Text messages contradict Detroit mayor

DETROIT, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Text messages between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his chief of staff show they had an affair, the Detroit Free Press reported Thursday.

The mayor and Christine Beatty, in testimony in a whistleblower suit last summer, denied any sexual relationship or that they were involved in firing former Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown. But the text messages from 2002 and 2003 obtained by the newspaper suggest they lied about both.

In one message, Beatty mentioned "the decision we made to fire Gary Brown."

Brown and Harold Nelthrope, a former police officer and mayoral bodyguard, claimed in a lawsuit Kilpatrick got rid of them because of their roles in an investigation of his protection squad. The mayor allegedly feared the investigation would uncover his relationship with Beatty.

The text messages include discussions of politics and city affairs along with romantic exchanges, the newspaper said.

Kilpatrick in a statement called the messages "profoundly embarrassing."

"My wife and I worked our way through these intensely personal issues years ago," he wrote.