Officer: Greene’s Case Was Stalled

A member of an elite Detroit crimes task force said under oath Thursday that he saw officers tampering with slain dancer Tamara Greene’s police file.

The officer, whose identity is not being revealed because he is currently assigned to an undercover case, was deposed at a Detroit law firm in connection with a $100 million lawsuit against the city filed by Greene’s family.

Greene was killed in a drive-by shooting in Detroit in 2003. Greene, also known as Strawberry, was rumored to have danced at a party thrown at the Moongian Mansion by former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002.

“We learned more about people who have absolutely no business in it, with their hands in homicide file. People review homicide file for Tammy Greene, People who weren’t even on the homicide unit,” said Greene’s family lawyer Norman Yatooma.
The officer is a member of the violent crimes task force made up of officials from the FBI, Michigan State Police, Detroit Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Fire and Explosives officers. The task force investigates high-profile violent crimes in Detroit.

The officer continued to say Thursday that a colleague in the task force was transferred for writing Kilpatrick’s name in a report that said the former mayor had ties to a drug dealer from Kentucky. The officer wanted to go to Kentucky to look into the possibility that the drug dealer was involved in Greene’s death, but the case was shut down by police brass in Kilpatrick’s final months as mayor.

The officer testifying Thursday is considered to be one the departments most honorable officers. If he is lying under oath he would be criminally charged.
The officer’s testimony is what moved police to take Greene’s case out of the cold case files and begin actively investigating.

“Our case is all about how a homicide investigation was derailed by Kwame Kilpatrick. So, if we have people, at the direction of the commander, who were reviewing and doing, God knows what with that file, it is very related to our case,” said Yatooma.

Testimony of one of three MSP detectives heard Tuesday during the lawsuit hearing revealed that they believed the Detroit police were destroying evidence in the case. But his testimony also said because of actions by Attorney General Mike Cox, they were powerless to stop them.

Michigan State Police detective Mark Krebs gave six hours of testimony Tuesday.
MSP detectives Curt Schram, John Figurski and Krebs were looking into the original case until it was closed.

Krebs had wanted to come clean for years, but said he was ordered by his bosses not to come forward under any circumstances.

Authorities said any allegations of wrongdoing will continue to be investigated. The Wayne County Prosecutors office and the Detroit police both have open investigations.