Prosecutors in Woburn, Massachusetts, led by Patrick Fitzgerald, reached a new low in the Irish nanny case by arguing that the Irish government would somehow illegally get her out of the country and harbor her in Ireland if she was given bail.
Yesterday, Aisling Brady McCarthy was granted bail of just $15,000 by Judge Maureen Hogan as she fights a first degree murder charge in the death of baby Rehma Sabir in January 2013.
Huge doubts have now arisen about the prosecutor’s case following new medical evidence that states the injuries to the baby were received when both parents were traveling and she was not in McCarthy’s care.
As the Boston Globe explained it: “A report from a medical expert for the prosecution recently concluded that her bone fractures were likely sustained five to six weeks before her death.”
And that’s a witness for the prosecution, mind.
Making Ireland sound like North Korea or Iraq, Fitzgerald’s team, realizing their case is inevitably collapsing around them, tried to prevent Aisling Brady McCarthy from getting bail after 29 months in prison on dubious evidence.
McCarthy’s legal team sought bail but the argument against that was her flight risk back to Ireland – she is a native of Co. Cavan – aided by a complicit Irish government.
That is where Fitzgerald and fellow prosecutor Joe Gentile entered into fantasyland.
It was well known the Irish government could slip her a passport and get her out of the country, they said -- hell it was even possible to have a passport mailed to her from the Irish consulate. They noted that Ireland was a hard country to extradite from.
How perfectly plausible. Can’t you see Irish Consul General to Boston, Brendan O Caollai, hatching a plan to have an accused baby killer smuggled out of the country and brought back to Ireland?
And all this while McCarthy has signed an extradition waiver and remains confined to her home with a GPS tracker.
Fitzgerald disgraces his own heritage with such nonsense.
Defense attorney Melinda Thompson had it exactly right. It was “absolutely ludicrous” and “baseless,” she said. Her client is “all over the news” and “the last thing she wants is to sneak out of the country.”
Speaking to the media after McCarthy was released on bail, Thompson added, "I don't know, but it was preposterous."
“Nobody is trying to get Ms McCarthy out of the country; Ms McCarthy is not trying to get out of the country. Nobody is trying to sneak her out,” she said.
Wait, maybe there is! The prosecution case is melting quicker than an Antarctic ice cap these days.
Judge Hogan set the bail at a very low sum, making it clear where she thinks this is going.
Perhaps the prosecution might want to do the spiriting away? Given the strength of their case it may be their only option.
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