On ledes and banning them

A certain beloved lede has been a regular visitor down at the Kwame Kilpatrick trial:

Unlikable and criminal.

That's how the government has cast over the last three months what it calls the Kilpatrick Enterprise, firing off story after story about alleged extortion and rigged contracts, misused charity funds, hidden cash and lavish lifestyles bankrolled by wealthy businessmen. (Jan. 2)

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First, ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick crashed his Christmas party. Then, Kilpatrick never sent him a thank-you note for paying off his nearly $5,000 layaway bill for some suits.

That's what contractor Johnson Akinwusi told jurors in Kilpatrick's public corruption trial Friday, saying he was shut out of city contracts until he did things to make Kilpatrick happy. (Dec. 15)

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Bankrupt or not, Christine Beatty is not off the hook for the nearly $85,000 in restitution she still owes the City of Detroit stemming from the text message scandal involving her former lover, ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.

That's what the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office says in light of news that Beatty, Kilpatrick's former chief of staff and mistress, has filed for bankruptcy in Georgia. (Dec. 4)

Stories more than 30 days old are archived and not linkable, but:

In one swift move, ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick harpooned a multimillion-dollar contract that was about to go to his friend's competitor, a government witness told jurors Thursday.

And it was the witness who reluctantly delivered that blow by revoking the firm's Detroit-headquartered status, alleging his boss told him, "the mayor wants it done."

That's what Kim Harris, the chief compliance officer of the Detroit Human Rights Department, told jurors Thursday in explaining how a firm that was in line to win a $16-million water contract lost it at the last minute. The contract ended up going to Kilpatrick's friend Bobby Ferguson's team instead. (Nov. 30)

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Threats. "F-language." And million-dollar shakedowns.

That's how Detroit's public corruption trial wrapped up Friday, with jurors going home for a long break with tales of alleged extortion in their heads. (Nov. 18)

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A Cadillac DeVille and Nike golf clubs.

That's what jurors in Kwame Kilpatrick's public corruption trial likely will hear about next as the government wraps up its chapter on the Kilpatrick Civic Fund and how prosecutors say the ex-mayor used it as a personal ATM. (Oct. 12)

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Lies. Shady deals. And money -- lots of it.

That's what the bid-rigging trial of Bobby Ferguson, longtime friend of ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, is all about, the prosecution said Tuesday during opening statements in the highly anticipated trial. (May 16)

Original. That's what it wasn't the second time,* and worse, that's what it's gotten with age. I will never indulge in Forbidden Ledes again. That's what Bart Simpson should be writing on a blackboard in some GIF somewhere in this favored land.

* You have to give old Thurber credit. It was pretty good the first time.