SKOWHEGAN — The defense and prosecution rested their cases Thursday on the fourth day of the domestic violence trial of former high school music teacher Andrew Maderios, of Pittsfield.
Both sides are scheduled to deliver their closing arguments Friday morning before the case goes to the jury for deliberation and a verdict. Justice Robert Mullen will instruct the jury on how to deliberate before they retire to the jury room.
Maderios, 29, a former music teacher at Nokomis High School in Newport, is charged on nine separate indictments alleging he beat, kicked and choked his then live-in girlfriend over a period of two years, ending with a protection from abuse order issued by the court in August 2014. He was arrested in August as he stepped off an airplane in Georgia on a return trip from a student educational tour of Europe. He spent 11 days in a Georgia jail before being brought back to Maine to face the charges against him.
The accuser said she began documenting the assaults with audio recordings of Maderios on her cellphone and with photographs she took of her injuries on the same iPhone. Maderios, who took the stand Wednesday, denies all of the charges. His attorney, Leonard Sharon, said the woman had ulterior motives but has not elaborated on what those reasons might have been.
The jury of eight men and seven women now has to decide whether Maderios committed the assaults or whether the woman had planned since January 2014 to accuse him falsely of domestic abuse.
In court Thursday, the defense called Benjamin Birney, a Portland lawyer, software designer and computer forensics professional, who examined the ex-girlfriend’s computer and a thumb drive that she had delivered to police. The device contained alleged abuse photos and audio recordings she said were of her being choked and beaten.
Birney described how a computer can be manipulated by changing the binary data, but said he would need the woman’s cellphone to be sure that deletions or changes had been made to make it look like Maderios was guilty of the crimes with which he is charged. The iPhone used to take the photos and recordings was wiped clean by Verizon during repairs and was unavailable for the trial.
Under direct questioning and cross-examination Thursday, Birney testified that the photos and recordings were “unreliable” but that he could find no evidence of tampering on the devices to which he had access.
A couple who frequently socialized with Andrew Maderios and his former live-in girlfriend testified in court Thursday they never saw any bruising or signs of domestic violence in the dozen or more times they visited from 2012 until 2014.
Robert and Myla Kreiter testified on behalf of the defense that they were good friends with Maderios and the woman. Robert Kreiter, who is also a physical education teacher at Nokomis, accompanied Maderios to district court in July 2014 when the defendant sought a temporary protection from abuse order on his former girlfriend. That request was denied, and he was served with such an order instead on behalf of his ex-girlfriend.
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