Taxpayers may be facing hefty tab for lawyers in Kwame Kilpatrick corruption trial

Monica Conyers and Sam Riddle, an embattled duo who qualified for free lawyers in their 2010 public corruption cases, cost taxpayers $168,000 in legal fees, documents obtained Tuesday show. If those bills are any indication, taxpayers will get hit with a hefty legal tab in the pending public corruption trial involving former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and three others. Riddle and Conyers had three lawyers between them for one relatively short trial and one appeal. Kilpatrick; his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, and ex-water boss Victor Mercado will have a combined seven court-appointed attorneys for a trial expected to last four months. The government won't reveal how much court-appointed...