Judge: Enough evidence to try Detroit mayor

updated 2:56 p.m. ET Aug. 15, 2008

DETROIT - A judge ruled Friday that there's enough evidence for Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to stand trial on two felony assault charges stemming from a confrontation with two investigators.

The investigators testified that an angry Kilpatrick shoved one of them into the other and made racial remarks while they were trying to deliver a subpoena in the mayor's perjury case to a Kilpatrick friend last month.

Judge Ronald Giles made the ruling after hearing several hours of testimony and arguments in 36th District Court. The mayor remains free on bond ahead of an Aug. 22 arraignment in Wayne County Circuit Court.

The judge said there was no question the mayor was aware that Wayne County sheriff's Detective Brian White and county prosecutor's investigator JoAnn Kinney were there to perform official business.

White says the mayor shoved him into Kinney when he was trying to deliver the subpoena.

"It's clear Kilpatrick knew who Detective White was. He had previous contact with him through his other case," Giles said in his ruling. "He specifically called him by name in this case."

Kilpatrick's attorneys have denied an assault took place. It was the mayor's third day in court this week related to his legal troubles. Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita, also was in court for Friday's hearing.

Kilpatrick and his former top aide, Christine Beatty, were charged in March with conspiracy, perjury, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office, mostly tied to their testimony in a civil trial.

Sexually explicit text messages between the pair, published by the Detroit Free Press in January, contradict their denial of an affair, a key point in the trial last year involving a former deputy police chief.

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