Anticipation builds for next Kilpatrick twist

You can't have a conversation in this town lately without it moving to the inevitable question: "So, do you think the feds will indict Kwame Kilpatrick?"

Reports that the Justice Department is gathering string for a racketeering charge against the former Detroit mayor have set off a fresh flurry of speculation about if -- or when -- the indictments will come down.

Anticipation that the feds are fixing to move is overshadowing the ongoing Kilpatrick saga in Wayne Circuit Court. Who cares if Kilpatrick is playing shell games with the household budget to avoid making payments on his $1 million fine if the feds are about to pounce? That's the big deal folks have been waiting for.

The City Hall corruption probe has been dragging on for so long and generated so many false leads that I've learned to be skeptical when rumors start flying.

But a couple of recent events have got me thinking that fresh developments in the Kilpatrick case may be imminent.

The first was the sentencing last week of contractor Karl Kado, who pleaded guilty to filing a false federal tax return. Kado walked away with three years probation after federal prosecutors told the court he was an extraordinarily cooperative witness.

What he was reportedly cooperative about was information that he paid Kilpatrick up to $100,000 in bribes to protect his multimillion-dollar Cobo Center contracts. He also is said to have told investigators that he was shaken down for cash by Bernard Kilpatrick, the mayor's father, and by Derrick Miller, his one-time close friend and chief information officer.

If Kado was so valuable to prosecutors that he escaped jail time, it seems reasonable to assume that the details he provided will help them land a bigger fish.

There's no point rewarding a cooperative witness for information that doesn't add up to an indictment.

I'm also intrigued by Kwame Kilpatrick's hiring of high-powered New York public relations specialist Mike Paul. Kilpatrick is out of politics and not likely to return anytime soon. He's got nothing to sell to the public. What use does he have for an image polisher? And how can a guy who claims to be broke afford to pay the $500 to $1,000 an hour that a big-time PR man like Paul commands?

I can't answer those questions. But I know that the last time Kilpatrick hired a PR top gun it was while he was awaiting trial on assault and perjury charges. Judy Smith, the Washington pro whose client list included Monica Lewinsky and Clarence Thomas, made no secret that much of her assignment was to influence a potential jury pool.

That took the form of marginalizing Prosecutor Kym Worthy. An issue was made of Worthy's personal tax troubles and some irregularities in her office, with the strategy of painting Kilpatrick as her victim.

This week, there was Paul taking over where Smith left off, suggesting Worthy is motivated in her dogged pursuit of Kilpatrick by political ambitions.

There's no jury involved yet in Kilpatrick's ongoing dispute in Wayne County Circuit Court. Is the former mayor and his legal team anticipating the need to score points sometime soon with a federal jury pool?

As I said, rumors of impending indictments have been rampant since the City Hall scandal broke two years ago.

But there's definitely something in the air now that feels different.

Nolan Finley is editorial page editor of The Detroit News. His column runs on Sunday and Thursday. Reach him at nfinley@detnews.com">nfinley@detnews.com or (313) 222-2064.