Mom accused of abandoning newborn headed to trial
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Jul. 10—A five-day trial is expected to start later this month for a former homeless woman accused of abandoning her newborn in the cold on Christmas night 2022, but lawyers continue to hash out who will be able to testify.
Alexandra Eckersley, 27, is accused of abandoning her infant son after giving birth to him in a tent near the West Side Ice Arena in Manchester late on Christmas night, then misleading rescue workers about the tent's location in temperatures below 20 degrees.
She is the adopted daughter of former Red Sox pitching great Dennis Eckersley and his second wife, Nancy.
Eckersley held her son, Teddy, outside a courtroom at Hillsborough Superior Court in Manchester Wednesday morning. The two have been reunited and are living with Alexandra Eckersley's mother in Massachusetts.
Jury selection is scheduled to begin on July 22.
Prosecutor Shawn Sweeney of the Hillsborough County Attorney's Office wants to include rebuttal evidence and possible testimony from Kathleen Czarnec, a psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Czarnec has reviewed many years of mental health records, police reports, audio/video recording from that night, and has spoken to Eckersley and her family, according to the filing.
Public defenders Kim Kossick and Jordan Strand said it's too late to add Czarnec to the witness list and the court should "prohibit the State from offering irrelevant and improper character evidence at trial." This includes certain information from a report written by Dr. Mathilde Pelaprat, who is expected to be an expert witness called by the defense.
Czarnec's testimony should be admissible, Sweeney said.
"The defendant's motion asks the Court to allow the defendant to delve into the defendant's history back to the age of 2, while prohibiting the State from offering any evidence from the defendant's history against Dr. Pelaprat's representations regarding the defendant's mental state," Sweeney wrote.
Judge Amy Messer noted "the disclosure deadline is well past."
"The State has no other possible method of proving this necessary element," Sweeney wrote in the filing.
The defense fired back.
"If the State cannot prove these matters during its case-in-chief, then it should not be advancing this prosecution," Kossick wrote.
Kossick had said Eckersley suffered from a medical emergency and committed no crime.
According to court filings, Eckersley did not disclose where the tent was because her boyfriend, George Theberge, had told her not to.
Theberge pleaded guilty in Hillsborough County Superior Court last summer to charges of endangering the welfare of a child, reckless conduct and witness tampering.
Sweeney said he plans to call nearly a dozen witnesses depending on how the case goes.
The trial will also include a view of the area near the ice arena where the alleged crime took place.
Also on Wednesday, Messer ordered 12 documents in the case to be unsealed. Another document will be redacted by the defense.
The decision came after the Union Leader filed a motion to obtain the records.
Messer had previously ruled "The Court finds that maintaining all of these documents under seal may be contrary to the law."
