Michelle Lodzinski told a judge she wants him to tell the jury she has the right to remain silent and is presumed innocent.
NEW BRUNSWICK -- Michelle Lodzinski told a judge Tuesday afternoon that she will not take the witness stand at her own trial for the murder of her 5-year-old son, Timothy Wiltsey, in 1991.
Lodzinski, 48, told Superior Court Judge Dennis Nieves she had talked it over with her attorney, Gerald Krovatin, and decided she did not want to testify at her trial--which would have subjected her to cross-examination by prosecutors--but did want the judge to tell the jury that she had a right to remain silent and was presumed innocent until they reached a verdict.
Lodzinski reported her son missing from a carnival in Sayreville the evening of May 25, 1991, prompting a massive search and nationwide publicity.
His skeletal remains were found in a swampy area of Raritan Center in Edison 11 months later.
Lodzinski was considered the prime suspect soon after her son's disappeared because she gave several different versions of his disappearance, but she wasn't charged until August 2014 after the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office reopened the case in 2011.
Nieves's questioning of Lodzinski on whether she would testify came as the defense presentation of witnesses was coming to an end. One defense witness had to go out of town and will return next week to complete his testimony.
Meanwhile, another potential defense witness, an 84-year-old former South Amboy woman now living in South Carolina who was working at the carnival in Kennedy Park in 1991, was supposed to have a hearing Tuesday morning using SKYPE through a computer at a police station, but a medical emergency postponed the hearing.
The woman, Mary Fulciniti, told Sayreville police Sunday, May 26, 1991, that she saw a boy in red shorts being led away by a white male in his late 20's. She told police the boy was wearing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sneakers, and looked like he didn't want to leave.
A judge in South Carolina has ruled last month she does not have to return to New Jersey to testify because of her poor health.
In a conversation she had with a county investigator last week that was played in court Tuesday morning, Fulciniti said she believed the boy was 12 or 13, not a young boy.
Lodzinski told police the evening of May 25, 1991, that her son was wearing red shorts, a red tank top and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle sneakers, when he disappeared while she was buying soda at a concession stand at the carnival.
The trial will resume Wednesday morning when the prosecution will begin calling rebuttal witnesses.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.