By: Dovesblood
Tuesday, April 29th. 2008, was another pretrial hearing for Nixzmary Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago held at Brooklyn Supreme Court on the 19th floor.
Nixzmary's biological family wasn't there which didn't surprise me. The biological uncle kicked Nixzaliz, Cesar and the kids out of his apartment and onto the street to live in a homeless shelter. If he couldn't care less that he kicked Nixzmary out onto the street, then it's not surprising that he couldn't care to be there. Then there are the cousins who never cared enough to meet Nixzmary when she was alive but show up every now and then at court for photo opps. Then there's the family who let Nixzaliz and the kids stay in homeless shelters rather than take them in. Don't have space? Spread a comforter on the floor and bring out some blankets and pillows. No where to be seen was the grandmother, suing for 250 million dollars or the biological father, Abdurrahman Mian, also suing the city. If he's so broken up that his daughter (who he never met) was murdered, why wasn't he there today? Probably because there's no money around. What about the Pakistani side of the family? Nixzmary's got a whole other biological family out there, why weren't they there? Mian, abortion is against Islam, so why were you encouraging Nixzaliz to abort your beautiful daughter? You think Allah would approve of you trying to abort your own daughter? Shame on you! Do the people in your masjid know you tried to kill your own daughter, abandoned her, and are now trying to collect blood money? That money is haram. Islam forbids you from taking it, not that you would get it anyway.
Continuing on with the hearing, Sammy Sanchez, Nixzaliz's lawyer showed up with a lawyer representing a domestic violence organization called STEPS that Nixzaliz attended. The lawyer, Selene, was an older female with short white hair. I don't know her last name.
While Sanchez waited for the courtroom doors to open, a sketch artist stood there drawing him. I heard it through the grapevine that Sanchez is a lightweight lawyer. Now, I don't know how true this is, but if it is, then that spells trouble for Nixzaliz. In order for her to stand a chance in a case like this, she needs a shark, not an assistant.
Lead D.A., Ama Dwimoh (ja-mo) and Anthea Bruffy were there. The other D.A., Linda Weinman, wasn't.
Two spanish translators walked into the room which I thought was strange because last time, Sanchez requested the Spanish translator, Migdalia, with the long ponytail who's 50ish be assigned to Nixzaliz. Apparently, they didn't want the second translator, Jeanette, a female with short black hair. Judge DiMango agreed that Migdalia be assigned, so it was strange when both of them showed up.
There was a bench conference before Nixzmary Brown's mother, Nixzaliz was brought in. I was trying to hear what they were saying but two female reporters were chatting and I couldn't hear over them. These two just wouldn not shut up! I was trying my best to hear over them but in the end, I was stuck listening to tv station gossip about which station offers contracts and about a new borough segment for Queens County!
They brought Nixzaliz into the room while the bench conf. was still going on. All of a sudden you could hear a pin drop. Everyone stopped chatting to look at her. She was wearing a thin baby pink sweather with a V neck. She wore a striped pink and white shirt inside and navy blue jeans with designs on the back pockets. The design was in the shape of a horseshoe. Her hair was in a high ponytail with a yellow ponytail holder. She looks so young, almost like a child. I can see why child molester, Cesar , married her because she looks so much like a child herself. In person, she really doesn't look like her mug shot photos.After she sat down, the chatting in the room resumed. Migdalia sat to Nixzaliz's right and the Jeanette sat to the right of the defense desk against the wall.
Judge DiMango said that in response to Sanchez's accusations at the last hearing that Robert Abrams, the lawyer who Nixzaliz fired had been going to visit her at Rikers, that she (DiMango) called Abrams up. DiMango said Abrams told her that he was called to go visit Nixzaliz and didn't just show up there without a reason. DiMango said that she told him that the next time he goes there, even if he is called, to inform her first.
DiMango also said that at the last hearing she ruled that 3 autopsy photos couldn't be entered into evidence saying they would affect the dignity of the child. She said today that she's still standing by her ruling. The photos that she ruled against were: one showing Nixzmary's palms tied in brown paper bags. Cesar's jury as well as everyone in the room that day already saw this photo. The reason her palms were tied inside of paper bags was to let the Medical Examiner know to get fingernail scrapings, as they might contain the DNA of her killer. Dr. Barbara Sampson, the ME who testified at Cesar's trial, said this was never done because Nixzmary's nails were so short that they couldn't get scraping without deforming her body and they didn't want to deform the body even more when they had DNA from other sources. The other photo DiMango ruled against was a photo of Nixzmary's hand as well as any photo depicting complete nudity.
Sanchez told the judge he wants the manslaughter charge dropped because it involves deliberate action and he said Nixzaliz never had any deliberate forethought, that Nixzaliz tried to stop Cesar and all she ever admitted to doing was "push" Nixzmary once. D.A., Bruffy, said they weren't dropping the manslaughter charge and accused Nixzaliz of acting in concert with Cesar.
The prosecutors said they were turning over all of the grand jury minutes to Sanchez.
DiMango then said that even though she ruled that the Spanish translator, Migdalia, could be assigned to Nixzaliz, she now said that the two translators work as a team and the other one has to be there. I can only infer that maybe there's some problem with Nixzaliz and Jeanette, the second translator with the short black hair?.
DiMango also told the prosecution to turn over all Brady material to the defense if they have any. Brady material is material that could potentialy help the defense that the prosecutors are legally required to turn over. Brady material not being turned over is what Cesar's attorney, Jeff Schwartz, was bitching about all the way to the bitter end.
The judge wanted to know from both sides what their defenses would be. She said that Nixzaliz's previous attorney, Robert Abrams, wanted to use the insanity defense, battered women's syndrome, post partem depression, regular depression and that Nixzaliz has a low IQ as a defense.
When I heard "low IQ" as a defense, I could barely contain my anger. I thought "are you effing kidding me"? I was seething mad. I was seeing RED!!!! Lots of people have low IQ's and don't stand by and do nothing while their kids are being murdered! They're giving the people with low IQ's a bad name. Even a complete retard would have known something was wrong and ran for help. That just goes to show how desparate Abrams was that he'd actually considered using that as a defense.
Sanchez told DiMango that he doesn't plan on using the insanity defense and isn't sure if he'll use a battered woman's defense, saying he'd decide by the next court date. He said his defense would be more "psychological".
The prosecution subpoened records from a domestic violence organisation Nixzaliz attended called STEPS. The STEPS lawyer, Selene, was in the courtroom to fight the subpoena and argued that Nixzaliz talking to a social worker is protected under the law. DiMango said there were exceptions to the law. She didn't make a ruling.
That's basically everything that happened at the hearing.
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