook because she's admitting that she's a crook," said Riddle, who has also been in plea talks through his attorney and described himself Friday as "a teetering domino" in the Synagro investigation.

Michael Alan Schwartz, a lawyer who represents the former mayor, said Friday that he's received no indication that authorities have any links to his client in this investigation.

"It's my understanding that this was entirely a City Council matter," Schwartz said.

Investigation continues

Conyers' plea, which does not involve cooperation or testimony against others, "does not affect the investigation at all -- it's just simply concluding one aspect of it," said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University and a former federal prosecutor.

Conyers, 44, now faces up to five years in prison and the loss of her council seat. Kwame Kilpatrick served 99 days in jail in 2008-09 after pleading guilty to obstruction of justice related charges. His former top aide, Christine Beatty, served 70 days in the county jail on similar charges earlier this year.

She potentially faced longer prison time if, instead of pleading guilty, she had waited to be indicted. Wire fraud, for example, a federal charge frequently used in bribery cases involving a telephone call, is a 20-year felony.

A sentencing date for Conyers was not set and it was not clear when and how her council seat would be vacated. Though felons must give up elected office, a City Council attorney said a conviction is not officially registered against Conyers until she is sentenced.

Interim U.S. Attorney Terrence Berg, who defended his office against criticism the investigation dragged on too long, said: "This investigation has not uncovered evidence sufficient to support charging any other elected members of the Detroit City Council with taking bribes or engaging in acts of corruption relating to the Synagro contract."

Soon after the Synagro scandal broke in June 2008, some media reports said as many as four council members could be implicated. FBI agents dropped by the homes of Councilwomen Martha Reeves and Barbara-Rose Collins, and Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel voluntarily testified before a federal grand jury while insisting she was not a target.

"I don't feel any relief," Collins said Friday. "I never felt any tension. The newspapers tried to paint me as somebody who should be running scared."

Other allegations

Though the bribery conspiracy charge Conyers pleaded to only specified envelopes containing a few thousand dollars in cash she accepted in a McDonald's parking lot and at the Butzel Family Center on Kercheval, she admitted to additional illegal conduct in her plea agreement.

That document says she and her aide, identified by sources as Riddle, received payments from "persons who sought contracts, money and/or favorable entity" from both the City Council and Detroit's General Retirement System, where Conyers served as a trustee. Their intent was that those who paid "would perceive that (Conyers) would be influenced by the payments in her official actions," the plea agreement said.

In addition to Synagro, allegations against Conyers have included receiving jewelry from a Detroit-based pawn shop and an attempted shakedown of the owners of a Detroit strip club who sought a license transfer.

Conyers' plea agreement, released Friday, says she will face no further federal corruption charges based on any conduct the government is now aware of, though Berg said prosecutors would present evidence related to other alleged wrongful acts at her sentencing hearing.

Steve Fishman, Conyers' attorney, said he has no idea whether Conyers plans to resign or when Conyers will be sentenced. Fishman said he believes federal sentencing guidelines of 30-37 months will apply to her case. But federal prosecutors said the guidelines for Conyers would exceed the five-year maximum. In any case, the guidelines are advisory and the decision will be made by U.S. District Judge Avern Cohn, who accepted her guilty plea.

Henning said it's clear from their calculation of her sentencing guidelines that federal prosecutors plan to allege at sentencing that Conyers received bribes well in excess of the roughly $6,000 she admitted taking in connection with Synagro. Those allegations will not comprise additional charges, but the judge will be asked to consider them as relevant conduct when passing sentence, he said.

John Conyers has offices in the federal courthouse where his wife pleaded. He declined comment Friday as he walked off the House floor in Washington, D.C. His office later issued a statement saying it was "a trying time for the Conyers family."

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing said in a statement, "It is unfortunate that our city must, again, endure another set of unethical circumstances surrounding elected officials," but he remains focused on "rebuilding and moving Detroit forward."

Detroit News staff writers Charlie LeDuff, David Josar, Christine MacDonald, Leonard N. Fleming, Doug Guthrie, Darren Nichols and Mike Wilkinson contributed. pegan@detnews.com">pegan@detnews.com (313) 222-2069