Lead cop in Manoogian investigation says party almost certainly happened
Ex-cop: 'Little doubt' Manoogian party occurred
Report of 'officer down' at alleged 2002 event not in police records, says investigator
Charlie LeDuff and Paul Egan / The Detroit News
Detroit -- The former lead detective in the Tamara "Strawberry" Greene murder case says he not only believes a stripper was beaten at an alleged raunchy party at the mayoral mansion in late 2002 but also wonders why a lead he provided to the State Police about an "officer down" at the mansion never appeared in investigators' reports.
Greene is said to have danced for former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at a never-proven party at the Manoogian Mansion; she was killed in a drive-by shooting a few months later.
Mike Carlisle, who retired from the Detroit Police Department with commendation in September, said that while he does not believe Greene danced at the party or that her slaying was connected to Kilpatrick, he does believe there was a party where a stripper was beaten.
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Carlisle said that in late September or early October 2002, he received a call while he was off duty about an "officer down" at the mansion, the official residence of the Detroit mayor. Then a member of the special assignment squad of the homicide division, Carlisle was required to respond to all such calls. Two others from the squad were also notified that evening, Carlisle said.
"I got dressed and headed out around 11 p.m.," Carlisle said. "I got halfway down Jefferson when I got a call that I was not needed, and so I turned around. I even filled out an overtime notice and got paid for it."
Carlisle said he linked the "officer down" dispatch with a party at the Manoogian because witnesses told him and state investigators that a Detroit Police officer moonlighting as a stripper had worked the party.
"I have grave doubts she danced at the Manoogian," Carlisle said of Greene. "But I have little doubt that the night I received a call to go to the mansion, a party occurred."
He said he told this to a State Police investigator who called him at home in late 2003. Both the State Police and the attorney general were investigating whether a party had actually taken place. Attorney General Mike Cox concluded it was urban legend.
"I gave them the same information I'm giving you," Carlisle said.
The officer who headed the State Police investigation denied Carlisle's account.
"He certainly did not disclose that to us," said Detective Lt. Curt Schram, adding "that would be pretty significant," and would have been included in the police reports.
Carlisle "was contacted and interviewed" during the State Police investigation but did not mention receiving a call about an officer down, Schram said.
Records of the State Police probe obtained by The Detroit News show Detective Sgt. Mark Krebs of the State Police contacted Carlisle on June 10, 2003, after getting a tip that Carlisle had information about a dancer.
Carlisle "advised that he did not have that information," but referred the State Police to another Detroit officer he thought might know something, the report shows.
Deputy Chief Gary Brown, head of the Detroit Police Department's internal affairs, began an investigation into the party and was subsequently fired. In late 2007, Brown won a multimillion-dollar settlement in a whistle-blower lawsuit that led to the downfall and incarceration of Kilpatrick.
Greene was killed around the time of Brown's firing, so the party and Greene's slaying became fused in the public imagination. The State Police continued its own investigation and eventually closed it in January 2004 due, in part, to lack of cooperation from the Attorney General's Office, which refused subpoenas of hospital records and other items. Police tapes showing calls for police responses had already been destroyed when the State Police investigation began, records show.
Carlisle was transferred to the cold case squad in 2004 and assigned the Greene case. He worked it for eight weeks. Witnesses told Carlisle then that the Manoogian dancer was not Strawberry Greene, but a Detroit police officer who had worked as a stripper. She may have been the "cop down," Carlisle said.
That officer was interviewed by State Police investigators, denied any connection to the party, and was eventually assigned to the Executive Protection Unit that guarded Kilpatrick before moving to the vice squad.
According to a federal lawsuit brought by Greene's family, Kilpatrick's wife, Carlita, walked in on the Manoogian party, saw her husband receiving sexual favors and beat the stripper. The stripper was then rushed to the hospital. Cox's spokesman said he refused to sign subpoenas to search hospital records because it was a fishing expedition and an invasion of privacy rights.
With things quieting down, the case was abruptly taken from Carlisle in August 2004 and the cold case squad disbanded, he said.
Norman Yatooma, the lawyer for Greene's family, said he plans to depose Carlisle in his federal lawsuit against the city and its former mayor.
"We're not suing ex-convict Kilpatrick for having a raucous party or even for murder," Yatooma said. "We're suing him for covering up a murder investigation."
When salacious text messages between Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff, Christine Beatty, surfaced in January 2008, the stripper and the party were back in the news.
Carlisle was assigned the case again, this time with access to the State Police notes.
There is no mention of Carlisle telling state investigators that he was called to the mansion in the fall of 2002.
"I was surprised, to say the least," Carlisle said.
Carlisle said the evidence does not point to a hit ordered on Greene by City Hall but that Greene simply got caught between two feuding drug dealers, and Carlisle testified as much in court.
"This is a working girl who got caught between two thugs," Carlisle said he believes.
The man he suspects killed Greene sits behind bars on an attempted murder conviction.
charlie@detnews.com [[313) 222-2071
