Latest Bombshell in Tamara Greene case

[bopcity]

Attorney: Kilpatrick had affair with police monitor

Detroit- Ex-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick had a sexual relationship with the former federal court monitor overseeing police department reforms, according to a bombshell legal filing today in the case of slain stripper Tamara "Strawberry" Greene.

The claim, one of several new allegations unveiled today, illustrates how the disgraced mayor and his administration interfered with police activities, including the homicide of Greene, who reportedly danced at a rumored party at the Manoogian Mansion.

The filing by Greene family lawyer Norman Yatooma included several new claims, some lurid and explosive, injecting fresh controversy into a case that has tantalized and fascinated the public in the five years since Greene's family sued the city and mayor.

Among them: Two of Kilpatrick's bodyguards, Loronzo Jones and Greg Martin, were caught on videotape attending Greene's funeral.


Lawyer: Witness says she was at Manoogian bash

A lawyer for the family of a slain stripper says he has found a second witness who said they attended a wild party at the Manoogian Mansion where the wife of then-Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick attacked the dancer.

The revelation emerged today in a 130-paged legal brief Birmingham lawyer Norman Yatooma filed in hopes of persuading U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen to allow his lawsuit resulting from the death of Tamara Greene to go to trial.

Yatooma’s court brief said a stripper named Tamika Ruffin told him in a deposition that she was paid $1,000 to attend the party, where marijuana and cocaine were provided to the guests. She said 10 Detroit police officers attended the event.

[lilpup]

We already knew he had an affair with the federal court monitor - that's really old news.

Now, will his second witness stand up to scrutiny or will this lead go poof in the night, too?

[dookie joe]

The most amazing thing about this story is, it took more than 20 paragraphs for the phrase "Free Press" to show up. They put themselves in their stories so often, I sometimes wonder whether they're covering issues and events, or giving themselves free advertising.

[Carey]

I think the most amazing thing is this new stripper "witness" suffers from a closed-head injury. The other Manoogian "witness" has a history of mental problems and a long criminal record. If this case goes to trial, Yatooma is going to have a challenge putting them in front of a jury.

[Bella]

Fact of the matter is that the people that know something aren't speaking out. That kind of protection must be really nice. :/

I am a fan of WDIV on fb, and one comment was, "Oh, not this again."

[kraig]

If this is what Yatooma is coming up with, the case may not make it to trial.

[Hypestyles]

this saga has/is become a cancer on the city.. I am weary of the 'new' revelations, and so forth.. I wonder will the "final" truth ever come out and this can be put behind us..

[mikefmich]

Interesting sentence from another article in the Freep. Somehow I don't see this as a bombshell credible witness.

The stripper who said she attended the rumored but never proven Manoogian Mansion party told a doctor three years ago that she needed an exorcism because demons had gotten into her.


Read more: Doctor: Manoogian party accuser imagined demons | freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.freep.com/article/2010112...#ixzz165XmZWA1

[Ravine]

Yeah, Bopcity [[welcome to the forum, by the way,) there's more shell, here, than bomb.
I've followed this case as closely as anyone in this forum, probably, and I would be delighted to be able to feel as though any kind of break-through was imminent, but even while it's possible that Ms. Ruffin is telling the absolute truth and remembering everything with total clarity, as a witness her credibility-factor is at the second step from the basement floor.
As for the other thing, well, at this point, hearing that Kwame was boning someone else is no news at all, certainly no explosive device.

[gnome]

Oh, or doh! I thought the bombshell reference was about some curvy dame.

Guess I'll re-rack the fedora before grabbing the blower and starting the day.

[kraig]

Oh, or doh! I thought the bombshell reference was about some curvy dame.

Guess I'll re-rack the fedora before grabbing the blower and starting the day.

Careful, grabbing the blower is what started all of this trouble for Kwame in the first place.

[CLAUDE G]

As much as I hate Kwame, the man is sitting in jail right now and chances are once the feds are done with him he will be there for a very long time. What happened, or didn't happen that night at the Manoogian mansion isn't really going to make that much more of a difference.

As far as Norman Yatooma, he is really beginning to piss me off with all his requests. He is trying to make himself look like this big name lawyer like Geofrey Figer, but he needs to realize he is not no Geofrey Figer.

As far as this new witness. Again Kwame is in Jail, but his thugs are still roaming the streets of Detroit. If what Yatooma is trying to say is true, if I was this new witness I would be shaking in my boots right now because someone is going to come and take her out just like they took out her friend.

All Yatooma cares about is getting a multi-million dollar settlement, and I don't believe he would go as far as he did to put another witness in danger. Kwame is getting his justice, there is no incentive for this girl to testify on Yatoomas behalf.

If I was that second stipper, as far as I was concerned the party didn't happen and I didn't see anything.

[Ravine]

Well, the standards for qualifying in the "Fuckin' Dumbest Post, Ever, On DetroitYes!" competition just went way up.

[Gannon]

Then you are part of the problem.


If you cannot see the value in rooting out the rest of the remaining corruption well entrenched in this county and town...then you should relinquish your rights as a citizen.


The moment it is established that there WAS a party...then an entire shitstorm falls upon those heads sheltered by their carefully constructed umbrella. There will be no way for anyone to hide, including our current governor. How convenient that it has taken this long to fully inspect and analyze this event?!


Cheers, anyways. Lucky for the caffeine rush...nothing quite like the morning kitchen speedball to start the day.

[Gannon]

Damn, there goes my relative lack of succinctness again. My post was aimed at the same individual Ravine quickly goosed.

[Ravine]

Ah, Gannon, worry not; your intention was clear enough, but thanks for the clarification. Godnose that, these days on DetroitYes!, everything must be spelled out very carefully.

Another thing about Our Latest Entry is the way it makes out Yatooma to be a gold-digging opportunist, despite the fact that he took on a case which is going to be goddam near impossible to win, and which could be seen as a source of possible danger to him personally.

I infer that part of the idea is that if Kwame Kilpatrick is in prison, that should damned well be enough justice for all concerned, including citizens whose mother was brutally killed, followed by an investigation which pretty much went goddam nowhere and was cheerfully allowed to stay there.

[pffft]

Dookie Joe,

I think they think you might forget while reading what paper it is, so they announce it to you.

I don't know another paper that does it, so not sure where that tradition came from. NY Times doesn't do it...

[Gannon]

The unrecoverable troubles began with what his wife did TO the blower.


I love the Freep's take on this:
Ex-stripper's credibility questioned in Tamara Greene case


The line which appeared on their on-line front page: "The only two people to say they attended the long-rumored Manoogian Mansion party have something in common: questions about their credibility."



It seems those who DENY the party's mere existence have something in common with these two then. Their credibility has already been proven destroyed in court, under oath.


Cheers

[Ravine]

Yes, Gannon, you have a point, there, and keep in mind that one of the first approaches taken, in the whistle-blower case, was to make Harold Nelthrope out to be a loose-cannon nutbag with a drinking problem.
Riiiight.

[Gannon]

He and Brown were crazy...and the next in line was 'dumb as a post' for daring to investigate the mayor or his crew. I've known the last guy peripherally for more than thirty years, and there is no way that description could ever fit this man.

Thanks for the reminder.

[Ravine]

Yep. And isn't it *ahem* down-right astonishing, that Harold N., despite his alleged non compos mentis, was entrusted with the assignment which he held during the time of some of KK's misbehavior?

Forgive me, gang, if I over-indulge myself by fantasizing about Ms. Greene's little brown hand bursting, "Carrie"-like, up & out of the grave to grab Kilpatrick's balls and tear them clean off.

[swingline]

Is Ms. Ruffin nuts enough to completely fabricate her scandalous claims of drug and sex fueled Manoogian Mansion baachanalia as Mr. Thomas claims? Or was she actually there? It would be interesting to read her complete deposition to better evaluate her story.

One wonders if Mr. Thomas or Mr. Schapka questioned her about the Manoogian Mansion itself in order to test her credibility. From all accounts it's a pretty distinctive place. Could she describe the interior layout at all? The driveway and grounds? The bathroom where she supposedly changed? How about the room where the memorable lap dance took place? If they didn't find out about this stuff at the deposition it will be risky to ask at the trial.

One more thing. Is everyone supposed to believe that Ms. Ruffin witnessed this traumatic and even historic event and then never confided in anyone else except for Mr. Yatooma? That seems unlikely, but then why hasn't Mr. Yatooma brought forward anyone to whom she confided back in 2003?

She's making it up.

[Carey]

I had a bartender friend downtown tell me someone admitted near last call that the reason nobody reported too many cars in front of the Manoogian that night was because they brought in most through the boathouse.

A bartender tells someone that someone -- near last call -- says something.
That's how rumors get started. The Manoogian Party is a rumor for the ages, but it still has not progerssed out of the rumor stage. The stripper says 150 people, 10 cops and a TV truck were on hand, yet no one without mental challenges has come forward in eight years?

C'mon!

[ragnarok1981]

Mr. Yatooma should at the very least face charges himself for wasting all this taxpayer money for a crusade based on less fact than a fairy tale. At the very least this man should lose his law license for wasting not only the courts time but also for fooling his clients into thinking that they will somehow get some money.
Tamara Greene was killed and that is not in dispute. But what so many people seem to forget is that she was sitting in a car next to a known drug dealer. The man who the city says killed her was also a drug dealer and known associate of the man she was sitting next to. She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Kwame was certainly no saint by any means of the imagination, but I very much doubt that he or his wife ordered a hit out on a stripper because she supposedly got in a fight with Carlita. It is doubtful that they first of all would have even known her real name. Secondly it is rather hard to imagine that if they had such a grudge against her that they would plot this elaborate scheme to have her killed and then cover everything up. A conspiracy can work if you have a few people involved but the more people involved means that there is a greater chance of the supposed conspiracy being revealed. The number of people that Mr. Yatooma claims were invovled in this event makes conspiracy theories like the jfk assassination or the fake moon landing look like the work of amateurs, and statistically almost impossible to have happened. If this party happened you would think that someone with some credibility would have said something by now. Instead what we have are a bunch of witnesses who are mentally unstable and probably belong in an institution rather than walking the streets.
Finally I think that Judge Rosen needs to step up and put an end to this farce once and for all. He needs to tell Yatooma to shut up with all this nonsense and either show concrete evidence or drop the case. He should also impose sanctions against Yatooma and make him pay the Greene family the amount he was trying to get from the city just for dragging them through all this nonsense.
Honestly if there are any more "revelations" in this case I will expect them to be along the lines of UFO's brought the strippers there and teleported them into the mansion and then had Greene killed because she was carrying an alien-human hybrid baby. This case has gone from bizare allegations of a supposed party to something that a tabloid could only dream of. Yatooma has shown with his most recent filings that he knows his case is bs and is asking for things he knows no longer exist just so that the city can appear that they willfully got rid of the evidence and therefor the judge could hand down a default judgement.
For the sake of us all, Judge Rosen please end this insanity!

[Gannon]

A bartender tells someone that someone -- near last call -- says something.
That's how rumors get started. The Manoogian Party is a rumor for the ages, but it still has not progerssed out of the rumor stage. The stripper says 150 people, 10 cops and a TV truck were on hand, yet no one without mental challenges has come forward in eight years?

C'mon!

LOL. That is how rumors get substantiated. This person had nothing to fear, after a night of drinking. Loose lips get looser with alcohol. They only said a little comment to an anonymous person, which was repeated to me. Totally hearsay, but something I'm not shy repeating.

A ton of stuff that I picked up over the years became revealed over the duration of the government's investigation of the matter...at every level. Some of my guesses were pretty amazingly close to spot on, too. I have no idea how that happened, happy to call it dumb luck.


So, when I get happy when something I've heard is revealed to be true, or at least those with access to more than what I've heard attempt to make it admissible evidence. Carlita has never been questioned under oath, as far as I know. They've been protecting her all along.

Cheers