Photo by Andre Smith
Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, 51, will soon marry Laticia Maria McGee this Saturday, Deadline Detroit reported.
Bishop J. Drew Sheard is going to officiate at the wedding at the Little Rock Baptist Church in Detroit — the same location where Kilpatrick, delivered his Sunday sermon on June 13 titled “Its Not Time To Die” about redemption and God’s love.
McGee’s tie to Kilpatrick began when she worked as a receptionist in his mayoral office in 2002 at 20 years old, according to the article. He told Deadline Detroit that he may have spoken to her once or twice, but had no connection with him at the time. She remained at city hall until 2004; presently she operates a Detroit nonprofit centered on girls and women, according to the article.
In 2018 during his prison sentence, he connected with her through a friend who said McGee wanted to send him an encouraging message, Kilpatrick said.
“I was mad about being in prison. I wasn’t looking for a relationship,” he said in the story, adding that a couple of months later he discovered her number while straightening up his cell and gave her a call.
“We started a conversation and started praying together,” he said in the story. “Neither one of us was looking for a relationship at the time.”
Their relationship began to blossom and in 2019, he said she began visiting him in prison, but “she was just being a friend.”
“I learned you can actually build a relationship by being truthful and honest,” he said in the article. “She was great at forcing me to be myself.”
According to the article, the couple doesn’t intend to live in Michigan.
Kilpatrick was released from prison on January 20.
Former Mayor Kilpatrick served as the youngest mayor ever elected in Detroit from 2002 to 2008 before he resigned. He was found guilty in 2013 on 24 federal felony counts that include racketeering, wire fraud, perjury, obstruction of justice, and mail fraud. He was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison by U.S. district judge Nancy Edmunds. Kilpatrick also served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002.
Shortly after Kilpatrick’s mayoral term, the city of Detroit faced nationwide criticism after slipping into bankruptcy in July 2013, from what some believe is in part due to Kilpatrick’s misuse of funds and criminal offenses, Michigan Chronicle reported.
Though Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in federal prison, former republican President Donald J. Trump commuted the former mayor’s sentence when he granted him clemency earlier this year.
Kilpatrick now lives in Georgia and plans to pursue an education in ministry.
Read the full story here.
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