Trial takes a mystical turn

The themes of sex, avarice and revenge that have coursed through the murder trial of Daniel Pelosi suddenly seem pedestrian.

In an outlandish moment that brought the trial to an immediate halt late yesterday afternoon, Pelosi's lawyer told a judge in Riverhead that his client's family believed Pelosi's wife, Generosa Ammon, was the devil, and that she had cast a spell on their entire family.

"It was a widely held belief by the father and other family members that Generosa Ammon ... put a spell on the Pelosi family," said Pelosi's attorney, Gerald Shargel of Manhattan.

Shargel said that several months after Generosa Ammon's first husband, Theodore Ammon, was killed in October 2001, one of Pelosi's sisters spotted a pair of Generosa Ammon's shoes beside a tree outside her home. The sister took this to be a sign that Generosa Ammon had caused the death of a brother, James Pelosi, in March 2002 from a seizure.

"The family believed that Generosa cast a mystical spell that caused the death of Jimbo," Shargel said.

The allegations of magic spells and curses set off a flurry of legal parrying that State Supreme Court Justice Robert W. Doyle said he would resolve after seeing legal briefs from both sides.

Shargel also brought up a photo of James Pelosi standing between two flags. Certain Pelosi relatives believed Generosa Ammon's face could be seen emerging from a crease in one of the flags, Shargel said.

The bizarre claims came as Shargel began to question Pelosi's sister Barbara Lukert, a prosecution witness, about why Pelosi's relationship with Generosa Ammon had driven a wedge between him and some relatives.

Prosecutor Janet Albertson objected to his question about the spell. The jury was excused for the day, and Lukert was led from the courtroom before a heated exchange erupted between Albertson and Shargel.

Shargel told Doyle that he wants to bring up these claims to demonstrate "bias, motive and hostility" harbored by Pelosi's father, Robert; sister, Joan; her husband, Guy Giammateo, and other relatives against Pelosi. The elder Pelosi has testified against his son.

"Robert Pelosi said he loved Danny. I'm going to show he didn't love Danny, and the law allows it," Shargel told Doyle, after the jury had left.

Albertson said such testimony was irrelevant and shouldn't be permitted. She then told Doyle she wanted to challenge Lukert on testimony she had given while being questioned by Shargel. She said Lukert had given testimony that was inconsistent with statements made by her two sisters, including grand jury testimony by Joan Giammateo and a statement given to Suffolk police by Janet Smith.

Reading in court from Joan Giammateo's statement, Albertson said that on Oct. 23, 2001, Lukert called Giammateo and told her she believed Pelosi was involved in Theodore Ammon's death.

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"She appeared to be very upset and scared that Danny was going to kill her too because of what she knew," Albertson said, referring to the statement.

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At the time Theodore Ammon was killed, Lukert was employed by his estranged wife, Generosa Ammon, and had been keeping a laptop computer at her house in Center Moriches. Generosa Ammon had instructed her to use the computer to access surveillance cameras inside the East Hampton mansion and to make sure Ammon wasn't stealing anything from the house.

But, Albertson said, Lukert told her sister that she had looked at the computer and had seen Generosa Ammon inside the house on the weekend of the murder, and Pelosi's childhood friend, Alex Mawyer, was standing outside a patio door behind Theodore Ammon.

Lukert also told her sister that she had hugged Pelosi just before he left her house on the weekend police believe Theodore Ammon died. Underneath his jacket she thought she felt two guns, according to the statement.

But under questioning from Shargel, Lukert said yesterday that she wasn't worried or suspicious about what was under her brother's jacket, and that it may have been a cell phone.

Lukert also said that the image outside the patio door was just as likely a tree as a person, and that she found it "odd" but not disturbing.

What Lukert can actually tell the jury when she returns Monday ultimately will be decided by Doyle, who ordered both sides to submit legal papers with their arguments today.

Shargel is not contending that any of the opinions Robert Pelosi and others allegedly held are true, only that the jury should know the perspective from which they are testifying. Albertson argued testimony about spells and Pelosi's relationship with his relatives shouldn't be allowed because it is hearsay, referring to the rule that says witnesses can't testify about what others said to them - except the defendant. She said Shargel should have brought up the references to casting a spell when he questioned Robert Pelosi.

In turn, Albertson has asked Doyle to allow her to declare Lukert to be a "hostile witness," which would allow her to cross-examine and challenge her, using the sisters' statements.

But Shargel contended the law allows Albertson to attack Lukert only with inconsistent statements Lukert herself made.

The trial continues Monday.