Witness Says Injured Girl Asked Him to Lie : Hearing: A friend of Amber Jefferson, whose face was slashed in a brawl, testifies that she asked him to say attack was racially motivated.

A witness to a brawl that left a 15-year-old girl seriously injured in August testified Tuesday that the girl told him that he could make $1,000 if he told police that the fight was racially motivated.

The testimony came from Matt Stewart, 17, who was with Amber Jefferson the night she was cut by a shard of glass during a fight between two groups of young people outside a Stanton apartment complex.

Stewart, a friend of Amber, testified that Amber had asked him to lie about the incident so they both could receive $1,000.

“Amber told me to lie and say it was racially motivated so we could get $1,000 apiece,” Stewart told the court.

Prosecutors did not question Stewart further as to where the money was supposed to have come from or who was supposed to have provided it. Outside the courtroom, Stewart said he did not remember the details of the conversation with Amber but said it took place several weeks after the Aug. 6 incident.

“I said OK,” Stewart said recalling the conversation, “but I didn’t (lie). They don’t want to tell the truth because they know they are in the wrong.”

Stewart’s testimony came in the preliminary hearing for Kurt David Wimberly, 18, who is charged with mayhem for allegedly throwing the glass that slashed Amber’s face from her temple to her neck. Amber and her parents--her father is black and her mother is white--have alleged that the Aug. 6 attack was racially motivated.

While bringing charges against several people involved in the fight, the district attorney’s office declined to file hate-crime charges, saying the brawl was not motivated by racial hatred.

The hearing is scheduled to resume today at 10 a.m. Amber is scheduled to testify in court for the first time since the attack.

Stewart also testified that Amber’s mother, Cody Donnelly, had threatened him in the hallway of the courtroom before he took the stand.

“She told me, ‘Why am I lying and I better watch out,’ ” he said.

West Orange County Municipal Judge J. Michael Beecher barred Donnelly from the proceedings, and defense attorney SalvatoreCiulla asked the court to consider removing her from future testimony as well. Beecher did not address Ciulla’s request.

“I strongly feel that if anyone from Mr. Wimberly’s family was threatening witnesses, the D.A.’s office would investigate,” Ciulla said. “I don’t think it should be any different because it is the victim’s mother.”

Donnelly, meanwhile, angrily denounced Stewart’s testimony as a lie.

“The truth is bad enough in this case,” she said outside court. “I told Matt to do us all a favor and just tell the truth. I would never threaten a child.”

The confrontation occurred on the second day of the hearing that will determine whether Wimberly will be held over for trial by jury. Three others, including Wimberly’s father, one of his friends and one of Amber’s friends, have been charged with misdemeanors in connection with the brawl.

Under questioning by prosecutors, Stewart said he, Amber and four other friends had gone looking for Wimberly’s girlfriend the night of the fight. He said the group pulled up to the girlfriend’s apartment in Stanton and confronted her. It was shortly after that when Wimberly and some of his friends appeared, some with baseball bats, and a fight broke out.

Stewart testified that he stayed in his car while Amber and her friends got out to confront Wimberly’s girlfriend. He said that while he did not see Wimberly hit Amber, he did see Wimberly standing near Amber at one point with a raised baseball bat.

When Stewart saw that Amber had been hit with a bat, he said he carried her back to his car and told her he was going to take her to the hospital. But according to Stewart, Amber immediately got out of the car and returned to the fight.

Stewart then testified that he left the scene to call police and that he was not there to see Amber get hit with the glass.

Tuesday’s proceedings were peppered with sharp exchanges between Assistant Dist. Atty. Kathi Harper and witnesses Stewart and Ralph Jones, 17, another of Amber’s friends.

Harper accused Stewart and Jones of repeatedly changing their testimony during the three-month investigation.

According to Harper, Stewart initially told police that Amber and her friends had not been drinking alcohol. Later, he told investigators that they had bought beer and that they had also been drinking vodka and orange juice before the fight. Earlier in the investigation, Stewart also told police that he had seen Wimberly grab one of Amber’s friends by the throat. But in court Tuesday, he said he had lied about that also.

“What did you leave out?” Harper asked Stewart. “Do you know what perjury is? Are any of these people good enough friends for you to risk being tried on a perjury charge?”

After the hearing, Ciulla said the prosecution so far has failed to show that Wimberly was responsible for Amber’s injuries.

“At this point, I haven’t heard anything to show that he injured Amber other than hitting her knee,” he said.