Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is under investigation after M.L. Elrick and Jim Schaefer of The Detroit Free Press obtained text messages that contradict the mayor's testimony in a court case filed by a former deputy police chief, who claimed he was the victim of retaliatory firing. (See the chain of events in the case that cost the city $9 million.) The text messages, which the paper first sought in 2004, revealed details of an affair between Beatty and Kirkpatrick, which they denied in court, and damaging comments about the plaintiff's termination. Free Press tech columnist Mike Wendland explains the special message archiving service used by the City of Detroit and other government entities.
