Schwartz: Key testimony about Lopez credibility disallowed
by A.J. Flick on Apr. 12, 2006, under Local, Special
Lourdes Lopez in a 2006 Citizen file photo.
- updated 3 p.m. – Judge Nanette Warner will not allow a former prosecutor and a DEA agent to testify and challenge Lourdes Lopez’s credibility.
The defense wanted Paul Skitzki, now in the public defender’s office, and DEA Agent David Wickey to contradict testimony last month by Lopez, the ex-fiancee of Dr. Bradley Schwartz. Schwartz is on trial on a first-degree murder charge, accused of hiring a hit man to kill Dr. Brian Stidham.
Lopez, a former Pima County prosecutor, testified last month that Skitzki was one of two friends she confided in, before Stidham’s death, that Schwartz spoke of having him killed.
Skitzki has denied that she told him about the threats before Stidham’s death and testified as such last year before the merit system commission hearing his appeal of his dismissal from the County Attorney’s Office.
Lopez testified before the same board that she might not have told Skitzki before Stidham died.
Wickey was expected to testify about interviewing Lopez while the DEA was investigating Schwartz for prescription drug fraud.
Lopez testified last month that she didn’t know why the DEA wanted to talk to her and that she knew of only two prescriptions that Schwartz had asked to use her name on so that he could illegally obtain Vicodin and Ritalin.
According to a DEA report, Lopez was told before her meeting with the DEA agents what they wanted to talk to her about, which she admitted to them later as well as three prescriptions that Schwartz used her name to fill.
Prosecutors said rules forbid calling witnesses to impeach testimony about things that are irrelevant to the trial. Warner agreed and granted the state’s motion to exclude Skitzki and Wickey.
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