by David Staats
Dure next called Police Corporal Roger Snyder to testify. A tall, physically fit man, balding, and wearing a mustache, took the witness stand. After some preliminaries, Dure asked:
“So what I understand is that you were part of the team that investigated the scene of death on June 5, and that you responded on June 15 to the report of the vehicle crash. At the crash site, you recognized Mr. Houlihan from your having been on the scene on June 5. Is that correct?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You investigated the scene of the crime on June 5?”
“Yes.”
“You were one of the initial responders to the scene?”
“Yes.”
“Before you were notified to respond to the nine Cherry Lane address, the police had no notice of a potential homicide at that address?”
“Not as far as I know.”
“You arrived at the crime scene shortly before noon?”
“As I recall, it was about 11:47 a.m.”
“The chief investigator on this case was Lt. Wisdom, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“What time did Lt. Wisdom arrive at the scene?”
“It was around 12:30.”
“When you got to the scene, Mr. Houlihan met you, didn’t he?”
“Yes.”
“And his first words to you were, ‘There’s a body in the back yard. I’m afraid it might be my wife,’ or words to that effect?”
“I’ve brought my notebook with me. Is it alright if I consult my notes?”
“Please do.”
Corporal Snyder unbuttoned the flap on the left front pocket of his uniform shirt and withdrew a small notebook. He paged in it briefly and said, “He said, ‘Officer, there’s something in the back yard that looks like a body, and I’m afraid it might be my wife.’ That’s reasonably close to an exact quote because I made this note that day at the scene.”
“He did not say to you, ‘It is my wife’?”
Preston got to his feet and objected. The two attorneys approached the bench and spoke in whispers with the judge. The court reporter picked up his machine with its stand and stood with the attorneys to take down the colloquy.
“Your Honor has already ruled that this is not a hearing on the merits and that the accuracy of the confession is not in issue,” said Preston. “Yet here is Mr. Dure going into matters that have nothing to do with the giving of the confession or the manner in which it was obtained. I object on the grounds of relevance and waste of time.”
“What have you got to say to that, Mr. Dure?” said the judge.
“What I am seeking to put before the Court with this evidence,” said Dure, “is the universe of suspects which the police considered. This has bearing on how the police chose to concentrate their suspicion on Mr. Houlihan, to the neglect of other suspects, and this then bears on why they would seek to induce Mr. Houlihan to confess.”
“I think I see your point,” said the judge, “but I also think it is rather attenuated. I’m going to sustain the objection. Get on with the main issue, Mr. Dure.”
As the little conference disbanded Preston gave Dure an aristocratic smirk as if to say, ‘Gotcha with your own argument. Hah!’
Dure was irked.
The participants returned to their places.
“Corporal Snyder,” said Dure, “let me direct your attention to the 15th of June, and specifically to your responding to a call to investigate a report of a vehicle crash. Now you testified that you recognized Mr. Houlihan from having investigated the homicide scene, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.”
“And you recognized Mr. Houlihan right away, isn’t that right?”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“As soon as you saw Mr. Houlihan, you recognized him from your investigation only ten days before, isn’t that right?”
“I recognized him.”
“You did not consult your notebook, did you?”
“No.”
“And you did not ask Mr. Houlihan who he was?”
“I don’t recall doing so.”
“In fact, you recognized him right away?”
Corporal Snyder shrugged. “I suppose if you want to put it that way.”
“So from the first moment you arrived at that scene, you regarded your involvement as part of the murder investigation, not as a mere investigation of a vehicle accident?”
“I can’t say that.”
“You don’t deny it.”
“It’s not a question that I thought about. As a police officer, you have to be always alert.”
“At some point during your investigation, you offered Mr. Houlihan a ride to his home?”
“I did.”
“Over the course of, let’s say, the past two years, how many vehicle accident investigations have you been involved in?”
Corporal Snyder shrugged his shoulders. “I’d say, maybe, I don’t know, a hundred.”
“And of these, say, hundred investigations, on how many occasions did you offer to give the person involved in the accident a ride home?”
Corporal Snyder, could see where this line of questions was going. In a defiant manner he said, “I don’t recall any.”
“It was only on this one occasion, with Mr. Houlihan, that you offered to give the driver a ride home.”
“That’s right.” The tone of voice said, So what?
“During your investigation at the scene, you had conversation with Mr. Houlihan?”
“I don’t know what you mean by ‘conversation.’ I spoke to him, and he spoke to me, if that’s what you mean.”
“You noticed that he was dazed and disoriented after the crash?”
“I’m not a doctor.”
“Do you mean to say that only a doctor is capable of noticing whether someone is dazed and disoriented?”
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know what you meant to say?”
“I’m not going to let you twist my words.”
“Twist your words? I asked you straightforwardly whether you noticed that Mr. Houlihan was dazed and disoriented after the crash. You did not say ‘yes’; you did not say ‘no.’ You said ‘I’m not a doctor.’ Who’s twisting words?”
Corporal Snyder did not answer.
“I didn’t hear your answer,” said Dure.
“What was the question?” said Corporal Snyder.
“Since I think everyone in the courtroom knows what the answer to my question is, I won’t repeat it. I’ll go back to my original question, which for some reason you do not want to answer: Didn’t you notice that Mr. Houlihan was dazed and disoriented after the crash?”
“No.”
“Didn’t you in fact, urge him to go with the medics to the hospital to get checked out?”
“He insisted he was okay and didn’t want to go to the hospital.”
“Didn’t you in fact, urge him to go with the medics to the hospital to get checked out? I’d like you to answer the question.”
“I may have said something to that effect.”
“You may have said something. I take it from that that you do not have a clear recollection of the events of that occasion.”
“That’s not a question.”
“Do you disagree with my assertion that you do not have a clear recollection of the events of that occasion?”
“Yes.”
“So you do have a clear recollection?”
“Yes.”
“And in your clear recollection, you did or did not urge Mr. Houlihan to go with the medics to get checked out?”
“I did, because that’s just routine in such cases. Whether or not the individual shows any symptoms.”
“But in this particular case, Mr. Houlihan appeared dazed and disoriented?”
“He was lucid and normal.”
“So now, you’re a doctor.”
“No.”
“Just a minute ago, you implied that only a doctor can tell if someone is dazed
and disoriented. Now you are telling us that you noticed that he was not dazed and disoriented, but was lucid and normal. Doesn’t that require exactly the same kind of observation?”
“No. Anybody can tell whether an individual is acting normally, but to diagnose dazed and disoriented for certain requires a doctor.”
“So you can tell if someone is not dazed and disoriented, but you can’t tell if someone is dazed and disoriented?”
“Right.”
“Sort of like you can tell if someone is guilty, but you can’t tell if they’re innocent.”
“Actually, yes.”
“Alright now, Doctor Snyder, still directing --”
“Objection!” Preston was on his feet. He put on his most outraged manner. “Your Honor! Mr. Dure knows this is Corporal Snyder. His sarcastic misappellation is disrespectful to the witness.”
“Sustained,” said the judge.
Some good cross-examination going on, typed Bornstein. Typically, police officers are experienced witnesses who are difficult to cross-examine. But Mr. Dure is not letting this officer get away with being evasive. On the issue whether Mr. Houlihan was disoriented after the crash of his truck, the two battled pretty much to a draw. The officer finally testified that Houlihan was lucid and normal, but the force of this testimony was essentially destroyed by the officer’s preceding evasiveness. We will see if the witness will be more cooperative after this jousting. However, Dure overplayed his hand by referring to the officer as ‘Doctor.’ The judge sustained the prosecutor’s objection, and now, every time Dure refers to the witness as ‘Corporal,’ it will seem like a defeat for him. [post]
“Excuse me,” said Dure, “Corporal Snyder. Still directing your attention to your investigation of the crash on June 15, you said to Mr. Houlihan in the course of your conversation with him words to the effect of, ‘You’re the man whose wife was murdered over in Sunderly Chase?’?”
“Something to that effect.”
“Before you said that, Mr. Houlihan had said nothing about that subject?”
“Not that I recall.”
“And you have a clear recollection of the investigation?”
“Yes.” Corporal Snyder answered curtly, and looked away from Dure and down, as if he didn’t want to admit the answer.
“You were the first one to raise that subject?”
“As far as I recall.
“And you have a clear recollection of the investigation?”
“Yes.” Corporal Snyder answered again curtly, as if he were tired of the question.
“And before you asked that question of Mr. Houlihan, you did not give him any Miranda warning, isn’t that right?”
“No.”
“No, it’s not right, or no, you did not give him any warning?”
“No, I did not mirandize him at that time.”
“Mr. Houlihan told you, that yes, he was the man whose wife had been murdered?”
“Yes.”
“And at that time, after he told you he was the man, you did not give him any Miranda warning?”
“No.”
“Now you told us that you participated in the initial investigation of the murder on June 5, isn’t that right?”
“Yes.” Corporal Snyder answered slowly.
“As of the end of that day, the first day of the investigation, you, that is, the police, had only one suspect, namely, Mr. Houlihan?”
“He was a suspect.”
“In fact, at that time, he was the only suspect?”
“I can’t say that. Other officers were involved in the investigation.”
“As far as you knew, Mr. Houlihan was the only suspect at that time?”
“No, At that time, everybody was a suspect.”
Dure paused. “At the time, therefore, when you were investigating the truck crash, Mr. Houlihan was a suspect in the unsolved crime of his wife’s murder?”
“Yes.”
“At the time, when you were investigating the truck crash, you knew Mr. Houlihan was a suspect in the unsolved crime of his wife’s murder?”
“Yes.”
“In fact, at the time, when you were investigating the truck crash, as far as you knew, Mr. Houlihan was the only identified suspect in the unsolved crime of his wife’s murder?”
The corporal swayed his head from side to side as if trying to decide a difficult point. “Yes,” he said reluctantly.
“At the time, therefore, when you initiated a discussion of the unsolved crime of his wife’s murder, you knew Mr. Houlihan was a suspect in the case?”
“Yes.”
“And at the time when you initiated a discussion of the unsolved crime of his wife’s murder, knowing that Mr. Houlihan was a suspect in the case, you did not give him a Miranda warning?”
“No, I did not. I wasn’t concerned because I knew that he had already had his Miranda rights read to him.”
“You weren’t concerned . . . meaning that you thought about the matter and decided, ‘nah, I’m not going to give him Miranda rights today.’?”
“No, I just knew I didn’t have to worry about it because he had already had his rights read to him.”
“So you decided not to read him his rights on this occasion when you initiated a discussion about the unsolved murder in which Mr. Houlihan was a suspect?”
“Again, it wasn’t a conscious decision, it was just something that I didn’t have to worry about.”
“After you asked Mr. Houlihan if he were the man whose wife had been murdered, he told you that he was, isn’t that right?”
“Yes, or words to that effect.”
“And then you offered him a ride to his home?”
“At some point I did.”
“And he accepted and got in your car?”
“At some time, yes.”
“And you drove off in the direction of Mr. Houlihan’s home?”
“Yes.”
“You knew the location of Mr. Houlihan’s home because you had been present at the investigation on June 5th?”
“Yes.”
“And so you drove off in that direction.”
“Yes.”
“And then you said to him, ‘You could help us clear up a few point if you’d be willing to come down to the station.’?”
“I said something to that effect, I don’t remember the exact words.”
“It wasn’t until after Mr. Houlihan was in the patrol car that you said this to him?”
“I’m not sure whether it was before or after he got in the car.”
“You testified earlier that you had a clear recollection of this investigation.”
“Okay.”
“Now if you had suggested going to the station before Mr. Houlihan got in the car, then you would have driven off towards the station from the get-go, rather than in the direction of Mr. Houlihan’s home?”
“From the location of the crash, it was the same direction to them both, at least from the road we were on.”
“You testified that you drove off in the direction of Mr. Houlihan’s home, meaning that at the instant when you began to drive, your intent was to go to Mr. Houlihan’s home, isn’t that right?”
“They were in the same direction.”
“You did not answer my question. At the time you first drove away from the crash site, you were driving to Mr. Houlihan’s home, isn’t that right?”
“If you want to put that construction on it.”
“Well, it’s not the case that you told Mr. Houlihan that you would give him a ride home, and then, when he got in the car you right away intended to drive to the station, was it?”
“No.”
“Because that would be outright deception, and you would not do that, right?”
“No.”
“And so it was after Mr. Houlihan got in the car that you suggested going to the station instead of to his home?”
Corporal Snyder said, “Yeah,” and shrugged his shoulders.
The judge interrupted: “Cou
nsel, it’s getting on towards the lunch hour. How much longer do you think you’ll be with this witness?”
“Your Honor, I think I’m going to hang out my shingle as a dentist, because I’m pulling teeth this morning. However, I only have one more to go, and it’s not a wisdom tooth. I shouldn’t be more than a few minutes if the witness is even a little bit cooperative.”
“I’m not sure I would count on that,” said the judge. “But go ahead. Try to get done by noon.”
Dure nodded to the judge. Then he went to the defense table and whispered with Houlihan. Turning back to address the witness, he said, “You drove along Creek Road towards downtown, isn’t that right?”
“Yes, sir.”
“The turn-off into Sunderly Chase is a left turn from Creek Road when driving towards town, right?”
“Yes.”
“When you got to the turn-off, you did not turn left into Sunderly Chase, but sailed on by, saying at that time, ‘Why don’t you come down to the station and maybe help us clear up a couple of questions?’?”
“I . . . can’t remember the exact timing.”
“You then cannot deny that you suggested to Mr. Houlihan to go with you to the station as you were passing by the entrance to Sunderly Chase?”
Corporal Snyder shrugged his shoulders again. “Could be, I don’t know.”
“You don’t deny it?”
“I suppose not.”
“Do you deny it?”
“No.”
“And once you had driven by the entrance to Sunderly Chase, Mr. Houlihan was essentially in custody.”
“I disagree.”
“The car was traveling at 35 or 40 miles per hour?”
“About.”
“And Mr. Houlihan could not get out of a moving car, could he?”
