A judge ordered prosecutors in Prince William County, Virginia, to turn over to the defense a video showing Mamta Kafle Bhatt leaving work at UVA Health Prince William Medical Center several days before her husband reported last seeing her.
Naresh Bhatt is charged with concealing her body, although police and prosecutors haven’t said they have located it.
On Friday, Circuit Court Judge Carroll Weimer Jr. ordered prosecutor Matthew Sweet to provide the defense with video from July 27, 2024, that shows Mamta Kafle Bhatt getting into a vehicle at the end of her shift at the hospital.
Naresh Bhatt’s public defender, Shalev Ben-Avraham, had asked prosecutors to turn over the video and other evidence from that particular day, including unredacted police reports, including who owned and was driving the vehicle that picked up Kafle Bhatt at work.
The defense also asked for Mamta’s cellphone data, GPS data from both husband and wife on July 27, as well as body worn camera footage from police “welfare checks” at the Bhatt home on Heather Court in Manassas Park.
Ben-Avraham argued prosecutors are required to “timely disclosure” of evidence favorable to the defense — referred to as ‘Brady material,’ from the 1963 Brady v. Maryland Supreme Court decision — even as prosecutors continue to make a case to charge Naresh Bhatt with his wife’s death.
Prosecutor Sweet argued against the release, saying Naresh Bhatt is charged solely with concealing a body, and the defense was engaged in a “fishing exhibition,” trying to learn what evidence prosecutors have.
“We’re talking about a dead body,” Sweet told the judge. “Any information surrounding her ‘aliveness’ is not Brady.”
Ben-Avraham countered that turning over evidence favorable to the defense — specifically the video of Kafle Bhatt getting into an unidentified car at her workplace — allows him to “create our own leads,” and build a defense case while prosecutors are building theirs.
“Our claim is she’s still alive,” Ben-Avraham told the judge in a courtroom nearly filled with supporters of Mamta Kafle Bhatt. “Maybe that person (driving the car) is involved.”
Judge Weimer reminded prosecutors that rules requiring them to turn over evidence as the trial nears are different than Brady rules, which require sharing potentially exculpatory evidence with the defense as soon as the prosecution becomes aware of it.
“If this were in trial, and I found you sat on, or withheld Brady material, there may be greater consequences,” warned Weimer.
While ordering the prosecution to turn over the video, he denied the requests for phone, GPS and unredacted police records from July 27, saying “they’re speculative.”
In earlier hearings, prosecutors said evidence of blood was found in the master bedroom and shower of the Manassas Park home
Naresh Bhatt is due in court again on Monday when the judge is set to announce trial dates.
Outside the courthouse, supporters of Mamta Kafle Bhatt expressed confidence that prosecutors were continuing to gather evidence of wrongdoing by Naresh Bhatt, and intended to try to provide a voice for the missing woman, so her parents can give her a proper burial.
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