Ex-Detroit Mayor Kilpatrick Back In Court
DETROIT (WWJ) - Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick is back in a federal courtroom in Detroit, Monday. Kilpatrick and the city of Detroit are being sued by the family of murdered stripper Tamara Greene, rumored to have danced at a never-proven party at the Manoogian Mansion.
WWJ and Fox Two Legal analyst Charlie Langton says at issue are missing emails that Greene's family's lawyer, Norm Yatooma, claims are key to the case.
"What that meant was, is that the city had to turn over all text messages, emails from roughly 2002 into 2003. Well, what do you know? The evidence is gone. And, today, Norman Yatooma wants to question Kwame Kilpatrick to find out if Kwame Kilpatrick deleted these emails or archived these emails, or what happened to these emails," Langton said.
Greene was killed in a still unsolved drive-by shooting in 2003, and Yatooma is trying to determine whether there's any evidence that the former mayor or the city obstructed the investigation into Greene's unsolved death.
Langton says Kilpatrick and the city could face legal trouble if the messages in question were deliberately deleted.
"The bottom line here is that if you delete the emails, and they're not archived, these emails are gone forever, and the evidence is gone forever. If that's what happened, and that was in violation of the court's order in 2008, I think the city of Detroit will be sanctioned for what they did. We'll have to see," he said.
Other witnesses expected to testify include former Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and other former top city officials.
Kilpatrick and the city have denied the accusations. They're asking a federal judge to throw out the lawsuit.
