Family of slain Detroit stripper seeks City Hall records
DETROIT — The lawyer representing the family of Tamara Greene, a slain exotic dancer whose name was linked to a widely rumored but never substantiated party at the mayor’s Manoogian Mansion in 2002, subpoenaed a huge raft of new documents today, including records related to a prosecutor’s investigation of Greene’s death and satellite positioning records showing where various city employees were at the time she was shot to death.
Birmingham lawyer Norman Yatooma, representing Greene’s son, Jonathan Bond, had already sought pager text messages and e-mail messages for 34 city officials.
Yatooma added eight new names to the list Monday, including Detroit Fire Commissioner Tyrone Scott and Matt Allen, the former press secretary to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
The city’s attorney on the case, Mayer Morganroth, said the city will seek to quash the subpoenas and records related to an ongoing criminal investigation at the Wayne County prosecutor’s office.
“It’s harassment and overwhelming,” said Morganroth, adding that Yatooma has requested “literally millions of documents.”
Greene was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003. Yatooma said he believes she performed at the rumored party at the Manoogian Mansion late in 2002. The lawsuit alleges Bond, a teenager, was denied access to the courts to make a wrongful death claim because the Detroit police investigation into Greene’s death was halted prematurely for political reasons.
He believes his case is strengthened by the text message scandal involving Kilpatrick. The messages between Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, appear to contradict their testimony in a whistle-blowers’ trial that former Deputy Chief Gary Brown, who had looked into reports of the rumored party, wasn’t fired.
Yatooma is seeking information from anyone who may have sent or received communications about the party, Greene’s death, or the investigation into Greene’s death, he said.
Among the items Yatooma subpoenaed Monday from SkyTel, the city’s pager company, is global positioning satellite information showing where various city officials were on the morning Greene was shot. Yatooma said he believes the SkyTel pagers, which are issued to some but not all city employees and police officers, contain GPS tracking information.
“I feel like we’re making the first steps” to find out what happened, Yatooma said.
Yatooma also subpoenaed records from Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy and an assistant prosecutor in her office. Worthy has an open investigation into Greene’s death.
The city of Detroit asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss the lawsuit. Earlier versions of the lawsuit, first filed in 2005, were dismissed twice by U.S.
District Judge Gerald E. Rosen. The city said in a court filing late Friday that if “veiled allegations that a police officer killed Greene were true, which they are not,” it was in state court, not federal court, that Yatooma should have brought a wrongful death lawsuit.
You can reach Paul Egan at (313) 222-2069 or pegan@detnews.com.
