The Brooklyn DA's office played a videotaped interview with the mother on trial of killing her abused daughter, saying the video implicated her in the death. Nixzaliz Santiago spoke to police and prosecutors after her 7-year-old daughter Nixzmary Brown was found dead in January 2006, saying that she didn't "call for help because Nixzmary"--who was brutally beaten by Santiago's husband--was "moaning, breathing." Prosecutors, who say that Santiago's inaction led to the child's death, pointed to......

After a judge declared a mistrial in the the animal cruelty case of a 205-pound man who killed a 7-pound cat, some of the jurors explained what happened during deliberations. The Post reported that "exhausted-looking" Shamsul Islam, Juror No. 11, said, "It was 11 to 1." Joseph Petcka had claimed his girlfriend's declawed cat Norman attacked him, so he defended himself by kicking the animal. But the prosecutors pointed to the extent of the cat's......

Yesterday, Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Patricia DiMango stopped the Nixzmary Brown murder trial to question a juror. A letter suggested the 35-year-old male schoolteacher indicated he could not be fair during jury selection by raising his hand, but "the judge and the lawyers did not notice," according to the Daily News. However, the juror said he could be fair in the emotional trial, where Nixzaliz Santiago is accused of murdering her 7-year-old daughter. Earlier this......

Joseph Petcka, on trial for animal cruelty after fatally beating his girlfriend's cat, claimed self-defense, saying the 7 pound cat attacked him during his testimony. He told the jury, "He was coming at my legs." Keep in mind that Petcka is 205 pounds and 6'2". Petcka and Lisa Altobelli had gotten into a fight last year, with Petcka yelling, "You love that cat more than me." Altobelli fled the apartment after Petcka allegedly grabbed her......

After a jury found her stepfather guilty of manslaughter, the Brooklyn DA's office is readying for a second trial in the death of 7-year-old Nixzmary Brown. This time, her mother Nixzaliz Santiago will be in court, and the Daily News reports reports prosecutors may suggest Santiago was "jealous because she believed her husband having sex with the 7-year-old" and therefore allowed her daughter to be tortured. A prosecutor said, "Motive is always relevant. If she......

Natavia Lowery, who is suspected of killing her boss, celebrity real estate broker (and former manager for the Ramones) Linda Stein, has announced she has a new lawyer. The Daily News reports, "Her notoriously talkative attorney Ron Kuby has been replaced by the taciturn Rick Jones." The NYPD said that Lowery, 26, bludgeoned Stein after the 62-year-old was rude to her and blew pot smoke in her face; investigators also point to Lowery's confession. However,......

A man on trial for slashing his roommate with a scalpel was in court "with a spit-shield around his mouth." That's because Akieme Nesbitt's lawyer said Nesbitt spat on him. Nesbitt has gained a certain kind of infamy for badmouthing Judge Carol Berkman; the Post reports, "On one occasion, he told her to 'Suck my d---,' a request to which she responded, 'Application denied.'" Oh, and Nesbitt slashed his roommate because, after he told his......

Yesterday, a jury of eight men and four women found Robert Williams guilty of 44 counts, including, per the Post, "attempted murder, kidnapping, arson, burglary, robbery, 10 assault charges, five separate rapes and 11 incidents of sodomy," related to his 19-hour rape and torture of a Columbia University graduate student in her Hamilton Heights apartment a year ago. According to his lawyer, Williams, who has rarely been in court during the trial, responded to the......

Cecille Villacorta, an ex-Saks employee, is on trial today for charges that she stole over $1 million from the Manhattan flagship store, money that actually went into her customers pockets. Sort of like a modern day Robin Hood except she was stealing from the rich and giving to the rich. Her big commissions and bonuses came from striking a deal with about 230 customers and selling over $27 million in jewelry; upon purchasing the jewels......

A 24-year-old woman took the stand and began to relive a terrifying ordeal as she described how she was raped, tortured, and held captive in her own Hamilton Heights apartment in April 2007. The victim, now 24, was a month away from graduating from Columbia Journalism School and had stayed late at campus to work on her resume (a job fair was the next day). At 9:30 p.m. on April 13, a Friday, she took......

In April 2007, a Columbia graduate student was raped and tortured for 19 hours in her Hamilton Terrace apartment. More than a year later, her suspected rapist is now in court, facing 71 criminal charges including attempted murder, arson, rape and sodomy. Assistant District Attorney Ann Prunty describe the harrowing ordeal in her opening statement. From the NY Times:Over many torturous hours, [the victim] had been repeatedly raped, sodomized and forced to perform oral sex,......

The six person jury in the trial of Christopher Carter – the stockbroker accused of assaulting an overly vocal spin classmate at Equinox gym – found him not guilty yesterday of a misdemeanor assault charge which could have landed him in jail for a year. Though the victim, hedge fund manager Stuart Sugarman, spent almost two weeks in the hospital undergoing surgery for a herniated disc, the jury remained unconvinced that his injuries resulted from......

Jack Jordan, the man convicted of stalking actress Uma Thurman, received a sentence of three years probation today. On May 6th a jury found Jordan guilty of stalking and aggravated harassment. Prosecutors had wanted him to spend a year in jail, but the judge declined to order any jail time, opting for psychiatric counseling for the 37-year-old former mental patient. Jordan had repeatedly tried to meet Thurman, who seemed to be the one “courting” him,......

The case of the spin class smackdown has been sparking a lot of debate about proper workout etiquette. According to the Times, the noisy behavior of Stuart Sugarman – who was thrown against the wall during a spin class by a guy who was fed up with his vocalizations – is not at all abnormal. There are too many people grunting, cursing, and hollering “Let’s do it!” in gyms all over town, and also plenty......

It was about nine months ago that New Yorkers were thrilled by the story of the spin class smackdown; now the case has gone to trial, and reading the testimony is like watching a montage of the all the greatest moments. For those of you just joining us, the incident was sparked at an Upper East Side gym when 44-year-old broker Christopher Carter became enraged at the grunting and bellowing from his spin classmate two......

While a judge deliberates on whether Harry Potter superfan Steve Vander Ark and his publisher violated copyright law by producing a lexicon based on J.K. Rowling’s hit novels, the 50-year-old librarian has simply been trying to keep it together. This week he told the New Yorker all about the trauma caused by the recent trial, during which he broke down in tears. Hoping for acknowledgment from his idol, Vander Ark would look at Rowling during......

Photograph of a young boy participating in Sunday's protest march by Stephen Chernin/AP Yesterday, the House Judiciary Committee Chair John Conyers visited the site where Sean Bell was fatally shot by police officers. He was accompanied by people including Bell's friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, who were also fired at, and the Reverend Al Sharpton. Conyers said he spoke to U.S. Attorney Michael Mukasey and that he would work on strategy with the......

Photograph of Detectives Marc Cooper, Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver by Dima Gavrysh/AP Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper, who were acquitted of all charges in the Sean Bell shooting trial, spoke at a press conference this afternoon. Detectives Oliver and Isnora thanked Judge Cooperman for his "fair" decision (Isnora also, per City Room, "thanked God, his family, his lawyers"). Detective Cooper, who was only charged with reckless endangerment, said, "I'd like......

Tomorrow morning at 9 a.m., Judge Arthur Cooperman is expected to announce a verdict for the three police officers on trial for the shooting of Sean Bell. Mayor Bloomberg said he's not worried about the reaction, telling reporters yesterday, “I think people in this city have come a long way from the time when people rushed into the streets and tried to tear apart society.” Bloomberg also made a point of speaking with the Reverend......

Photograph of Reverend Sharpton, with William Bell, Valerie Bell, Nicole Paultre Bell, John Liu, and Trent Benefeld on City Hall steps (above) and photograph of Mayor Bloomberg with Sharpton and Paultre Bell by Jin Lee/AP The Reverend Al Sharpton held a press conference on the steps of City Hall today to discuss the Sean Bell shooting trial verdict, which will be announced on Friday. Sharpton said an acquittal would not be justice. The News......

The 50-year-old librarian on the receiving end of a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by the Harry Potter author was driven to tears yesterday while testifying in a Manhattan courtroom. Steven Jan Vander Ark (pictured), a former Star Trek fan from Michigan whose exhaustive website The Harry Potter Lexicon would be published in a print version by RDR Books, told lawyers that he was devastated by the lashing he’s received from J.K. Rowling and "the Harry......

Photograph of Nicole Paultre-Bell heading to the Queens County Courthouse today by Craig Ruttle/AP Lawyers made closing arguments in the Sean Bell shooting trial today to Judge Arthur Cooperman, who is presiding over the bench trial. Defense lawyers argued that the police officers on trial were acting in self-defense. One lawyer, Paul Martin, blamed Bell's friend Joseph Guzman, for intimating he was going to get a gun to even a score. Martin said, "He......

Some funny new details emerged yesterday in the trial of the retired cop infamous for aggressively silencing noisy passengers on the Long Island Railroad. John Clifford stood accused of assaulting a woman whose hand he twice slapped in March 2007 after she tried to intervene in his scolding of cell-phone talker Nicholas Bender. And if Jerry Seinfeld is looking for material for his new TV series, he’s got all the fodder he needs in yesterday's......

Yesterday, a doctor who treated police shooting victim Joseph Guzman was the prosecution's last witness, detailing how Guzman was riddled with bullets. Guzman's friend, Sean Bell, was killed in the gunfire, and two undercover detectives face manslaughter charges while another faces reckless endangerment charges for the shooting. Surgeon Dr. Albert Cooper testified that on November 25, 2006, Guzman was brought into the Mary Immaculate Hospital, "He was telling me in somewhat of a mumbling voice......

Joseph Guzman dramatically described the night he was hit 16 times, with 19 wounds all over his body, and his friend Sean Bell was killed in a hail of police gunfire. In recalling the man holding a gun, who turned out to be an undercover detective, stood near Bell's car, "He shot me. I’m looking in his eyes, man. He shot me. Everything slowed down. But I’m looking at him shooting me. He’s continuing to......

One of two friends in Sean Bell's car on November 25, 2006 testified in a Queens court room yesterday about the night where undercover police fatally shot Bell. Trent Benefield, who had been celebrating Bell's bachelor party at a Queens strip club, said he wounded, laying on the sidewalk, when he begged a man standing over him, "Please don’t shoot me. I don’t got nothing to do with nothing.’" The man turned out to be......

Yesterday, a NYPD trajectory expert testified about the fatal 2006 shooting of unarmed man on his wedding day. Crime scene detective Michael Cunningham, only called to examine the evidence seven months after the incident, testified he was unable to determine some trajectories because measurements supplied by the crime scene unit team were inaccurate. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora are on trial for manslaughter, while Detective Marc Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment. Prosecutors used......

Lawyers for Natavia Lowery, the personal assistant accused of killing Linda Stein, are arguing in the press that a recently released forensics report practically exonerates their client from the crime. Police and the DA's office said that they'll wait until the trial to address the evidence, but that it was not as significant as Ron Kuby and David Pressman were describing. The forensic evidence was detailed in a report from the Office of the Chief......

Detective Michael Oliver, the undercover cop who fired 31 times at Sean Bell in the fatal November 2006 shooting, told a grand jury last year, "I didn't want to die. I reloaded the gun, and I continued to fire." The 14-year NYPD veteran's testimony was entered into evidence in the trial where he and fellow detective Gescard Isnora face manslaughter charges; detective Marc Cooper faces reckless endangerment. Bell, who was to be married hours later,......

A Queens DA took the stand yesterday, to testify about a detective who fired at Sean Bell, an unarmed man killed in a barrage of police gunfire hours before his wedding. DA Michelle Cort, who took Detective Marc Cooper's statement after the November 25, 2006 shooting, said, "He told us he fired a single shot. He was certain he fired one time." Cooper, (pictured) who actually fired four times and is charged with reckless endangerment,......