EMS worker’s whistle- blower judgment upheld in stripper case
A former paramedic who came forward with information related to the Tamara Greene stripper death case will seek $4.5 million in damages after a judge today upheld his whistle-blower lawsuit default judgment against the city of Detroit, his attorney said.
City of Detroit Corporation Counsel Krystal A. Crittendon said the city plans to appeal and expects to have the default judgment set aside.
Birmingham attorney Norman Yatooma said the city fired emergency medical technician Cenobio Chapa on Oct. 24 — one day after he gave media interviews in which he said he saw an injured woman at Detroit Receiving Hospital in the fall of 2002 who claimed to have been assaulted by Carlita Kilpatrick, the wife of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Chapa swore an affidavit about the encounter which Yatooma is using in a federal lawsuit brought against the city on behalf of the survivors of Tamara Greene, an exotic dancer who was linked to a rumored 2002 party at the mayor’s Manoogian Mansion. Greene was killed in a drive-by shooting in Detroit on April 30, 2003.
Greene’s killing remains unsolved and the federal lawsuit alleges the former mayor and top city and police officials obstructed the homicide investigation for political reasons.
Oakland County Circuit Judge Wendy Potts granted a default judgment in May after the city did not file an answer to Chapa’s complaint within the required time.
The city filed a motion to set aside the default judgment, but it was upheld Wednesday after city attorney Valerie Colbert-Osamuede failed to show up on time for the hearing she had requested.
Now the amount of damages Chapa will receive is to be determined after a hearing July 28.
Crittendon said Colbert-Osamuede was held up because of poor weather, causing her to be 15 minutes late for the hearing. It’s not uncommon for default judgments to be reversed, she said.
“There was no adjudication on the merits,” Crittendon said.
Yatooma said the veracity of Chapa’s claims was not tested in the lawsuit because the city never responded to it.
“All you can interpret from this judgment is the fact that this whole administration … is misguided and their cases are being obscenely mishandled,” Yatooma said of the city of Detroit.
City officials said they fired Chapa for mishandling a call but the timing of his dismissal and other factors meant the city’s claim lacked credibility, Yatooma said.
A civil lawsuit filed by Douglas Bayer, another former city paramedic who lost his job after he said he witnessed a disturbance outside the hospital related to the rumored Manoogian party, is pending in Macomb Circuit Court, Yatooma said.
The federal lawsuit could go to trial later this year.
pegan@detnews.com (313) 222-2069
