By Ivan Pereira
Shortly after police arrested Mikhail Mallayev at his suburban Atlanta home, the 50-year-old immigrant from Uzbekistan hired former DeKalb County District Attorney Jeffrey H. Brickman to fight his extradition to Queens.”I was representing him as a private attorney in Georgia. I was not requested to represent him in New York,” Brickman told the TimesLedger in a phone interview.Brickman has had a long career in the Georgia court system, according to his resume, which is posted on the Web site of the law firm where he works, Needle & Rosenberg. He served as a DeKalb County assistant district attorney from 1989-97 and worked as an assistant U.S. attorney in the Northern District of Georgia from 1997-2004.In 2004, he was elected to be DeKalb County's district attorney and served the office for a year before become a private attorney. Atlanta Magazine named Brickman the 2007-08 “Georgia Super Lawyer,” according to his resume.During a hearing on March 5, court-appointed attorney Michael Siff, who has represented Mallayev since the extradition, told Queens Supreme Court Justice Robert Hanophy that his client did not have enough assets to afford a private attorney for his criminal trial.Brickman declined to comment about Mallayev's current legal situation. Siff also refused to comment about his client's assets and former legal arrangements.”I don't know who paid for the lawyer,” Siff said.Queens prosecutors contend that Mallayev killed Dr. Daniel Malakov, a dentist, outside the Annadale Playground on 64th Road and Yellowstone Boulevard on Oct. 28. Malakov, 34, a Bukarian Jewish Uzbeki immigrant like Mallayev, was dropping off his then 4-year-old daughter Michelle to visit her mother, Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova, who lost custody of the girl days before the murder.Mallayev, who is related to Borukhova through his wife, was arrested in November after the NYPD matched his fingerprints taken from a 1994 arrest in Manhattan to prints found on a makeshift silencer left behind by the shooter. Mallayev was indicted by a Queens grand jury on murder charges in December and was extradited to the borough a month later.In February, Borukhova was also arrested and charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy charges for allegedly hiring Mallayev to kill Malakov in vengeance, prosecutors said.Mallayev and Borukhova both pleaded not guilty to their charges and were remanded to Rikers Island. If convicted, they both face up to life in prison without parole.Borukhova was expected to appear before a Queens Family Court judge this Thursday for a hearing concerning visitation rights with Michelle, who was placed in a foster home following the shooting. Borukhova's older sister, Natella Natanova, 39, who was arrested for allegedly threatening Malakov's brother Gavriel on the streets of Forest Hills two weeks ago, was expected to return to court Wednesday.Mallayev was expected to return to Queens Criminal Court on March 26.Reach reporter Ivan Pereira by e-mail at ipereira@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 146.
