Ex-Kilpatrick bodyguard's trial begins

DETROIT, April 27 (UPI) -- Jurors hearing a whistle-blower lawsuit filed against the city of Detroit by an ex-mayoral bodyguard were told he was either a victim or an opportunist.

Tony Davis's attorneys said their client was a police officer being punished for blowing the whistle on then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick during an investigation. City attorneys maintain he was lying in wait for five years, then jumped on the bandwagon of antipathy toward the former mayor, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.

"Why would a man who has a 25-year career -- unblemished -- jump on a bandwagon to be a whistle-blower?" Carl Edwards, Davis's attorney, asked jurors in the former bodyguard's whistle-blower lawsuit. "There's nothing in his background that would suggest that he would jump on the bandwagon for money."

Edwards said Davis was acting on orders when he didn't tell State Police investigators what he knew about Kilpatrick's conduct in a 2003 probe into alleged wrongdoing by Kilpatrick's inner circle, the Free Press said.

City attorney June Adams countered that Davis didn't work closely with Kilpatrick then and waited five years to claim retaliation. She said he mimicked widely reported accounts offered by other bodyguards when he filed his lawsuit in June 2008.

"Why would Mr. Davis jump on the bandwagon?" Adams asked. "Because there's a lot of money involved."