Yankees GM Brian Cashman will have to face his accused shake-down mistress on the witness stand as soon as early 2013, according to a schedule set by the Manhattan judge who will handle the explosive extortion trial.
“We can set a trial date for early next year,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rena Uviller said during a brief scheduling hearing this morning.
Cashman’s accused extortionist, curvy Brit Louise Neathway — who came to court smiling relaxedly in her silky fuchsia blouse — is already girding for battle.
Her lawyer, Lawrence LaBrew, told prosecutors in court today that he will be filing motions by mid-October addressing what he characterized as no fewer than 50 of Neathway’s pre-trial concerns.
These include her planned challenge to a protective order that bars Neathway from any contact with her 14-year-old daughter, who lives upstate with her dad, Neathway’s ex-husband, Jason Bump.
Neathway had thrown a courtroom tantrum when she was asked to sign the order back in April — shouting “I won’t sign it!” — but today signed a renewed version without argument. Assistant District Attorney Kenn Kern has said in court that the girl does not want to see her mother.
“The only person I have an interest in contact with would obviously be my child,” Neathway told reporters after court.
Neathway also intends to go after Bump — who she is also barred from contacting. She will be asking the DA’s office to turn over records from an open case Bump has in Pitt County, North Carolina, LaBrew said.
“He had an altercation with a member of law enforcement and then fled the state,” LaBrew said. “I want the underlying facts to that case.”
Court records show only that Bump had been charged with a single count of disorderly conduct in 1996 – back when Bump would have been in his early twenties – no open cases or warrants are recorded, and the charge was dismissed after Bump served six days of community service.
Neathway is charged in a 52-count indictment with extorting $6,000 from Cashman after a brief 2011 affair by allegedly threatening to go to the press if he didn’t divorce his wife and fork over thousands more.
Neathway allegedly said she needed the money to fund medical treatment after an aborted pregnancy prosecutors say never happened. The indictment additionally charges her with pestering the GM’s other ex-mistress and his estranged wife, along with Bump and another of her ex-beau.
She remains free on $300,000 bail, and ordered to stay away from a total 13 exes and relatives of exes in New Jersey, New York and Connecticut — including Cashman.
She is living with her mother, Caroline Meanwell, at the mom’s address in Hunterdon County, NJ.