Law / Politics
Kym Worthy
born 1956 · prosecutor, judge
Wayne County prosecutor since 2004, the first Black woman county prosecutor in Michigan, who charged Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2008 and led the testing of 11,000 abandoned Detroit rape kits.
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Kym Worthy grew up largely in a military family, graduated from T.C. Williams High School in Alexandria, Virginia, the University of Michigan and Notre Dame Law School, and joined the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office in Detroit in 1984. In eleven years as an assistant prosecutor she became its first African American special assignment prosecutor and won convictions of Detroit police officers Walter Budzyn and Larry Nevers for the 1992 beating death of motorist Malice Green. Elected to the Detroit Recorder's Court in 1994, she stayed on the bench when it merged into the Wayne County Third Circuit Court. In 2003 the county's judges appointed her prosecutor to succeed Mike Duggan, making her the first Black woman to lead a Michigan county prosecutor's office. In March 2008 she charged Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick with perjury in the text-message scandal, leading to his resignation. After 11,341 untested sexual assault kits were found in a police warehouse in 2009, she led a national campaign to test them and pursue the offenders.
Highlights
- Wayne County prosecutor since 2004
- First African American woman county prosecutor in Michigan
- Charged Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2008
- Led the testing of more than 11,000 abandoned Detroit rape kits
- Prosecuted the officers in the Malice Green killing (1993)
02 / Their Detroit places
Their Detroit places 1
Where they lived, worked, performed and liked to hang out. Closed and demolished places stay here too, because they are part of the city's history.
Worked here · 1984–
Frank Murphy Hall of Justice
Home of the former Recorder's Court and of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office, where she has worked as prosecutor and judge.