Another Detroit case centers on text messages
DETROIT (AP) — Text messages of Detroit’s former mayor and other city officials have been turned over to a federal court in the case of a $150 million lawsuit that alleges City Hall stifled a police probe into a stripper’s shooting death five years ago.
Norman Yatooma, who is representing the children of slain stripper Tamara Greene, had asked the court to force the city to release the hundreds of thousands of text messages, saying they may reveal communications about Greene on the night of her death.
The lawsuit alleges that former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, ex-Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, recently retired Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and others hampered the police investigation into Greene’s slaying.
Yatooma has said in the past that Greene danced at a rumored party at the Manoogian Mansion, the mayor’s official residence, several months before she was killed.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox investigated and said he found no evidence of such a party, and Kilpatrick has repeatedly denied that such a party took place.
Greene, 27, performed under the stage name Strawberry and was gunned down in front of her Detroit home on April 30, 2003.
Kilpatrick stepped down as mayor in September and is serving a four-month jail sentence as part of a plea deal to two criminal cases.
He and Beatty were charged with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice in March after text messages on her city-issued pager contradicted testimony they gave in a 2007 whistle-blowers’ trial.
Beatty’s trial is expected to start in January.
The text messages requested by Yatooma were copied onto three CDs and delivered Tuesday by the city’s former communications provider to U.S. District Court in Detroit, according to federal documents.
The messages, spanning about a 21-month period, will be reviewed by federal magistrates to determine whether any are relevant to the case, Yatooma said.
“Then, I’m sure we’ll close the case,” he said. “No doubt the proverbial smoking gun is in those text messages.”
Attorney Mayer Morganroth, who represents Beatty, dismissed Yatooma’s speculation about the messages.
“It’s very interesting how he says that when he hasn’t seen them,” Morganroth said of Yatooma’s “smoking gun” statement.
Morganroth is arguing against the release of the text messages, saying they are protected by the federal Stored Communications Act.
The defendants have denied the accusations. The Associated Press left messages Wednesday seeking comment from lawyers for Kilpatrick and the city. Bully-Cummings’ attorney Kenneth Lewis said he had no comment.
