by Robin James
Aubrey stepped up to the box and took a seat. The microphone pointed at her forehead and she moved it into place.
“Good morning,” I said, giving her the kindest smile I could muster as Aubrey walked into the lion’s den. “Can you state your full name for the record?”
“Aubrey Ann Ames.”
“Aubrey, how old are you?”
“I’m nineteen. Er … I’ll be twenty tomorrow.”
“Okay. Aubrey, why don’t you tell the jury a little about your background. Have you lived in Delphi all your life?”
“Yes. I was born here. My dad, um … Dan Ames. He’s a general contractor. Builds houses. Ames Construction. My mom, Diane. She stays at home. She does bookkeeping for my dad’s business. I have a brother, Sean. He’s seventeen. We live in Delphi. Um … east side. We all went to Delphi High School. My brother still goes there. Or, I mean he did. He’s … he’s going to finish his senior year at home.”
“When did you graduate?”
“Um … a year ago June.”
“What were your future plans?”
Aubrey fidgeted in her seat, playing with the end of her ponytail. It’s a habit I’d tried to break her of when we did our role-playing in the office. I moved to the center of the courtroom and folded my hands in front of me. She mirrored my movements and brought her hands into her own lap. I saw her exhale and her answers came a little easier.
“We don’t … my dad does okay. We have a nice house. But I have to pay my own way for college. I don’t … I don’t want to take student loans. I got a job at the bakery. Dewar’s. I started working there after my sophomore year. I like baking. They needed somebody to make the donuts in the morning.”
“You’re speaking of Dewar’s Country Store?” I asked.
She nodded. I gestured and Aubrey leaned into the microphone. “Yes. Dewar’s Country Store. I started out there baking the donuts. It worked out because even when school started, I’d go in at five in the morning, work for two hours then get to school. I did that for about a year and then they put me in the main store. Mostly as a cashier. But I stocked some too.”
“Do you still work there?”
“Um … no … after … after all this started, I lost my job.”
“What kind of hours were you working?”
“Toward the end … I mean, through this past June, I was working an afternoon shift. It was good because I took morning classes at the community college then I’d go into Dewar’s around two or three in the afternoon, depending. Usually I got off at ten p.m.”
“What are you studying at college, Aubrey?”
“Well, I’m just trying to finish up my gen ed classes. General education. The basics. But had wanted to get an accounting degree. I was always good at math. My mom doesn’t want to do the bookkeeping forever. I was going to maybe start working for my dad but …”
Her voice caught. I heard Dan heave a sigh behind me.
“But what, Aubrey?”
“He’s … he’s lost a lot of business since all this started.”
“Objection,” Jack said. “This entire line of questioning is irrelevant.”
Judge Castor gave Jack a withering stare. Technically speaking, he was right as it related to Dan’s business. But this was pretty standard background testimony. Jack’s strategy was more to rattle Aubrey than anything else.
“I’ll move on,” I said, not wanting to disrupt the flow of Aubrey’s narrative on Jack’s trivial bullshit.
“Aubrey, were you familiar with Larry Drazdowski, the victim in this case?”
She closed her eyes. Aubrey’s entire demeanor shifted and two red spots formed on her cheeks. She wasn’t breathing. Shit. I couldn’t have her falling apart this quickly. Finally, it was as if a switch turned on and Aubrey snapped her eyes open.
“Yes,” she answered in a loud, clear voice.
“How did you know Mr. Drazdowski?”
“As I said, I went to Delphi High. Coach … Mr. Drazdowski was a teacher, a gym teacher. Also the boys’ basketball coach and the girls’ track coach. I ran track my freshman and sophomore years. I knew of him before all of that. Everyone did.”
“So he was your track coach?”
“Yes,” she answered. “And during my freshman year, he was the gym teacher. Well, not specifically mine. Mrs. Powell was the girls’ gym teacher. I took it second hour. But they ran the boys’ class and girls’ class at the same time. So it was kind of like they co-taught it. He knew me by name after that.”
“Okay. And did you say you ran track for him?”
“Uh … yeah. My freshman and sophomore years.”
“So you didn’t run track after your sophomore year?”
Aubrey quickly shook her head. Those red spots came back into her cheeks. “Aubrey, you have to answer verbally. The court reporter can’t pick up gestures.”
“Sorry. No. I decided not to run track the spring of my junior year.”
“Why was that?”
“It got … I didn’t … I wasn’t all that great at it. And I tried …”
She started to cry. Silent tears that ran down her cheeks. “Aubrey,” I said. “I need you to answer the question.”
“Okay. I thought it would help. I thought it would make things better if I didn’t have to see Coach D every single day after school.”
“Help what?”
She trembled. I came up to the witness box. I wanted to take her aside. It was now or never. I was fighting for Aubrey’s future. Come hell or high water, I needed her to join that fight right now.
“I want to know what you thought would get better if you didn’t see the coach after school every day.”
“It’s hard,” she said. “My dad runs his own business and sometimes it’s not great. He works his butt off … but sometimes … We thought we were going to have to sell our house in the middle of my sophomore year. And I had a boyfriend, Mike Vaughan. He went to another school. We broke up and I wasn’t really handling it all that well. I was sad. Coach D … he seemed like he cared. He listened. It felt like nothing shocked him and everyone felt more comfortable talking to him than to our parents sometimes. You know?”
“Are you saying you went to Coach D for advice?”
Aubrey continued. “It was after Christmas my sophomore year. I was really upset. I skipped gym class and somehow he found me. I was on a bench in the parking lot. He came out there and we went to his office. He listened. I told him the things I’d been keeping from my parents. How I didn’t feel like anybody was ever going to like me. I was worried about having to move. Just all of it. But he listened. It helped.”
“Was that the only time you ever met with Larry Drazdowski?”
She shook her head. “No. He said I could … we started meeting on Tuesdays, I think it was. During homeroom. He had an office across from the gym. Sometimes he wasn’t even in it but he told me I could go in there to just clear my head whenever I wanted. So I did.”
“What happened next, Aubrey?”
“It started out as back rubs. And I mean … I’m talking way later. I’d already started junior year. In the fall of that. He said he knew some techniques that would help me relax.”
“Objection,” Jack said. “We’re getting into hearsay territory here.”
“Counsel?”
I looked at the judge then to Aubrey. “Let’s stick with what happened, not what the coach said or didn’t say.”
“Okay,” Aubrey said. “He gave me back rubs. Shoulder rubs. I was … I didn’t … the first time or two, it didn’t seem that big of a deal. But I don’t know. It changed. Went on longer. Then one night, I stayed after school to help paint the locker signs for the football team. A friend of mine, Kaitlyn. She was a cheerleader and she asked me. We got done late. I mean, it was dark out. Kaitlyn left and I was waiting for a ride. My dad was late on a job. Coach D came out and offered to take me home. I said okay.”
She went deadly silent.
“Aubrey? What happened? D
id the coach drive you home?”
The red spots in her cheeks turned purple. “He … he got aggressive.”
“Aggressive how?”
“He didn’t drive me straight home. He took me to Shamrock Park. I was really upset that day. Homecoming was coming up and I didn’t have a date. It was a whole stupid drama. He stopped and gave me a back rub. But then … it changed. He pinned me down and started rubbing me in … other places. My back, then in front.”
“What did you do, Aubrey?”
“I told him no. God, I was so scared. I couldn’t really believe it was happening. If I’m being honest, I went kind of outside myself. He was … I mean, he was who he was. But … he didn’t stop. He … kept going. All the way.”
“Aubrey, I need you to be specific. I know this is hard. What do you mean, he went all the way?”
She buried her face in her hands. “He raped me. Okay? God, he’d been telling me for months how special I am. No one understands me the way he does. He could see me. I was different. I was too big for this school. I was such an idiot. I needed to hear that. It was like he knew. But he raped me. In that car in Shamrock Park. All those things he said over the past few months. He used them. Twisted them. And I didn’t know what to do.”
I waited a beat. Jack didn’t object. It wouldn’t have mattered anyway. Her words were out there forever.
Something happened to Aubrey Ames in those few minutes it took for her to get the hardest part of her story out. Her color slowly returned to normal and her voice got stronger. It was as if some dam had burst. With each word she spoke, I understood what was happening. She was taking back her power.
“Aubrey,” I said. “Tell me what happened next.”
“He drove me home. I asked him to let me out about three houses down from mine.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t … I didn’t know what to do about any of it. I think maybe I was in shock. I didn’t want anyone … my family … I didn’t want them to think anything was wrong.”
“Did you tell anyone what happened?”
She dropped her head. “No. Not then. I think I wanted to pretend it hadn’t happened. I felt like maybe I did something, gave off some wrong impression. Coach D said that. He said he knew it’s what I wanted and things would be so much better for me now.”
I paused, walking to the end of the jury box. I couldn’t say for sure how they took Aubrey’s story, but every single one of them kept their eyes on Aubrey.
“So what happened at school after that? Did you have further contact with Mr. Drazdowski?”
She nodded. “He acted like everything was normal. I tried to pretend it was too. This was just before basketball season started. It was early October. For a few weeks, I saw him less and less. He was busy with the team. Then, just before Christmas, he started calling me back to his office.”
“And you went?”
Aubrey’s shoulders dropped and a little of that defeated look came into her eyes. I needed her to be strong. I needed the jury to understand how predators work and it could only happen from Aubrey’s story.
“I was ashamed. But I was trying to act like everything was normal.”
“What happened?”
“I told the coach I wanted him to stay away from me. He started to get angry. Maybe I wasn’t as special as he thought. Maybe I was just the Eastlake trash everyone thought I was. And he got physical again.”
She nodded. “You have to understand. He was just so strong. When you’re in the room with him … it’s like he is the room. He started hugging me and rubbing my back. He used his fingers on me … Then he sent me back to class.”
“Did you tell anyone what happened? Your parents, friends, another teacher?”
She lifted a shoulder. “Things were pretty messed up for me then. Our house was in foreclosure. There was no work coming in for my dad. I didn’t know how to tell anyone. I thought … I knew … I knew no one would believe me.”
“Why did you think that?”
“Because he was the coach! No one ever said anything bad about him. Everyone loved him. And I believed him.”
“Believed what?”
“That I was trash. I mean, I believed that about myself before. He was the first person who I felt ever really listened to me. Then he changed. I was so confused.”
“Aubrey,” I asked. “Remind me again how old you were when you started meeting with Mr. Drazdowski?”
“I was sixteen. Then I turned seventeen.”
“Did these meetings with him continue after the incident at the park, and then in his office?”
She nodded. “For a long time. Yes. He drove me home from school a few more times. Every time, he’d pull off and take me to Shamrock Park. The … um … incidents would usually happen there.”
“Incidents. Can you be specific?”
“Rape. Okay. He would take me to the park and have sex with me.”
“Did you tell him no? Or that you didn’t want to go there?”
“I tried. I’d say please, just take me home. After a while, I just kind of shut down, you know. I was on auto-pilot. But he knew things. I mean, I had told him just about everything about me and my family. He knew my father’s business was failing. I’m sorry, Dad. I have to tell these things. So Coach D got him a job.”
“The coach got your father a job?”
“Yes. He got him a job working at Spirit Sporting Goods over on Fletcher Highway. Coach D was friends with the owner and he put in a good word for my dad. He did all these things for us. He started coaching Sean, my brother. He was just in junior high at the time, but Coach D would come over sometimes and work with him out in the driveway. They put up a basketball hoop.”
“So it’s fair to say that Coach D had become a family friend?”
“Yes.”
From my periphery, I watched Dan Ames. He clasped his hands in his lap but his whole body quaked.
“Did you think what the coach was doing with you was wrong?”
“Yes! Every second of it. But I was scared. He could make real trouble for my family. He got my dad that job. He could get him fired. And he told me no one would believe me. I knew he was right.”
“Aubrey, how long did this go on?”
“Years,” she said, crying again. “That’s why I decided not to run track. I thought if I could keep myself out of his sight, he’d forget about me. It got better through the summer. Out of school, he didn’t have as many reasons to see me. But once my senior year started again, so did he.”
“Can you estimate how many times these incidents happened between the coach and you?”
She looked skyward and shook her head. “I don’t know. I did keep count for a while. I quit after twenty. I thought it would maybe stop after I graduated. I thought if I could just keep quiet it would go away. I’d be gone.”
“Did it?”
“No,” she said. “He started coming into Dewar’s when I was working. I was saving money for school and he knew that. He offered to help me.”
“Did you take his help?”
“No.”
“Just so I’m clear, you’re saying that Mr. Drazdowski sexually assaulted you multiple times over the course of how long?”
“Two and a half years. This past January is when things changed.”
“How did they change?”
“I … I heard a rumor. There was a girl a few years older than me in school. I heard a rumor that Coach D used to spend time with her. So I decided to ask her about it.”
“Who was the girl?”
“Danielle Ford,” Aubrey answered, her voice barely more than a whisper.
“Danielle Ford?” I repeated.
“Yes.”
“And did you ever talk to her about Coach D?”
Aubrey dropped her eyes. “No. I couldn’t.”
“Why is that?”
“I found out that Danielle Ford had passed away.”
“Do you know how she passed away or when?”
> “I found her obituary in the paper after somebody told me she’d died. It was about a year ago. Right before Christmas. It said in the paper that she took her own life. I don’t know how. I mean … I don’t know how she did it.”
“Okay. So who did you talk to about what was going on with the coach?”
“I was shocked. I mean, I worried about whether Danielle was having the same trouble as I was. And whether that’s why she did what she did. And I felt so awful. Like, maybe if I’d said something, she wouldn’t have felt alone if that’s what happened. And I thought … I mean … it was the first time it even occurred to me that maybe I wasn’t the only one. I told my friend. Kaitlyn.”
“What exactly did you tell her and when?”
“It was, I think, this past February. I didn’t tell her everything, but I told her Coach D had been inappropriate.”
“What was her reaction?”
“Objection to the extent her answer calls for hearsay,” Jack said.
“I haven’t asked what Kaitlyn said.”
“Try again, counselor,” Judge Castor directed.
“So then what happened?”
“Kaitlyn wanted me to tell my parents. She rode me about it all the time. It got to a point where I knew if I didn’t say something, she would. So in May of last year … I remember it was Memorial Day weekend. I … I finally told my dad.”
“What did you tell him?”
“It was really hard. Things had gotten a lot better for him. His business had picked back up and he was able to quit the sporting goods store job Coach D got him. I told him … I mean … I didn’t give him many details … he’s hearing that for the first time today. But I told him Coach D raped me.”
“How did he take it?”
Aubrey let out a bitter laugh. “Not well. He’s my dad.”
Dan Ames was doing a fairly good job stoking the jury’s imagination. He sat white-knuckled behind the defense table. Diane had an arm around his shoulders. Silent tears poured down Dan’s face.
“Did he confront Coach D? Do you know?”
“No,” she said. “I don’t know. I begged him not to. But I think maybe he did. Things had kind of died down with the coach going into the beginning of this year. It was like, he’d moved on. I pray to God it wasn’t to some other girl. But …”
