The judge in Muzzammil S. “Mo” Hassan’s murder case today barred his new attorney from using an emotional-disturbance defense and said he would only grant the jailed businessman further delays in his trial based solely “in the interests of justice.”
Hassan is accused of beheading his estranged wife, Aasiya Zubair Hassan, 37, last February.
Hassan’s new defense attorney, Frank M. Bogulski, today told reporters that he is “confident” he can get an acquittal for Hassan on an unprecedented defense combining psychiatric elements and justification based on claims Hassan was “a battered” spouse who was verbally abused and humiliated by his wife.
Homicide Prosecutor Colleen Curtin Gable, though, noted that Aasiya Zubair Hassan was beheaded about a week after she began formal divorce proceedings.
And Gable today won her months-old motion to bar a psychiatric defense.
The judge told Bogulski he can make motions in coming months seeking permission to reinstate a psychiatric defense but as of now, such a defense claiming Hassan was emotionally out of control when he killed his wife “is precluded.”
After a closed-chambers meeting this morning, the judge stressed his concerns about the delays in starting the trial.
James P. Harrington, Hassan’s lawyer for the past 11 months, also disclosed that he had been fired and replaced by Bogulski.
Hassan, 44, a Pakistan-born businessman, is accused of killing his wife in the office of their Muslim-oriented cable station. He walked into Orchard Park police headquarters about an hour after the Feb. 12 killing to inform police of her death. Hassan has been jailed without bail since then.
Hassan today told the judge the delays in the case were linked to now-resolved financial matters concerning his four children by three wives. Those cases were resolved last month in Erie County Surrogate’s Court, he said.
Though Harrington worked out the financial disputes to Hassan’s satisfaction, neither he, Hassan nor Bogulski today would tell the judge or comment publicly afterward on why the defendant changed lawyers.