Life After Lockup: Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick And Fiancée Say “I Do!”

FEATURED PHOTO: FORMER DETROIT MAYOR KWAME KILPATRICK TIED THE KNOT WITH LATICIA MCGEE ON JULY 27TH AT LITTLE ROCK BAPTIST CHURCH IN DETROIT

LATICIA MARIA MCGEE WAS A RECEPTIONIST AT DETROIT CITY HALL WHEN KILPATRICK WAS MAYOR. THEY DEVELOPED A FRIENDSHIP DURING HIS INCARCERATION

YourBlackWorld.net, By Victor Omondi, Posted August 3rd 2021

Ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick returned to Detroit’s Historic Little Rock Baptist Church last month and gave a sermon. Well, this time wasn’t for preaching but to tie the knot with his friend-turned-fiancée, Laticia Maria McGee.

The ceremony was held on Saturday afternoon, as family and friends witnessed the exchange of vows.

During an interview on Deadline Detroit, Kilpatrick revealed that their relationship began as a friendship.

“We started a conversation and started praying together,” he said. “Neither one of us was looking for a relationship at the time.”

He explained that that was what helped them to “be brutally honest” with each other. The former mayor also disclosed the wedding date during the interview.

Kilpatrick and McGee are now listed as the owners of the Movement Ministries after the couple filed articles of incorporation for the nonprofit before the wedding last month.

McGee, who served as a receptionist at the mayor’s Detroit office during Kilpatrick’s term, connected to him through a friend. It slowly went to prayers through the phone and eventually physical prison visits. Kilpatrick said he might have interacted with McGee when he was mayor, but there were no strings attached then.

Kilpatrick was sentenced to 28 years in prison in 2013 after being charged with “24 counts of federal crimes including mail fraud, wire fraud, and racketeering.” It was partly because of Kilpatrick’s poor financial decisions that Detroit fell victim to the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Staff writers Mark Hicks and Robert Snell were also part of this tragedy.

Seven months after his March 2013 conviction, U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds sentenced Kilpatrick to federal prison. He served almost 8 years in prison before his surprise release early this year. Kilpatrick happened to be among the beneficiaries of pardons that former U.S. President Donald Trump issued as part of his final acts as the U.S. president.

Kilpatrick gave a sermon last month at the church, professing that he’s now a changed man. “How can you be born again and be the same person?” he asked as faithfuls shouted, “Kwame!” and “We love you, Kwame!”