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Gigi Jordan's Attorneys Want Prosecutor Booted From Murder Case

By DNAinfo Staff on August 11, 2011 3:24pm

Defense attorneys Ron Kuby and Alan Dershowitz will ask for the lead prosecutor in Gigi Jordan's murder case to be replaced.
Defense attorneys Ron Kuby and Alan Dershowitz will ask for the lead prosecutor in Gigi Jordan's murder case to be replaced.
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DNAinfo/Shayna Jacobs

MANHATTAN SUPREME COURT — Attorneys for Gigi Jordan have asked a judge to remove the lead prosecutor overseeing their client's murder case because she refuses to communicate with them outside of the courtroom, the lawyers said Thursday.

Defense lawyers Ronald Kuby and Alan Dershowitz said Assistant District Attorney Kerry O'Connell refuses to speak to them over email, phone or in out-of-court meetings, and say her recalcitrance is making their jobs impossible.

O'Connell told Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Solomon at Thursday's appearance that she does not "wish to have any contact with him [Kuby] off calendar or off the record."

She did not elaborate on her request in court, but added mysteriously that Kuby "should know why."

Gigi Jordan at a recent court appearance.
Gigi Jordan at a recent court appearance.
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DNAinfo/John Marshall Mantel

A spokeswoman for the DA's office declined to comment.

Solomon told Jordan's lawyers to put their request into writing. Dershowitz said they plan to file a motion on the grounds that O'Connell's wall of silence outside the courtroom "denies [Jordan] of her due process rights."

Kuby, a former radio talk show host known for his outspokenness, said O'Connell probably took offense to the curt tone he used in a series of emails with her about a missing blood sample in the case.

Jordan, 50, is accused of forcing a fatal overdose on her 8-year-old autistic son Jude Michael Mirra on Feb. 5, 2010, before taking a host of pills as well.

Jordan's attorneys ripped into the DA's office after prosecutors recently admitted they'd lost a vial containing a residual amount of her blood taken at the hospital during her recusitation. Prosecutors said it was the only sample of her blood from the day of the incident, because they did not obtain their own blood sample despite being legally allowed to do so.

"Basically, O'Connell said she doesn't like Mr. Kuby," Dershowitz added to reporters after Jordan's court appearance Thursday.

"If she doesn't have a thick skin she ought to get a different job," Dershowitz said.

Prosecutors have suggested Jordan was not really been trying to kill herself when she gave her son an overdose and took pills herself. Her attorneys say a blood sample was necessary to their defense, to show she did have a substantial amount of drugs in her system.

Ron Kuby holds up a photo of Gigi Jordan's blood vial that prosecutors said went missing from Bellevue Hospital.
Ron Kuby holds up a photo of Gigi Jordan's blood vial that prosecutors said went missing from Bellevue Hospital.
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DNAinfo/Shayna Jacobs

Her attorneys plan to argue at trial that Jordan killed her son because she believed her ex-husband would murder her and subject her son to a life of sexual abuse.

Jordan, who is being held at Rikers Island, was denied bail again on Thursday in her latest attempt to be released on house arrest.

The millionairess, who made her fortune with her ex-husband through pharmaceutical ventures, has replaced her high-profile defense team several times.