SLAIN DANCER’S MEDICAL RECORDS SOUGHT: Lawyer wants to see if treatment linked to rumored party
Detroit –An attorney for the family of a slain exotic dancer is vowing to fight for medical records about possible treatment stemming from a never-proven party at the Manoogian Mansion after a hospital lawyer challenged his subpoena of them.
Court filings on Tuesday show Detroit Receiving Hospital is challenging a subpoena filed last week by the attorney for the family of Tamara “Strawberry” Greene in a federal suit against the city.
The attorney, Patricia Leonard, wrote that Norman Yatooma’s request was “overly broad” and included “confidential patient information.”
Yatooma said he plans to file a motion soon to compel officials to produce the documents.
“We’re only looking for documents related to the medical care provided to her,” he said. “There’s no reasonable basis for them to suggest we’re not entitled to them.”
The filing is the latest in a suit alleging city officials obstructed the investigation of Greene’s April 30, 2003, shooting death for political reasons. Greene was rumored to have danced at a party in fall 2002 attended by then Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
In an affidavit related to the case, Cenobio Chapa, a former city emergency medical technician, said he saw an injured woman at Detroit Receiving Hospital around the time of the rumored party who said she was assaulted by Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita.
Attorney General Mike Cox investigated the rumors in 2003, interviewed Kilpatrick and dismissed the party story as an “urban legend.”
He was deposed Friday by Yatooma about the investigation.
Detroit Receiving objected to the subpoena, saying information would be protected by state and federal law and hospital officials couldn’t locate any files “without critical identifiers including date of birth, Social Security number or dates of service.”
The hospital would be “willing to locate and identify any responsive information should plaintiff be ordered to narrow its request” based on those reasons, Leonard said in the response.
