As a matter of fact, prosecutors had discussions before, during, and after the grand jury with Thomas about both of his clients that he was representing simultaneously; Kwame Kilpatrick and the Government witness against him (which is completely illegal and unethical). Kilpatrick only discovered this tremendous conflict of interest while reading Grand Jury transcripts as he was preparing for trial.
The government witness asked twice, during his testimony, to “step out and speak with Mr. Thomas” before he answered the question. Kwame immediately confronted Thomas about it. Thomas lied to Kilpatrick about his representation, and further told him “I don’t have to disclose to you anything about my representation of another client.”
Kilpatrick then sought help from the trial judge, Nancy Edmunds. He was forced to represent himself in a court hearing where he pleaded with the court to allow him to obtain another defense attorney. The judge refused to give him a new lawyer, saying; “Mr. Thomas has a good reputation in this building.”
Kwame Kilpatrick was forced by the court (again), to keep his defense attorney (Thomas) after another even more egregious conflict of interest was discovered.
Thomas’ Law Firm was representing Macomb County (plaintiff), against Kwame Kilpatrick (defendant) in the companion civil litigation to the criminal case.
Thomas’ law firm represented Macomb County (a Government Witness) in a lawsuit against Kilpatrick, at the same time, regarding the very same issues, in the same building as the criminal trial. Then he lied to Kilpatrick about this representation
The subject matter of the civil litigation were the very same contracts, contractors, issues, matters…and were taking place at the very same time, and in the very same building, as the criminal trial proceedings.
In one courtroom, Thomas’ law firm was suing the city of Detroit and Kwame Kilpatrick for $54 Million. In another courtroom, simultaneously, Thomas and his firm were defending Kilpatrick against the very same charges and issues.
The entire foundation of the Plaintiff’s arguments in the civil matter was that Kwame was guilty in the criminal matter. Thomas’ firm was positioned to win $54 Million if Kilpatrick was to get a guilty verdict in the criminal trial.
Kwame learned after his sentencing, that at some point during the criminal trial proceedings, Thomas’ law firm amended their civil complaint to include protected discovery materials from the criminal case.
Government attorneys in the criminal case, and all other defense attorneys in the criminal case (except for Thomas and his law partner Mike Naughton) asserted that they did not give any protected materials to members of Thomas’ Law Firm. Thomas and Naughton were silent on the issue.
To date, Judge Edmunds has not forced them to answer any questions related to their conflicts of interest, nor how their firm received protected discovery from the criminal trial.
Judge Edmunds has also never held an evidentiary hearing regarding any of the ineffectiveness of Kilpatrick’s counsel. Kwame Kilpatrick has a motion into the court requesting an evidentiary hearing for all these matters to be heard.