Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick walked free from a state prison early Tuesday after serving just over a year for violating probation in a 2008 criminal case.
A relative escorted Kilpatrick from the Southern Michigan Prison in Jackson to a vehicle waiting outside the facility's gates. Kilpatrick was seen smiling and didn't address reporters as he left.
In a statement issued ahead of his release, Kilpatrick thanked all those who prayed for him and said he would speak openly about his time behind bars after he spent some time with his family.
"Detroit, I will return to speak frankly with you about this experience because it has affected all of us," the statement said. It was .
The statement also said he had been given "only 24 hours to leave the state of Michigan" by the Department of Corrections, so he would be going to Dallas where he has his family home.
"During my incarceration, I learned, sometimes through very painful processes, how important it is for me to put God, Faith, and Family first," Kilpatrick added.
"I am beginning anew. I am looking forward. I have new dreams and aspirations. I have a new hope. My greatest desire is that my testimony will give anyone who will listen permission to dream of greatness and to push toward it even in the midst of failure," he continued.
Lied over extramarital affair
The 41-year-old Kilpatrick was released on parole but still faces a federal corruption trial that could send him back to prison.
Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and resigned from office as part of a plea deal in 2008.
A judge found he had lied at a civil trial to cover up an extramarital affair with his chief of staff — in a lawsuit that cost Detroit $8.4 million.
The former mayor in May 2010 for violating probation by failing to report assets and meet other conditions, and also surrender sufficient funds that could have reduced his $1 million restitution to the city.
Kilpatrick still owes Detroit more than $800,000 and a judge recently ordered that all profits from his upcoming book be placed in escrow to help pay off the debt.
The Wayne County prosecutor's office opposed Kilpatrick's release.
His federal trial on fraud, tax crimes and a racketeering conspiracy is scheduled to start in September 2012.
In an 89-page indictment filed in December, the government described a pay-to-play scheme in which Kilpatrick and his father, Bernard, took kickbacks and bribes to steer city business to certain contractors.
Bernard and Kwame Kilpatrick have pleaded not guilty. Bernard Kilpatrick is not in custody.
People charged with felonies typically aren't granted parole, but the U.S. attorney's office did not object to Kilpatrick's release.
The Democrat served in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1996 to 2001 and was minority floor leader from 1998 to 2000.
He was elected mayor of his hometown in 2001 and served from 2002 through his September 2008 resignation.
Kilpatrick spent 99 days in the Wayne County Jail and in early 2009 joined his wife and three sons in a Dallas suburb where he worked as a salesman for Texas-based Covisint. State Corrections officials said Kilpatrick wanted to return to Texas on his release.
Covisint is a subsidiary of Detroit-based software company Compuware Corp.
