DETROIT, April 22 (UPI) -- Detroit news media have asked a court to unseal depositions in a lawsuit against the city by the family of a slain stripper.
WJBK-TV joined in the motion made Wednesday by lawyers for the Detroit Free Press, the newspaper said.
Tamara Greene was gunned down in 2003 in a drive-by killing. According to rumors, the wife of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick attacked Greene during a party in 2002 at the mayor's official residence, but no one has ever confirmed either the party or the attack took place.
"There is no constitutional support for the court appointing itself as the gatekeeper for what the public should, and should not, know about what occurs in the people's courts, particularly where, as here, the subject matter is of such obvious public interest and concern," Herschel Fink, a Free Press lawyer, wrote in a letter several weeks ago to Gerald Rosen, chief judge of the U.S. District Court.
Rosen has said the depositions were sealed to protect the investigation into Greene's killing. Fink pointed out the homicide is still unsolved after 7 years.
Norman Yatooma, a lawyer for Greene's family, alleges city officials undercut the investigation. Kilpatrick and former Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings are among the other defendants named in the suit.
