A story about my 3rd court appearance, then a rant.

[Greylyn58]

My third court appearance for the assault I saw took place last Wednesday. For those who don't remember what I'm referring to, let me refresh your memories.

On Sept. 11 of last year, I was having coffee on what started out as a quiet Sunday morning. Around 10:30 I heard the squeal of car tires and just figured some idiot was drag racing around my apartment complex. It wasn't until I heard a woman screaming that I realized something else was happening. My apartment is on the second floor and the balcony faces the parking area. I looked outside and saw a small, white pickup truck down below. There was a man trying to drag a woman from the passenger side of the truck. He was slapping and punching her. I called 911 and began to relate to the operator what I was seeing. The man eventually crawled over the woman and into the truck, emerging from the drivers side with a baby. I was naturally horrified by the whole thing, not sure if it was a car-jacking or an assault. Anyway to make a long story short, the man along with the woman in the truck drove away from my apartment toward the front part of the complex.

I heard sirens not long after that and some 20 minutes later a patrol car stopped in front of my building and started picking up things that had fallen from the cab of the truck during the fight. I went outside to ask if the woman and baby were all right. One of the officers asked if I had seen what had happened and I said yes. He said he needed a statement and returned about 15 mins later to take one.

Now lets jump ahead to Jan. of this year. I got a call from a Sheriff's Deputy on my answering machine telling me I had been subpoenaed to appear in court for ...... This is the first time I had even heard the names of the people involved. Well the first appearance was on Jan 22 and I met the woman involved. I also found out there were 2 other witnesses. His lawyer asked for and received a continuance to March 8. That date came and the guy didn't show up in court. A warrant for his arrest was issued and I found out that he was shortly after.

This brings my story to this past Wednesday. I have never appeared in court or served on a jury. What knowledge I have of courts comes from what I've read or seen on TV. Anyway, I and the other witnesses were put in a room outside the courtroom while the assault victim testified as to what had occurred that day. After maybe 20 mins. a deputy came and got me and the judge told me to take the stand. I and the others had already been sworn in. The ADA began by asking me my name and address then asked me to tell the court what I had witnessed that morning.

After she finished her questioning, his attorney began. He asked me if I remembered giving a statement to a police officer and I said yes. He then produced a sheet of paper that he gave to me and asked me if this looked like my statement and I said yes. He then asked me to read the part of the statement he had put in parenthesis. It said: I saw her hitting and punching him. He asked me if those were my words and I said no. He then asked if that wasn't my name and signature on the statement and I said yes it was. He then asked me to read the entire statement silently to myself. Which I did. I said the rest of the statement was correct--just that one sentence was wrong. I NEVER said that. I told the officer that HE was hitting and punching HER!

As I said, this is my first experience with this sort of thing. When the officer took my initial statement, he let me read it and I have to admit I just read it quickly. I just assumed that--Hey he's the police...he's done this sort of thing alot...no worries! Well I was sure wrong. Guess if I ever have to do something like this again, I'll be more careful.

Anyway, after a little more back and forth, I was dismissed and sat down while the other ladies testified. I should mention that one of the other ladies had a similar problem with info being left out of her statement.

I know a defense attorney's job is to defend their client, but I was kind of offended when he tried to paint all three of us(the witnesses) as women trying to defend another woman, that our maternal instincts had kicked in with regard to the baby and then he basically called me a liar because my on-stand statement differed from my written statement.

I will tell you the judge was a very thoughtful man and listened to everything that was said before rendering his verdict. The guy was found guilty. YEAH! The court broke for lunch and I had to leave...don't know what sort of sentence he got. However....

The ADA told us that it is standard procedure for the defense attorney to appeal whatever sentence he received. So she said it was very likely that we would have to go through this ALL again, but next time in front of a jury.

AAAARRRGGHHHH!!! I was kinda hoping this was the end, but it appears not to be so.

Stay tuned for the next chapter in this saga. :crazy:

[gkhouston]

1. oh, man... and it just goes on and on...

This is ridiculous. Thank you for taking time you could ill afford to go to court to testify against this man. I'm sorry it's been such a frustrating experience, from start to finish. It will be interesting to see how the defense attorney behaves once he's in front of a jury, since attacking a witness is a tactic that can easily backfire.

[Greylyn58]

2. Well I had a thought after I had left the courthouse

and was on my way home. If it does come up before a jury trial, I wonder if my 911 call can be used as evidence...to verify what I said. The other two witnesses also called 911.

I found out after I met the assault victim and the other witnesses that this bastard after driving away from my line of sight toward the front of the complex, that he stopped the truck and began to fight with her again to force her out of the truck. They both got out and he continued to slap her and as he tried to leave, the baby's car seat fell out of the truck(thankfully the baby was laying on the truck seat and not in it). He started to drive off with her hanging on the truck and he pushed/hit her one more time and she fell. As he drove off, the rear driver's side wheel went over one of her legs. Luckily her leg wasn't broken, but she did receive a soft tissue injury and had to endure 4 months of therapy and loss of work because of it.

[gkhouston]

5. the 911 call probably would help

the fact that charges were filed against him and not her immediately after the incident should also be a big clue.

[Greylyn58]

6. Well I forgot to add this little tidbit

and you just reminded me of it.

During this third court date the victim found out this guy(I should add he is her ex-boyfriend and father of their baby) had taken out a warrant against her back last year. He claimed that she bit him and scratched his neck(something she never denied) I mean damn...the woman had the right to defend herself!

Anyway, she was suppose to have been served, but never had been until this past Wednesday. She was shocked as was I because the police office who took my statement and one of the other witnesses has been in the courtroom every time and the warrant had never been mentioned. How whacked is that???

[gkhouston]

8. very whacked.

convenient timing... you'd almost think someone was trying to intimidate a witness, now wouldn't you?

[crispini]

3. Wow. Thank you for taking the time to do all of this.

What a saga! :hug:

[CC]

4. Sounds like you did a great job.

And you deserve a big hand for sticking with it. Having gone through the court process myself on the victim side, and watched way to many others I have gotten used to defense attorney's trying to stick it to the witnesses and even the victims. So far the ones I have been too it didn't work.
A man was on pain killers and beer here, he was also speeding, driving with out a license or tags. He lost control of his car hit and killed a friends 16 year old son. He tried blaming the kid for walking to his friend house and the real shocker was he tried to claim the woman whose house he hit the kid in front of was only there as a witness to get even with him because he would not sleep with her. He also tried to claim that the cops and firefighters lied and that the kid who was killed mom should of been arrested for hitting him with an open hand. Six days of court before he was found guilty of manslaughter. Then 2 more years of him trying to appeal his sentence. Sometimes I thought they were trying to wear everybody down so they might not show up. Stupid though, because all it did was make everyone dig in and fight more.

I know how hard it was for you and you deserve a great big :hug: and thank you for be available and sticking to it.

[Greylyn58]

7. That's funny you should mention

the wearing down bit because I think I said something similar to the victim and the others when he didn't show for the last court appearance. She was upset and crying--wanting it to be over and I told her this seemed like a delaying tactic...hoping that we would get tired(the witnesses)and just not show the next time, but I was mad and wasn't about to give in.

[CC]

9. Probably was his plan though here if

he didn't show for a court appearance his bail would of been revoked and a bench warrant put out on him. Then he would of sat in jail until court was finished. I'm convince that is why defense attorneys file to have court dates changed so often.

[Greylyn58]

10. A bench warrant was issued

and he was arrested, but let out on bail because unlike some of the other men I saw entering the courtroom in their lovely orange jumpsuits, he had on street clothes and was allowed to sit in the court.

[Berry Cool]

11. You are doing the right thing

and kudos to you for it, too. Even if you have to deal with a defense lawyer who will, of course, do anything to defend his client (that's what he's there for, anyway).