(Photo: AP Photo/Paul Sancya, file )  TimeLine: Detroit Mayor Mess Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick pleaded guilty to a pair of felony obstruction charges on Thursday, Sept. 4, 2008, in a sex-and-misconduct scandal and will step down after months of defiantly holding onto his job leading the nation's 11th-largest city. The plea deal brings to an end a seven-months-long ordeal that led to felony charges against Kilpatrick and plunged the city, region and state into political chaos. As part of the deal, the 38-year-old Democrat is to serve four months in jail and five years of probation. He also would pay $1 million in restitution over the five-year probationary period. The married mayor and former top aide Christine Beatty were charged in March with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice. They're accused of lying under oath about an affair and their roles in the firing of a deputy police chief. Beatty did not plead guilty. Until now, Kilpatrick had refused to resign even as the calls for him to step down grew louder and the controversy overshadowed all else at City Hall, tarnishing the national image of the much-maligned city even more. An investigation began in late January after the Detroit Free Press published excerpts from 14,000 text messages that were sent or received in 2002-03 from Beatty's city-issued pager. The messages called into question testimony Kilpatrick and Beatty gave in August 2007 in a lawsuit filed by two police officers who said they were fired for investigating claims that the mayor used his security unit to cover up extramarital affairs. In court, Kilpatrick and Beatty strongly denied having an intimate relationship. But the steamy text messages revealed a dialogue about where to meet and how to conceal their trysts. Kilpatrick is married with three children. Beatty was married at the time and has two children. The city eventually agreed to pay $8.4 million to the two officers and a third former officer. Some of the charges brought against the mayor accused him of agreeing to the settlement in an effort to keep the text messages from becoming public. "I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002. "I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!" On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."