Is Detroit covering for Kilpatrick?

Ex-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s computer has gone missing. Kilpatrick hasn’t seen it, and city officials say they haven’t seen what happened to it either.

“His computer’s got legs,” said attorney Norman Yatooma, who is representing the family of exotic dancer Tamara Greene, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in April 2003, supposedly after working at a party hosted by the ex-mayor.

City officials have not made increased efforts to find the missing computer, which may store critical e-mails for Kilpatrick’s upcoming trial, and say that the e-mails would not be stored on it regardless.

Terrance Sims, who is in charge of the city’s e-mail system, reported that the city’s servers automatically purge e-mails weekly. Sims also said that e-mails are not monitored due to lack of resources or funding.

While this may not be illegal, it’s cutting it awfully close. First of all it flys in the face of the Department of Technology, Management, and Budget’s recommendations. Also, the city moves very quickly to destroy the e-mails, which are counted as public records.

I find Sims excuse to be dubious—especially when so many open source options exist that would allow the storage of e-mails. Which leaves me with the nagging question of would Kilpatrick’s e-mails have implicated himself or others still working for the city? Hopefully, we’ll find out more when Kilpatrick takes the stand next week.