Cox wants to talk to Greene witnesses
EMS official to be interviewed today about rumored assault
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox said Wednesday his investigators are taking statements from two EMS supervisors who recently surfaced to say they had information about a rumor that a stripper was assaulted at the Manoogian Mansion, home to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
One of the supervisors, Lt. Michael Kearns, told the Free Press he plans to meet with investigators from Cox’s office today as well as investigators from Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy’s office.
A second supervisor, retired Lt. Walter Godzwon, said Cox investigators have missed him at home the past two days, leaving business cards. “I’m willing to cooperate,” Godzwon said Wednesday.
Cox’s decision to interview the men renews never-proven rumors that have long bedeviled the mayor, who has steadfastly denied a wild party involving strippers took place at the Manoogian in fall 2002, or that his wife, Carlita Kilpatrick, assaulted one of the women.
Tamara Greene was killed in spring 2003 in a drive-by shooting. The crime was never solved, and Greene’s family is now suing the city in federal court, claiming officials thwarted a probe into her death.
Cox — who previously investigated the party rumors and concluded they were “an urban legend” — said Wednesday he’s known Kearns “my whole life.” Their parents became friends within Detroit’s Irish-American community. Cox said he’s surprised Kearns never came forward to him before.
When asked why he never went to Cox, Kearns said, “I was afraid for my career,” noting that he works under political appointees of the mayor.
On Monday, Birmingham Attorney Norman Yatooma, who represents the Greene family, filed an affidavit by Kearns. In it, Kearns recounted being dispatched to a gas station on Jefferson on an autumn night in 2002 where he met Greene, who said Carlita Kilpatrick assaulted her at a party.
In a second affidavit, Godzwon said that, around the same time, he saw the mayor and a group of his bodyguards at Detroit Receiving Hospital and that he heard that a woman was brought in for treatment.
Yatooma said Wednesday he appreciated Cox’s swift response: “We welcome the attorney general’s efforts to dispel the misconceived notion” that the rumored party was “an ‘urban legend.’ Indeed, it was a legendary cover-up.”
In another development involving a Yatooma client Wednesday, a Fire Department hearing for an ousted employee — who also claimed to know about the party — was abruptly halted after Yatooma refused to stop recording the hearing.
Yatooma stormed out of Detroit Fire Headquarters with his client Douglas Bayer, calling the hearing a sham. “There is no way that my client can receive due process in there,” he said. “That was absolutely and positively a circus.”
Bayer, a former EMT, claims in a whistle-blower’s lawsuit that he was harassed, threatened and eventually fired because he provided information to State Police about the unproven party. According to Fire Department documents, Bayer was fired for taking heart monitoring cables equipment from an ambulance without authorization. Bayer said he was merely returning the equipment to Detroit Receiving.
The hearing Wednesday was before a three-member panel to review the firing.
Detroit Fire Commissioner Tyrone Scott, an appointee of Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, denied the news media access to the hearing calling their presence “a disturbance.” He rejected a plea from a Free Press lawyer to open the hearing.
Lawyer Brian Wassom argued the hearing was public under state law.
Yatooma said he was tape-recording the hearing because its chairman, Deputy Fire Commissioner Seth Doyle, continuously told a stenographer to go on and off the record when Yatooma addressed the panel.
Bayer, 40, of Monroe told State Police that he witnessed a disturbance in fall 2002 outside Detroit Receiving and was told by other emergency workers that Carlita Kilpatrick assaulted Greene.
Contact BEN SCHMITT at 313-223-4296 or bcschmitt@freepress.com.
