Judge orders city to produce SkyTel contracts in Greene lawsuit
DETROIT — A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the city of Detroit to produce the city’s contracts with pager provider SkyTel Corp. — documents that could be critical in determining whether text messages sent and received by the mayor and city employees can be subpoenaed in a lawsuit brought by the family of a slain exotic dancer.
U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen also scolded lawyers for the city and former mayoral chief of staff Christine Beatty for possibly trying to impede the gathering of documents relevant to the Tamara “Strawberry” Greene lawsuit.
“The court discerns a troubling trend in this case, where a city attorney has stated on the record that at least some of the pertinent documents bearing upon the issuance of SkyTel test messaging devices to city employees have been shredded, and where defendant Beatty has now interposed a dubious challenge to plaintiff’s court-authorized effort to obtain this information through other means,” Rosen said in a court order.
He warned of the possibility of sanctions if the “troubling trend” continues.
Greene’s name was linked to a long-rumored but never substantiated party involving strippers at the mayor’s Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002. She was shot to death in a drive-by shooting in Detroit on April 30, 2003.
The lawsuit, brought on behalf of Greene’s 15-year-old son, alleges the Detroit police failed to properly investigate the killing and concealed evidence for political reasons.
The defendants, who include the city, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Beatty, and numerous police officials, deny the allegations.
In a case that is not directly related, the publication in January of text messages allegedly exchanged between Kilpatrick and Beatty on their city-issued SkyTel pagers led Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy to charge Kilpatrick and Beatty with perjury and other felony charges in March. The text messages pointed to a sexual relationship between Kilpatrick and Beatty and possible perjury by both of them when they testified at a police whistle-blower trial in 2007.
Other documents released as a result of a public records lawsuit brought by The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press show Kilpatrick and Beatty signed a secret side agreement to keep the text messages under wraps as part of an $8.4 million city settlement of the whistle-blower suits.
Norman Yatooma, the Birmingham lawyer representing Greene’s family, wants to subpoena text messages sent and received by the mayor and more than two dozen other current and former city and police officials as possible evidence in his lawsuit.
SkyTel has indicated it will comply with the subpoena but says it needs the employees’ personal identification numbers, not their names, in order to locate the relevant records.
A city attorney has told Rosen the records showing which PIN was assigned to which employee have been shredded.
Yatooma then subpoenaed SkyTel for any PIN numbers that it can link to city employees. But Mayer Morganroth, Beatty’s attorney, sought to quash the subpoena, arguing that information is protected under the federal Stored Communications Act.
Rosen described that position as “utterly lacking in merit” in his order Tuesday. It’s possible the federal act protects actual text messages, but not PINs, he said.
The judge gave the city 14 days to provide him with copies of its SkyTel contracts. The contracts may identify who is “the subscriber” to the SkyTel service, and that will help determine whether text messages are subject to subpoena in the civil case.
For example, if the city is the subscriber, and the Detroit City Council consents to the disclosures, the subpoenas may be valid.
Morganroth said he takes the position that users of the city system are entitled to privacy for their messages, even if the city is deemed to be the subscriber.
Beatty has none of the relevant evidence in the case and has not attempted to impede the court, Morganroth said.
Rosen disagreed with his position on the subpoena for the PINs, but “you’re going to get that from time to time — the court disagrees,” Morganroth said.
“That has nothing to do with the case itself.”
