Last week, it caught our eye that Monica Conyers filed for divorce in the Wayne County Family Court. She is the wife of long-serving Congressman John Conyers, from Michigan's 13th District in Detroit.

Ms. Conyers went to federal prison several years ago on a bribery conviction that arose during her brief stint as President of the Detroit City Council; she was released from the joint in March 2013. Her tenure on the Detroit City Council was during the Kwame Kilpatrick sexting scandal.

Because Monica did time in a federal prison, and because John is the dean among Congressman in Washington D.C., having served his district since 1965, we figured a divorce would one day occur. According to the divorce lawyers, however, the couple is amicable and John would like to avoid the proceeding altogether if he could.

This divorce proceeding will be "high-profile" in name only; simply because of the status of the parties involved in the family court proceeding. There will be no high-powered tell-all in the divorce divorce judgment that concludes this matter at some point in 2016. This is because both parties, married since 1990, will seek to keep their business private.

Although the litigation process is a public one, there are ways that the substance of a divorce proceeding can remain private. Currently, there is an active debate among the family court bench and bar as to whether all family court records should be sealed.

When a high-asset or high-profile couple files for divorce, the lawyers use a private settlement agreement to keep the proceedings out of the public eye. While a judgment of divorce is required, and that document is public, the settlement agreement is not filed with the court and is kept private, functioning much like a contract.

If enforcement issues arise, the family court judge consults the terms of the settlement agreement, but the public does not get a look. This is usually the best manner to proceed.

The really sad part of this story is, just as the Congressman nears retirement at age 86, his wife is suing for divorce, apparently determined to end their marriage. Although Conyers filed a counter claim for divorce -standard procedure- he would like to remain married.

When one party to a marriage insists on getting divorced, it will occur regardless whether the other party resists.

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To the extent that completing a federal prison sentence is a win, then today was a good day for former Detroit City Councilwoman, Monica Conyers.  Ironic that as Monica completes her  36-month truncated sentence, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is getting a head-start this week on his own federal sentence.

Monica Conyers has now paid her "official" debt back to the citizens of the City of Detroit and the State of Michigan for her federal bribery conviction.  The total debt for breaches of the public trust like these, however, can never be paid in full.

The two Motown politicians have long-been connected at the hip here in the D.  Kilpatrick's public service career came to a crashing end in March 2008, just prior to his being charged with state law felonies.  The Detroit City Council passed a non-binding resolution 7-1 to remove him from office; Conyers was Kwame's sole supporter; her lone vote cast just as her own official career came to similarly ignominious end.

Both convicts have family that have served in Congress.  Monica Conyers is the wife of long-serving Congressman John Conyers from Michigan's re-tooled 13th District; Kwame's Mother, Carolyn Cheeks-Kilpatrick, represented Michigan's re-tooled 14th District from 1996 until she was defeated by Hansen Clarke in 2010, while her son's legal battles were heating-up.  Kilpatrick's Father, Bernard Kilpatrick, once served as chief-of-staff for former Wayne County Executive Robert McNamara; you just could not be better connected in Wayne County or Detroit.

For his part, Kwame's as yet un-sentenced jury convictions for abuse of the public trust, embezzlement, racketeering, and a bushel full of other counts, have rendered his torrid Wikipedia biography woefully out-of-date.  Kipatrick's expected decade-plus sentence will be meted-out sometime later this spring.

Even accounting for the significant good-behavior credits available in the federal penitentiary, the former mayor is going to do a long-bit; the federal sentencing guidelines are not something to trifle with.  Kilpatrick's prior state-law convictions and the multi-million-dollar amounts of the illegal contracts in his case will jack-up his sentence.  

We here at the Law Blogger feel bad for Kwame's three young sons; they are part of the human price that will now be paid.  It's all bad, for everyone.  The former Mayor and Councilwoman do not deserve public forgiveness.  Their cases illustrate the deep costs of such poor decisions and criminal conduct.  They have robbed us all.

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