SKOWHEGAN — The defense and the 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 strangled 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 lawyer, Leonard Sharon, said the woman had ulterior motives but has not elaborated on what those reasons might have been.
The trial has been four days of “he said, she said” with the jury of eight men and seven women now having to decide whether Maderios committed the assaults or whether the woman had planned since January 2014 to accuse him falsely of domestic abuse.
The audio recordings played for the jury were explicit, while Maderios’ tearful testimony in his own defense led his family in attendance — his mother, aunt and two sisters — to cry.
In court on 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 strangled 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 Kreider testified on behalf of the defense that they were good friends with Maderios and the woman. Robert Kreider, 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.
Another woman, who is the manager at the accuser’s place of employment, also said in court Thursday after being shown photographs of the alleged abuse that she never saw the bruises and red marks shown in the pictures.
“If I saw her like this, I would have remembered that,” she told the court.
But under cross-examination by the prosecution, the manager acknowledged that the woman “loved to wear scarves” and often wore long-sleeve shirts and pants to work. She also said there were times when the woman had a raspy or hoarse voice, which District Attorney Maeghan Maloney has said was one of the signs of strangulation by Maderios.
A close friend of Maderios’ former girlfriend testified Wednesday that she received text messages from the woman in January, February and July saying she’d been hurt by Maderios.
When the friend went to the home the woman shared with Maderios, the friend found her crying and shaking.
“She was sitting on the stairs crying, shaking, choking. She was a mess, actually,” the friend testified Wednesday. “Her voice was raspy, choking. It was hard for her to get a word out.”
Maderios has testified in his own defense that he never strangled his girlfriend and that she was the aggressor and told him if he ever left her, she’d ruin his life, his career and his future.
The live-in girlfriend, whom the Morning Sentinel is not identifying because the state regards her as the victim of a crime, said she was humiliated and scared by the abuse. She said the abuse continued for months until she secured the protection order against Maderios in August 2014.
The woman testified Monday that on Dec. 26, 2013, she locked herself in their home’s bathroom after a disagreement. She said Maderios used a metal rod like a skewer to pop the lock on the door and strangled her until she passed out. When she woke up, she tried to call 911, but Maderios allegedly smashed the phone and she attempted to run away.
Maderios allegedly became so enraged the day after Christmas that he strangled her with both hands until she vomited on the floor of the home the couple shared in Pittsfield, Maloney said in her opening statements Monday.
Maderios’ father, Martin Maderios, of Plaistow, New Hampshire, was called by the defense to testify Thursday. He told the jury his son, coming from a close family, was excited about celebrating Christmas 2013 with his girlfriend and her children, but called him “in a panic” Dec. 27 from outside the house they shared in Pittsfield after an argument with her.
“He was fearful of the allegations that would be brought against him involving domestic violence and it would ruin his career,” Martin Maderios said.
He said when he came to Maine to help his son clean out the house in August 2014 after his release on $10,000 cash bail, they found the home trashed with appliances missing, stains on the floors and the garage a mess of dead flies, garbage and maggots.
Doug Harlow — 612-2367
Twitter: @Doug_Harlow
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