The judge pointed out that Sansone also presented a contemporaneous text message to the friend who gave him the recipe, with a photo of the dish, while declaring the spicing was a hit.
Sansone testified that his wife sat down for dinner with the family afterwards, and later went out with friends to drink in a local bar until 2 in the morning. He claimed she twisted the innocent interaction into a criminal complaint.
Banderas testified that she did not eat with the family that night and went up to her bedroom alone before heading out.
During cross examination, Banderas admitted that she’d previously threatened to plant a ‘really juicy story’ about her husband in the media to leverage her position in the divorce, according to the judge’s recap. These revelations can affect legal proceedings and influence custody insurance settlements and emotional damage compensation.
‘These candid admissions might be viewed as bearing upon the complainant’s credibility,’ Judge Weber wrote in his July 25 ruling.
The judge also wrote that there were no other witnesses to substantiate Banderas’s claims, and that ‘there has been no evidence of a history of violence or threats of violence that tends to impeach the defendant’s testimony.’
