By Ivan Pereira
The Forest Hills mother who arranged a plot to have her estranged husband killed in front of their daughter has hired one of O.J. Simpson’s lawyers to appeal her conviction, according to one of the attorneys involved in the criminal trial.
Michael Siff, the criminal attorney representing Mikhail Mallayev, who was paid nearly $20,000 by Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova to kill her estranged husband, said Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz was hired by Borukhova to appeal her March 10 murder and conspiracy conviction.
Borukhova, 35, and Mallayev, 51, both Bukharian Jewish immigrants from Uzbekistan, were sentenced last week to life in prison without parole for the Oct. 28, 2007, homicide of Dr. Daniel Malakov outside the Annadale Playground in Forest Hills. Before they were sentenced by Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy, Stephen Scaring, Borukhova’s attorney, said he was going to appeal the conviction.
“Scaring told (me) some time ago he was going to hire Dershowitz,” Siff said. “They hired Dershowitz to read through the entire trial record and see what issues will need to be appealed.”
Scaring and Dershowitz did not return calls for comment as of press time Tuesday afternoon. A spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney’s office said it had no comment. Siff said Mallayev has not asked for Dershowitz’s services.
Scaring accused Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy of giving his client an unfair advantage when he broke up the defense and prosecution’s closing arguments before and after the weekend. Originally, the three attorneys were supposed to give their summations on March 6 after Borukhova and Mallayev agreed to waive their Friday sabbath observances.
Hanophy changed his mind before Scaring and Siff gave their summations and allowed prosecutor Brad Leventhal to give his summation Monday.
Dershowitz was one of the attorneys who represented O.J. Simpson during his murder trial in the 1990s and helped to reverse the conviction of Claus von Bulow, who was accused of trying to kill his wife with an insulin overdose in the 1980.
He is also an outspoken critic of anti−Semitism.
The jury found Borukhova had her estranged husband killed after he gained custody of their then−4−year−old daughter, Michelle, following a bitter divorce custody dispute. Malakov, 34, an orthodontist and a Bukharian Jewish Uzbek native, was walking Michelle to the playground to visit her mother when Mallayev shot him twice in the chest.
Mallayev was identified as the shooter by an eyewitness during the trial. Borukhova, who took the stand in her own defense, told police that she did not hear the gunshots despite being 10 feet away from Malakov and testified that she could not commit the murder because she was a “good Jewish woman.”
Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e−mail at ipereira@cnglocal.com or by phone at 718−229−0300, Ext. 146.
