Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is relocating to North Texas for a six-figure salary job in Addison.
Wayne County Circuit Court Judge David Groner has decided to allow Kilpatrick to transfer his probation from Michigan to Texas. Texas approved the transfer on March 4, the judge said in an opinion.
But the judge also criticized Kilpatrick's high-flying lifestyle, the Detroit Free Press reported. The former mayor's family has leased a 2,800-square foot house in Southlake for about $3,000 a month and has leased a 2009 Escalade luxury sport utility vehicle, the newspaper reported.
In his opinion, Groner said the court was concerned about Kilpatrick's "ability to secure benefits or funds as gifts to purchase cars, travel in private planes and rent a home in an affluent Texas neighborhood."
Kilpatrick's mother, a U.S. congresswoman, paid for her son's charter flight on a private jet to North Texas after his release from jail, according to the Free Press.
The SUV was paid for out of cash gifts from his wife that were not disclosed to the probation department at the time of his sentencing, the judge's order said.
The judge ordered Kilpatrick to pay the city of Detroit $16,000 a month in restitution for the first six months of his employment with Covisint. The amount is calculated on a 30 percent scale of his gross monthly income and will be adjusted if his income goes up or down after six months.
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The judge's order also said Kilpatrick must pay $10,500 in restitution based on the money used for the Escalade as well as $5,500 based on the money used to lease the family's Southlake home by March 20.
Kilpatrick must also disclose any gifts, benefits or additional income he receives in the next five years so that his monthly restitution can be adjusted, the order said. He also has to disclose assets that are in his wife's name and any of his assets that are held by a third party.
Kilpatrick will work as a salesman at Covisint, an affiliate of Detroit-based software maker Compuware Corp. He will work out of the company's Addison office and will earn $120,000 a year, the Free Press reported.
Kilpatrick is on five years probation after serving 99 days in jail.
He pleaded guilty last year to two felony counts of obstructing justice by perjuring himself for denying under oath a sexual affair with his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty. He also pleaded no contest to a felony charge in the assault of a sheriff's deputy.
During his guilty plea, Kilpatrick admitted he lied under oath in a police whistle-blower lawsuit that was filed after two officers were fired. The Detroit Free Press published last year excerpts of text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty that contradicted their testimony that they did not have a sexual relationship.
About 6,000 additional text messages were released on Monday, the Free Press reported.
Kilpatrick is suing the provider for turning over thousands of text messages in response to a subpoena. The $100 million lawsuit claims the former mayor expected that any messages written on the city-issued pagers would remain private, the Free Press reported.
His wife and three sons moved to Southlake in December.
