DETROIT (AP) — Public speaking, consulting and running other people’s political campaigns are part of ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s plans when he is released from prison, he told The Associated Press in an interview Thursday.
They do not include a return to elected office, Kilpatrick said in the phone interview from Cotton Correctional Facility in Jackson County.
In the roughly 30-minute conversation, Kilpatrick discussed life and violence behind bars, where things went wrong in Detroit and how he wants to speak to city residents — once he’s released.
Kilpatrick last worked as a salesman for medical software company Covisint in Dallas, but lost that job when a judge sentenced him in May 2010 to up to five years in prison for violating probation in a 2008 criminal case that forced him to step down as mayor. A Michigan parole board last month denied Kilpatrick’s request for early release.
He also faces federal corruption charges.
“I don’t want to work for anybody ever again. I need to work and be in my own company,” Kilpatrick said. “I have set up a great deal of opportunities for myself, and opportunities to first make reconciliation to the city of Detroit. More than anything else, I have been given a great amount of gifts and there are people, fortunately, who want for me to help them.”
Over the past year, the 40-year-old Kilpatrick has been collecting his memoirs, which are scheduled for release Aug. 1 in a book titled: “Surrendered! The Rise, Fall and Revelation of Kwame Kilpatrick.”
Kilpatrick would not discuss the business deal behind the book or how much of the profits will come his way. He still owes $860,770 in court-ordered restitution to the city of Detroit as part of his plea deal in the 2008 criminal case, Corrections spokesman Russ Marlan said.
“Any money that I make — any dime, any penny I make — will go to pay restitution,” Kilpatrick said. “One of the things I’ve learned over the past year is to be a man of my word.”
At $26.95 each, more than 31,800 copies of the book would have to be sold to raise that much money, but it’s unclear how much of each book sold would be profit.
“We will look into any and all income that is earned by Kilpatrick that can be applied to the restitution that he owes under the terms of his probation,” said Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.
Kilpatrick moved to Dallas in 2009 to work for Covisint shortly after his release from the Wayne County Jail in the 2008 case. His wife and three sons still live in the Dallas area, he said.
Covisint is a subsidiary of Detroit-based software giant Compuware Corp.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
