Appeals panel considers Tamara Greene case

Judges appear open to some arguments by family's lawyer, one 'puzzled' by its dismissal

Cincinnati — After seven years and thousands of pages of documents, the $150 million civil case brought by the family of a slain stripper against the city of Detroit and former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick may have come down to less than an hour of legal jousting before a three-judge appellate panel on Tuesday.

Norman Yatooma, the attorney for the family of Tamara "Strawberry" Greene, gave a spirited defense of an appeal he hopes will overturn a Detroit federal judge's 2011 ruling that tossed the case, in part because of a lack of evidence.

And the appellate judges seemed receptive to some of Yatooma's arguments, with one saying he was "puzzled" by Chief U.S. District Judge Gerald Rosen's decision to rule that the city destroyed evidence sought in the case yet then dismiss it for a lack of evidence.

By Mike Wilkinson
From The Detroit News:

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