Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick has asked a U.S. District Court judge to reconsider holding a hearing initially scheduled for August, so that he can contest the amount of restitution he owes in person.
Although Judge Nancy Edmunds had reduced his restitution from just over $4 million to $1.5 million following an appeals court ruling that the amount owed had been incorrectly calculated, Kilpatrick said he doesn’t owe the city of Detroit any money.
Kilpatrick, 47, who is serving a 28-year sentence in an Oklahoma federal prison on a 2013 conviction for extortion, bribery, conspiracy and other charges, had been expected to travel last month to Detroit for the restitution hearing, but the hearing was canceled after Edmunds issued an order stating she had enough information to rule on the matter as it stood. She also agreed with the federal government that a hearing would be unnecessary.
Kilpatrick, who had hoped for a pardon by former President Barack Obama, has asked Edmunds to reconsider holding the hearing, in which he planned to represent himself.