Lawyer reduces defendants in slain stripper lawsuit
Birmingham — The lawyer for the family of slain exotic dancer Tamara “Strawberry” Greene says he is dismissing all but two defendants in the family’s federal lawsuit related to her murder investigation.
Norman Yatooma said at a news conference today he is dismissing all defendants except the city of Detroit and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
The move is an effort to expedite the case, which is scheduled to go trial in January.
It will be easier to schedule depositions if there are fewer attorneys to deal with, he said.
“We’re just losing some defendants and gaining some traction,” Yatooma said.
Jonathan Bond, Greene’s 17-year-old son, and Ernest Flagg, Bond’s father, appeared at the news conference with Yatooma.
“A lot of people have answers and that’s basically what I want, answers,” Bond said.
Flagg said it was time Mayor Dave Bing “stopped fighting us and helped us put this whole situation behind us.”
Greene, who was linked to a rumored stripper party at the mayor’s Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002, was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003.
In 2005, her family sued the city, former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and other defendants in federal court. The suit, which seeks $150 million in damages, alleges top city and police officials obstructed the investigation into her still-unsolved killing for political reasons.
The defendants deny the allegations.
Yatooma said he has spent $1.8 million on the lawsuit so far and the city must have spent several times that much.
He said “answers” are needed to settle the lawsuit. “A check will not get it done,” he said. However, Greene’s survivors “deserve to be compensated.”
Among the defendants being dropped from the suit are former Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and Christine Beatty, Kilpatrick’s former chief of staff.
Mayer Morganroth, Beatty’s attorney, said there was “absolutely no evidence” against her and she never should have been named as a defendant. As part of an agreement with Yatooma for dropping her from the suit, Beatty will not seek attorney costs or other sanctions, he said.
http://www.detnews.com/article/20100601/METRO/6010409/1409/METRO08
