Judge: Lawyers must discuss relevance of text messages in Greene case
Detroit — A federal magistrate judge today ordered lawyers in the slain exotic dancer Tamara “Strawberry” Greene lawsuit to meet and agree on the relevance of City of Detroit text messages that already have been published in the news media.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Steven Whalen, who has been reviewing hundreds of thousands of text messages filed in the federal lawsuit, said he wants the lawyers to save the court unnecessary work.
Whalen issued an order in March that had raised the hopes of the attorney for Greene’s family, Norman Yatooma, and stirred concerns among lawyers for defendants in the case, that Whalen planned to release large volumes of SkyTel text messages, which had been previously not been seen.
But Whalen clarified that order today, saying he only wants to save time reviewing text messages that already have been released.
“The court doesn’t have to do a useless act,” by reviewing those text messages already published in the news media, estimated to number more than 6,000, Whalen said.
Greene, linked to a long rumored but never proven party at the mayor’s Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002, was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003. Her family is suing the city, former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former Chief of Staff Christine Beatty, former Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and other defendants, alleging top city and police officials obstructed the investigation of Greene’s still unsolved murder for political reasons. The defendants deny the allegations.
Whalen on Tuesday ordered lawyers for the two sides in the case to meet and identify those text messages that have been published in the media which they agree are not relevant to the Greene lawsuit. He wants them to separately identify those text messages published in the news media over which there is a disagreement about relevance.
Lawyers said they are in agreement with the latest order. They have 30 days to comply.
Whalen has been conducting a lengthy in-camera review of text messages sent by more than 60 city and police officials over nearly a two-year period to determine if any might be relevant to the lawsuit. SkyTel filed the text messages under seal after they were requested by Yatooma. The text messages are believed to number in the hundreds of thousands.
Whalen noted in the March court order that there is a significant overlap between the text messages he is reviewing and those that became public as a result of recent criminal proceedings in state court against Kilpatrick and Beatty. The order asked lawyers for the defendants to show why he should not provide Yatooma with all the text messages he had requested.
Lawyers for Beatty and Kilpatrick objected.
“This court should not just release all of the federal text messages on the grounds that there may be some overlap with the … text messages that have been posted on Web sites,” Beatty lawyer Mayer Morganroth said in court documents filed last week. “The volume of the federal text messages far exceeds the volume of the … text messages that have been posted.”
Morganroth said any text messages released should first be determined relevant to the case and then subject to defendants’ challenges over issues such as attorney-client privilege.
Yatooma said after Whalen’s March order that the identity of Greene’s killer may never be determined, but the release of more city text messages can only help prove “an already compelling case of cover-up.”
Whalen said Tuesday that he has no immediate plans to order the release of text messages that have not already been published.
Kilpatrick and Beatty recently completed jail terms resulting from felony convictions for false testimony they gave at a 2007 civil trial related to a whistle-blower lawsuit brought by former Detroit police officers.
