HARTFORD — A Superior Court judge Friday ordered the East Hartford man who has filed a lawsuit against Aaron Hernandez to appear before a grand jury investigating Hernandez’s alleged role in a homicide.
Alexander Bradley must appear before the grand jury in Fall River, Mass. on July 17. His lawyer had argued that it would be a hardship for him to appear.
Bradley charges in a civil lawsuit filed in Florida that Hernandez, the former New England Patriot star from Bristol, shot him in the eye outside a Florida nightclub in February. He was served earlier this week with an interstate subpoena to appear before the Massachusetts grand jury investigating the Hernandez case.
Investigators are interested in “similarities” between the Alexander Bradley shooting and the shooting death of Odin Lloyd, for which Hernandez is facing a murder charge.
Detectives investigating Lloyd’s murder have tried to talk to Bradley, but have not been able to track him down at his known addresses in East Hartford and Bristol.
Although Bradley’s lawyer in the civil suit said it was Hernandez who shot and seriously wounded Bradley and said “the circumstances surrounding the Florida shooting were ‘chillingly similar’ to the execution-style slaying of Odin Lloyd,” Bradley’s Hartford lawyer, Robert Pickering, said his client has said he does not know who shot him.
“He’s not made that kind of statement,” Pickering said.
In addition to arguing that Bradley has no information for the grand jury, Pickering said appearing would be a hardship for his client because Bradley has to be in Florida July 10 for follow-up medical treatment.
Bradley needs to have his false right eye removed and the socket and prosthesis cleaned, adjustment so that the prosthesis tracks his vision and cosmetic surgery on scars from the gunshot wound to his face.
Prosecutor Vicki Melchiorre said it was not up to Judge Joan K. Alexander or local prosecutors to determine whether Bradley had anything to offer the grand jury.
Judge Joan K. Alexander said Bradley can keep his medical appointment on the 10th and get back to Massachusetts for the 17th. When Bradley protested that his doctor said he can’t fly for five days after a procedure, Alexander told him he could drive from Florida to Massachusetts in two days.
She said Bradley is a material witness and a necessary witness and ordered him to appear in Fall River.
Ernest George Wallace, 41, a Bristol man charged connection with the Hernandez murder case, is no longer listed in the Florida prison database. Wallace, who turned himself in when he learned he was wanted in Massachusetts, had told a judge that he would not fight extradition Authorities in Massachusetts say Wallace is facing charges of accessory after the fact to the Lloyd murder.
By David Owens, Hartford Courant