Monica Conyers
| Monica Conyers | |
|---|---|
| President of the Detroit City Council | |
|
In office September 18, 2008 – May 11, 2009 |
|
| Preceded by | Kenneth Cockrel Jr. |
| Succeeded by | Kenneth Cockrel Jr. |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Monica Ann Esters October 31, 1964 River Rouge, Michigan |
| Spouse(s) | John Conyers |
| Children | 2 |
Monica Conyers (born October 31, 1964) is a former Detroit City Council member (D) and former president pro tempore of the City Council. She was first elected to the Detroit City Council in 2005, and became its interim president in September 2008. She is the wife of Democrat US Congressman John Conyers, Conyers filed for divorce from her husband citing a breakdown in the marriage in September 2015.
Conyers was the subject of an FBI investigation into political corruption in the city, and pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit bribery. On March 10, 2010, a federal judge sentenced her to 37 months in prison with an additional two years of supervised probation.
Monica Ann Esters was born in River Rouge, Michigan, on October 31, 1964. She had four brothers and one sister. She grew up with her mother in west Detroit and attended Henry Ford High School. One brother was imprisoned for robbery, another for weapons violations, and her father had a record for breaking and entering. Conyers attended the University of the District of Columbia School of Law and received a Juris Doctor. She also earned a master's in Public Administration from Central Michigan University and a bachelor of arts in Secondary Education and Political Science from Bennett College.
Before being elected to the council, she worked as both a teacher for mentally challenged teens and vice administrator for Detroit Public Schools. She married John Conyers on June 4, 1990 (she was 25, he was 61). They have two sons, John James Conyers III and Carl Edward Conyers.
At midnight on September 19, 2008, former council president Kenneth Cockrel, Jr. became mayor of Detroit following the resignation of Kwame Kilpatrick. On the same day, Monica Conyers made her full transition from president pro tem of the city council to President. She returned to being president pro tem after interim Mayor Ken Cockrel Jr. was defeated by Dave Bing in a special election held on May 5, 2009. Although Conyers initially wanted to investigate whether the city charter guarantees that position (which it does), she did not fight the position of the council's legal analyst that Cockrel would return to the position of Council President.
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