New Claims Filed In Greene Lawsuit
A court filing Sunday reveals new allegations in the ongoing legal saga between the city of Detroit, former mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and slain stripper Tamara Greene.
Norman Yatooma, a lawyer for the family of Greene, filed the legal brief in an effort to convince U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen to allow the lawsuit against the city and former mayor to go to trial.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Yatooma says in the filing that he has a second witness who attended the rumored Manoogian Mansion party where the wife of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick attacked Greene.
The court brief reportedly states a stripper named Tamika Ruffin told Yatooma in a deposition that she was paid $1,000 to attend the party. Ruffin said she saw Carlita Kilpatrick enter the mansion and get into a fist fight with Greene, who was performing a lap dance for the mayor. She said Greene appeared to be winning the fight until Mrs. Kilpatrick hit Greene in the head with a table leg or two-by-four.
In Yatooma's brief Ruffin also said Greene stayed with her two or three months later during which period, Ruffin told Yatooma, Carlita Kilpatrick repeatedly called her cell phone and made threats.
The Detroit Free Press reports Yatooma saying in the brief, "The wild party and unlawful assault by Carlita Kilpatrick were all the motivation the obviously corrupt Kilpatrick required to cover up the investigation into Greene's murder."
Yatooma has claimed the city of Detroit repeatedly interfered with investigations involving the former mayor and his administration. According to the Free Press, Yatooma wrote in the filing, "Clearly, many high level DPD executives had knowledge of, and did nothing about, the assault committed by Carlita Kilpatrick of the Manoogian Mansion party." He continued, "Evidence disappeared from the DPD relating to the 911 calls, the police runs and even the actual complaint filed by Greene. The cover-up of this obstruction may have led to the derailment of the Greene homicide investigation."
Meanwhile, The Detroit News reports, in the recent filing, Yatooma also accuses Kilpatrick of having an extramarital affair with Sheryl Robinson Wood, the former federal monitor overseeing police department reforms - a claim not publicly made until now. According to the Detroit News the former mayor was asked about the topic during his deposition in the case.
"Incredibly, Kilpatrick testified that he had no recollection of how many times he had sex with Wood, the location of the trysts, or even the year in which they occurred," Yatooma wrote.
City attorneys have asked Judge Rosen to dismiss the case, arguing that after five years and numerous depositions the allegations haven't been proven.
WWJ and Fox 2 Legal Analyst Charlie Langton, speaking about the new allegations, says he believes in order to convince the judge to let the Greene case go to trial, a witness needs to come forward to definitively say the police investigation was sabotaged. "To keep that grudge going for six months and to keep that investigation stopped after six months from a party, I think is just not quite enough to let this case go forward," says Langton.
Monday morning's status conference meeting is closed to the media, but Charlie Langton reported about the meeting which he believes will center around one issue.
"I think the status conference today is going to focus on one big issue, (which) is whether or not the city hid e-mails, erased text messages, or somehow got rid of police reports," he said.
Langton forecasted that if the meeting uncovers any of these behaviors, the judge would sanction the city which might help Yatooma prove a cover-up.
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