Officer says Cordero's wife described an attack, threat
By William F Doherty, Globe Staff, 09/30/97
CAMBRIDGE - A Cambridge police officer testified yesterday that Ana
Echevarria Cordero, the wife of former Red Sox outfielder Wilfredo Cordero,
was hyperventilating, trembling and sobbing early in the morning of July 1 as
she described how her husband had just hit her on the head with a telephone,
slapped her in the face, poked her in the chest with his fingers and
threatened to kill her.
But whether Officer Sean Tierney's observations will be repeated at
Cordero's trial next month was the key issue yesterday at a hearing in
Cambridge District Court, with Cordero's lawyers arguing they should not.
Since Mrs. Cordero has chosen not to testify against her husband,
Tierney's version of what she said that night would normally be inadmissible
as hearsay.
However, prosecutors Anne Edwards and Marguerite Grant claim the
statements are admissible as "excited utterances," an exception to the
hearsay rule.
Tierney said when he reached Cordero's Cambridge condominun about 1:38
that morning, five or six minutes after a 911 call from her, Mrs. Cordero had
red marks on her arms, chest and neck as well as blood on her nose.
Much of yesterday afternoon was spent in closed door negotiations as the
prosecution and defense tried, apparently unsuccessfully, to reach a plea
bargain under which Cordero would avoid trial.
Cordero, who was released by the Red Sox Sunday minutes after their
season ended, is charged with two counts of assault and battery against his
wife, one with a dangerous weapon, as well as making a threat and violating a
restraining order.
Earlier yesterday Judge Roanne Sragow denied a defense motion to dismiss
the charges on the ground of "selective prosecution." Defense lawyers Kevin
Burke and Stephen Follansbee claimed Cordero was targeted because he was a
celebrity ballplayer, arguing that similar cases of first offenders where the
victim declines to testify have been resolved without a finding of guilt and
without any jail sentence.
Cordero faces possible imprisonment if he is convicted.
The hearing will resume today.
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