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Another Text Messaging Scandal?

Former Detroit Police Chief Warren Evans isn't going away quietly. Evans now believes he was unfairly let go as the city's top cop, and his attorney says he has proof: Text messages.

Warren Evans says his girlfriend, Detroit Police Lieutenant Monique Patterson, has some rather embarrassing text messages from the police department's Interim Police Chief Ralph Godbee.

Evans claims that Lieutenant Patterson and Chief Godbee, who is a married man, had a personal relationship.

In a statement from Interim Chief Ralph Godbee:

"I have recently learned that there are text message responses from my personal phone to a colleague that are of a personal nature. For this, I apologize to my family.

It is my understanding through counsel that the recipient attempted to misuse these text messages to strike a deal with the City of Detroit. Consistent with Mayor Bing's pledge of transparency, we are coming forth with this information.

I thank Mayor Bing, Deputy Mayor Green and this administration for the confidence in my professional abilities to work as Interim Chief of Police.

Professionally, I will continue my uncompromised dedication to the department, the citizens and this city.

This is a personal challenge that I must work through with my family and myself. I ask the media and public to respect my family and the effort to resolve this privately.

I also ask that this situation not be allowed to distract from the hard work of the department as we continually strive to improve public safety."

Detroiter Angela Larry told WWJ's Vickie Thomas she is sick of scandal in Detroit.

"It's just ridiculous when you think about the high level that Detroit can be on and we're dealing with all this nonsense... at some point when does it stop?" said Larry.

WWJ caught up with Chief Godbee recently and asked him about the possibility of changing policy within the department regarding personal relationships.

He said he didn't see any need.

"It's very difficult to legislate that, number one," Godbee said.  "Number two, there are very, very strict laws on the books relative to hostile work environments or things of that nature."

Mark Zausmer, Evans' attorney, said the Bing administration did not get the whole story before Evans was shown the door.

"It appears based on these these text messages, which came to light after Warren was terminated, that Chief Godbee had both a career and personal reason to act in a way that was against Warren's interest," Zausmer said.

"We had no intention of disclosing the text messages, it was the city's decision a couple weeks later to do that," Zausmer said.

"The city obviously made a decision that they don't desire any participation from Warren and that's ultimately the mayor's decision," Zausmer said.

Zausmer said he offered to keep the text messages under wraps in exchange for another position for Evans, but said Deputy Mayor Saul Green refused.

"We asked him to consider finding some position for Warren within the city so that he could have it appear that his reputation was not damaged as badly as it might have been, because obviously they did not have full information at the time they asked him to resign," Zausmer said.

(Copyright 2010, WWJ.  All Rights Reserved)

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