I know you better than you know yourself.....

Reported Tuesday, February 5th in my post, “The End is Near – Or Is it?”

But don’t count Kwame out yet. If he and his cronies tried to “buy off” Kim Worthy (please see my previous blog) then just perhaps they are making calls now to the Judges that sit on the Appeals court and for good measure the Michigan Supreme Court as that will be where the case will go if the appeal is denied and the city elects to go farther or the appeal is affirmed and the plaintiffs go that route. That’s far fetched but so are Kwame’s truisms.

This is an article that appeared in the Detroit Free Press today, February 15th….

Court probes effort to influence appeals ruling

February 15, 2008
By JOE SWICKARD and DAVID ASHENFELTER
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS

Even before Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick appealed a court order last week to release secret documents in the text message scandal, someone tried to lobby one of three judges on the appellate panel that was to review the case, the Free Press has learned.

Officials with the Michigan Court of Appeals were so alarmed by the telephone call that they have launched an internal investigation and warned judges and staff members in an e-mail last week to guard against outside efforts to influence the court.

It is unclear who contacted which judge, or what the caller's message was, according to a person familiar with the incident who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. But the caller was not a lawyer or party in the case.

It is unclear whether the call was an innocent breach of judicial rules that say judges cannot "initiate, permit or consider" any outside communications "concerning a pending or impending proceeding."

Officials say they also are concerned because the composition of the three-judge panels within the appeals court system is supposed to remain confidential until the panel issues its ruling.

The practice is designed to shield judges from just such contacts.
Chief Judge Henry Saad declined Thursday to discuss the incident.
On Wednesday, Judges Brian Zahra, Helene White and Karen Fort Hood upheld a ruling requiring the City of Detroit to release all remaining secret documents that were part of an $8.4-million police whistle-blower settlement last October.
White and Hood said Thursday they could not comment.

Zahra could not be reached for comment.

Kwame exposed now rests its case….. Granted, we can’t be for certain one of Kilpatrick’s cronies didn’t contact the court but considering that the Judges who rendered verdict on the case was supposed to remain confidential only someone with inside knowledge could get close to them. You can come to your own conclusions but KwameExposed believes that the apple doesn’t fall too far from the tree.

Today is D-Day….At 5pm today the City has to make a decision to appeal to the Supreme Court, otherwise the records will be released early next week and all hell will break loose. Appealing will just delay the inevitable as there is a minimal chance of the court reversing the decision. The reverberations around the city will be huge as if the Mayor resigns or is released from his duties so goes out the door appointees such as Detroit Police Chief Ella Bully Cummings and Sharon McPhail. But the calculus of addition by subtraction (or in this case ethics and morality versus incompetence and moral ineptitude) will only upgrade city government and restore at least a modicum of civic responsibility to the minds of Detroit citizens.

My moles tell me that the Police Chief was on the news last night asking if anyone had information related to the Tamara Greene murder to please contact their nearest precinct. An interesting announcement considering that the Greene family stated most recently that they haven’t been contacted by the police with any updates on the investigation for almost a year and it’s now considered a “cold case” which based on the lawsuit and notoriety is now being investigated (or at least this is what the Police department wants you to believe). One can only assume that the Chiefs announcement was from a legality standpoint a publicity stunt to shield the city from complicity with the cover up. What they fail to understand is that in front of a jury of their peers they can’t reasonably expect not to be found culpable especially with any trust in Kilpatrick’s administration being summarily compromised with the Gary Brown lawsuit and other lawsuits that all revolve around similar issues.

For simplicities sake, all of the litigation involving the Mayor converges around a central issue which is the party that never happened. If you use the party as the nexus then consider the course of action of conspiracy. There are two basic tenets that remain a permanent fixture in this drama:

1. The Murder of Tamara Greene
2. The extramarital affair of Kilpatrick and Beatty

Lies beget lies thus connecting the dots. Let’s proffer this scenario and see what we find: (To further insulate myself from litigation, this is strictly my hypothesis based on facts, court records and testimony and internal knowledge. It does not implicate the principals discussed within nor makes accusations.)

• Party is held at the Mayors mansion unbeknownst to his spouse, Carlita.
• Carlita unexpectedly arrives and assaults Tamara Greene, a dancer better known as “Strawberry”.
• Strawberry is rushed to a downtown hospital by the Mayors detail. The detail is successful with destroying any incriminating medical evidence and Strawberry is released on her own recognizance.
• The rumors spread forcing Kilpatrick to have a press conference in front of his mansion stating that there never was a party.
• The guests at the party were people close to the Mayor – appointees and friends sworn to secrecy. The media has a difficult time corroborating the details, thus the party becomes an “urban myth or legend”.
• Strawberry is found murdered coincidentally by a Glock pistol – the same type of weapon issued to Detroit Police Officers.
• Gary Brown and Harold Nelthorpe – Detroit Police Officers not part of the Kilpatrick clan sets out to do an investigation on illegalities committed by the Mayors security detail unrelated to the party. The Officers were appointed by Jerry Oliver, former Detroit Police Chief who while being appointed by the Mayor was kept from certain information making him naïve about the incidents at hand. This relationship is very important as it is the one area that Kilpatrick didn’t have the necessary influence to mask the conspiracy.
• The officers find that their investigation is leading to a certain party that never existed and rumors of a certain extramarital relationship of which the Mayor is involved. They contact Internal Affairs relaying results of their investigation. It’s starting to get very hot.
• Internal affairs notifies the Mayor privately that he for lack of a better term is about to be “exposed”. They also threaten Nelthorpe telling him to stand down or possible repercussions may follow.
• Kilpatrick and Beatty discuss available options and decide to terminate these officers as quickly as possible. Proper protocol is to go through the Police Chief but they take matter into their own hands.
• The city is subsequently sued by these officers for wrongful discharge and the trial begins.
• Kilpatrick and Beatty state that they did not fire the officers nor did they have an extramarital relationship.
• The jury disagrees and finds the city culpable awarding the officers in excess of eight million dollars.
• The Mayor vows to appeal but reverses action after the Plaintiffs attorney advises the city of text message documents that confirm that in fact Kilpatrick and Beatty perjured themselves on the stand by indeed firing the officers and having an extramarital affair.
• The Mayor makes secret agreement to keep the text message matter private from the public in return for the actual text message documents and also agreeing to settle for the full jury verdict amount plus settlement of another related whistleblower case.
• The Mayor conveniently withholds the secret agreement information from the City Council who has to approve the settlement amount avoiding the exposure of the Text Messages.
• The text messages are released to the press anyway and here we are.

The correlation between the text messages, party and murder of Tamara Greene are too impossible to ignore. I would assert buried in the documents scheduled to come out next week, unless the City plans to appeal is information that directly links at least two of these items together – the party and text messages. Kilpatrick lies are predicated on the fact that he can’t be found out but over the course of six years many indiscretions have been discovered but the party is the one huge issue that no one has uncovered.

Here’s his dilemma, if it is established that there was a party that he adamantly denies then his culpability will be profound. The city would have you to believe that the murder of Tamara Greene was simply a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. A homicide similar to others in Detroit. But as any homicide investigator will tell you, murders generally don’t occur without motive. If it is true that Tamara Greene was eliminated because she was the one person who could not only confirm that there was a party at the Mansion but could also press charges against the Mayor’s wife for assault then she suffered the fate of collateral damage. No party, no proof but we are rapidly finding out that the conspiracy runs deep and this story is far from over.

Myths, rumors and innuendos tend not have staying power over years of time unless you’re discussing the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa, the JFK assassination or similar dramatic events that have no resolution. Here in Detroit the streets talk. Kilpatrick knows that but as momentum shifts to find out the truth it becomes terribly difficult to keep all the lies in order and evidence hidden. One slip up and the walls come tumbling down.

I had an interesting conversation about Mike Stefani, the plaintiff’s attorney about if he was culpable in the text message cover up and I’m curious to hear your comments. Was Stefani as culpable as the Mayor in covering up the Text Messages or did he in turn use the messages to extort the full settlement from the City of Detroit? With Stefani being an officer of the court it is my opinion that he was obligated to turn over any documents that suggested testimonial impropriety. Some would say that he wouldn’t have received his settlement and his duty is to the interest of his clients to win the case garnering the largest settlement amount possible.

But when does the matter of ethics factor into the equation? I would suggest that he still would have received the full settlement based on the fact that his clients won the case regardless of Kilpatrick and Beatty committing perjury. Certainly, the city council would have still settled for the full amount to rid themselves of the mess. Granted, he probably would have had to settle the Walt Harris case separately but would have been in a better position to do so.

If any Attorneys are enjoying this blog (heh, heh) please chime in…. And for those who aren’t in the legal field what would you have done?

By the way, Stefani may have released the records to the media assuring settlement for his clients and still sticking it to the Mayor. What could the city do, sue him for breach of the secret agreement and erase the memories of everyone who read the messages in the Newspaper? Once they were out they were out. If this is what happened then Stefani is one slick lawyer – still unethical in his course of action but slick nonetheless.

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

KE