WPCNR WHITE PLAINS LAW JOURNAL. By John F. Bailey. November 15, 2010 Updated November 16, 2010 :
Kane Machinaga, Fumiko Bradley’s mother, under prosecutor questioning through a court interpreter, told family court this morning that Adam Bradley was not inside the bathroom but just outside the bathroom entrance during the shower incident April 2 that Fumiko Bradley described last Wednesday.
That alleged confrontation lead to Mr. Bradley being charged with violation of a restraining order, witness tampering and harrassment in connection with his trial on domestic violence charges which continued this morning.
Mrs. Bradley’s mother’s testimony appeared inconsistent with Fumiko Bradley’s testimony in which Mrs. Bradley described Adam Bradley as being inside the bathroom, holding a cap and slapping the walls of the bathroom with the cap, and eventually yelling at her “You have to hang yourself up.” Mrs. Bradley testified last week her mother came between them shouting “No.No. No,” hugging her daughter.
Ms Machinaga testified after she heard Adam Bradley’s voice shouting from upstairs that day, she went up two flights of stairs into the Bradley bedroom and found Mr. Bradley outside the bathroom door. She then went past Mr. Bradley to go into the bathroom to see what was the matter.
Ms. Machinaga said the morning of April 2 that Mr. Bradley and his older sister came to visit and that she, Ms. Machinaga “I stayed downstairs because I didn’t want to meet them. I could see people upstairs from the basement. I heard Adam’s (Bradley) voice (from upstairs).”
Asked if she saw Mr. Bradley,(from her position in the downstairs), she said “No, I only heard him.”
Asked by prosecutor Audrey Stone what she did, she said “When I heard (the shouting), I think to myself this (the shouting) is dangerous and I went upstairs to see.”
Ms. Machinaga said she went up two flights of stairs (13 steps)from the basement and entered the Bradley bedroom.
She said, “I saw Adam in front of the bathroom (entrance), and I went past Mr. Adam (Bradley) to Fumiko.” Ms.Machinaga said after passing Mr. Bradley, she saw Fumiko Bradley, who had been in the shower, shivering with arms crossed in front of her chest. The Prosecutor Ms. Stone asked how Mrs. Bradley looked. “Fright. Frightened,” the interpreter translated.
Ms. Machinaga said she had told Adam Bradley “No,” as she moved past him.
Ms. Machinaga testified to the prosecutor’s question of what Mr. Bradley had shouted, that she did not understand what Mr. Bradley had been shouting to her daughter. Ms.Stone asked if Mrs. Machinaga understood English. Machinaga through the interpretor said “No,” confirming to the prosecutor on the prosecutor’s clarification quesion, she didn’t understand English.
Asked what she did next, Ms. Machinaga said she asked her daughter, “What’s happening? What’s going on?”
Ms. Machinaga said her daughter told her, they were having a fight. “I’m the one who’s wrong.” Ms. Machinaga reported Fumiko Bradley as saying. Asked what she did next, Machinaga said she hugged her daughter.
She said “Adam (Bradley) left,” But it is unclear if Mr. Bradley had departed the bedroom from where Mrs. Machinaga said she had gone past him, or had stayed to see the mother-daughter hug.
Last week in describing the same incident, Fumiko Bradley said Mr. Bradley was in the bathroom shouting at her and her mother had intervened, appearing to stop the argument the couple was having, saying “No.No.No,” and hugging her daughter.
Mr. Penichet, Mr. Bradley’s attorney declined to cross-examine Ms. Machinaga, saying “No further questons, Your Honor.”
At the start of Ms. Machinaga’s testimony, Ms. Machinaga said she had come to America last spring because it was the time she always has come to see her daughter.
The Prosecutor Audrey Stone rested her case, after Mr. Penichet declined to cross-examine Ms. Machinaga.
At that point the matter of whether Mr. Penichet would be allowed to call a person familiar with Mrs. Bradley’ history at a Japanese school where she worked, was discussed by the Judge with the attorneys.
Mr. Penichet narrowed his focus to concentrate on Mrs. Bradley’s reputation of conduct at the school in the period 1999-2000 to show what Penichet described as Mrs. Bradley being known among parents, teachers and administrators as being prone to “lying and telling stories.”
Hauling out his trusty Richardson On Evidence reference, Penichet cited Section 494 dealing with hearsay definitions and when hearsay could be allowed on the record. The prosecutor, Audrey Stone, protested that the character witness testimony was “too remote,” and cited a passage in Richardson’s sayin hearsay should not be allowed if “too remote,” but the definition of “too remote,” was not defined by Ms. Stone.
The Judge said with Mr. Penichet’s new “narrower focus,” that she would allow the school witness.
The detective expected to testify this morning, Detective Robbins of the White Plains Police is expected to lead off Mr. Penichet’s defense argument Tuesday mornning at 9:30 A.M., Penichet told a news conference in the lobby of the Richard A. Dorango Courthouse. He told WPCNR “the Judge (Capeci) has two subpoenas (for the Bradley families two mariage counselors), and the judge indicated she would allow me to call them and I intend to do so.”
Penichet said he expected to call every police officer who interviewed Fumiko Bradley, but declined to say if he would put Assemblywoman Amy Paulin on the stand.
Mayor Bradley’s case resumes 9:30 Tuesday morning with the defense presenting.
