Mayor, ex-aide deny lying

Mayor Kwame M. Kilpatrick and his former top aide pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges they lied under oath about having an affair.

The mayor and former chief of staff Christine Beatty appeared for separate hearings in the scandal that is threatening to prematurely end Kilpatrick’s second term.

District Court Magistrate Steve Lockhart entered not guilty pleas for each of them on charges of perjury, conspiracy, obstruction of justice and misconduct in office. Both were released on personal bonds.

The two are accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing of a top police official. Text messages revealed a flirty, sometimes explicit, dialogue between the two.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced the charges on Monday; the investigation began in late January after the Detroit Free Press published excerpts from 14,000 text messages that were sent or received in 2002-03 from Beatty’s city-issued pager.

The messages called into question testimony Kilpatrick and Beatty gave in August in a lawsuit filed by two police officers who said they were fired for investigating claims that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs.

In court, Kilpatrick and Beatty denied having an intimate relationship. But the steamy text messages revealed a dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their trysts.