LOS ANGELES – Federal prosecutors have asked a judge to ignore efforts by a reality television producer charged with killing his wife in Mexico to present testimony from his 6-year-old daughter to fight extradition.
A prosecution brief filed Thursday calls Bruce Beresford-Redman's efforts to call his daughter as a witness during an upcoming extradition hearing an effort to distract the court from overwhelming evidence that he killed his wife.
Lawyers for the former "Survivor" producer have introduced statements from the couple's 6-year-old daughter into their opposition paperwork, and said at a news conference on Tuesday they hope to call her as a witness.
In an interview with a therapist, the girl stated that she did not witness any violence in their parents' hotel room at a swank Cancun resort during their April 2010 vacation. The interview was requested by Beresford-Redman's attorneys.
"The fugitive relies primarily on a lawyer-driven interview of his 6-year-old daughter, which fails to distance him from the incriminating facts," the brief states. They also cite that the therapist has treated Beresford-Redman and met him up to a dozen times.
They also state that the girl's statements contradict other statements by her father, including one to a hotel clerk who called to inform that other guests complained about loud noise coming from the family's room the night Monica Beresford-Redman was apparently killed.
The producer told the clerk he and his wife had been fighting and that it wouldn't happen again, although his daughter said she recalled them playing a loud game. Tourists in an adjacent room described the noise as coming from a woman who sounded like she was in distress.
Monica Beresford-Redman's body was found in a sewage cistern days later.
The U.S. government's brief states that Beresford-Redman is not allowed to call witnesses during the proceeding, and that much of the evidence he seeks to enter is inadmissible.
They also state Beresford-Redman's other criticisms of the case - that Mexican investigators "rushed to judgment" and that Cancun is rife with corruption - are not supported by evidence and should not be considered by the court.
"Finally, in his efforts to attack the police work of the Mexican authorities, the fugitive tries to indict the entire Mexican judicial system, alleging corruption," the filing states. "These arguments, which are inadmissible in the extradition context, nonetheless fail to detract from the mass of evidence pointing towards his guilt."
A call to a spokesman for Beresford-Redman's attorneys was not immediately returned Thursday.
His hearing had been scheduled for July 12, but attorneys are now requesting that it be held on Aug. 4.
Copyright © 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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