Cod deposition remains sealed
Detroit — Potentially “salacious” comments given in depositions filed in a civil case involving a slain exotic dancer will remain sealed in U.S. District Court, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.
Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen, answering calls by the media to unseal records in the case, said assertions by some that he was handling the case in secret were false.
Rosen said he has kept certain court filings sealed because he is trying to protect the investigation into Tamara Greene’s death — and protect the privacy rights of others, who are mentioned in the filings but are unrelated to the case.
Greene, a stripper linked to a rumored party at the Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002, was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003. Her family is suing former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and top city and police officials, alleging they obstructed her murder investigation for political reasons. The defendants deny the allegations.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, a Republican who is running for governor, may have been the big winner in the ruling. His deposition in the case was the most high-profile of the sealed items and Rosen said there were questions raised in the deposition that were based on “unsubstantiated rumors” that could affect people unrelated to the Greene case.
In a statement released Wednesday, Cox said: “My office never investigated the (Greene) murder … that has always been with the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and the Detroit Police Department,” Cox said.
“Despite that fact, last November, I volunteered to be deposed in an open court room before a judge, the press and the public. The judge knows my position has never changed, but this is his court room and he is in charge.”
