Detroit mayor loses privacy court fight

DETROIT, May 31 (UPI) -- Newspapers may have access to key communications between Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and former chief of staff Christine Beatty, a Michigan judge has ruled.

The ruling by Wayne County Circuit Judge Robert Colombo Jr. Friday will allow the newspapers to ask the City of Detroit for e-mails and text messages from last August, the Detroit Free Press reported Saturday. The Free Press, along with the Detroit News, had been seeking the information in an effort to determine whether Kilpatrick and Beatty attempted to coordinate their testimony at a police whistle-blower trial last summer.

Attorneys for Kilpatrick and Beatty had argued the text messages were private and protected by the Fifth Amendment because of pending criminal charges against the two. The Free Press printed text messages in January suggesting Kilpatrick and Beatty lied under oath that they never had an affair and gave misleading testimony concerning the firing of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown.