This is the portrait of a woman staring up at the world from the bottom of a very deep, dark place. Kwame Kilpatrick cut a deal this past Thursday, negotiating a plea agreement that lands him in jail for four months, on probation thereafter, and requires a million in restitution. He's made his deal. Christine Beatty, his former lover and co-defendant, has nothing. No deal, and quite possibly no remaining cards to play. We have urged Ms. Beatty repeatedely to run, not walk, run, to Kim Worthy's office and cut a deal for immunity while she still had time and bargaining chips. Alas, she never took our advice, and now she is paying the price, mega big time. I look at this picture and I think almost anyone feels some degree of compassion for Beatty. Then I think about it a little and my heart hardens. Foolish woman! What have you been thinking? Were you really so blinded with love for this thug that you could not act in your own self interest? Linking your criminal case to his, being defended by the same firm. Right from the very get go, you lost your job while he kept his. He made it abundantly clear that however much he may have liked you, he was not letting go of his wife or his family. Were you so enamored of him that you could not see the momentum building towards his eventual defeat? Were you so hopeful that your continued silence that helped shield him would someday be rewarded with his love that you could not recognize the erosion of your own position? Your marriage is over, his stands intact, for what its worth. A commenter at the Free Press, ricky234 put it well;
"He [Kwame] didn't throw her under the bus. She is lying down in the street waiting for it to run her over. She could have cut a great deal by turning on Kwami but NO, her love for him prevented that. But now that Kwami's love for his wife is stronger than ever (at least that is what he says) she is left hung out to dry. She put herself in this position, she put Kwami before her children. She put Kwami before her freedom."
According to the Freep, Beatty has another week to strike a possible deal to settle the perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office charges that could put her in prison for up to 15 years. At this point, I don't know that she has much to bargain with. Assuming her lawyer is of any real use, there may perhaps be some compelling reason why they did not seek to cut a separate deal for themselves before Kwame cut his own and removed a great deal of any leverage she may have had. When Granholm announced she was proceeding with the hearings, that should have been a wake up call. Maybe Prosecutor Worthy has more than enough evidence to have her way in court with all of them and therefore Beatty's info was not all that valuable anyway, if she could not give them anything they did not already have.
Beatty is on the short end of the stick in a sex and corruption scandal in which as a woman, many can argue, she got the very worst of it all while the man who used her suffered much less. I met Beatty during my years in Detroit back in the heady early years of the Kilpatrick reign. She and the rest of them were always a bit drunk with the wine of power and influence, but for all that, she was human enough. She has and is paying a high and painful price for years of truly bad decisions that have cost a marriage, her finanancial security, her reputation and quite possibly her freedom and time with her two children. Her crimes seem borne more of utter foolishness over a man who is a master manipulater than malice, so in the end, I'll hope for her sake that she can yet find a soft landing. I'd say she should find a ghostwriter and start working on the memoir now. She's going to need the money.
Whats your your opinion on Beatty? Do you feel sorry for her a little, or is it all just desserts? Unfair, or to be expected?
