Tag: TRIALS
A Manhattan prosecutor could face criminal charges after he and his wife allegedly videotaped their nanny undressing and showering in their bathroom
The nanny’s lawyer said a grand jury could soon hear evidence against the husband, Matthew Seltzer, 35, including possible felony charges of unlawful surveillance, attempted unlawful surveillance and falsification of business records.
“I am glad to see the District Attorney’s office finally moving forward with some semblance of justice,” said attorney Vincent White, noting that Brooklyn prosecutors told him they would present the case to a grand jury within four to six weeks.
Seltzer is married to Lauren Angelo-Seltzer, a Manhattan DA assistant.
Vanessa Rivas, 23, claims she caught the couple red-handed in January 2018 just as she was about to disrobe and shower at their StuyTown apartment.
She told The Post that she spotted the hidden camera, disguised to look like a black iPhone charger.
“I noticed a glare, and I was just like, wait this is odd, so I pulled it out of the socket, and the last video is me looking at it like, ‘What is this?’”
When she confronted Angelo-Seltzer, the ADA denied any knowledge of the camera — then used her law enforcement connections to try to intimidate the young care giver, Rivas claims.
The prosecutor summoned cops from the 13th Precinct, who threatened to arrest Rivas if she didn’t hand over the camera’s memory card, the nanny says. When she refused, officers let her go.
Then Angelo-Seltzer’s mom, former Manhattan Criminal Court judge Eileen Koretz, offered to pay Rivas for lost earnings after she’d quit her nanny gig if Rivas agreed to “end this.”
Instead, Rivas filed a police report and hired White to file a civil case against the couple.
Koretz, a judicial hearing officer, has since resigned from that post amid a probe by the state court inspector general, which is looking into whether the ex-judge meddled in the case, according to a court spokesman.
“I resigned solely for personal reasons and to spend more time with my family,” Koretz said in an email to The Post when asked if her departure was related to Rivas’ claims.
But court IG Sherrill Spatz launched her probe in January after The Post reported on the lawsuit. Koretz resigned in April, before the probe was completed, according to state court spokesperson Lucian Chalfen.
Rivas declined to drop the charges in an early deal offered to Seltzer by Brooklyn prosecutors, who are handling the case to avoid a conflict of interest, according to White of White, Hilferty and Albanese.
He said prosecutors revealed that Seltzer tried to alter his credit card statements to hide the camera purchase, leading to the possible falsification of business records charge, White claims.
Court documents show that Seltzer and Angelo-Seltzer have hired separate attorneys.
If convicted, Seltzer faces four to seven years in prison and could have to register as a sex offender.
Seltzer and his attorney could not be reached for comment.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/06/01/man-could-face-7-years-in-prison-if-convicted-in-nanny-spycam-case/
Photo Credit: nypost.com/Angel Chevrestt
Jilted wife reportedly made cheating hubby get her name tattooed over his crotch
The South Carolina woman on trial for allegedly abducting her husband’s lover reportedly forced her spouse to get her own name tattooed above his crotch as payback for cheating.
Testimony in the kidnapping trial against Tammy Moorer revealed Monday that the jilted wife was overheard explaining the bizarre “punishment” to her 38-year-old husband, Sidney Moorer.
Tammy is accused of conspiring to kidnap 20-year-old Heather Elvis, who mysteriously vanished in December 2013 from Myrtle Beach after having a sexual relationship with the defendant’s husband. Nearly five years later, the young hostess hasn’t been found and is presumed dead.
Prosecutors contend Tammy became vindictive after discovering the affair in October 2013 and hearing rumors about the possibility that Elvis was pregnant.
Jacob Melton, who was friends with one of the Moorers’ sons, testified Monday that Sidney got Tammy’s name tattooed on his lower waist when she learned about the extramarital affair.
“If you didn’t have that thing with that girl, this wouldn’t be happening,” Tammy allegedly told her husband, according to Melton’s testimony.
As the trial entered its seventh day Monday, Elvis’ former employer also provided testimony.
Dennis Clark, a former manager at the Tilted Kilt — the bar where Sidney performed maintenance work and met Elvis — said Tammy demanded on the phone that the hostess be fired or her husband wouldn’t continue to do repairs.
Clark claimed the conversation occurred sometime between October and December 2013.
“Tammy barged into the conversation and proceeded to tell me how Heather was causing problems for her family, spreading rumors that she was pregnant by her husband and [said] to fire her,” Clark told the court.
The defense team maintained Monday that the evidence in the trial shows there was an affair but doesn’t indicate that Tammy played any role in Elvis’ disappearance.
Both Tammy and Sidney have been charged in connection to Elvis’ case. The pair initially faced murder and kidnapping allegations in 2014, but two years later the murder charges were dropped.
Sidney was tried last year on the kidnapping charge, but the proceedings ended in a mistrial when the jurors couldn’t come to a unanimous decision. No future date has been set for his retrial.
In 2017, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison for obstruction of justice in the case.
Sicko convicted of raping, murdering young nursing student and bragging about it
SAVANNAH, Tenn. — A Tennessee man was convicted Friday of kidnapping, raping and murdering a 20-year-old nursing student who disappeared from her home six years ago.
Zachary Adams was found guilty after an 11-day trial in Savannah, Tennessee. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges. Holly Bobo was 20 when she was reported missing from her home in rural Parsons on April 13, 2011.
Bobo’s disappearance led to a massive search and her case received national attention. Her remains were found in September 2014 in woods not far from her home in Decatur County, about 100 miles southwest of Nashville.
After the jury was let out of the courtroom, Bobo’s mother Karen hugged prosecutor Jennifer Nichols and Bobo’s father Dana hugged Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn.
A sentencing hearing involving the same jury that decided the verdict will begin Saturday. The murder charge can carry the death penalty.
Rickey Alexander, a Bobo family friend, said the verdict was “6 1/2 years in the making.” Alexander noted that Bobo used to sing at church. “She finally has the peace in the valley that she sang about.”
Thompson, the defense attorney, said she was extremely disappointed in the verdict, and she said Adams was very upset. “He was really shaking his head. He was white as a ghost.”
Judge C. Creed McGinley moved the trial from Decatur County to neighboring Hardin County in search of an unbiased jury. The jury deliberated 3½ hours Thursday and about seven hours Friday before reaching a verdict.
“I’m not sure you can get an unbiased jury” in a case that has received so much attention in the area, Thompson said.
Prosecutor Paul Hagerman declined comment.
Two other men, Jason Autry and Adams’ brother John Dylan Adams, also face charges of kidnapping, raping and killing Bobo.
Autry testified against Adams, telling jurors that Adams told him that he, his brother and their friend Shayne Austin had raped Bobo. Autry also said that he served as a lookout as Adams shot Bobo near a river in the day she was reported missing.
Autry was on a list of witnesses who were offered immunity in the case. He said he testified because he wanted leniency.
Autry’s lawyer has told the judge that a trial does not need to be set for Autry, indicating he has reached a deal with prosecutors. A trial date has not been set for John Dylan Adams.
The TBI has said that the Bobo investigation is the most exhaustive and expensive in the agency’s history.
But investigators found no DNA evidence connecting Bobo to any of the men. Instead, they relied on Autry’s story and other testimony from friends and jail inmates who said Adams spoke of harming Bobo.
Thompson had accused Autry of selling his “tall tale” to prosecutors in return for the death penalty.
“A lot of people believed that if you say something, it must be true,” Thompson said.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/09/22/sicko-convicted-of-raping-murdering-young-nursing-student/
Lawyers want man using big-penis defense to show jury his erection
Lawyers in the murder trial of a Florida man who wants to show his penis to the jury went back and forth this week on whether he would need to be erect.
The trial for Richard Patterson, 65, of Margate began on Tuesday, but the judge has not ruled whether his genitals will be presented in the court room.
Patterson’s lawyers want to use his penis as evidence to argue that his girlfriend Francisca Marquinez, 60, choked to death while performing oral sex on him in 2015.
The prosecution reportedly doesn’t object, but argued at the trial that his penis must be erect, according to news station WPLG.
“Do we do it in the back? Do we do it in open court?” assistant state attorney Peter Sapak asked. “How is the defendant going to be erect when the jury views it? Because a flaccid penis, whether it be a picture or the jury actually seeing it, is completely irrelevant. It needs to be erect.”
Defense attorney Ken Padowitz slammed the prosecution’s argument, saying the court should hear from a medical expert about the logistics. Padowitz wants to call former Broward County medical examiner Ronald Wright as a witness to testify that Marquinez’s death “is consistent with being accidentally sexually asphyxiated during oral sex.”
“He’s telling the court, as if he’s a medical expert in his argument, that it matters whether the penis is erect or not,” Padowitz said. “But he’s merely speculating here since he’s never asked that question to Dr. Wright in definition, and he doesn’t, obviously, know, actually, what the expert opinion is what is needed or not needed in order for a human being to choke.”
Patterson faces second-degree murder charges and if convicted, could be sentenced to life in prison.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/17/judge-to-decide-if-murder-suspect-can-show-penis-to-jury/
Man admits to tricking women into sex for ‘porn rehearsals’
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — A Kansas City-area man has pleaded guilty to duping dozens of women into having sex with him on camera by telling them they were rehearsing for roles in pornographic movies.
The U.S. attorney’s office says 34-year-old Mario Antoine, of Raymore, pleaded guilty to one wire fraud count and will be sentenced to 10 years in prison under the terms of the deal he agreed to Friday. He also will be required to pay restitution to his victims. Formal sentencing is set for Sept. 13.
Prosecutors said Antoine created online aliases as a talent manager, photographer and videographer and claimed to work for fictitious companies in the pornography industry. Investigators say he promised to pay the women thousands of dollars.
Prosecutors say when the women complained about not being paid, Antoine forwarded images of the sexual activity to their employers or significant others.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/05/13/man-admits-to-tricking-women-into-sex-for-porn-rehearsals/