3 state cops will cooperate in lawsuit over exotic dancer’s death

Three state police officers will give a deposition in the lawsuit brought by the family of slain stripper Tamara Greene

Inspector Greg Zarotney, litigation coordinator for the state police, said today there are certain questions and documents that cannot be released. But Det. Lt. Curt Schram, Det. Sgt. John Figurski and Det. Sgt. Mark Krebs will allow Birmingham Attorney Norman Yatooma to question them.

Zarotney said the officers, represented by the state Attorney General’s Office, filed motions to quash subpoenas Thursday, but the “motion’s intent was to lay out legal groundwork for the upcoming deposition.”

The motion says the officers “object to the production of any documents and to any questions to elicit testimony about documents, evidence and/or information obtained” during an investigation into former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick “in 2003 unrelated to the Tamara Greene homicide.”

Greene, a stripper known as Strawberry, was shot in a drive-by killing on April 30, 2003, while parked in a Buick Skylark at West Outer Drive and Roselawn. Her slaying remains unsolved and Police Chief Warren Evans recently turned the investigation over to the multi-jurisdictional Violent Crimes Task Force.

According to one version of a never-proven Manoogian Mansion rumor, then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita, assaulted Greene after arriving at the city-owned mayoral residence sometime around Labor Day weekend in 2002.

Yatooma is representing family members of Greene in a lawsuit that claims city officials conspired to thwart any investigation into her death.