Guilty on 24 counts

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was found guilty on 24 counts, including racketeering, not guilty on three counts and received no verdict on three counts. Close friend Bobby Ferguson was found guilty on 9 counts including racketeering, extortion and bribery. Kilpatrick’s father Bernard was found guilty on only one tax charge, and sobbed upon hearing his son's conviction. The charges against Kwame Kilpatrick involved a 10-year criminal racket involving bribery, extortion, fraud and tax evasion that began when he was a state legislator and ended as he was leaving the Manoogian Mansion in disgrace. Many Detroiters’ believe that Bernard Kilpatrick was responsible for corrupting his young son. In one of the most dramatic moments of the trial, Bernard Kilpatrick was shown on an FBI video pocketing $2,500 from a sludge-hauling contractor who allegedly was paying bribes to win a $1.2 billion city deal. While the prosecution called it a bribe, Bernard Kilpatrick's attorney called it payment on an old debt. Nonetheless, the jury was unable to reach a verdict on racketeering charges against Bernard Kilpatrick. A sad day for Detroiters’ as one of the city’s most talented young leaders is now on his way to prison. Kwame (as he is referred to in Detroit) was the type of man who could one minute dazzle an audience with the future vision he painted of the city, and the next minute he could be found rigging contracts and receiving kickbacks. The Kilpatrick scandal reached all the way to Washington as his mother, Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, lost her seat in the house mainly because the people of Wayne County were fed up with the shenanigans of her son and former husband. Kilpatrick wore a surprised, puzzled look at times as U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds read the jury's verdict. He and Ferguson were remanded and will await sentencing from their prison cells.