A defense witness for the pharmaceutical millionaire on trial for fatally poisoning her autistic son backfired Monday when the doctor testified that the slain boy and his father appeared to have a loving relationship.
Gigi Jordan, 53, has argued that she killed little Jude Mirra and unsuccessfully attempted suicide at a swank Manhattan hotel in February of 2010 to protect him.
She feared her ex husband planned to murder her and that her 8-year-old son would end up with his biological father, Emil Tzekov, whom she believed had physically and sexually abused him.
But New York Presbyterian Hospital pediatric neurologist Maurine Packard, who diagnosed Jude with autism in 2004, said she witnessed a tender dynamic between the pair when they came to her office.
“Jude would run away and shriek with laughter at his father,” she said. “He was playing with him.”
Packard treated Jude from 2004 to 2007 and never saw any indications of abuse, she testified.
Gigi Jordan and Emil Tzekov are seen with their son Jude in Santa Barbara, Calif, in this 2010 photo.Photo: Splash News
Defense lawyer Alan Brenner played a series of home videos showing Jude’s development from 10 to 40 months of age that showed Tzekov acting as a dutiful and affectionate father.
In one clip, the duo are beside an outdoor pool and Jude giddily touches his father’s nose, they playfully bump fists then tap legs.
In another clip, Tzekov hides behind a wall and repeatedly jumps out and tickles the boy’s chubby belly as he crumples in laughter.
The defense appeared to play the series of videos to show the progression of Jude’s disease and how he improved after he was treated with steroids.
But the clips were damning to the defense’s assertion that Tzekov had abused Jude so severely that he withdrew and developed autistic-like symptoms.
After Justice Charles Solomon dismissed the jurors for the day, prosecutor Matthew Bogdanos sniped at the defense: “The experts they put on so far have been the people’s best witnesses.”
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