Judge: City may have knowingly destroyed evidence in Greene case

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DETROIT -- A federal judge found that the city of Detroit may have knowingly destroyed evidence in the Tamara Greene case.

Greene was killed in a drive-by shooting in 2003. It was rumored that she danced at a never-proven party at the Detroit mayor's Manoogian Mansion that was thrown by then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in 2002.

Her family has filed a lawsuit against the city claiming Kilpatrick and other high-ranking city officials thwarted the investigation into her death.

The family's attorney, Norman Yatooma, said the city has repeatedly withheld records in the case and that evidence related to the case has been intentionally destroyed, specifically e-mails sent between officials on city-owned computers.

Now, the federal judge has said the jury should be told that the evidence may have helped the Greene family's case.

The judge also says that the city of Detroit should have to pay the legal bills for the family and Yatooma, who is suing the city for $150 million.

According to the court filings, the judge said it would be "a gross understatement to say that the city acted in bad faith and was at fault in causing the destruction of evidence"

The judge said Kwame Kilpatrick, Christine Beatty, Ruth Carter and Ella Bully-Cummings sent emails while in office that they did not delete. The court said the emails are not on the city's servers, where they should be.

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http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/28756649/detail.html

..I feel for the family.. but a $150 million judgement will have major impact on the deficit.. if that happens, might as well declare bankruptcy for the city..

The City of Detroit can thank thug KK for this investigation even though I personally don't think there was a party because too many people would have been involved in it and they ALL wouldn't be able to keep their mouths shut.

Ms. Greene was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and unfortunately was shot. That sort of thing happens every day in Detroit but Yatooma is trying to get a big payday by claiming otherwise.

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Originally Posted by Buy American

The City of Detroit can thank thug KK for this investigation even though I personally don't think there was a party because too many people would have been involved in it and they ALL wouldn't be able to keep their mouths shut.

Ms. Greene was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and unfortunately was shot. That sort of thing happens every day in Detroit but Yatooma is trying to get a big payday by claiming otherwise.

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Wrong. Yatooma is claiming that the investigation was aggressively mis-handled and written off too easily.

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Originally Posted by Buy American

The City of Detroit can thank thug KK for this investigation even though I personally don't think there was a party because too many people would have been involved in it and they ALL wouldn't be able to keep their mouths shut.

Ms. Greene was in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong people and unfortunately was shot. That sort of thing happens every day in Detroit but Yatooma is trying to get a big payday by claiming otherwise.

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This has moved past 'Was there a party or wasn't there'; it's now 'Was the evidence to prove whether or not there WAS a party been purposely destroyed by the city of Detroit'.
If there was no party and there was nothing to hide, the city should have been forthright in its handling of the evidence and turned it over to begin with or admitted that their IT department is inept and deleted emails that should never have been removed from their servers.

I guess I don't understand why "the city" is on the hook for this. It was people who destroyed evidence. Yes, they were city employees, but shouldn't they and/or their bosses be held responsible, and not the citizens of Detroit?

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Originally Posted by drjeff

I guess I don't understand why "the city" is on the hook for this. It was people who destroyed evidence. Yes, they were city employees, but shouldn't they and/or their bosses be held responsible, and not the citizens of Detroit?

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The City of Detroit is the entity that is responsible for the data; they are responsible for the actions of their employees when on the job.
I'm sure that if they knew exactly who deleted what, they would go after them too, but the city has the deep pockets

This is the City of Detroit we're talking about here folks. They closed the friggin' Detroit Crime Lab in 2008 because of inept employees mishandling evidence!! Ms. Greene was with her drug dealer boyfriend when she was shot. Sorry to say, this wasn't the crime of the century in Detroit since it happens every day there.

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Originally Posted by Buy American

This is the City of Detroit we're talking about here folks. They closed the friggin' Detroit Crime Lab in 2008 because of inept employees mishandling evidence!! Ms. Greene was with her drug dealer boyfriend when she was shot. Sorry to say, this wasn't the crime of the century in Detroit since it happens every day there.

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Then perhaps they need to close down the IT department too if they don't know how to handle data on the servers.

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Originally Posted by jcole

Then perhaps they need to close down the IT department too if they don't know how to handle data on the servers.

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Detroit needs people who are dedicated to making Detroit a decent place to live and work, and if that means closing all the departments and starting over again, then so be it.
Obviously, the thug KK generation of appointees and cronies; the Bing administration of a lot of "talk and no action" needs to be changed.
That doesn't change the fact that this conspiracy idea that Yatooma has played on for a couple of years had any merit at all. Yatooma has latched on to a murder case that has the possibilities of a big payout only because of a rumor.

All Yatooma has to prove is the DPD willfully went easy on the investigation into Strawberry's murder. He doesn't have to prove there was a party. I don't believe there was a party, either, but the DPD still could have done its best not to investigate the crime because some mid- or even high-level police executives believed there was a need to cover it up.

And maybe there is a link between Kilpatrick and Strawberry that has nothing to do with the rumored party.

I'm relieved this wasn't a Malice Green thread as I first thought.