Judge Orders City Release More Text Messages

DETROIT — U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen has ordered that attorney Norman Yatooma resubmit his request for text messages he believes could be evidence in the case of slain dancer Tamara Greene. The judge has also required that the City of Detroit hand them over.

The request stems from a lawsuit filed by Greene’s family who said they feel police did not properly investigate her death.

Greene is thought to have danced at the rumored Manoogian Mansion party months before her death in 2003.

Yatooma has requested to look at messages from the paging devices of several city officials, including Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty.

The judge has ordered the city to obtain the specified text messages from SkyTel.

In the past, the city has argued that the text messages were safeguarded from disclosure by the Federal Stored Communications Act.

In the filing, Rosen stated “Under Fed. R. Civ. P. 26(a)(1)(A), each party to a suit is required to provide to the other parties a variety of information bearing upon that party’s claims or defenses, without the need for any party to make a formal discovery request for this information.”

Once the court receives the messages it will review them to determine whether they can be used in the lawsuit.

“Well, what has the administration been good at doing? They’ve been good at lying, good at exalting its interests over the residents,” Yatooma told Local 4. “And that’s what we’re suggesting they’re doing.”