Casual observers may have a hard time telling the difference between the prosecution and defense thus far in the trial of Hemy Neuman.
On Wednesday morning, the victim's widow, Andrea Sneiderman, faced a tough cross-examination from defense lawyer Bob Rubin regarding her relationship with the defendant, her former boss at GE Energy. Rubin’s line of questioning often mirrored that of prosecutor Don Geary, who questioned Sneiderman for nearly three hours Tuesday.
Andrea Sneiderman has not been charged with having any connection to the killing of her husband, Rusty Sneiderman, in November of 2010. Neuman is the only person charged in the death.
But in the trial's first two days a central issue for both sides was why, on Dec. 30, 2010, Andrea Sneiderman told a close friend she was convinced Neuman had killed her husband, but waited nearly a week to tell Dunwoody police.
Andrea Sneiderman said she did not do so because she feared Neuman was monitoring her emails.
On Wednesday, prosecutor Geary asked Sneiderman why she never brought up Neuman’s name during a Jan. 4, 2011 interview with police.
Instead, Geary said, “You took them down a rat hole."
“Have you seen what’s happened to my life?” Sneiderman retorted. Shortly thereafter, she was dismissed from the stand, after five hours of questioning over two days.
Earlier she had been asked to square her denials of a illicit relationship with Neuman with emails she had sent to the defendant, including one where she confessed a betrayal to her family.
That “betrayal,” she testified in court, referred to her holding hands with Neuman after her then-supervisor first professed his love.
Sneiderman told the court Tuesday said she had “no choice” but to put up with the unwanted advances from Neuman, for the sake of her job and career. She later testified she shied away from Neuman when possible.
Following up on Wednesday, Rubin, referring to a business trip to England the two took, asked: "Going to a castle [together], is that your definition of 'shying away?’ "
“It is,” Sneiderman replied.
This trip came after Neuman asked her to marry him. He also, in an email, told Sneiderman he wouldn’t accompany her to the U.K. unless she felt he was needed.
“You had the option of telling Hemy Neuman not to go to England,” Rubin said.
She said she felt he should be there, “for work reasons,” Sneiderman said.
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