Detroit — Kwame Kilpatrick hopes no one thinks he is trying to avoid paying the $1 million he promised the city as part of a plea deal to avoid trial in the text message scandal.

“I stay up at night trying to figure out how to find $870,000 laying on the ground or if somebody would just pay it, hit the Powerball … when I ride past that sign now, and I rarely play that game, I think about,” the former mayor said Tuesday outside the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice in downtown Detroit. “If I had the money, I’d pay it.”

Kilpatrick arrived in Detroit on Tuesday, a wanted man on an arrest warrant.

Today, he is free on $10,000 bond after being arraigned on multiple probation violation charges. But he is unable to return to his Texas home due to his own efforts to remove the judge overseeing his criminal probation.

“I want someone who is nonbiased making the decisions,” Kilpatrick said.

Kilpatrick showed up unexpectedly in Wayne Circuit Judge David Groner’s courtroom Tuesday with his attorneys and a motion to disqualify Groner from the proceedings. Groner refused to recuse himself, and sent Kilpatrick to the sixth floor of the courthouse, for Judge Timothy Kenny, the presiding judge of the court’s criminal division, to hear an appeal of his decision.

Kenny arraigned Kilpatrick on the probation charges and ordered Kilpatrick to remain in Michigan until he rules on the appeal Thursday.

Kilpatrick’s lawyer, Michael Alan Schwartz, claims Groner committed misconduct by meeting with a prosecutor on the case. He also said Groner is biased against Kilpatrick because his brother-in-law is a top administrator for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.

Groner denied having the meeting and explained his brother-in-law, Chief Deputy Prosecutor Richard Hathaway, hasn’t influenced his handling of the case.

“You alleged I had a secret meeting. I don’t know where you get your information, but it’s wrong,” Groner said.

Kilpatrick declined to say where he will stay while awaiting the ruling on the appeal.

“I’m so sorry for what the city has to continue to go through,” Kilpatrick said, explaining that when he visits he sees none of the economic vitality he believes was in place before his plea-bargain on charges related to the text message scandal that required him to resign as mayor in 2008 and serve 99 days in jail.

But Kilpatrick also complained he’s been given unusual treatment by Wayne County’s prosecutor and the court.

“There is nobody else in Michigan who has been under such scrutiny like this,” he said.

Groner sentenced Kilpatrick last year. When Kilpatrick appeared before Groner Tuesday, the judge assumed it was to face arraignment on charges that he has violated probation terms that allow him to live in Texas and work as a $120,000-a-year software salesman for Compuware subsidiary Covisint.

The arrest warrant for Kilpatrick was requested by the Michigan Department of Corrections on Feb. 23, and Worthy’s office added other charges, including accusations that Kilpatrick failed to surrender funds the court had ordered turned over for restitution and that he hid assets.

The arrest notice was posted on the FBI’s nationwide database Monday, making Kilpatrick subject to arrest by any police officer who stopped him.

Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Athina Siringas countered Schwartz’s complaint that he should have gotten an advanced copy of charges amended Monday. Siringas said a defendant and his lawyer have no right to get an arrest warrant in advance.

The new charges added Monday claim Kilpatrick failed to report the sources of $40,000 in money orders received by the court toward his $79,000 restitution payment due Feb. 19.

Siringas also said the fact that the judge’s brother-in-law works in the Prosecutor’s Office has no bearing on the case.

“There is no basis for disqualifying this judge,” she said.

Schwartz said he filed a complaint against Groner on Tuesday with the Michigan Judicial Tenure Commission.

“You could see the difference between the two courts,” he said. “I couldn’t make statements … things were very tightly controlled by Judge Groner. Judge Kenny invited me to speak. I’m pleased Judge Kenny is looking at this.”

Groner agreed to hold off on all court action until after Kenny’s review. Kenny listened to arguments Tuesday and said he will have a transcript of Groner’s latest session delivered for his review today and will issue his opinion Thursday. Kilpatrick’s new spokesman, Mike Paul, president of a Fifth Avenue New York public relations firm, said Tuesday’s action in court “was a lesson in legal ethics” delivered by Schwartz.

When Paul was asked who is paying for his services, he replied: “That’s confidential.”

From The Detroit News: