Sharon Lombardo, a friend of Sylvie Cachay, testified yesterday against Nicholas Brooks. (Gregory P. Mango)
Slain swimsuit designer Sylvie Cachay (Steven Hirsch)
Like brother, like sister.
Manhattan prosecutors have called the cops in to investigate the sister of accused tub-slay strangler Nicholas Brooks after the snarking sibling allegedly snarled “Awful bitch” at a female DA witness in a hall outside the murder trial yesterday.
“Bitch” is what Brooks himself used to snarl at his beautiful, swimsuit-designer girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay, in the months before her death, witnesses have said.
“She mouthed the words ‘awful bitch,'” prosecutor Jordan Arnold today told the judge presiding over the horrific trial, in which Brooks is accused of strangling and drowning his beautiful, swimsuit designer girlfriend, Sylvie Cachay, in a Soho House hotel room bathtub.
“The police were alerted,” the prosecutor said of the sister’s alleged slur against witness Sharon Lombardo, a 41-year-old fashion design director for Kate Spade.
Lombardo — who was seen sobbing in the hallway yesterday after testifying against Brooks — sat with cops and reviewed a photo array in order to identify the tall, pretty blonde sister.
“She has since identified this individual through a photo array, and that is the defendant’s sister, whose name is Amanda Brooks,” the prosecutor said.
The sister was not in the courtroom audience this morning. A woman who would not give her name, but identified herself as a friend of Brooks’ mother, former playboy model Susan Paul — was sitting in the second row, and shook her head “No” in apparent outrage as the prosecutor made his allegation.
The Brooks siblings’ father is late and disgraced composer Joseph Brooks, who won an Oscar for the ’70s dirge ballad “You Light Up My Life.”
Brooks’ OSCAR-winning dad, who himself was awaiting trial for rape while his son faced the Cachay murder rap, killed himself in 2011 in his upper East Side apartment. The 73-year-old was found dead with a plastic dry-cleaning bag over his head near a hose attached to a tank of helium gas.
“Ridiculous,” defense lawyer Jeffrey Hoffman said when asked of Amanda Brooks’ alleged slur.
This is Nicholas Brooks’ fourth day on trial; witnesses have testified that he, too, liked throwing the word “bitch” around.
In the weeks before her watery death, Cachay had complained that Brooks called her “stupid,” and “bitch,” this morning’s first witness testified.
“I have never been this hurt or destroyed. I hate him. I hate him,” witness Kate Erskine, 23, another Cachay pal, testified Cachay texted her a month before her death.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner, who is presiding over the lurid trial, warned both sides that audience members must behave themselves.
“You cannot make any gestures or any comments about anyone’s testimony. I’m sure you will advise the people on your sides of this,” the judge said.
Told that the sister is not in the audience, the judge told defense lawyer Jeffrey Hoffman, “Please advise her of this.”
Sources told The Post that police have not contacted Amanda Brooks directly; instead, in-house DA investigators assembled a photo array that included a picture of Amanda, a bit film actress who has stood by her brother since his arrest immediately after Cachay’s death. Lombardo easily picked out the photo of the attractive blonde, who until today had been a daily visitor to her brother’s trial.
Investigators have not determined whether to take the matter further, a source told The Post.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story misidentified Amanda Brooks in a photo.