Ironic twist of fate for Kilpatrick

Maybe between husband and wife, a touch of the breast in a public room after a long separation is a charming move.

Maybe the former mayor, who is serving a state prison sentence while fighting federal charges, didn't violate the letter of the no public-display-of-affection prison rules so much as their spirit. The video surveillance tape said to have captured the delicate moment in question is not available for public inspection. With luck, that will always be the case.

But if Kwame Kilpatrick has demonstrated anything over these past long years of scandal and recrimination, it's that his MO is flouting rules, not following them.

In this latest installment, the former Detroit mayor was written up by a prison guard for sexual misconduct, after the guard allegedly caught Kilpatrick touching his wife during a July 4 visit to the Oaks Correctional Facility near Manistee.

There is no Independence Day in prison.

"Our policy says prisoners can do one embrace and a kiss at the start of the visiting session. At the end of the visit, other than holding hands, no touching is allowed," Michigan Department of Corrections spokesman Russell Marlan said. "On the video you can see him reach across and grab her breast."

In the prison world, this alleged transgression is a big deal that can potentially cost Kilpatrick privileges or, even, probation. Mike Paul, his spokesman, voiced outrage. "Another example of people trying to pile on in any way, shape or form on this man. This is his wife. Not his girlfriend, not a guard, not somebody he met at the prison," Paul said in a statement released Thursday.

Sentenced to 14 months to five years for hiding assets and distorting truths in court, Kilpatrick is a man so accustomed to living large that even now he's challenged trying to play by the teensy-weensy rules of prisoner oversight. After years of combing through his text messages, we know that Kilpatrick uses sex as a way to keep women in his thrall, whether that's his wife or his chief of staff.

The guards -- always the heavies in every Hollywood prison flick -- contend they can't overlook a connubial grope that's strictly banned by the rules.

"You have a lot of other eyes watching to see what others get away with," said Mel Grieshaber, a prison Corrections officer, contending that prison is a world of perfect order that must be maintained, while also saying that guards have some discretion to issue warnings rather than write tickets.

That said, Kilpatrick's fallen down a steep incline that has to test his very definition of who he is. The charisma and bravado that helped earn him admiration and power are no longer required. The man who ruled is now expected to kowtow to rules that govern even intimate relations with a spouse.

Like the lead characters in the CBS show "The Good Wife," it's Carlita Kilpatrick -- the once-spurned wife -- who now wields power in their relationship. Her continued involvement with him is the key to his life, on levels both personal and legal.

He's fighting to maintain that connection, even in the semi-public visiting room of prison. So much so that Wayne County Circuit Judge David Groner chastised him previously for caring more about pleasing his wife than following the court's orders.

Is that love or manipulation?

Despite the potential for humiliation and more punishment, Kilpatrick is poignant and confounding, reaching still for a little bit more than he's allowed.

Detroit News Staff Writer Doug Guthrie contributed.