Ex-Mayor's Lawyer Blasts New Claims In Greene Case
New claims made by the attorney of the family of murdered stripper Tamara Greene are being called "unfounded" by the lawyer for ex-mayor Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
Greene family attorney Norman Yatooma, who has always contended that the homicide case was sabotaged, now says that a second exotic dancer claims to have danced at an alleged party of Manoogian Mansion.
WWJ spoke Monday with Kilpatrick's attorney, James Thomas, who says not only has Yatooma failed to prove that there actually was a party or that Kilpatrick obstructed the probe, he says the new witnesses just aren't credible.
"He's got these two witnesses that, essentially -- one of which has a closed head injury and another that has been involuntarily committed -- came forward and said they were at this party. It's just a fantastic story -- an unbelievable story," Thomas said.
Yatooma revealed the new witnesses in a legal brief he recently filed an effort to convince a judge allow the lawsuit against the city and former mayor to go to trial.
According to Thomas, Yatooma simply waited too long to start looking for evidence after the Mayor stepped down.
"On the last day for discovery, which is in 2010, he asks for emails, and then complains that since they can't be found they must have been hidden or destroyed. We think that he shouldn't lay that at our feet. He waited too long to ask for that material," Thomas said.
"[Kilpatrick] left his computer, and there was plenty of time for [Yatooma] to retrieve those materials. And he didn't do that until almost three years later," he said.
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