Is Mazoltuv's luck running out?

The tale of Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova is turning into a tragedy straight out of Shakespeare, or perhaps Law and Order.

Her name, literally 'good luck, woman of blessings' is growing more ironic by the day. Dr. Borukhova, a specialist in internal medicine, is an Uzbek immigrant living in Queens. She married Daniel Malakov, himself an Uzbek immigrant. They had a child in 2003. Somewhere along the way the marriage broke down and in 2005; they divorced. The break up was bitter and as typical, the mom got primary physical custody and the father visitation.

But for whatever reason Borukhova did not want the child with her ex-husband. She had interfered with his visitation schedule and in a seemingly punitive move, Judge Sidney Strauss awarded temporary custody of his daughter to Dr. Malakov. The child did not want to go. The scene was videotaped by Boruknova: it showed a child crying, screaming, clinging to her mom. Borukhova persuaded her daughter to let go, assuring her, "You're going to stay there a few days and I will take you back."

Less than a month later, Malakov and Borukhova met in a Forest Hills playground to transfer their daughter to her mother for visitation. Suddenly Malakov was shot 3 times, he died on the pavement as his estranged wife administered CPR.

Borukhova, proclaiming her religious nature, denied involvement in her husband murder immdiately. She continues to maintain her innocence while on trial this week. Who knows what the jury is thinking but it seems to me that her defenses and justifications are growing more strained by the day.

1) Phone records indicate she spoke to a relative living in Atlanta, Mikhail Mallayev, approximately 65 times during the weeks leading to the murder, but only twice on the week of the killing, after $20,000 had been deposited into a bank account in his name. Mallayev is accused of pulling the trigger. Dr. Borukhova claims that the conversations were relating to a heart condition Mallayev's wife was having.

2) In the weeks prior to the murder Mallayev and his wife came to New York. His presence in New York, Borukova claimed was so that she could do an EKG of her heart. However the EKG showed a time stamp of August 21, 2006. Borukhova tried to explain that the EKG machine had not bet set with the accurate time but prosecutors were able to show that other EKGs she had performed accurately reflected her appointment book relating to other patients' visits.

3) Borukova flew to Atlanta and met Mallayev in the weeks before the murder. She claims she went because Mallayev was a builder and she wanted to build a house in the Atlanta area. Prosecutors then showed that the property she was allegedly buying already had a house on the lot.

4) Finally yesterday she said she didn't hear or see any shots eventhough by her own testimony she was standing 'shoulder to shoulder' to her husband and prosecutors pointed out that police officers standing 2 blocks away heard the shots.

Although Borukhova's overriding defense, that she was not, and could not be involved in murder because she is too religious, anyone familiar with the story of Yehudit will instantly realize that this absolute defense is specious. http://www.tsel.org/torah/yehudit/eindex.html. Judaism is generally peaceful, but it is not pacifist. And even a devout woman, who may truly believe she is protecting her daughter, can act out in violent calculating fashion.

The final sad piece of the puzzle is what of the daughter? There are no happy endings here. The girl's father is dead, and her mother is likely going to jail. Even if somehow, her mother gets off, as the girl grows older she will assuredly have doubts in her mind regarding her mother's innocence and although in time, the story will fade from the headlines, the destruction of the little girl's innocence will never be repaired.