Lawsuit by slain stripper’s family pushed back
Barring a settlement or dismissal, it appears the federal lawsuit filed against Detroit officials by the family of slain exotic dancer Tamara Greene won’t be resolved this year.
Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen today placed the case on a trial docket beginning Jan. 4, 2011, which doesn’t necessarily mean the case will go to trial at that time.
Rosen also set an Aug. 31 motion cutoff date for legal arguments.
Attorneys Norman Yatooma and Robert Zawideh represent Greene’s family in a lawsuit against ex-Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and others in his administration, claiming they thwarted an investigation into Greene’s 2003 unsolved killing.
According to a never-proven rumor – investigated by Detroit police and Michigan State Police – Greene, who went by the stage name Strawberry, danced at the mayoral Manoogian Mansion for Kilpatrick and others in fall 2002 and supposedly was assaulted by the mayor’s wife, who walked in on the party.
Yatooma was recently granted permission to travel to Texas to depose the ex-mayor’s wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, and his father, Bernard Kilpatrick.
Meanwhile, Rosen made public a letter today that the Free Press filed last month objecting to closed proceedings and sealed documents in the federal lawsuit brought against city of Detroit officials by the family of Greene.
