Psychic sees jail in Kilpatrick's future

Sometimes the psychic's answers come with a lot of questions. And sometimes, the answers to the questions are easy.

"Why am I picking up someone else around the mayor?" asks Ana Vangelena. She's sensing a friend of Kwame Kilpatrick or a fringe family member who's going to need an attorney, "maybe someone holding a chunk of money."

Well, it could be that the best-dressed unsuccessful salesman in Southlake, Texas, tended to surround himself in office with sycophants and slugs. That would explain the someone else. But before you snidely congratulate Vangelena for discovering the obvious, consider what she told me two years and two weeks ago.

This was just as the text messages were leaking and the storm was brewing. Kilpatrick, she predicted, would go to jail, but for something less than perjury. True: He pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice.

Furthermore, she said, an even larger scandal was en route, and it involved mayoral dad Bernard Kilpatrick. Sounds right: According to Detroit News Staff Writer Paul Egan, the feds are preparing a case that says you could practically drop off your bribe for the Kilpatricks at a drive-up window.

So it seemed like a good time to check back with Vangelena, 46, who says her recent customers include some random Saudi princes in London and the wife of Dr. Phil in Los Angeles.

In early October, Vangelena says, she told Robin McGraw to expect a lawsuit against her husband forthwith. That happens often enough that he gets frequent lawyer points, but still: They hadn't heard any rumblings, and Mrs. McGraw dismissed the notion.

The next day, a woman from Irvine, Calif., accused Dr. Phil of a litany of peculiar things, including forcing her to be in a room with a "completely live naked man."

Her chances of winning seem considerably slimmer than Kwame Kilpatrick's chances of going back up the river, but a lawsuit is a lawsuit. Right again.

Predicting a breakup

I put ESP on the long list of things I'm ignorant or undecided about. I've never paid for a reading, but a psychic once plucked from thin air the unusual name of my dad's long-dead mother, and a Ouija board correctly predicted the names of both my next serious girlfriend and my wife.

That was before it threatened to kill us, prompting my friends and me to torch it in the fireplace. But I digress.

Vangelena, who lives in Beverly Hills and holds office hours in Southfield, says she's booked months in advance at $100 for a 30-minute reading. As she points out at http://www.anasthepsychic.com">www.anasthepsychic.com, she schedules appointments by first name only, won't run up your credit card (or even accept it in the first place), and can't lift curses or resurrect love affairs.

What she does do is predict future events, and she sees both Kilpatricks headed for the slammer, with perhaps a yet-unknown third investigation targeting Kwame. In other Kilpatrick news, she says Carlita will unload her loving spouse and he'll try to peddle a book to tell how wrong everyone else was. As for Bernard ...

Well, she doesn't want to be the bearer of bad news, but he'd best get regular checkups.

Crowded GOP gov field

Elsewhere in politics, she says, look for a late addition to the race for the Republican nomination for governor. She's not optimistic about Rick Snyder and sees another scandal lurking for Attorney General Mike Cox, who weathered his storm five years ago and at least didn't lie about his affair on a witness stand.

Political consultant Sam Riddle -- who's either outspoken or bombastic, depending on how you feel about him -- will bluster his way to a guilty verdict in his retrial.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm will "kind of fade" after she leaves office, with perhaps a sub-Cabinet level appointment, but nothing as lofty as the Supreme Court.

Expect another merger from the Big Three, and another baby for Tiger and Elin Woods, followed by a divorce.

At least, that's how the future appears to Vangelena. In a year or two, we can check her accuracy with one of the Kilpatricks -- maybe on visiting day.

nrubin@detnews.com">nrubin@detnews.com (313) 222-1874