The Ghost of Strawberry

Hot off the presses..... If you think the text message scandal is something wait til' this investigation picks up speed.....

Lawyer seeks text messages, GPS coordinates from night stripper died
February 11, 2008

BY BEN SCHMITT

FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A lawyer today said he will seek text messages from every City of Detroit employee sent during a 4-hour window on the night a stripper known as Strawberry was shot dead in the city.

In addition, Norman Yatooma wants global position system coordinates that show the physical location of each of those employees.

Yatooma of Birmingham filed the subpoena to Clinton, Miss.-based Skytel Inc. for the text messages today in Detroit’s U.S. District Court. He is representing Greene's 14-year-old son, Jonathan Bond, in a federal lawsuit alleging that police and city officials covered up her April 30, 2003, death.

Greene was gunned down at 3:40 a.m. in a car that she was parking at Roselawn and West Outer Drive. The drive-by shooting remains unsolved.

Detroit Police spokesman James Tate said the case remains open in the department’s cold case squad and police are actively seeking any information to help solve the murder.

Yatooma said he did not know how many city employees might have the text messaging devices, or whether the units have GPS capabilities.

Yatooma’s new subpoena asks for text messages, instant messages, telephone calls and email messages “to each and every city of Detroit employee during the time period of 1:30 a.m. to 5:30 a.m. on 4/30/03.”

Yatooma said he did not know how many city employees might have the text messaging devices, or whether the units have GPS capabilities.

“There are 18,000 city employees. But 18,000 of them did not have Skytel-issued communication devices,” Yatooma said. “And more than that, 18,000 weren’t awake and texting between 1:30 and 5:30 in the morning on April 30th. But if 18 of them were, I’d like to have those 18.”

Of the GPS request, he said: “If they made a phone call at 3:41 a.m., we want to know where they were.”

Yatooma has already asked for text messages from 34 people in his lawsuit. Among those listed: Kilpatrick, his bodyguards Mike Martin and Loronzo Jones, former chief of staff Christine Beatty, former Police Chief Jerry Oliver, Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings and former Police Lt. Alvin Bowman, who investigated the shooting death of Tamara Greene.

Bowman charged in a lawsuit that city officials transferred him out of the homicide division because he was investigating what happened to Greene, who was rumored to have performed at an alleged Manoogian Mansion party in fall 2002. Bowman left the department citing stress leave.

State Attorney General Mike Cox, whose office investigated the alleged party, dismissed the rumors as an urban legend. Michigan State Police officials also said they found no evidence of wrongdoing, although some officers testified during Bowman's trial that Cox impeded their investigation by denying them subpoenas.

A Wayne County Circuit Court jury awarded Bowman $200,000 after a trial that ended Oct. 21, 2005.

Southfield attorney Mayer Morganroth, who is defending the city in the lawsuit, said Yatooma is asking for millions of documents.

“I think it's absurd frankly,” Morganroth said. “What he's asking for is records involving an ongoing investigation. I don't know what he thinks he's doing.

"We've got a motion to quash and dismiss and the case will be dismissed," he added.