NEW YORK — The jury in the case of a transsexual accused of breaking her wealthy 85-year-old mother’s arm during a fight over money will hear testimony about other alleged violence against the mother, a judge ruled Monday.
Diane Wells is charged in Manhattan Criminal Court with harassing and assaulting Constance Joyce Cheney on May 10, 2005, in the Central Park West apartment where they lived. The trial was expected to start Tuesday.
Judge Ellen Coin said that besides evidence related to the charges, she will allow evidence that Wells manhandled her mother, that she pushed her into a wall causing her head to hit a picture frame and that she blew smoke into her face during an argument.
Assistant District Attorney Michael Kabakoff, describing Cheney as “in poor health,” said she told him about the violence by Wells, 51, who never held a job and has exhausted a trust fund worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. A civil lawsuit filed in September by Cheney, a native of South Africa, and her son James Cheney, 44, against Wells says the defendant, out of their lives for years, “suddenly resurfaced in 1991 when her money ran out and she had nowhere to go.” It refers to Wells as a “transgendered individual.”
Constance Joyce Cheney did not have the heart to turn her daughter away from her home and immediately took her in, the lawsuit says, adding that Cheney’s act of kindness “proved to be among the worst decisions of her life.”
Wells, born a boy, Jonathan Cheney, began transforming into a woman at age 21, court papers say. Since moving in with her mother, the papers say, she has transformed her apartment “into a veritable prison.”
Cheney has had no way to escape and was being forced to “live at the mercy of the defendant’s vicious whims,” the lawsuit says.
The assault charge arises from Wells’ attack on her mother after Cheney rejected the demand that Wells inherit all of her estate, according to the lawsuit.
In an attempt to protect herself from the defendant’s “increasingly violent blows,” court papers say, Cheney raised her right arm and Wells grabbed it “and wrenched it with such force that the arm broke.”
Wells’ lawyer, Mel Sachs, said Cheney was in the hospital for several days without mentioning the defendant. He suggested that James Cheney had encouraged their mother to blame his client.
“The brother is doing everything possible to get control of the estate and knock Diane Wells out,” Sachs told the judge.
Kabakoff said Wells also bought a $1 million life insurance policy on her mother and used her mother’s money to pay the premiums.
In 1999, Kabakoff told the court, Wells made herself co-owner of Cheney’s three-bedroom apartment, which court papers said is worth about $4 million.
Sachs argued that allegations of abuse by Wells should not be admitted at trial. He said they had not been reported, were irrelevant and would prejudice the jury.
The judge said she would allow Kabakoff to talk about the allegations.
“The issue is the relationship between your client and her mother,” the judge said. “The issue is whether they fought about money.”