Dispatcher’s Testimony Brings New Light to Murder

A former Detroit (Mich.) police dispatcher’s recollections of 911 calls in fall 2002 have refocused attention on whether the city’s police department and then-mayor Kwame Kilpatrick tried to block an investigation into the death of an exotic dancer at the mayor’s official residence. According to a deposition given by Sandy Cardenas in a civil lawsuit filed by the victim’s family, she fielded several 911 of a disturbance at the mayor’s mansion, and that officers and supervisors from four districts responded. Cardenas claimed the doors to the mansion were locked when officers arrived and that those inside would not open the doors for officers. She added that when the wife of former mayor Kilpatrick showed up, “things really heated up.” Cardenas also said that a co-worker later told her that logging tapes of the entire incident were taken away by an internal affairs officer the next night. Those logging tapes later surfaced with the seals broken on the boxes. State attorney general Mike Cox says he found no evidence that a party ever took place, but critics claim Cox is protecting his bid to run for governor. Read more about the incident here.