By: Dovesblood
May 15th 2008 was Nixzmary Brown's step-father, Cesar Rodriguez's weapons sentencing at Bronx Supreme Court. He had already been sentenced for the manslaughter in Brooklyn. This was for a jail violation. Guards found 2 homemade knives in his cell at Rikers and brought him up on charges of "promoting prison contraband". Rodriguez took a plea of 1-3 years and today was his sentencing.
The Supreme Court was a tall building made of green glass, located on the Grand Concourse. The hearing was before Judge Steven Barrett, whose courtroom was on the lower level. You have to ride a long escalator to get down to that floor. If you're afraid of heights, forget about it.
I got there an hour early. As I was waiting in the hall, I was thinking about little Nixzmary in her red Power Rangers costume. They brought a young prisoner whose arms and legs were shackled, right past me and everyone else in the hall and into a courtroom. Surprisingly, there was no media there.
On the right hand side of the courtroom were filing cabinets that a latina was putting away files in and there was also a door that inmates were brought out of. On the left hand side of the room was the jury box. The judge, Steven Barrett, was dressed in a black suit instead of the traditional judge's robe. The guards were sitting at a table socializing with each other. One of them wore a keychain with a picture of a woman in a swimsuit, dangling from his waist. One of the lawyers was reading a book in the first row.
When court started, there were long periods where no cases were called. The judge was on the bench reading a newspaper, people were talking loudly in the aisles, the guards were carrying on amongst themselves. The leader was telling the guard with the swimsuit keychain, "don't be a girly man", displaying his blatent homophobia.
BEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEP
People put their hands up to their ears, moans and groans in the aisles. Throughout the 3 hours I was there, a fire alarm continuously went off. People looked around to see if they should leave or stay in the building and be burned up. People choose to stay.
When cases were being called, the courtroom was as loose as a goose. The people in the aisles were talking loudly, not whispering. Lots of times, the spectators were so loud that the attorneys couldn't hear themselves and had to look back to the aisles as if to tell them to be quiet but no officers said anything and the conversations kept flowing. At one point the clerk left and the judge answered the phone. While the attorneys were arguing cases, people were walking from the jury box to the other side of the room continuously. It was back and forth, walking across the room past the judge during oral arguments.
BEEEEEEEEEEEP, BEEEEEEEEEEEP , BEEEEEEEEEEEP!
People put their hands to their ears once again, moans and groans coming from the aisles, people shook their heads. It was the fire alarm again. A woman's voice came over the loudspeaker in a very thick spanish accent saying there was a problem on the fourth floor and they were taking care of it. Her accent was so thick, I could barely decipher the words.
The leader guard said "If it were a real problem, she ( loudspeaker woman) wouldn't know what to do and would be panicing with everybody else."Then he said that if it were a real problem that he would be "out the door", and said to the other guards sitting at the table "you're on your own"! I sat there and thought "that's comforting". The guards didn't say anything. They just sat there and stared at there fearless leader.
An Indian lawyer walked into the room and sat in the first row. He had a manila file in his hand and when I looked at the name on the file , it said "Cesar Rodriguez". Then I realized, this was no Indian man, this was Michael Torres, Cesar's attorney!
There was a Nixzmary supporter in the room named, Natasha. I recognized her from Cesar's trial in Brooklyn. She was there every single day to show support for Nixzmary. Torres sat right in front of her.
At about 12 o'clock, they brought Cesar out through a side door located LESS THAT 5 FEET AWAY FROM THE FIRST ROW AISLE! His head was shaved and he wore a green prison jacket and green pants. He was kept handcuffed throughout the hearing. Michael Torres stood to Cesar's left and patted him on the hand up and down, when they brought him out.
The phone rang and the judge answered it, talking on the phone while Cesar was standing there handcuffed! I looked at my watch because the conversation seemed never ending. Finally, he got off the phone.
The judge pointed out that this was a plea bargain, that Cesar was a first time offender and stated that regardless of whatever happens on appeal in the case in Brooklyn, that he has to do the 1-3 year sentence. Then the judge sentenced Cesar to 1-3 years CONCURRENT with the 29 year sentence handed down in Brooklyn.
What concurrent means is that if a defendant is convicted of two or more crimes that have different sentences, all the sentences may be served AT THE SAME TIME, with the largest sentence controlling. If the sentence was consecutive, then Cesar would've gotten an extra 1-3 years added on to the 29 years, but concurrent means he'll be doing the 1-3 years at the same time that he's doing the 29 year sentence WITH NO EXTRA TIME ADDED ON! NOT ONLY DID CESAR GET AWAY WITH MURDER, BUT NOW, HE JUST GOT AWAY WITH PROMOTING PRISON CONTRABAND!!! The ba$tard is probably feeling on top of the world. First, Schwartz gets him off the hook on a murder rap and now Torres makes sure he doesn't do any extra time for possessing weapons! Unbelievable.
While the sentence is being read, Natasha, whose right up to the first row, sitting right near the door where Cesar has to walk through, looks noticably agitated. As the three guards are walking Cesar away from the defense table and towards the door, Natasha stands up and shouts "YOU'RE A PIECE OF $HIT"!!! The guards stop Cesar right in front of her. The two of them are only about 10 feet away from each other. You would think that the guards would keep walking, but no, THEY STOPPED AND MADE HIM STAND THERE 10 FEET AWAY FROM HER to listen to everything. He turns his face to look at her and she says "YEAH, YOU"!!! He mouths something to her but it was barely audible, then he turns his face to look straight ahead. Still the guards keep him there 10 feet in front of her. Then she says " YOU'RE GONNA BE RAPED! AND WHEN IT HAPPENS, THINK ABOUT NIXZMARY!!! YOU THINK ABOUT HER! YOU'RE GONNA BE RAPED IN THERE, YOU'RE GONNA BE RAPED!!!!" He turns back to look at her and the two of them are eye to eye, 10 feet from each other. Still the guards aren't moving. One of them said "mam, please, no" but they still stood there with him like frozen statues. At this point, the whole courtroom is silent with all eyes on Cesar and Natasha, watching the whole drama unfold. Then she says " YOU'RE GONNA DIE, YOU'RE GONNA BE BEAT UP, YOU'RE GONNA BE RAPED"!!!!! After that, the guards move him out from in front of her and through the door.
As soon as he crosses the threshold of the door, she shouts out " Biiiiiiiiitch"!!! Then she grabs her bag from off the bench and walks to the center aisle. Silence everywhere. All eyes glued on her. Then she looks back at the door Cesar just went through and shouts loud enough for him to hear "BABY KILLER"!!! She hurries out the courtroom, not looking back. She ran, not walked up the big, gigantic escalator and flew through the courthouse doors onto the street.
I caught up with her outside. She recognized me because I also attended Cesar's trial in Brooklyn. She said she came because she knew it would be the last time anyone from New York City got to see Cesar before he goes upstate and thought she was coming to witness him get a couple of extra years tacked onto his sentence. Instead he got no extra time at all! She said that her heart was beating so hard, that it was LITERALLY banging against her chest during the confrontation. She also said that she's thankful to Judge Barrett for not citing her for contempt of court. She said that's why she practically flew out the building. She also said that if she knew in advance that she wasn't going to be cited, that she would've said more and regrets not saying more.
We were talking about Nixzmary and she told me about an article written by a New York Post report reporter, Andrea Peyser, in 2006. Peyser went to Nixzmary's school, P.S.256, to interview the kids about Nixzmary. She learned that even though Nixzmary was frail and weak, she was still fast and graceful. She played tag, she played ball, she played Double Dutch. What Natasha told me next about what the article reported, made me develop a newfound respect for Nixzmary. I'm going to quote from the New York Post article written by Andrea Peyser :
"Though she had next to nothing, Nixzmary was the kind of girl who gave away what little she had. "She was my best friend" Mya Thomas told me yesterday. The doe eyed 7 year old stood under the careful watch of her mother outside P.S. 256, terrified to go inside. Why did you love her so much she was asked. The child did not hesitate. "Because she shared with me" said Mya. "When I didn’t have any snacks she shared hers with me." So the child who was starving gave her precious pretzels to a child who was merely hungry. Mya brushed away a tear.
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