Cox aide may testify in stripper case
Detroit — A new potential witness has emerged in the Tamara Greene case — one a lawyer for the slain stripper’s family says has important information about Attorney General Mike Cox’s investigation of a rumored Manoogian Mansion party.
She is Brooke Jordan, formerly known as Brooke Liszak, who worked as an assistant attorney general in the special litigation division of Cox’s office before moving to Arizona several years ago.
“We believe she worked closely with Attorney General Cox and will have important information as to whether and why his investigation was compromised,” Greene family attorney Norman Yatooma said Thursday.
Yatooma made his comments after attorney Mayer Morganroth filed a motion in federal court seeking to quash the deposition of Jordan and three other potential witnesses subpoenaed by Yatooma: ex-Detroit first lady Carlita Kilpatrick; father of former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Bernard N. Kilpatrick; and former Detroit Police Chief Jerry Oliver.
Greene, 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. Her family is suing the city, Kilpatrick, and top city and police officials, alleging they obstructed a probe of her unsolved killing for political reasons. Kilpatrick and the other defendants deny the allegations.
Cox, who is seeking the Republican nomination for governor, investigated the rumored party in 2003, personally interviewed Kilpatrick, and declared the party an “urban legend.” Some Michigan State Police investigators complained Cox shut down his investigation too soon.
Morganroth represents Christine Beatty, Kwame Kilpatrick’s former chief of staff and a defendant in the Greene lawsuit.
“I can’t say,” Morganroth said when asked Thursday about Jordan’s connection to the case. “There’s a gag order.”
Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen has instructed attorneys to limit their public comments and required depositions and most new filings in the case be sealed. Rosen has justified the unusual level of secrecy by saying he does not want to compromise an ongoing Detroit police investigation of Greene’s murder.
Jordan did not respond to an e-mail message sent to her Facebook page. John Sellek, a Cox spokesman, said that “seven years later, not one first-hand witness can substantiate the rumors.”
In attempting to quash subpoenas seeking the depositions of Jordan, Carlita and Bernard Kilpatrick, and Oliver, Morganroth said Yatooma is violating commitments to limit the number of depositions he would take. Yatooma said at a Jan. 29 status conference he no longer planned to depose Bernard Kilpatrick or Oliver, Morganroth said in the court filing.
Jordan hasn’t appeared on any of Yatooma’s witness lists and was “never even identified as a person having knowledge in response to any discovery request issued by defendants,” Morganroth said.
Morganroth did not cite any specific arguments against the Carlita Kilpatrick deposition, which Yatooma is trying to schedule in Texas, where the Kilpatricks now live.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100312/METRO01/3120365/Cox-aide-may-testify-in-stripper-case
