Detroit Free Press
DETROIT, MI – Wayne County Sheriff Warren Evans found himself in a bizarre position Thursday: taking questions about whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would receive a full-body search once inside the Wayne County Jail.
“Nothing in the last month has taken me by surprise,” Evans said.
Shortly after 1 p.m., the sheriff informed a gaggle of media members that Kilpatrick was being booked into a restricted area of the Wayne County Jail reserved for high-profile prisoners.
“He’s going to be treated as prisoners are in the county jail – no better, no worse,” Evans said. “Obviously, he’s a higher profile person, and we have policies that dictate how we handle those sorts of situations.”
Evans said the mayor would be given toiletries, jail garb and access to a phone from which he can make collect calls.
“Once we get the numbers he wants to call, we’ll have them programmed into the system and he can make calls that are approved collect calls,” Evans said.
He said the mayor can have one visit within the first 24 hours of his confinement.
Evans said he is mindful that one of his own employees, referring to Wayne County Detective Brian White, has accused the mayor of shoving him.
“I don’t, obviously, want any allegations or problems that deputies are treating him any differently than anybody else,” Evans said.
Shortly after Evans addressed the media, the mayor’s father, Bernard Kilpatrick, showed up in front of the jail with a police bodyguard at his side. He chatted with a sheriff’s deputy but would not take questions from reporters, saying only, “No comment.”
And about that full-body search:
“He will be searched like other prisoners are searched,” Evans said.
“I don’t even know the graphic details. But trust me, he won’t have any contraband or anything on him when the search is over. That’s what we’re here to make sure happens.”
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