A weary, tearful looking Aisling McCarthy Brady appeared in a Woburn, Massachusetts courtroom on Tuesday, where her lawyer said the murder charge her client is facing in the January death of a one-year-old baby from nearby Cambridge is based on “false and deceptive” information.
Her lawyer claimed the prosecution “knowingly presented false and deceptive evidence to the grand jury in order to obtain an indictment”.
McCarthy Brady, a native of Lavey, Co. Cavan, was charged with the death of Rehma Sabir, the baby in her care, after the child died of trauma caused by head injuries.
But McCarthy Brady’s lawyer, Melinda Thompson, is vigorously defending her client, telling the judge on Tuesday that “90 percent” of the evidence prosecutors gathered against McCarthy is trumped up.
"This is about the defendant sitting in jail for a crime that she absolutely did not commit," Thompson said.
McCarthy Brady, 35, has been imprisoned since she was charged, held on $500,000 bail. She had been living in the U.S. illegally since 2002. She looked drawn and tired and wiped away tears on several occasions.
Tuesday’s 90 minute hearing saw Thompson accuse the prosecution of presenting “blatantly inadmissible” character evidence against McCarthy Brady to bolder their case.
She also said the prosecution should not have presented evidence of prior bone injuries to baby Rehma that McCarthy Brady was not linked to – injuries that the child suffered between two weeks to two months before her death.
During the last two months of the baby’s life, McCarthy Brady was her caretaker for only one and a half weeks, Thompson said, because the mother took her child out of the country.
Thompson said the baby's mother lied when she told the grand jury that the girl had never fallen off the bed.
The assistant district attorney presenting the case, Patrick Fitzgerald, denied that his office presented false evidence against the Irish nanny.
His office gathered evidence from all of Rehma’s prior caretakers because they were “looking to find out what caused the death of this child.”
The prosecution contends that the baby died due to injuries consistent with “violent shaking and impact to the head” – with McCarthy Brady the caretaker responsible for her death.
The judge did not offer a ruling on Tuesday, and the next court date is set for October 17.
The Boston Irish community, together with McCarthy Brady’s relatives, plan to hold a fundraiser later this month to help defray her legal costs.
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