Is This Really Justice For Nixzmary Brown?
Cesar Rodriguez was found guilty of manslaughter and other lesser charges. The defense referred to her as ” a violent and uncontrollable “little Houdini” – a reference to her supposed knack at slipping out of the makeshift restraints devised by her parents to keep her from attacking her younger siblings.” Why was she killed? A missing cup of yogurt. She was 7 year old and weighed 36 pounds.
Here is what we found out back in 2006 when the story broke:
CHARLES HYNES, BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, DISTRICT ATTORNEY: While Santiago (ph) looked on, he began to systematically beat Nixzmary about the body. He then stripped the little girl naked and dragged her into the bathroom. Rodriguez then carried Nixzmary`s limp, naked body from the bathroom and threw her on the floor of the dirty room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She just said, I wish my mommy and daddy (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She showed me the bruise on her leg and on her shoulder. And I said, What happened? And she said, My stepfather (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People will be held accountable for their actions in this tragedy.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, you try to do a, you know, good job, you know, preparing her, but you still could tell she was really hurt. They abused her really bad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m so sorry. I`m so sorry! I`m sorry I couldn`t help you (INAUDIBLE) I`m sorry! I`m sorry! I`m sorry I (INAUDIBLE) help you! I`m sorry!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: You may think I`m harsh, but I say that`s too little too late. What this child endured for years, months before her death, the whole family did nothing. In fact, with all the stories we cover and bring to you, when this occurred, January 11, I myself could not bear to read the headlines. When it came on the air, I turned the TV on mute. Headlines like this. Now the city acts. Beyond evil.
Straight out to Adam Lisberg with “The New York Daily News.” Welcome, Adam. Bring us up-to-date, friend.
ADAM LISBERG, “NEW YORK DAILY NEWS”: Good evening, Nancy. This apartment here behind me in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, eight days ago, a little girl named Nixzmary Brown, 7 years old — she only weighed 36 pounds, which is about the average weight of a 4-year-old — she was found dead in this apartment. And as police first investigated, they discovered that not only had she been beaten badly, tortured that night by her stepfather while her mother stood by, they found that she had a history of being abused, tortured, allegedly sexually molested, as well, by her stepfather, sometimes beaten by her mother, other times her mother stood by and let it happen.
As they dug deeper, they found that her siblings, some of her siblings, rather, the ones who were not the biological children of Nixzmary`s stepfather — that they had also been abused to varying degrees. They`d been thrown into a room they called the “dirty room,” which was rodent-infested, allegedly, where the children were forced to use a cat box as their toilet. That was a room for punishment…
GRACE: Adam? Adam?
LISBERG: Yes?
GRACE: Wait a minute.
LISBERG: You know, I`ve been working on this for a week, so some of this sounds almost rote to me now, and I apologize because…
GRACE: Wait a minute!
(CROSSTALK)
LISBERG: … and only gets worse.
GRACE: No, Adam. Adam, you`re doing your job as a reporter. They had a cat litter box for this child to use? Did you just say that?
LISBERG: Yes. That`s what the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles Hynes, said. That`s what the police said. It appears that that`s what happened.
GRACE: Tell me about the night this little girl was killed.
LISBERG: The authorities say that Nixzmary somehow became the scapegoat for this family, for things that other children did, and she was the one who was picked on. She was the one who was abused the most. Her parents didn`t give her enough food, apparently. And that night, when her stepfather, Caesar (ph) Rodriguez, came home with some containers of yogurt, he gave them to all the children but her.
The children later that night discovered that one container of yogurt was missing, and the other children pointed — either the other children or her mother, perhaps — I forget the details — pointed to Nixzmary and said, She`s the one who took it. So she was thrown in the dirty room.
Later that night, her stepfather found that his computer printer was broken. Once again, he brought all the children together. They stood and they pointed at Nixzmary as the one who did it.
So this is over a cup of yogurt and a computer printer, but this was – - if you believe the allegations in the indictments, this was only the culmination of months and months of abuse.
Her stepfather was enraged, took her into the bathroom, somehow — turned on the cold water, stripped her naked, and somehow in the process, slammed her head — I don`t know if he punched her or if he slammed her against the wall, against the faucet, but she sustained a serious head injury, and she was held under the freezing cold water. And then he…
GRACE: With me — go ahead. Go ahead.
LISBERG: Yes. Then, as you heard in the opener from the district attorney, he — the stepfather threw her on the floor and left her there, moaning in pain. She was crying, Mommy, don`t leave me. That`s what her mother told reporters at the jailhouse interview. And her mother did, in fact, leave her, just listened to these cries for hours until eventually, they stopped.
GRACE: Adam, I`ve got a question for you.
LISBERG: Yes. Sure.
GRACE: You know, when I try cases, it is very, very difficult in cases like this, especially when children were the victims, to keep a straight face in front of a jury and continue on for the state, for the people. How do you do it? How do you just give that rendition and not just slit your wrists?
LISBERG: I tell you, it`s — in the last eight days — usually, newsrooms are places with a lot of joking and a lot of wisecracking going on. In the last eight days, those of us at “The Daily News” — my editors and fellow reporters — we`ve all been morose about this. It`s something that there`s been — just an absolutely solemn mood covering this story. That`s why we`ve put her on the front page every single day because we don`t want anyone to forget what happened to her and…
GRACE: Absolutely not. And Adam…
LISBERG: … and we hope it makes a difference.
Manslaughter! Her death didn’t make one bit of difference!
March 18, 2008 - 02:31 PM on March 18th, 2008
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