JUDGE: COPS CAN REVIEW GREENE CASE — 8 Officers Can Investigate

DETROIT — A federal judge ruled on Wednesday that eight former and current police officers can review the file into the death of exotic dancer Tamara Greeen.

U.S District Judge Gerald Rosen said officers Odell Godbold, Alvin Bowman, Wedad El-hage, Marian Stevenson, Billy Jackson, Mike Carlisle, Danny Marshall and Mike Russell will be allowed to review the homicide file.

Greene’s family claims that former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and high-ranking police officials obstructed an investigation into Greene’s still unsolved 2003 slaying.

In the fall, Yatooma filed a court request for the city and Kilpatrick to hand over e-mails, police personnel files, city communication contracts and 911 tapes in connection with the lawsuit.

Kilpatrick and the city of Detroit had until the end of December, but Yatooma said he’s still waiting for the records.

“We got a number of depositions still to take but we can’t take those depositions until we have answers to our written discovery requests, so I certainly appreciate the judge’s orders here,” said Yatooma.

Greene, a dancer known as Strawberry, was rumored to have been at a never-proven party thrown at a Manoogian mansion by Kilpatrick in 2002. It was also rumored that Greene was assaulted by the mayor’s wife, Carlita, when she walked into the party and saw Greene with Kilpatrick.

On April 30, 2003, Greene was in a car with her boyfriend on Detroit’s west side when a gunman opened fire on their vehicle, killing Greene and wounding her boyfriend.

Kilpatrick’s former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, is also named in the lawsuit. She filed her response on Dec. 18, after the deadline.

Kilpatrick, police officials and lawyers for the mayor and the city deny the allegations.

Kilpatrick and Beatty were charged in March 2008 with perjury, misconduct and obstruction of justice after sexually explicit text messages revealed both lied during an earlier whistleblowers’ trial about being romantically involved and their roles in the firing of a police official. The charges led to plea deals and eventual resignation for the two.

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