By: Dovesblood
On Thursday, September 4th. 2008, there was another pre-trial hearing for Nixzmary Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, held at Brooklyn Supreme Court. Jury selection was suppose to start yesterday but due to new evidence coming to light, it was postponed. Three videos seized from a home computer, one of which shows Nixzmary singing and dancing at a birthday party were revealed. Also it was reported that the DA has two witnesses, one of which, is a relative who claims Nixzaliz knew Cesar was molesting Nixzmary. My personal guess is that that relative is Iris Rodriguez. We already know that Nixzmary told her aunt, Iris that Cesar was molesting her and when she was further questioned and saw how serious the situation was that she later denied it. They all thought she was making it up so she could go live with her grandmother in Puerto Rico That's my guess who the relative is. I could be wrong.
The two secret witnesses were due to testify today at a closed door hearing. I came to court knowing I would be spending all day out in the halls since they don't allow anyone inside the courtroom at closed hearings.
The lead DA, Ama Dwimoh (ja-mo), wasn't there. The two asst. DA's, Linda Weinman and Anthea Bruffee were present. Weinman was wearing a summery, sleeveless pink dress with white flowers and Bruffee by contrast was like the Grim Reaper in a black suit. ( just kidding, I like Ms. Bruffee and I wear black too.) Nixzaliz's lawyer, Sammy Sanchez and her new lawyer, Kathleen Mullin were present. Mullin was wearing a royal blue suit jacket. I've seen her in this royal blue jacket before. I'm wondering if this is her trademark? Ama Dwimoh's trademark is her white pearl necklace, Nixzmary's grandmother, Maria Gonzalez's trademark is her black leather jacket. If the next time I see Mullin and she's in Royal Blue, then I'll definately know that it's her trademark.
Linda Weinman walked into the room with a VCR in a gigantic Manila case. There also was a DVD in a white DVD envelope on the DA's desk. Everyone was just sitting there waiting for Judge DiMango to arrive.
When I turned my head to the left, I got the shock of my life!! I must have missed it when they walked in but there sitting in the aisle were Nixzmary's stepdad's attorneys, Jeff Schwartz and his co-counsel, Barry Deonarine. I couldn't believe it. I thought I was through with those two and now here they are live and in the flesh. Deonarine is currently representing the mother of Ginelis Jimenez. She's a 3 year old girl who was beaten to death by her father while her mother did nothing. Schwartz probably came snooping around to see if anymore new evidence was witheld from him at Cesar's trial.
After Judge Dimango arrived, she informed Sanchez that even though his client is in the building, they're not done processing her paperwork so there'd be a delay.
The two Spanish translators went back to their office.
When Nixzaliz finally came in, she was wearing a dark brown shirt and dark navy blue jeans with designs on the back pockets. Her dark brown hair was in a bun tied with a creme scrunchie. A part of the bun had a blondish streak. She was wearing black rimmed glasses instead of her usual red rimmed glasses. She's still heavy set with a plump, young looking face and her complexion is milky white.
The Spanish translators had to be called back from their office.
After everyone arrived, Dimango dropped a bomb!!! She announced that though there was suppose to be a closed door hearing scheduled for today with two secret witnesses testifying, she said it's not happening today! She never said why. She also mentioned that the Daily News had sent a lawyer there to argue that the press be allowed to stay in the room during the secret testimony but since there would be no hearing today, the issue is moot. (is that a word?)
There was a bench conference and afterwards, the defense lawyer, Kathleen Mullin, walked over to the D.A.'s table, signed a document and Linda Weinman handed her a large envelope that was filled with paperwork. When Mullin was walking back to the defense desk with the envelope, she stopped and looked right at me in the audience. She just stood there looking at me, almost as if she was trying to size me up and figure out who I am. After about a half a minute she walked back to the defense table.
There was another bench conference and the judge held multiple picture slides up to the light so she could see them. The slides were film with a border of white surrounding the film.
It was mentioned that the defense wants their experts to review colored photographs of the crimescene.
Also, the defense will be using as their Medical Examiner, Dr, Charles Wetli. He was the same ME that Jeff Schwartz used at Cesar's trial. It was revealed back then that for two days worth of his tesimony, he would normally charge $10,000 but was giving Schwartz a "reduced price". Also, Wetli would be using the same microscopic slides that he took of Nixzmary's cells, in this trial. At Cesar's trial, those slides showed the presence of fat cells and the defense argued that people who are starving have no fat cells. Linda Weinman, got Wetli to admit that he didn't know which part of the body the fat cells came from and that the buttocks contain more fat cells than any other part of the body and he can't say for sure that the cells didn't come from there.
It was confirmed that the prosecution would not be using any of Cesar's written, video, or oral statements. I could understand why they would choose not to. Cesar's statements show him being violent to Nixzmary and a jury might think that if he was the violent one that he also probably killed her. (HE DID!) .
It was also revealed that the prosecution brought in the 911 tapes and the prosecution turned over the grand jury minutes of Dr. Guitierez over to the defense. Dr.Guitierez was the Medical Examiner who did the autopsy on Nixzmary. He's also the child molesting, necrophiliac, pervert who did the rape kit on her dead body. Perhaps the minutes were what Weinman signed over to Mullin earlier on when she gave her the envelope?.
Linda Weinman revealed that of the three witnesses they were planning to call, Estelle Rosa, Ulvis Rivera and Shonda Brown, that Shonda Brown can't be located!.
They also discussed a list of charges, but I don't remember what they said. Sorry.
Judge DiMango also brought up the issue that the defense is contesting the translation of Nixzaliz's statements that she gave to the police. The person who did the translating from Spanish into English was Detective Georgina Valentine. It's been alleged in the past that Valentine threatened Nixzaliz that if she didn't talk, that she'd never see her kids again and that Valentine translated the statements the way she wanted to and not what Nixzaliz actually said. DiMango said that Sanchez and Nixzaliz can go into a back room and listen to the tapes and point out which parts they feel weren't translated correctly. The lawyers left with Nixzaliz to go listen to the tapes.
Here's an interesting thing that happened. Joe Tacopina, the lawyer for Joran Van Der Sloot who is accused of killing Natalee Holloway was in the courtroom. His case was called before Nixzaliz's. He's representing some man who killed someone at jetski accident. Tacopina was also the lawyer for one of the cops in the Abner Louima case. Louima was an immigrant who was sodomized by New York police officers. Anyway, Schwartz sat there chit chatting with Tacopina. I guess they all know each other.
After court was over, Jeff Schwartz stayed inside of the courtroom and was giving an interview to reporters from the Daily News and the NY Post.
Outside in the halls, his partner, Barry Deonarine was giving an interview in Spanish to the Spanish TV station, Univision. During Cesar's trial, everyday at the end of the day, Schwartz would give television interviews to the English media and Deonarine, who's Indian and not Spanish, would give interviews to the Spanish media using his school taught Spanish speaking skills.
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