Greene lawyers quiz cop who doubled as a stripper
A lawyer for the family of slain exotic dancer Tamara Greene this morning is questioning a former Detroit Police officer who moonlighted as a stripper and was rumored to have danced at the never proven Manoogian Mansion party.
In a court affidavit, filed earlier this month, former homicide Sgt. Odell Godbold Sr. said his investigation into Greene’s death was stymied by higher-ups. Godbold also said he learned that the officer — Paytra Williams — had performed at the party.
“She informed me that she was ‘scared and didn’t know what to do,’ ” Godbold said in the affidavit.
Marvin Barnett, a Detroit attorney for Williams, said Monday that he may comment after the deposition is completed. Birmingham attorney Norman Yatooma, who represents Greene’s family, is deposing Williams today in Barnett’s presence.
Williams previously told state police that she had worked as a topless dancer, but denied performing at the Manoogian Mansion.
Godbold, who has sued the Detroit Police Department claiming he was demoted over the Greene case, said that in the fall of 2002 that Williams “was granted a three-week leave of absence with pay, due to her injuries from being assaulted at the Manoogian Mansion party.”
Yatooma represents Greene’s family in a federal lawsuit against the city and police officials, claiming they thwarted an investigation into her April 2003 killing.
Repeated investigations in the rumored party have produced no evidence. And Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, who looked into the matter, closed his investigation after meeting with Kwame Kilpatrick — without State Police investigators present — and dismissed the party as “an urban legend.”
Yatooma has yet to produce anyone who said they attended the party or witnessed a purported assault on a stripper by Carlita Kilpatrick, the wife of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. A former DPD officer said under oath that an off-duty cop performed with Greene that night and was the one attacked.
