Crime

Aide Gave Kwame $10,000 Payoff In an Asian Restaurant Bathroom

January 10, 2013, 12:07 PM by  Allan Lengel

On Thursday, Derrick Miller finally talked about the much anticipated payoff in the bathroom -- something out of an episdoe of "The Sopranos." 

Miller, a former close friend who was in Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick's administration, testified at Kilpatrick's federal trial that the then-mayor asked him to get cash for him from the partners of Asian Village, the now-defunct restaurant venture on the Detroit River, which was seeking loans from the city pension.

"Can you get it from your Asian Village guys?" Miller says Kilpatrick asked.

Miller said he got $10,000 and met Kilpatrick in a bathroom at Asian Village. The payoff, which came from restaurant owner Andrew Park, took place in 2007. 

“I gave him the money,” Miller said.

When Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark Chutkow asked.

"What did he say?" Chutkow asked.

"Cool, or something," Miller responded.


Miller, on his third day on the stand, continued deliver incriminating testimony. Earlier in the week, he said he got one or two bribes from a contractor at Cobo Center for $5,000 to $10,000, and that he shared kickbacks from a real estate company that did business with the city.

Jim Thomas, Kilpatrick's attorney spent the latter part of the morning trying to discredit Miller. He also tried portraying him as someone who betrayed the Kilpatrick family. Miller had worked for Kilpatrick's mother U.S. Rep. Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick before going to work for her son, who was a state representative before becoming mayor.

Read the blogs on the Kilpatrick trial.

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