Kilpatrick, Detroit remain in lawsuit over slain dancer
Birmingham — Only the city of Detroit and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick will remain as defendants in the suit brought by the family of slain exotic dancer Tamara “Strawberry” Greene, an attorney said Tuesday.
Seven other defendants, including former Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and former Kilpatrick chief of staff Christine Beatty, are being dismissed from the case, Norman Yatooma, an attorney for Greene’s family, said at a news conference.
Yatooma said the move is an effort to expedite the case, which is scheduled to go to trial in January.
It will be easier to schedule depositions if there are fewer attorneys involved, he said. “We’re just losing some defendants and gaining some traction,” Yatooma said.
Greene, who was linked to a rumored stripper party at the mayor’s Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002, was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003.
In 2005, her family sued the city, Kilpatrick and other defendants in federal court. The suit, which seeks $150 million, alleges top city and police officials obstructed the investigation into Greene’s unsolved killing for political reasons.
The defendants deny the allegations.
Mayer Morganroth, Beatty’s attorney, said there was “absolutely no evidence” against her and she never should have been named as a defendant. As part of an agreement with Yatooma for dropping her from the suit, Beatty will not seek attorney costs or other sanctions, he said.
Jonathan Bond, Greene’s 17-year-old son, and Ernest Flagg, Bond’s father, appeared at the news conference at Yatooma’s law office in Birmingham.
“A lot of people have answers and that’s basically what I want, is answers,” Bond said.
Flagg said it was time Mayor Dave Bing “stopped fighting us and helped us put this whole situation behind us.”
Yatooma said he has spent $1.8 million on the lawsuit so far and the city must have spent several times that much.
He said answers are needed to settle the lawsuit. “A check will not get it done,” he said.
But he added that Greene’s survivors “deserve to be compensated.”
The former mayor; his wife, Carlita; and his father, Bernard N. Kilpatrick; are to be deposed, Yatooma said.
Dates for those depositions are not set, but they should occur shortly, he said.
The case is before Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen.
