36 texts may shed light on killing Slain stripper’s family gets to see
A lawyer for the family of slain stripper Tamara Greene may 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.
Two federal magistrates filed an order Monday in U.S. District Court in Detroit announcing that their 19-month review of the texts was over.
“We have painstakingly reviewed 626,638 text messages,” wrote magistrates Steven Whalen and Judge Michael Hluchaniuk.
They wrote that most of the texts involved “idle chatter.”
“A significant number of the texts center around the romantic adventures and misadventures of City employees and others,” they wrote. “None of these has any relevance to the issues in this case.”
In the end, the magistrates determined “a few needles can be found in large haystacks, that leaves 36 texts that are at least calculated to the discovery of relevant evidence.”
Under Monday’s order, lawyers for the city can first review the 36 messages and have the opportunity to raise objections to the judge in the case before they are given to the attorney for the family, Norman Yatooma of Birmingham.
Yatooma, who represents Greene’s teenage son and other family members, is suing the city, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his former top aide Christine Beatty, police executives and others, alleging they derailed probes into her death, allegations they deny.
Yatooma said Monday he was encouraged by the order.
“Certainly it’s been a long wait for those text messages, and we hope there’s some virtue in them,” he said. “In any event we will proceed with discovery and move toward trial.”
Greene was shot and killed during a drive-by shooting on April 30, 2003 on Detroit’s west side. Her unsolved slaying has drawn attention because of a long-rumored, never-proven party at the mayoral mansion the previous year. According to the rumor — which had been probed by Detroit and State Police — Greene, who went by the stage name Strawberry, danced at the Manoogian for Kilpatrick and others in fall 2002. The rumor has it that the mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, walked in on the party 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 and have denied any effort to derail a probe of Greene’s death.
No trial date has been set in Yatooma’s lawsuit.
Contact BEN SCHMITT: 313-223-4296 or bcschmitt@freepress.com
