Post by getchristielove on Apr 16, 2008 0:29:23 GMT -5
Judge pushes city for text data
Mass message release order is next if Detroit officials don't produce pager IDs in stripper suit.
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A federal judge expressed annoyance Monday when a city attorney said Detroit government destroyed records showing which employees were using which city pagers at the time an exotic dancer was shot to death in 2003.
U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen said if he does not receive the "personal identification numbers" linking specific Detroit police and city officials to specific pagers, he will have no choice but to order SkyTel, the city's former pager contractor, to turn over all pager text messages for all city employees for the time periods relevant to the lawsuit he is hearing.
"We are going to get to the bottom of this," Rosen said.
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Stripper Tamara "Strawberry" Greene, who was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003, was linked to a long rumored but never substantiated party at the mayor's Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002.
Ernest Flagg, the father of Greene's 15-year-old son, Jonathan Bond, alleges the Detroit police failed to properly investigate Greene's unsolved killing for political reasons. Defendants in his federal civil lawsuit include the city, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayoral Chief of Staff Christine Beatty and Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings.
Norman Yatooma, Flagg's lawyer, has subpoenaed from SkyTel pager text messages for Kilpatrick and 33 other current or former police and city officials.
SkyTel officials have said they are prepared to hand over the records for private review by federal magistrates, but they need the pager "PIN" numbers associated with specific employees, rather than the employees' names.
Rosen had ordered the city to turn the PIN numbers over to Yatooma by March 28.
But Krystal Crittendon, a lawyer for the city, told Rosen Monday she's been unable to locate the records and believes they were shredded or otherwise destroyed after the city stopped using the SkyTel pagers in 2004.
"I find it frustrating and surprising that a municipal government would not keep these kinds of records for some period of time," Rosen said.
If the records are not produced, "I'm afraid that we will have no recourse but to order the production of all text messages during the relevant time period."
Yatooma told the judge the city's explanation was "lunacy."
Pager text messages from Beatty's SkyTel pager first published in the media in January led to criminal charges brought March 24 against Kilpatrick and Beatty.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Kilpatrick and Beatty with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury and official misconduct in a case related to a police whistle-blower trial in 2007.
The pager text messages pointed to a sexual relationship between Kilpatrick and Beatty and possible perjury about the nature of their relationship and circumstances surrounding the removal of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown when they both testified under oath last year.
Other records released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press show Kilpatrick and Beatty signed a secret deal to keep the text messages under wraps as part of the city's $8.4 million settlement of police whistle-blower lawsuits.
Now text messages are figuring prominently in the Greene civil lawsuit, which is not directly related to the criminal case. However, lawyers for Beatty and/or the mayor are expected to file motions arguing the federal Stored Communications Act bars the text messages from being subpoenaed in a civil lawsuit.
On Monday, Rosen denied the city's request for a halt to proceedings in the civil lawsuit. He also denied the city's request for a gag order in the case, though he cautioned lawyers that he does not want the case to be tried in the news media.
Rosen also ordered the city to turn over Greene's homicide file to him for private review by Friday.
In other developments:
• A lawyer for Beatty filed court papers opposing a move by Worthy to disqualify the judge assigned to Beatty's and Kilpatrick's criminal case.
Worthy wants to disqualify Judge Ronald Giles, who is assigned to handle the preliminary examination. Worthy also wants to disqualify the rest of the 36th District Court bench.
In a motion filed earlier this month, Worthy cited the fact that one and possibly two 36th District judges will be called as government witnesses at the Kilpatrick-Beatty trial.
She also cited the fact Giles made a $300 donation to a Kilpatrick campaign and Giles' wife has links to Kilpatrick appointees.
But Mayer Morganroth, Beatty's lawyer, filed a response Monday opposing Worthy's motion and said what Worthy is requesting is "ludicrous."
• Wayne County Judge Robert Colombo said he plans to review by next Monday sealed envelopes that contain documents related to the whistle-blower settlement sought by The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.
James E. Stewart, the attorney for The Detroit News, said Colombo plans to privately review the documents and make a decision on whether or not they can be made public.
The records in the envelopes are believed to either be e-mails between city attorneys and Michael Stefani, the attorney for the police officers who brought the lawsuits, discussing the settlement or the motion for attorney fees made by Stefani
Mass message release order is next if Detroit officials don't produce pager IDs in stripper suit.
Paul Egan / The Detroit News
DETROIT -- A federal judge expressed annoyance Monday when a city attorney said Detroit government destroyed records showing which employees were using which city pagers at the time an exotic dancer was shot to death in 2003.
U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen said if he does not receive the "personal identification numbers" linking specific Detroit police and city officials to specific pagers, he will have no choice but to order SkyTel, the city's former pager contractor, to turn over all pager text messages for all city employees for the time periods relevant to the lawsuit he is hearing.
"We are going to get to the bottom of this," Rosen said.
Advertisement
Stripper Tamara "Strawberry" Greene, who was shot to death in Detroit on April 30, 2003, was linked to a long rumored but never substantiated party at the mayor's Manoogian Mansion in the fall of 2002.
Ernest Flagg, the father of Greene's 15-year-old son, Jonathan Bond, alleges the Detroit police failed to properly investigate Greene's unsolved killing for political reasons. Defendants in his federal civil lawsuit include the city, Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, former mayoral Chief of Staff Christine Beatty and Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings.
Norman Yatooma, Flagg's lawyer, has subpoenaed from SkyTel pager text messages for Kilpatrick and 33 other current or former police and city officials.
SkyTel officials have said they are prepared to hand over the records for private review by federal magistrates, but they need the pager "PIN" numbers associated with specific employees, rather than the employees' names.
Rosen had ordered the city to turn the PIN numbers over to Yatooma by March 28.
But Krystal Crittendon, a lawyer for the city, told Rosen Monday she's been unable to locate the records and believes they were shredded or otherwise destroyed after the city stopped using the SkyTel pagers in 2004.
"I find it frustrating and surprising that a municipal government would not keep these kinds of records for some period of time," Rosen said.
If the records are not produced, "I'm afraid that we will have no recourse but to order the production of all text messages during the relevant time period."
Yatooma told the judge the city's explanation was "lunacy."
Pager text messages from Beatty's SkyTel pager first published in the media in January led to criminal charges brought March 24 against Kilpatrick and Beatty.
Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy charged Kilpatrick and Beatty with conspiracy, obstruction of justice, perjury and official misconduct in a case related to a police whistle-blower trial in 2007.
The pager text messages pointed to a sexual relationship between Kilpatrick and Beatty and possible perjury about the nature of their relationship and circumstances surrounding the removal of Deputy Police Chief Gary Brown when they both testified under oath last year.
Other records released as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit brought by The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press show Kilpatrick and Beatty signed a secret deal to keep the text messages under wraps as part of the city's $8.4 million settlement of police whistle-blower lawsuits.
Now text messages are figuring prominently in the Greene civil lawsuit, which is not directly related to the criminal case. However, lawyers for Beatty and/or the mayor are expected to file motions arguing the federal Stored Communications Act bars the text messages from being subpoenaed in a civil lawsuit.
On Monday, Rosen denied the city's request for a halt to proceedings in the civil lawsuit. He also denied the city's request for a gag order in the case, though he cautioned lawyers that he does not want the case to be tried in the news media.
Rosen also ordered the city to turn over Greene's homicide file to him for private review by Friday.
In other developments:
• A lawyer for Beatty filed court papers opposing a move by Worthy to disqualify the judge assigned to Beatty's and Kilpatrick's criminal case.
Worthy wants to disqualify Judge Ronald Giles, who is assigned to handle the preliminary examination. Worthy also wants to disqualify the rest of the 36th District Court bench.
In a motion filed earlier this month, Worthy cited the fact that one and possibly two 36th District judges will be called as government witnesses at the Kilpatrick-Beatty trial.
She also cited the fact Giles made a $300 donation to a Kilpatrick campaign and Giles' wife has links to Kilpatrick appointees.
But Mayer Morganroth, Beatty's lawyer, filed a response Monday opposing Worthy's motion and said what Worthy is requesting is "ludicrous."
• Wayne County Judge Robert Colombo said he plans to review by next Monday sealed envelopes that contain documents related to the whistle-blower settlement sought by The Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press.
James E. Stewart, the attorney for The Detroit News, said Colombo plans to privately review the documents and make a decision on whether or not they can be made public.
The records in the envelopes are believed to either be e-mails between city attorneys and Michael Stefani, the attorney for the police officers who brought the lawsuits, discussing the settlement or the motion for attorney fees made by Stefani
