36 text messages OK’d for review in Greene case – Federal judge rules in Greene case

A lawyer for the family of slain stripper Tamara Greene will get to review 36 of the more than 600,000 text messages sent on City of Detroit-issued pagers to determine whether they will shed light on her 2003 killing, a federal judge ruled Monday.

U.S. Chief District Judge Gerald Rosen ruled attorney Norman Yatooma can review each message “with the exception of one sentence at the end of one of these messages, which will be redacted prior to production.” In a footnote, Rosen wrote only that the sentence is irrelevant to the matter.

The ruling, over objections from City of Detroit lawyers, comes about a month after two federal magistrates completed their 19-month review of the 626,638 text messages. The magistrates found that the 36 messages may be relevant to the lawsuit.

“These text messages have been long anticipated and aggressively defended,” Yatooma said Monday. “I am eager to finally review them and relieved to stop arguing over them.” City lawyers declined to comment.

Yatooma, who represents Greene’s teenage son and other family members, is suing the city, ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his former top aide Christine Beatty, police executives and others. The civil suit alleges the defendants derailed probes into Greene’s drive-by shooting death on April 30, 2003 — allegations they deny.

Greene’s unsolved slaying has drawn attention because of a long-rumored, never-proven party at the Manoogian Mansion in fall 2002 that was investigated by Detroit police and Michigan State Police. According to the rumors, Greene, who went by the stage name Strawberry, danced for Kilpatrick and others before the mayor’s wife, Carlita, walked in and assaulted Greene.

Kilpatrick, police officials and lawyers for the mayor and city all have denied there was ever a stripper party at the mayoral mansion.