(Photo: Nicole Bode)By: Dovesblood
On October 2nd. 2008, the murder trial of Nixzmary Brown's mother, Nixzaliz Santiago, continued. First I'll say what happened in a nutshell, then I'll go over the testimony in detail.
HERE'S WHAT HAPPENED IN A NUTSHELL:
Defense lawyer, Kathleen Mullin, made a motion to subpoena a New York Daily News reporter, Nicole Bode, who did an interview with the upstairs neighbor, Ulbis Rivera, 2 years ago. Rivera testified on the stand that Nixzaliz NEVER confessed to her that Cesar beat her but in an interview Rivera gave to the Daily News 2 years ago she said Nixzaliz DID say Cesar would beat her.
D.A. Ama Dwimoh (ja-mo) objected to the reporter being subpoened, saying, the person Bode did the interview with was anonymous, so Rivera can't be impeached. Mullin said that even though person was promised anonymity, Rivera's face was put on the front page of the Daily News so it had to have been her and Bode will testify it was Rivera that she interviewed.
After the lunch break, Dwimoh drops a bomb, saying she spoke to Rivera and Rivera said she was never interviewed by a Nicole Bode! She said the name on the buisness card she was given was, "Nancy Dillon".
All parties agree to have pictures of the reporters and have Rivera come back & identify which woman in the pictures interviewed her.
HERE'S THE TESTIMONY IN DETAIL:
Today, defense lawyer, Sammy Sanchez, was wearing a dark gray suit. Defense lawyer, Kathleen M. Mullin, was wearing a black skirt suit. Lead D.A., Ama Dwimoh, wore a grey skirt suit. Asst, D.A., Linda Weinman, wore a knitted light brown/beige dress. Asst. D.A., Anthea Bruffee, wore a white jacket with a black skirt.
Before Nixzaliz's case was called, the Judge Patricia DiMango heard another case. A orthodox Jewish man named Martin Vey who raped a little girl and made a plea to serve 7 years in prison came to court and his attorney was asking the judge not to remand him today. He wanted to be out to celebrate Yom Kippur. The judge remanded him anyway.
When they brought Nixzaliz out, she was wearing a brown shirt. She also wore a brown knitted bun holder that encompasses her entire bun. On the back of the holder was a white daisy. She wore black rimmed glasses.
Defense lawyer, Kathleen Mullin, stated she wanted to subpoena the Daily News reporter, Nicole Bode (who was in the courtroom sitting down) to say that she did interview Ulbis Rivera 2 years ago and Rivera said Nixzaliz confessed to her that Cesar beat her.
D.A., Dwimoh was contesting the subpoena saying that the woman in the article from 1-15-06 wanted to be anonymous, no line is quoted as being said by Rivera, so Rivera can't be impeached. Mullin said that Rivera's photo is in the article and Rivera herself, confirmed that it was her in the Daily News article.
Rivera also said during her previous testimony that the reason she counseled Nixzaliz to leave Cesar was because of financial reasons but in the article she says it was because Cesar was hitting Nixzaliz.
Asst. D.A., Anthea Bruffee, said that due to the Newspaper Shield Law, the prosecution would be limited as to what questions they could ask the reporter.
Judge DiMango called a bench conference.
DiMango said she doesn't take lightly, subpoenaing civilians because there are legal ramifications if they fail to comply. She said she called the Daily News legal department and they said they don't have a problem signing the subpoena.
The Daily News sent a lawyer, Ms Ann Carol to court to represent them. She was in her 60's, Caucasian, she had bangs and her gray hair fell to chin level.
Ms. Carol pointed out that the D.A. is not allowed to ask questions that go beyond what is written in the article, under the newspaper shield law. Carol said that she's not objecting if they the questioning of Bode is restricted to 2 quotes and any questions necessary to establish Rivera's identity.
She said she received a call from Asst. D.A., Bruffee, saying they plan to cross exam her widely. Carol said she would be invoking the reporters shield statute to prevent Bode from answering any questions that go beyond the article.
Bruffee points out that the article didn't say specifically who Nixzaliz confessed to, that it could've been police, that it could've been Nixzmary!! --- (it was pretty ridiculous of Bruffee to say that)
Dwimoh points out that there are inaccuracies in the article in reference to Nixzaliz being 8 months pregnant.
Also Bode doesn't have her notes that she took for the article.
Mullin, drinking a soda at the table, says she's not prepared to go ahead with this case without a ruling.
DiMango called a 2 minute break that turned into a half an hour.
The Judge's nails were painted so bright that I could see them all the way from the audience.
DiMango said she drafted a stipulation.
She asked the reporter, Nicole Bode to step out of the room.
It's 12pm. DiMango said she'll dismiss the jury for the day who've been in the jury room waiting since 9:30 this morning. When they come in, she tells them a funny story to lighten them up. I think it was about how a fictitious juror 3 called the court clerk saying she couln't come in for the day, the judge postpones court, only to find out it was a juror 3 from another courtroom. After the jurors start laughing, DiMango drops the bomb on them saying she's sending them home for the day (12pm) One of them said, "are you serious??"
DiMango asked the defense to waive their client's appearance. Mullin agreed and they took Nixzaliz out of the room.
Beverly Van Ness, the defense's appelate lawyer moves from the audience over to the defense table.
She restates the facts of Rivera's testimony. Van Ness said that the prosecution's whole case is that Nixzaliz was never afraid and this witness (Bode) impeaches Rivera. She said that to deny the jury this information would deny the defendant her constitutional rights.
Bruffee then stated that the prosecution would be damaged if they aren't allowed to ask about the surrounding circumstances.: how did you come to ask these questions?
Bruffee also said that there was a jailhouse interview around that same time and the reporter may have had knowledge of the substance of that interview. DiMango to Bruffee: you could cross exam and ask if she spoke to more than one person. The Daily News lawyer, Ms. Carol pointed out that the jailhouse interview took place after the article was published.
Asst da., Linda Weinman said that the article has very specific quotes, reporter doesn't have independant recollection, no notes, and the article makes alot of inferences.
DiMango asked Bruffee if she would permit Rivera to be called back or a stipulation.
Judge said, "this is a Pandora's box of issues that might come up. I'm leaning towards a stipulation".
DiMango said that there could be another way to impeach Rivera such as Rivera might have told someone else that Cesar hit Nixzaliz. She said the point is not the truth of the article.
Van Ness arguing in front of DiMango.
Mullin said that the reporter, Nicole Bode, is the sole source of the article and she also plans on calling Det. Scandol to ask whether RIVERA TOLD DET. SCANDOL THAT NIXZALIZ CAME BANGING ON HER DOOR, (under oath Rivera denied Nixzaliz banged saying she only knocked) Mullin said: the jury will see that Rivera lied to them under oath. She said she's calling Scandol to impeach Rivera's credibility.
Dwimoh asked what latitude will the prosecution have in cross examination. She said she wanted to ask about things that don't appear in the article and about circumstances surrounding the interview. Dwimoh said that the article quotes are consistant with Rivera's testimony and it's the parts that aren't in quotes that the defense wants to put in.
Judge DiMango said that she'd like to read a stipulation, and for each paragraph they should say if they agree: you'll recall that Rivera never said that Nixzaliz told her that Cesar hit her. Parties agree in the article reported that Rivera made statements to the contrary. Asst.da, Bruffee, jumps in and says,; no, the article doesn't say Rivera said that.
DiMango further read from the stipulation: further agree that if Bode were called, she'd state that she doesn't have an independant recollection of Rivera and doesn't possess her notes from the article.
Dwimoh then dropped a bomb by saying that the Daily News told Rivera she'd be anonymous but blew up a photo of her looking out her window and put it on the front page!! (I was shocked)
Then, the defense lawyer, Kathleen Mullin, threw, what could only be described as, a royal fit! Mullin thundered, "RIVERA IS NOT ON TRIAL FOR MURDER, NIXZALIZ SANTIAGO IS!!!!!!!!! WE HAVE A RIIIIGHT TO DEFEND OUT CLIENT ON MURDER CHARGES!!!!! DID THE PEOPLE THIIIIINK WE WEREN'T GOING TO CHALLENGE THEM ON THAT!!!!!
BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM! BOOOOOOM!
Mullin started banging her fists on the table! She said, "IF RIVERA SEES HER PHOTO IN THE DAILY NEWS, TO BAD !!! IF YOU GIVE AN INTERVIEW WITH THE DAILY NEWS, YOU BETTER KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GETTING YOURSELF INTO!!!!Then the Daily News lawyer, Ms. Carol said, that when Bode went over the article with her, she confirmed that what was written was an accurate reference to what Rivera said. Ms. Carol also said that it's a common practice to paraphrase sometimes.
Then DiMango started talking about the fetus in the jar and asked, "does anyone think what was in the jar was a fetus?" All of a sudden, you could hear a pin drop. No one said anything. Silence from the defense table. Silence from the prosecution's table. You could hear the crickets. It was like a bomb exploded that killed everyone and there was no one left on Earth to make a single sound. DiMango looked over at the defense and got silence. She looked at the prosecution and got silence. Finally, she moved on.
Why the judge asked that question is beyond me! My answer to that question is a resounding YES!!!!! If you believe that LIFE BEGINS AT CONCEPTION, then what was in that jar was a baby. It's only people that believe that life starts outside of the mother's womb, that refuse to acknowledge that what's inside of a woman's stomach IS HUMAN LIFE, IS A BABY. I'm not directing this comment to the judge, just in general, but if people are such cold hearted bitches that they can't love anything that doesn't have a head, 2 arms and 2 legs, even if it is their own child, then I feel sorry for them. Furthermore, if you do a Google IMAGE SEARCH for, "aborted babies", you'll see pictures of aborted babies and some of them DO have eyes, even at a couple of weeks old!
Moving on, Asst. D.A., Linda Weinman, said, in reference to the article: if it doesn't have quotes around it, how do you attribute it to Rivera?
Then, the lead D.A., Ama Dwimoh, not wanting to be upstaged by Kathleen Mullin, who earlier threw a fit, decided she was going to throw her own fit. Dwimoh turned around into the audience and GLARED at the Daily News lawyer. While still facing the audience, she looked at the Daily News lawyer and thundered,"IF THE DAILY NEWS FEELS THEY'RE IN A POSITION TO TIE THE HANDS OF THE PROSECUTION, THIS IS SERIOUS BUISNESS"!!!! She said,: they should allow the prosecution a full and meaningful cross examination and not try to stand up and object if question goes beyond the shield law!!!
Then the court recessed for lunch.
After the lunch break when everyone came back, Dwimoh told the judge that something broke during the lunch hour, there's new information and she asked the judge to ask the reporter, Nicole Bode, to step out of the room. Bode did.
Dwimoh dropped
a nuclear bomb!!
Dwimoh said that over the lunch hour, she spoke to Ulbis Rivera and that Rivera stated that she was not interviewed by Nicole Bode, the reporter whose name appears on the article! She said she was interviewed by a woman named "Nancy Dillon", whose buisness card she was given.
Rivera said that 2 women from the Daily News came to her house 2 years ago. One was Nancy Dillon, the reporter and the other woman was a photographer named Julia Xanthos.
Dwimoh said that on the bottom of the front page, Nicole Bode is only listed as a contributor and she wants Nancy Dillon to appear in court. (basically, Dwimoh is saying that Bode lied and never interviewed Rivera)
Judge DiMango said she'll permit the defense to recall Rivera to cross examine her and Det. Ferrera & Det Sandol will appear tomorrow as well.
Mullin said that the defense has confirmed with counsel from the Daily News that Nicole Bode was the person who interviewed Rivera. Mullin said she'd impeach Rivera on that too.
DiMango: maybe she was confused on who gave her the card? Linda Weinman shakes her head.
When Dwimoh said that she wants a subpoena for Ms. Dillon, the Daily News lawyer, Ms. Carol said that Dillon is in California but will speak on the phone to the D.A. with the Daily News lawyer present.
DiMango said that tomorrow they'd show Rivera photos of Nicole Bode, Nancy Dillon and Julia Xanthos and ask her which woman interviewed her. She told Carol to bring in photos of the reporters.
Mullin told the judge to inform the D.A. not to speak with Rivera anymore since she's now under cross examination.
Asst. D.A., Bruffee said, "we're not trying to deny the defendant her right to a fair trial, we just want the truth". Court ended.
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