The governor of the midwestern U.S. state of Michigan will hold a hearing next week to determine if the mayor of the state's main city of Detroit should be removed from office.
Governor Jennifer Granholm will decide whether Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was seeking private gain when he used more than $8 million in city funds to settle a lawsuit brought against him by three fired Detroit police officers.
Kilpatrick is accused of settling the lawsuit to cover up an extramarital affair with his female chief-of-staff. The two are accused of perjury and other charges as a result of their testimony in a whistleblower trial last year.
Granholm will also determine if Kilpatrick concealed the facts of the agreement from the Detroit City Council, which approved the settlement.
The affair between the mayor and his former aide, Christine Beatty, were revealed earlier this year when a series of explicit phone text messages between them were published.
Kilpatrick is also charged with assaulting two police officers who tried to serve a legal summons on a friend.
The controversies have led to growing calls for Kilpatrick to resign.
Some information for this report was provided by AP.
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