Detroit Mayor Fights Accusations of MisdeedsBy MONICA DAVEY
DETROIT, May 23 - All the flash - the Harley he rides, the hip-hop he listens to and the one-and-a-half-carat diamond that glows from one ear - makes Kwame M. Kilpatrick, the youngest mayor this city has had in ages, popular on the streets.
But those signs of his generation, Mr. Kilpatrick contends, may also help explain why seven investigators from the state attorney general's office and the state police are digging into his life.
The authorities say they are looking into reports of misdeeds by his team of police bodyguards, assertions that the mayor had a party with nude dancers and Mr. Kilpatrick's removal this month of a deputy police chief who says he was in the middle of investigating those very accusations.
Mr. Kilpatrick says that the allegations are all false and that he wants the inquiry because it is the only way to end the flood of rumors.
"If I was 60 years old, if I came from the `country club community,' if I came out of an established private firm or something like that, none of these would get the lift that they have," Mr. Kilpatrick said this week in his office. "I guess it's believable that a 32-year-old black man with an earring in his ear has parties like that. It's so unfortunate. I'm here to fight that stigma."
But as twists emerge virtually daily in newspapers here � by week's end, a bodyguard resigned � people worried aloud about damage that the scandal might do to the nation's 10th largest city, a place that has long struggled with a ragged reputation and economic scars.
Officials and business leaders are asking whether business prospects might shy away and whether the city becomes tarnished and loses state aid and political support.
"Image is important," said Maryann Mahaffey, the president of the City Council, which asked for an investigation. "It's unfortunate, because we're doing a lot of great things. We don't need that to get lost in the furor over this situation."
Some people here say Mr. Kilpatrick and his aides are immature. Ms. Mahaffey, who has been on the council for 30 years, said she did not believe that the mayor's troubles had much at all to do with his generation or his jewelry.
"I don't think it's his youth," Ms. Mahaffey, 78, said. "I think that it is very heady being the mayor of a big city."
