Archive for category Mike Cox
Retired Police Officer Says Cox Was At Party
Posted by admin in Mike Cox, Uncategorized on May 21, 2010
Explosive new details have surfaced about the alleged party involving Kwame Kilpatrick and murdered exotic dancer Tamara Greene. Sworn testimony from Retired Detroit Police officer Sandy Cardenas says officers responding to 911 calls told her that Mike Cox was actually at the party. Cox, who would later call it an “urban legend,” denied the allegation.
Transcripts reveal a stunning exchange between lawyers and the former officer and 911 operator:
“Who did they tell you…who did they say was in the house?” an attorney asked Cardenas at the deposition.
“Mike Cox was in the house,” answered Cardenas.
“Did more than one person tell you who was in the house…at least in terms of the mayor and Mike Cox?” asked the attorney.
“Yes, several officers did,” Cardenas responded.
Cardenas was a 911 operator in 2002 and sent police to the Detroit mansion to investigate a number of disturbance calls in the fall of 2002.
In 2003, Attorney General Mike Cox announced his own investigation only to abruptly shut down the investigation a few days later. According to a Michigan State Police investigator Cox shut down the investigation without fully interviewing key participants and potential witnesses.
Cox recently said that “Most viewers out there probably think some sort of party happened. But the reality as a prosecutor, I need to produce someone who can come in a courtroom and say, ‘I was there and this is what happened,’ who can raise their right hand and do that.”
We don’t disagree with that idea, but that means actually interviewing potential witnesses. So why didn’t Mike Cox interview Officer Cardenas in his investigation?
Maybe he knew what she would say. “Mike Cox was in the house.”
Scandal Involving Cox Grows
Several affidavits filed this week directly contradict statements by Attorney General Mike Cox regarding an alleged party at the home of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
In 2002, it was widely reported that a party at Manoogian Mansion featuring 27 year-old exotic dancer Tamara “Strawberry” Greene abruptly ended when the mayor’s wife returned home and began assaulting Greene. Greene was later shot to death.
Manoogian Mansion
After a brief investigation in 2003, Cox dismissed accounts of the party as “urban legend.” Yet in a sworn affidavit, former 911 dispatcher Sandy Cardenas, says she sent police to the Detroit mansion to investigate a number of disturbance calls one fall night in 2002. Cardenas states that within hours of these calls, 911 tapes were removed by a Detroit police officer from internal affairs. “You don’t take tapes out… unless they don’t want people to know something,” Cardenas told The Detroit News. In her affidavit, Cardenas further testified that a sergeant in the police force told her that the mayor’s wife Carlita showed up at the party and an assault took place.
Former police Sgt. Odell Godbold testified that in the course of his investigation of Greene’s murder, he heard from several sources (including an active duty Detroit police officer and part-time stripper) that a party did occur on the night in question and that she, Greene and another stripper were in attendance. Godbold said his superior officers were aware of his findings and that he was ordered to turn over the Greene homicide file in July 2005. A few weeks later Godbold’s unit was disbanded overnight. He arrived at work to find the room cleared out and all computers confiscated. Godbold was reassigned and forced into early retirement a short time later.
(Copies of both Cardenas’ and Godbold’s full testimony is available here.)
In 2003, Attorney General Mike Cox announced his own investigation into whether the party ever occurred. Cox meet privately with Mayor Kilpatrick without so much as a court reporter, never interviewed Carlita Kilpatrick, and shortly after his investigation began, and was unable to interview Greene because she had recently been murdered. After only five weeks Cox ended his investigation saying the party was an “urban legend.”
Investigator Mark Krebs, a detective with the Michigan State Police, testified that Cox ended the investigation prematurely. Krebs said Cox “stymied” them by shutting the investigation down without fully interviewing key participants.
Why did Attorney General Mike Cox shut down his investigation into the party so quickly? Did the AG just colossally botch this case or are there reasons involved here that have yet to come to light?
Urban Legend or Urban Cover Up?
It’s one thing for an attorney general, who is supposed to be an “independent chief law enforcement” officer, to state he doesn’t believe he has enough information to continue an investigation. But it’s another thing entirely when he crafts a defense for the accused. Attorney General Mike Cox in the Manoogian Mansion party investigation went beyond getting out of the way. He threw Kwame Kilpatrick a lifeline in 2003 by starting the “Urban Legend” defense.
Now, important new information may soon be coming to light regarding Cox’s handling of the investigation of the murder of Tamara “Strawberry” Greene. Greene is alleged to have attended a now-infamous party at Manoogian Mansion in 2003 thrown by then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. Reports allege that at the party, Greene found herself in an altercation with the mayor’s wife, which landed Greene in the emergency room.
According to Fox News 2 in Detroit, an ex-assistant attorney general under Cox named Brooke Jordan will soon come forward with more information about Cox’s decision to shut down an investigation into Greene’s murder.
Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox led an investigation into the alleged events at the Manoogian Mansion, but abruptly called the probe off without ever interviewing Carlita Kilpatrick, labeling the whole affair an “urban legend.” Investigator Mark Krebs, a detective with the Michigan State Police, testified in the civil lawsuit against Kilpatrick and others that Cox ended the investigation prematurely. According to the Michigan Messenger:
“Krebs testified that investigators, himself included, were stymied by Attorney General Mike Cox, reports WDIV television in Detroit. Krebs alleges that Cox would not authorize subpoenas to further the investigation, directed detectives not to interview Kilpatrick’s wife, Carlita, and told investigators he would interview Kilpatrick himself, alone, without attorneys or other witnesses present.”
It was as the investigation was getting underway that Greene was shot to death in her car. It goes without saying that Greene would have been a valuable witness in the case against Kilpatrick. The civil lawsuit by Greene’s family alleges that the police were actually involved in the killing. An affidavit filed by former Detroit police lieutenant Alvin Bowman states that “I suspected that the shooter was a law enforcement officer, and more specifically, a Detroit Police Department officer.” Bowman contended that the high number of .40 caliber bullets that hit Greene but not her boyfriend would indicate that the shooter had firearms training.
Questions remain about why Cox closed the investigation into the murder of Tamara Greene, and some question whether Cox and Kilpatrick (who subsequently pled guilty to two counts of perjury) struck a secret deal to keep the Manoogian affair quiet. Expect to hear more in the weeks to come.
Bad Behavior Leaves Cox Open to Extortion
Geoffrey Fieger
Last year, we found out some of the nation’s most public figures were serial philanderers. It turns out Tiger Woods had more cocktail waitresses than major golf titles. ESPN baseball analyst Steve Phillips lost his job after he took advantage of the intern pool at his company.
This phenomenon didn’t exclude politicians. South Carolina governor Mark Sanford went missing for a couple weeks before returning from Argentina to confess his infidelity – which cost him a chance at the GOP nomination in 2012. Near-President John Edwards famously fathered a love child on the campaign trail, then pinned it on one of his aides.
While the high-profile infidelity of famous athletes surely disappoints fans, the same behavior by politicians strikes at the heart of their trustworthiness to lead and makes them vulnerable to extortion. What happens when elected officials have secrets they would prefer to keep secret?
Most often that isn’t a worry because the perpetrator’s career in public service is almost certainly over.
That’s not the case here in Michigan, where one of our state’s most famous philanderers is still taken seriously. In January, The Oakland Press named Michigan gubernatorial candidate Mike Cox one of their “Top 10 Cheaters” of the decade. In 2005, Cox held a press conference to announce that he had taken part in an extramarital affair in 2003, while serving as the state’s Attorney General. Cox only went public with the affair after trial lawyer Geoffrey Fieger allegedly threatened to expose it if Cox did not drop an investigation into Fieger’s alleged campaign finance violations.
One can only wonder what other secrets leave Mike Cox vulnerable to extortion.
Michigan Matters. Michigan deserves better.