A short time after his first election as Mayor of Detroit, in September of 2002, a rumor began to circulate about a wild party at the Manoogian Mansion, the home set aside for the mayor. The story that has survived ever since, talks about a wild orgy complete with a stripper by the name of Tamara "Srawberry" Greene. While many "facts" are garbled, Greene was beaten by someone, possibly the wife of the mayor, according to the rumor.
Everyone in the state knows someone who was at that party. They, themselves were never there, usually it is a friend of a friend, but it has passed into the realm of KnownFact and Common Knowledge.
The mayor has always denied any such party ever took place. But the persistent rumor eventually led to a police investigation into the matter -- and that is where the problem for the mayor today, began. The investigation eventually led to the firing, by the Mayor of Deputy Chief Gary Brown and former mayoral bodyguard Harold Nelthrope for their roles in the investigation.
They sued the city, and the mayor, and eventually won a settlement that, with interest, approaches $ 9 million of taxpayer money. When the settlement was announced, Kilpatrick denounce the predominantly white jury as racist. It was subsequently discovered, however, that three potential black jurors were challenged and dismissed by Kilpatrick's lawyers, calling into question his motives about the racial issue he raised.
During that lawsuit, it was alleged that Kilpatrick and his Executive Assistant Christine Beatty were involved romantically and conspired together in the firings. Under oath they both denied any personal relationship. Included in evidence were text messages between Kilpatrick and Beatty that have only recently been made public under FOIA requests from the newspapers. Those text messages have been damning for the mayor.
Beatty, too, denied an affair -- 10 times on the witness stand in August. But the text messages sent to a city-issued SkyTel pager, and obtained by the Detroit Free Press, show a different picture.
"I'm madly in love with you," Kilpatrick wrote on Oct. 3, 2002, according to the messages obtained by the Free Press, which published some of the information after a protracted legal battle with the city. The newspaper did not reveal who supplied the information.
"I hope you feel that way for a long time," Beatty replied to the mayor. "In case you haven't noticed, I am madly in love with you, too!"
On Oct. 16, 2002, Kilpatrick wrote Beatty: "I've been dreaming all day about having you all to myself for 3 days. Relaxing, laughing, talking, sleeping and making love."
Adding fuel to the entire fire concerning the mayor's mysterious wild party, was the drive-by shooting death of Tamara Greene back in 2003, a few short months after the alleged incident. She died in a rain of gunfire, still behind the steering wheel of her vehicle on a Detroit street. That murder was never solved.
It is known that she danced for a group of drug dealers two weeks before, and was involved in an argument, resulting in one of those men blackening both of her eyes. Some question whether that incident, and the alleged incident with the mayor's wife are not one in the same. having passed through time into this mythological Manoogian Mansion orgy.
Former Detroit Police Lt. Alvin Bowman doesn't think so, claiming earlier this year that it was Detroit police officers who executed Greene on behalf of the mayor.
"I suspect that the shooter was a law enforcement officer, and more specifically, a Detroit Police Department officer," Bowman said in an affidavit. Reached by telephone, he elaborated: "She wanted money to stay quiet and they wouldn't give it to her."
Yet, there has been no evidence brought forward that would substantiate this belief. Nobody has ever been charged in the murder.
Although filed nearly five years ago, in April of this year, Attorney Norm Yatooma took over a $150 million lawsuit in federal court seeking damages against the mayor and city officials in the Greene death. He represents her 15 year-old son, Jonathon Bond. This lawsuit has further inflamed public opinion surrounding the case, and has added to the public demand that the mayor step down.
Since Yatooma took over the case, a federal judge has ruled he will allow the attorney to review text messages between city officials that could offer leads into Greene's death.
"He's aggressive and looks out for his clients," said Ron Reynolds, a Farmington Hills attorney who has worked with Yatooma. "He's extraordinarily good at getting attention for his cases."
The mayor's most recent remarks concerning racism are not his first in laying down that charge. Two years ago he used racism against him as a campaign platform, convincing the Detroit electorate that the White Suburbs supported his opponent Freeman Hendricks. Hendricks is also black.
In amending the charges against Kilpatrick this week, Prosecutor Worthy added no new counts, merely changing the wording of the existing accounts to match, what she says are the facts as they have emerged.
In amending the charges, Worthy did not add any. She changed the wording of existing charges dealing with perjury and misconduct in office to reflect, her office contends, fresh evidence that Kilpatrick lied under oath when an attorney for a cop suing him asked, "You said you don't whore around on your wife?" And Kilpatrick answered, "Yes."
Prosecutors said they have obtained thousands of still-undisclosed text messages, including some that reveal his intimate relationships with women besides Beatty and his wife.
Worthy and other city officials are mystified by the charges of racism leveled by the mayor. As a result of the revelations concerning the text messages, the all-black Detroit City Council has voted to ask the mayor to resign, going so far as to ask Governor Granholm to look into removing him from office.
The vote came a week after the mayor’s annual State of the City speech, in which he angrily blamed racism for his troubles and accused the news media of having a “lynch-mob mentality” against him.
The fact that racism exists can be little disputed. That it has played a part in this mayor's troubles is highly unlikely. Through arrogance and a sense of entitlement to the office, Kwame Kilpatrick has consistently demonstrated that he is unfit to hold the job of mayor of Detroit.
[UPDATE: Mayor assaults white investigator
Thursday afternoon Brian White and JoAnn Kinney, investigators working for the Wayne County prosecutors office, were attempting to serve subpoenas on a businessman at a house where Mayor Kilpatrick was visiting.
According to My Fox Detroit: In testimony Friday morning concerning the incident, White told the 36th District Court:
White testified he heard a voice he later identified as Kilpatrick coming from inside the house, saying "Don't tell those (expletive) anything. Get the (expletive) out of here."
--snip--
"It happened so fast. We were just trying to find Bobby Ferguson," said Kinney, who like White is an investigator with the prosecutor's office. "I couldn't believe this was happening. ... He was irate, very mad, upset."
Kinney, a black woman, also testified that Kilpatrick criticized her for working with White, who is white.
"`You should be ashamed of yourself,"' she quoted Kilpatrick as saying. "`Why are you a part of this?"'
Kilpatrick is black.
White testified Kilpatrick said: "`You shouldn't even be riding in a car with a guy named White."
Kilpatrick's lawyer denies the incident. Apparently Kilpatrick knows racism when he sees it.
