By: Dovesblood
On July 14th, 2008 there was another pretrial hearing for Nixzmary Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, held at Brooklyn Supreme Court. Lead DA Ama Dwimoh (ja-mo) and asst. DA Linda Weinman were there. Weinman showed up with a big black tape recorder in her hand. At the last hearing, Nixzaliz's lawyer, Sammy Sanchez, said he wanted to hear recordings of 2 witnesses, Ulvis Rivera and Shonda Brown. I'm assuming that's why Weinman showed up with the tape recorder.
Before the Nixzmary hearing started, another high profile pretrial hearing was going on. Some man who was being represented by attorney, Joe Tacopina, had a jet ski accident and killed someone. I think the victim's family was in the room.
When they brought Nixzaliz out, she was wearing a close fitting brown shirt and navy blue jeans with designs on the back pockets. She had on red rimmed glasses and her hair was in a bun tied with a pink scrunchie. For the duration of the entire hearing she was kept handcuffed and standing up. Usually at the hearings, they uncuff her and she can sit down. This hearing lasted maybe 20 minutes or so. I can't remember exactly. If the hearing was less than 5 minutes, then a defendant might be left cuffed but this hearing lasted alot longer and Sanchez never requested that his client be uncuffed and can sit down.
Judge DiMango started off the hearing by talking about what questions they'd be asking the jury. The prosecution wanted the judge to ask potential jurors if they've ever been arrested or been a victim of a crime.
The da's turned over to Sanchez pictures of the kids taken at Halloween.
They noted that a computer was seized from Cesar and Nixzaliz's apartment.
They discussed hearsay evidence.
The judge said the trial would probably last 6 weeks.
The prosecution also brought up how hypothetical questions to experts should be phrased. Sanchez agreed with the judge's ruling on how hypothetical questions should be phrased.
The prosecution said to the judge that Nixzaliz gave conflicting stories to Dr. Scraffo. (prison psychologist)
Asst. da, Linda Weinman, brought up to the judge that Sanchez previously stated that he would not use the insanity defense but in court documents, he says otherwise. The judge questioned Sanchez and he confirmed to the court that he's not using an insanity defense. Weinman pressed the issue stating that in documents, he says otherwise. DiMango made Sanchez confirm on the record that he wouldn't be using that defense. Linda Weinman did not seem satisfied.
Sanchez said to Judge DiMango that he is requesting that she appoint a lawyer named Beverly Van Ness to be his co-counsel. He said he doesn't want her to be in the courtroom but just to have her on hold to look up case law and come up with arguments during the trial. He said if he has to do it by himself during the trial, it might cause a delay at trial because he'd have to do everything by himself. Sanchez pointed out that the prosecutors have people to do that for them. DiMango said they have the entire Brooklyn DA's office behind them. DiMango said she had a feeling Sanchez would be asking this question about retaining another lawyer and she hypothetically asked this same question on his behalf but didn't say it was him she was asking about. A reporter chuckled in the audience. DiMango told Sanchez that if he wants another lawyer, he must get that lawyer from the ATB Panel and he can't choose which lawyer he wants, it has to be the next one up so there's no favoritism that one lawyer is better than another. She also told Sanchez that Ms.Santiago can retain private counsel but she can't ask the state to pay for the counsel of her choice.
When the judge adjourned the hearing, asst. da. Linda Weinman reminded her that they still haven't listened to the recordings of the 2 witnesses. (Ulvis Rivera and Shonda Brown) DiMango said she'd adjourn the hearing and only the lawyers and herself would listen to the recording in her office on the 4th floor. She obviously didn't want the public hearing the recording. In a past pre-trial hearing, DiMango mentioned that there was a hearing that only lawyers and herself attended by three way conference call. WHAT'S THE POINT OF HAVING A PUBLIC TRIAL IF THE PUBLIC CAN'T HEAR THE EVIDENCE?????? They shouldn't be having secret phone calls and sneaking off to the 4th floor!!!!! That defeats the whole purpose of a public trial. That was basically everything that happened at the hearing.
SOME PERSONAL THOUGHTS: These two lawyers, Ama Dwimoh and Sammy Sanchez seem mismatched. This trial is going to be like A TIGER VS. A LITTLE BUNNY RABBIT. When Ama Dwimoh springs into action, she's like a female tigress. She's going to devour Sanchez who comes off as a little bunny rabbit. I could totally see some juror giving him the sympathy vote because they feel bad for him.
There's only one more pre-trial hearing left until jury selection starts in September. Women tend to judge other women more harshly and men tend to feel sorry for women and want to rescue them. If Sanchez knows what he's doing, he'll try to get more men on the jury. The prosecution, of course, will do the opposite and try to get more women on.
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