Detroit Mayor, Chief of Staff had sex. So what?

Investigation leads to exposure of affair.

Brown and Nelthrope alleged that Kilpatrick had retaliated against them for their roles in an internal investigation involving possible misconduct in Kilpatrick's security unit, court documents show.

Brown said Kilpatrick had fired him for investigating claims involving the mayor, his family and his friends, and Nelthrope said he had been transferred out of the mayor's security unit because he initially raised the misconduct allegations, the court documents said.

Kilpatrick and Beatty have said that Brown was not fired but was "unappointed." However, in one of the text messages published Thursday in the Detroit Free Press, Beatty referenced "the decision we made to fire Gary Brown."

Brown had directed the early internal investigation into the allegations regarding the mayor's security unit, after Nelthrope had contacted the police department's professional accountability bureau with his concerns, court documents said.

An investigation of some of Nelthrope's allegations against the mayor's security unit could have exposed Kilpatrick's affair with Beatty, court documents said. Some of claims centered on the alleged misconduct of two bodyguards; stating that they drank on the job, falsified time sheets and facilitated the mayor's infidelity, court documents said.

Asked for comment regarding the allegations of perjury, the mayor's spokesman, James Canning, referred to Kilpatrick's statement issued Wednesday and said, "That is the statement at the time, and there is no further comment."

Michael L. Stefani, the lawyer who represented Brown and Nelthrope in the whistle-blower case, said Thursday he and his clients are "pleased" that "proof has come in."

"We have been contending since this case started ... that the mayor and Christine Beatty have been lying," he said. "But we didn't have proof in black and white."

However, Stefani said he was able to show video clips during the trial to show the jury that the mayor was contradicting himself.

Stefani added, "We didn't bring this about ... it was the mayor and Ms. Beatty's doing.

"We're just glad that the truth is now out."

Stefani said both Brown and Nelthrope are still looking for employment. They're "both trying to repair their lives and their reputations," he said.

Hmmmm. Was this really necessary?