ATLANTA, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Andrea Sneiderman was banned Friday for improper contact with a witness at the Atlanta trial of her alleged lover, Hemy Neuman, accused of killing her husband.
Prosecutor Don Geary asked the court for Sneiderman to be removed from the courtroom and courthouse for the duration of the trial, saying, "She hugged and kissed a witness in front of the jury.
"The investigator told her not to, [and] she pushed him [the investigator] away," ABC News quoted Geary as saying.
Neuman, 48, is on trial for the Nov. 18, 2010, shooting and killing of Sneiderman's husband, Rusty Sneiderman, 36, in the parking lot of their son's preschool, Dunwoody Prep.
Neuman, Andrea Sneiderman's onetime boss at GE Energy, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.
Shayna Citron, Andrea Sneiderman's friend of 10 years, offered testimony Thursday that called into question Sneiderman's statements that she learned her husband had been shot and killed upon arriving at the hospital around 11 a.m.
Citron said Sneiderman called her a half hour earlier and told her of the shooting.
After Citron's testimony, Andrea Sneiderman "then went in the hallway and told the witness that since she didn't believe her, that she wasn't her friend anymore," Geary said. "The display in the courtroom was all for show."
Geary said Sneiderman then entered the state's witness room after being told to stay out. He said some GE witnesses requested she be removed from the courtroom for their testimony.
"She is making statements during court in the gallery, and I hear her -- and I'm hard of hearing --- saying, 'That's not true,' 'That's a lie,' 'You weren't there,'" Geary said. "I've been tempted to turn and snap and tell her to shut up, but that wouldn't be appropriate.
"She's not following our instructions, she's not following the court's instructions. Everyone has too much going here to have for, for her own purpose, have a mistrial. Our purpose is to convict the man who shot Rusty. I don't want a mistrial," he said.
Sneiderman's father-in-law, Don Sneiderman, earlier testified she called him to tell him of the shooting 2 1/2 hours before she arrived at the hospital.
"At 9:30, she said Rusty had been shot, she was so, so sorry and she was going to Dunwoody Prep to see what happened," Don Sneiderman said.
"I didn't know what happened to Rusty until I got to the emergency room," Sneiderman, who denies having an affair with Neuman and has not been charged, testified Wednesday.
"No one told me what happened to Rusty," she said.
