It's Going From Bad To Worse For America's Hip Hop Mayor
An attorney representing the son of a slain stripper known as Strawberry is seeking text messages from 34 people, including Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, key members of his security team and the city's police chief as Detroit residents show fading support for the one time rising star who remains embroiled in the aftermath of an embarassing sex scandal.
Attorney Norman Yatooma filed a motion Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit seeking preservation and copies of incoming and outgoing text messages and calls, originating from any Detroit SkyTel messaging device for the 34 people.
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.
Greene danced at strip clubs under the name Strawberry.Yatooma 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. The drive-by shooting remains unsolved.
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.
This latest scandal could not have come at a worse time for brotha Kwame, as hizzoner's popularity with voters has declined sharply in the wake of revelations that he lied under oath about an extramarital affair with former chief of staff and high school classmate Christine Beatty.
According to the Detroit Free Press, only 25% of those who voted in the last mayoral election supporting him today, according to a poll released Friday.Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said they would vote against Kilpatrick and 17% were undecided, according to the poll of 300 Detroit voters by Denno-Noor Research and the Rossman Group.
Voters, however, were about evenly divided on whether Kilpatrick should resign: 43% said he should; 40% said no.
Kilpatrick's plunge in approval comes a week after the Free Press first reported on text messages between him and then-chief of staff Christine Beatty, indicating the two were having an affair and lied about it during a 2007 trial over the dismissal of two Detroit police officers.The city settled the case shortly after the trial in a deal that cost the city about $9 million. Beatty resigned Monday. Kilpatrick publicly apologized in a televised address Wednesday evening, but did not address any specifics.
An attorney representing the son of a slain stripper known as Strawberry is seeking text messages from 34 people, including Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, key members of his security team and the city's police chief as Detroit residents show fading support for the one time rising star who remains embroiled in the aftermath of an embarassing sex scandal.
Attorney Norman Yatooma filed a motion Friday in U.S. District Court in Detroit seeking preservation and copies of incoming and outgoing text messages and calls, originating from any Detroit SkyTel messaging device for the 34 people.
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.
Greene danced at strip clubs under the name Strawberry.Yatooma 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. The drive-by shooting remains unsolved.
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.
This latest scandal could not have come at a worse time for brotha Kwame, as hizzoner's popularity with voters has declined sharply in the wake of revelations that he lied under oath about an extramarital affair with former chief of staff and high school classmate Christine Beatty.
According to the Detroit Free Press, only 25% of those who voted in the last mayoral election supporting him today, according to a poll released Friday.Fifty-three percent of those surveyed said they would vote against Kilpatrick and 17% were undecided, according to the poll of 300 Detroit voters by Denno-Noor Research and the Rossman Group.
Voters, however, were about evenly divided on whether Kilpatrick should resign: 43% said he should; 40% said no.
Kilpatrick's plunge in approval comes a week after the Free Press first reported on text messages between him and then-chief of staff Christine Beatty, indicating the two were having an affair and lied about it during a 2007 trial over the dismissal of two Detroit police officers.The city settled the case shortly after the trial in a deal that cost the city about $9 million. Beatty resigned Monday. Kilpatrick publicly apologized in a televised address Wednesday evening, but did not address any specifics.