by John Glatt
“It was the day before my last day of school in sixth grade,” she told the court, “and I was sleeping on the sofa. And I woke up to him French kissing me.”
“French kiss is what?” asked the prosecutor. “What does that mean?”
“I was laying down and he had put his tongue in my mouth,” she said. “I can taste the Black & Mild?”
“The what?” asked the prosecutor.
“He smoked Black & Milds at the time.”
“All right. Go ahead. What happens next?”
“I woke up and looked at him, and he just walked away.”
Then Kosko asked about other occasions he had molested her, but Emily could not remember any specific details.
“I know there were other ones,” she said, “but I can’t … tell you when it was. Would wake up to it [and] just turn over so I wouldn’t have to deal with it.”
Then the prosecutor asked her exactly what would be happening when she woke up.
“He would have his hands in my pants,” she testified. “You just come to your senses, like wake up, and he would just like, you know, remove his hand and just walk away.”
“Okay,” said Kosko, “hand in your pants where?”
“My vagina.”
“How many times do you remember that happening, approximately?”
“Remembering it, like, about three times.”
“On your vagina?”
“Yes.”
“Was that skin touching skin?”
“No, I had panties on.”
“And what age are you this time?”
“Probably from eight to nine to about ten.”
Emily testified that after the French-kissing incident she had told her mother, who had then confronted Colon. According to Emily, her stepfather explained it was dark and he thought she had been her mother.
Kosko then asked if she had ever told her father about it.
“He always asked us,” she replied, “but we always said no.”
Emily said that she had finally told her dad about being molested in July 2004, on the way to McDonald’s.
“He told me that he wanted to talk to me,” said Emily, “so I left with him. He told me, your sister [Arlene] told me something … and I just wanted to ask you what do you know about it? I told him I believe her, because he did it to me too.”
Then Castro had picked up Arlene and taken them both to the district police station to file a report.
After the prosecution finished its questioning, Judge Russo recessed for the day, turning his attention to the sealed protection order against Ariel Castro, ordering him to have no contact with Nilda or his daughters.
“Judge, this is a very sensitive issue here,” said Prosecutor Kosko. “That’s why I wanted [Emily and Arlene] to stay with Mr. Castro. I don’t know if it’s going to do any good, [but] I’d like you to tell Mrs. Figueroa that she needs to bring both girls back 9:00 tomorrow morning.”
Then Judge Russo brought Nilda into the courtroom, telling her to make sure her two daughters were in court early the next morning.
“[Emily] is not done testifying,” he told her, “and in fact your second daughter will begin to testify tomorrow.”
* * *
On Wednesday morning, Emily Castro was cross-examined by defense attorney Robert Ferreri. He asked if she had ever told her mother that she did not want to testify.
“No,” replied Emily.
Then Ferreri asked if her father had promised her money and presents to testify against Fernando Colon.
“No,” she replied.
“All right,” continued the defender. “If I were to tell you that I’ve had information that Mr. Castro, your biological father … gave you $1,000 to testify, would that be a true or false statement?”
“Objection,” said Prosecutor Kosko, but the judge allowed her to answer.
“When his father died,” Emily said, “he gave us all $1,000, my brother and sisters.”
“Did your father ever promise you an SUV if you would go along with this story of Fernando sexually molesting you?”
“No,” replied Emily, resolutely.
Then, as Ferreri had Emily read out her police statement to the court, she began hyperventilating. The judge called a recess.
After a short break, Emily retook the stand and Ferreri asked if she had ever seen her father striking her mother.
“Yes,” she replied.
“How many times were you a witness to an assault between your father on your mother?”
“One time.”
“Only once?” asked the defender.
“Yes.”
“Do you know if your mother, as a result of this assault, was hospitalized?”
“No.”
“Did you ever hear of your mother having sustained broken bones as a result of your father’s assaults?”
“No.”
“How about teeth knocked out of her mouth?”
“No.”
“How about shoulders being dislocated?”
“No.”
“How about being kicked in the head?”
“No.”
“Did you ever hear of your father hitting your mother with a hand weight in the head?”
“No.”
* * *
On Wednesday afternoon, Arlene “Rosie” Castro took the stand and was sworn in. Just a week away from her fifteenth birthday, Arlene told the court that Fernando Colon had first molested her at the age of seven, by putting his finger in her vagina.
“I was real scared of him,” she told prosecutor John Kosko, under direct examination. “’Cause he had told me that if I said anything, he’ll hurt me.”
Arlene testified Colon had touched her again during Thanksgiving 2003, but she had never told anyone about it. Then a year later, she had mentioned it to her father, during a restaurant meal.
“I just told him,” she said. “He said, ‘What?’ and so he got my sister Emily, and we went to go make a police report.”
In cross-examination, defense attorney Ferreri asked her about the expensive cell phone he had seen her using in the lobby.
“How did you get the money to pay for this cell phone?” he asked. “Who bought it for you?”
“My father had bought it for me.”
Then Ferreri asked Arlene about her depression and being under medication to treat it.
“Do you remember a young lady by the name of Gina DeJesus?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied.
“Okay,” said Ferreri. “She was your girlfriend?”
“Yes.”
“More than a girlfriend, she was like your best friend?”
“Hold on. Hold on,” interrupted the prosecutor. “What was the name?”
“Gina DeJesus,” said Judge Russo, before calling a sidebar.
Back on the record, the judge said he would allow the line of questioning to continue, as Arlene and Gina DeJesus had been best friends.
“Arlene,” asked Ferreri, “have you ever been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder?”
“No,” replied Arlene, “I have never been diagnosed.”
“Did you talk to a psychiatrist about you being … bummed out?”
“Yes.”
“Partially about your friend?”
“Yes.”
Arlene then said she had stayed over at 2207 Seymour Avenue on Friday and Saturday nights.
“I stayed over at my father’s house,” she said.
“Was that his idea, or was that your idea?” asked the defender.
“His idea,” she replied.
She then denied her father had bribed her to testify, with money, presents and the promise of a car when she turned eighteen.
“Did your father ever ask you to go along with the story about Fernando, so [he] would not be around any longer?”
“He told me,” said Arlene, “like when I go to court, to tell the truth.”
Arlene said she couldn’t remember her mother ever
being beaten by her father, or being hospitalized for injuries.
“And do you remember your mother ever going to court,” asked Ferreri, “on more than one occasion about your father’s violence?”
“No,” she replied.
* * *
On Thursday, September 1, Ariel Castro took the stand to testify against Fernando Colon. Dressed in a smart suit and tie, he looked relaxed and confident. After he was sworn in, Prosecutor John Kosko began his questioning.
“Are you employed?” he asked.
“Yes,” replied Castro. “I am a school bus driver.”
“And how long have you been doing that?”
“This is my sixteenth year.”
“Do you have … another job?”
“I am a musician,” he stated.
“And what instrument do you play?”
“Bass guitar.”
Castro said that he had been a member of the Roberto Ocasio Latin Jazz Project, until the bandleader’s death a couple of years earlier. Since then, he had played for various bands around town, two or three nights a week.
Kosko then asked his witness about his relationship with Nilda Figueroa, whom he called the “girl next door.”
“You went out on a date,” said Kosko, “and you ended up taking her home permanently?”
“That’s correct,” said Castro.
Castro said Nilda had borne him four children, although they had never officially married. Then the prosecutor asked him about a 1982 incident, when they were living in Nilda’s mother’s house and Ariel, Jr., was just a baby.
“One day I came home and I noticed something suspicious,” Castro testified. “My son was downstairs. She was upstairs taking a bath. Something gave me the gut feeling that something’s wrong.”
Castro said he had then gone upstairs to the attic and found his half brother hiding, immediately suspecting Nilda of being unfaithful to him.
“Well, I asked him, ‘What are you doing here?’” said Castro. “And he says, ‘I think you know. You caught me.’”
Castro testified he had then ordered his half brother downstairs, demanding that he unzip his pants and show him his penis.
“I just wanted to see if there was some kind of visual evidence there that they were having sex,” Castro explained.
“What happened to Nilda?” asked Kosko.
“Well,” he continued, “when she came out of the bathroom, I confronted her about it. I asked her what is he doing here? What are you doing? Why is the baby downstairs?”
Castro said he was so upset after catching her cheating that he left her for a day or two.
“Did you get violent with her?” asked the prosecutor.
“No,” said Castro.
“You did not hit her, whack her out, nothing like that?”
“No.”
Ariel Castro testified that after that incident, Nilda had become more and more difficult to live with.
“We were always arguing,” he told the judge. “She always waited for me to have a beer or two before she would start stuff. She always started fighting. I couldn’t understand why.”
“Now, did it ever get physical?” asked the prosecutor.
“There were times when she did get physical with me,” Castro replied. “She would throw herself on me, striking me. One time, yes, we struggled together and we fell and she … hit her head on the doorjamb.”
Castro acknowledged that it had resulted in his arrest, but pointed out he had never been convicted of anything.
“She dropped it,” he explained.
The prosecutor then asked how he had first become aware of Nilda’s relationship with Fernando Colon.
“The defendant used to come to my house to pick her up for hospital visits,” said Castro, “because she’s always been in and out of hospital [for] chronic headaches. So this is how they met.”
He said the first he knew of the relationship was when Nilda announced she and the children were leaving him and moving in with Colon.
“Well, she basically left,” he said. “And I said, ‘That’s fine.’”
According to Castro, it was Fernando Colon who had started menacing him.
“Because he’s a security guard and he carried a weapon,” Castro explained, “he tried to intimidate me with it. He basically told me to stay away.”
Then the prosecutor asked how he had found out his daughters were being molested. Castro said he had been driving Arlene and her friend Tabetha for a meal, when he overheard them talking about Fernando acting inappropriately.
“I questioned [Arlene] right there and then,” he told Judge Russo. “After talking to her I tried to remain calm and proceeded to [McDonald’s].”
After lunch he dropped Arlene back at her mother’s house.
“I gave her a kiss and told her I love her and left,” he said. “I just drove home and I was thinking about it [and] the very next day I went to the police department with Arlene and Emily.”
“And did you put the girls up to doing this?” asked the prosecutor.
“No,” replied Castro firmly.
“Do you want to get back with Nilda?”
“Never.”
Then Robert Ferreri stood up to cross-examine Ariel Castro, warning him not to “play games” with the court.
“Last Thursday Nilda called the Cleveland Police Department about you,” he began. “Do you know why?”
“She called me on the phone,” Castro replied, “and told me that she’s gonna go downtown and file a restraining order against my children.”
“Okay,” said Ferreri, “and against you as well?”
“She did not say that,” said Castro.
Then Ferreri showed him the restraining order against him, which had been marked as Exhibit F. Castro said he had not seen it yet, and only knew he had to appear at a Domestic Court hearing in ten days’ time.
“Did you have a conversation with Nilda,” asked Ferreri, “because your children were unavailable to testify against Fernando?”
“I had a short conversation with her,” he said. “She says, ‘Listen, I’m going to go downtown and file a restraining order … so you don’t get near the kids.’ I hung up the phone because I knew she wanted to argue.”
“Okay,” Ferreri continued, “did you ever have a conversation within the last week with your daughters, Emily or Arlene, threatening them if they did not come to testify against Fernando?”
“No,” replied Castro.
“Did you ever make offers of reward to them about testifying against Fernando?”
“No.”
“Did you tell Nilda that you would punish her and get even with her for testifying on Fernando’s behalf?”
“The answer is no,” replied Castro resolutely.
Ferreri then asked if he had ever threatened to “beat the shit” out of Nilda in front of Emily, so their daughter would see what would happen if she refused to testify.
“I never made that statement,” replied Castro angrily.
“Okay,” Ferreri continued. “Have you ever beaten Nilda?”
“Never,” snapped Castro. “No.”
“Have you ever struck Nilda in such a way that she was required to get medical attention?”
“No.”
“Did you ever hit Nilda in such a way that you knocked a tooth out of her head?”
“No.”
Ariel Castro then denied ever shattering Nilda’s ribs, dislocating her shoulders or breaking her nose several times.
“Did you ever hit her in the head with a hand weight,” asked Ferreri, “when she was eight months pregnant with one of your daughters?”
“No,” said Castro.
“Did you ever hit her with a piece of metal that resulted in her having a hemorrhage and a blood clot on her brain?”
“No.”
Castro also denied that his beatings had ever led to Nilda being hospitalized, saying he was not responsible for her brain tumor.
“Have you ever thr
eatened to kill Nilda and the children?” asked Ferreri.
“No.”
“You’ve never done anything to Nilda, or to the children, to make them afraid of you?”
“No,” he replied. “I’m a good father to my children. I love my children.”
Then Ferreri questioned Castro about Emily’s recent drug overdose.
“Did you ever give your daughter Emily money so she could buy marijuana?” asked the defender.
“No,” replied Castro.
“Did you ever tell Emily what to tell the doctors when they were treating her for her drug overdose?”
“No.”
“Is it your testimony that you don’t know exactly what type of drug she ingested?”
“I don’t have the information to that.”
In redirect, Prosecutor Kosko asked Ariel Castro about driving to Fort Wayne the previous weekend to collect Emily.
“And would it be fair to say,” said the Cuyahoga County prosecutor, “that you and I were on the phone last Saturday and Sunday quite a bit, right?”
“That’s correct,” replied Castro.
“In fact,” continued Kosko, “at the risk of embarrassing myself, I begged you to go to Fort Wayne, right?”
“Yes,” replied Castro.
“You didn’t want to go, right?”
“If I had to send her a [Greyhound] ticket I would have done that, but I wanted to pick her up personally.”
“Now when we got here to court Monday, Arlene was missing, right?” asked Kosko.
“That’s correct.”
“You found Arlene Monday night?”
“Yes.”
“And those girls spent the night with you on Monday night, right?”
“Yes,” said Castro. “Well, Emily spent the night Monday, and then Tuesday, Arlene did.”
“Anyway, the night you got Arlene,” continued the prosecutor, “you were calling my house again, right?”
“Yes.”
“About what?”
“Oh, about the mother making threatening phone calls to me about the restraining order.”
Then Ferreri objected when the prosecutor asked what Nilda had told him in the phone calls. The judge then asked him to rephrase the question.
“All right,” said Kosko. “In any event, at some time this week you had both girls at your house?”
“That’s correct,” replied Castro.
“And [if] you had not gone to get Emily, and if you had not found Arlene, neither one would have been in court this week, would they?”
