DETROIT – A judge ordered Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to jail Thursday for violating the terms of his bond in his perjury case by making a city business trip to Canada and not informing the court.

The mayor, who is accused of lying under oath in a civil case and faces eight felony counts, made the trip last month without telling the court in advance, leading the county prosecutor's office to request Kilpatrick be punished.

Only minutes earlier, the mayor offered an apology to the court, telling District Court Judge Ronald Giles that for seven months, "I've been living in an incredible state of pressure and scrutiny."

But Giles sent the mayor to jail anyway, telling him he would have given any defendant the same treatment. "What matters to me though is how the court overall is perceived and how if it was not Kwame Kilpatrick sitting in that seat, if it was John Six-Pack sitting in that seat, what would I do? And that answer is simple," he said.

The 38-year-old mayor and his former top aide are charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice - all connected to their testimony in a civil trial last year in which they denied having a romantic relationship.

But those claims have been contradicted by text messages in a scandal that has dominated news coverage in Detroit for months.

Kilpatrick's attorneys immediately headed across town to circuit court where they intended to ask a judge there to release their client on appeal.

"The judge did what he thought was right. We don't agree," said defense lawyer

James Thomas.

Circuit Court Judge Thomas E. Jackson said he wouldn't hear an appeal by Kilpatrick's lawyers until 9 a.m. Friday, meaning the mayor was to spend the night in jail.

The Rev. Oscar King III, pastor of Detroit's Detroit's Northwest Unity Missionary Baptist Church, and leader of the Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit, said the members of the clergy have being praying regularly for Kilpatrick and his family.

"We came together months ago to pray for him and it was incorrectly reported in the media that we were in support of the mayor. Support was not the purpose of our coming together. We came together to pray for the mayor and for our city. Our body is divided. Some members feel he should go. Others feel that decisions should not be made until matters are ajudicated," King told BlackAmericaweb.com.

Now, King said, is the time for Kilpatrick to talk with God and say "what would You have me to do at this time."

"Members of our faith community are not condemning him. Our city is troubled and we need to pray."

A Detroit political insider familiar with the legal process involving Kilpatrick said the mayor remains defiant and still plans to run for re-election despite his highly-publicized troubles, which now includes an investigation about the mayor becoming angry and shoving a sheriff's deputy.

"He's the hip-hop mayor who still has a following," one source told BlackAmericaWeb.com. "He thinks the best way to restore his name and put this situation behind him is to get re-elected. It worked for Marion Barry."

"This city needs dedicated leadership. He needs to ask himself if he can continue to provide that leadership given the challenges he faces at this time," King said after learning that the mayor had been ordered to jail.

"Our members speak to and for 30,000 to 50,000 people each week. They are looking to us for a word from the Lord. Right now we speak love. We are not speaking personal assault."