Detroit’s "Hip-Hop Mayor" Kwame M. Kilpatrick was sent to jail Thursday by a Michigan judge after the controversial political figure violated the conditions of his bond when he went to Canada to attend a business meeting without discussing the trip with the court.

The 37-year-old mayor (the youngest of a big US city) apologized to 36th District Court Judge Ronald Giles for leaving the United States for Windsor, Canada.

"I ran in, I made a presentation . . . and I ran back," he said.

Kilpatrick, a mayor at his second term, motivated his unauthorized trip by telling the court that it was essential to save hundreds of city jobs in Detroit and protect city services. The trip to Canada was part of a plan to get rid of a $65-million budget deficit by selling the city's half of the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel, which connects the U.S. to Canada.

When Giles pronounced the sentence - the mayor's unauthorized trip to Windsor, Canada, last month, a bond violation, had earned him an immediate trip to the Wayne County Jail - Mayor Kilpatrick appeared shocked. He was jailed yesterday after being indicted in an obstruction-of-justice case.

The onetime political wunderkind is now facing eight felony counts including perjury and misconduct in office. Although he apologized for the trip, Kilpatrick is expected to appear in court at 9 a.m. today to appeal the decision.

Since Detroit elected Kilpatrick as its mayor in 2001 (he was 31 years old then) his administration has been disrupted by scandal on many occasions. Wonder why he is dubbed the “hip hop mayor” or the "playah mayah?" One of the reasons is that he wore a diamond earring when he won election in 2001.

Kilpatrick was charged with obstruction of justice, perjury and misconduct in office all linked to an affair he had with former chief of staff Christine Beatty. Besides lying to the jury, Kilpatrick also settled a lawsuit with several former police officers with $8.4 million in tax dollars in order to hide the fact that he had lied under oath about his romantic relationship with Beatty, said Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy.