Media Justice

by Dennis Carstens

  Farben’s take on the day’s proceedings were decidedly favorable toward the prosecution. He went over everything ignoring the bad parts and emphasizing only the good on behalf of the state’s case.

  Briscomb, put on the defensive, stuck to the obvious that it was the first day of testimony and nothing of significance came out. Farben stuck her with a mild put down that defense lawyers always downplayed evidence against their client, ignoring the fact that he was doing the very same thing. The show wrapped up with Briscomb taking a pretty good shot at Hart by telling the audience that a ten year old boy had put the lawyer in her place. When Melinda was finishing up with a final remark, the two lawyers sat quietly with forced smiles and annoyed expressions.

  The station had set up an audience of twenty people to watch the show and provide feedback. If this group was a fair indication, the public was going to eat this up with a spoon. Melinda and the station management could not have been happier.

  FIFTY

  When court adjourned for the day, it was already after 5:00 P.M. Marc, Brittany and the Rileys waited another half hour for the crowd to thin out. It was safe enough for Butch, Andy and the deputies to sneak Brittany out the back. By early February, the days were lengthening enough to the point where it was no longer totally dark when Marc hurried through the windswept parking lot to his car.

  The air temperature for most of the day held steady in the single digits. Beginning around 4:00 o’clock a warm front was moving in and the temp was already up to twenty degrees and still rising. The wind was picking up from the west. When Marc reached his car, before opening the door, he raised his head, tilted it upward slightly, faced into the wind and drew in a deep breath through his nose. He could feel and smell the moisture in the air and guessed six to eight more inches of snow on the ground by morning. It was one of those winters where it was either cold or snowing. The cold of the past several days was lifting and the snow was on its way. The weather geeks were predicting temps in the mid-thirties by morning and snow off and on for the next several days.

  Marc stopped at a fast food chain restaurant and by the time he arrived back at his office it was almost seven. Despite the sign at the entrance to the building’s parking lot proclaiming it to be private parking, there were two media vans in it waiting for him.

  Because of the hour there were only a couple of tenant’s cars still there. Marc parked as close to the door as he could but, by the time he opened his car door, they were on him. He decided the best thing to do was be a little cooperative. There were two cameras and two reporters; one from a local station, one from CNN. Both immediately asked the same question.

  “How did it go in court today?”

  “Fine,” Marc answered. “No surprises. It was the first day. We have a long way to go.”

  “Is it true you offered to accept a plea to second degree…” one of them began asking.

  Marc wearily shook his head and said, “I’ve answered that question at least a dozen times. No, it is not true. In fact…”

  “Our sources insist it is true,” the reporter for CNN said.

  “And, who exactly are these sources?”

  “We can’t tell you that,” the woman replied.

  “So they just remain sources and you report it as if it was Moses on Mount Sinai. Goodnight,” Marc said as he began walking toward the door. “I have to prepare for tomorrow.”

  Marc stood in his living room wearing a T-shirt and sweatpants, sipping his first cup of coffee, staring out the bay window. There looked to be, he estimated, about four inches of new snow already down and more falling. He had fallen into bed just before midnight and, fortunately, fell asleep immediately. His internal clock went off five minutes before his alarm was set to go off and he got up right away. Marc checked the time, decided on one more cup of caffeine and then he better get moving early.

  Despite arriving before 8:00 A.M., Marc was still unable to find a spot in the lot closer to the building. Fortunately the county plow had already cleaned both lots so he didn’t have to wade through four or five inches of fresh wet snow. When he was halfway to the building, he saw the prosecution team, including A.G. Peterson, pile out of two black Suburbans. They had parked in the two spots closest to the building with “Reserved” signs on them.

  Marc stopped for a moment to stare at the prosecution herd heading through the crowd toward the building. “Now that really sucks. They get reserved parking and I …” he said out loud to no one. He shook his head, shifted his briefcase from his left hand to his right and quickened his pace to get out of the snow. He finished going through security and his phone went off. Marc saw it was coming from Barbara Riley and he took a moment to decide if he wanted to answer. When the sixth ring finished, he put it to his ear and said hello.

  “The deputies served me and Floyd with subpoenas this morning,” an angry Barbara said without preamble.

  “Not a surprise,” Marc said. “We talked about this, remember?”

  “I know but…”

  “It’s no big deal. They’re going to want to sequester you from the courtroom until you testify. Is there a date and time on it when they want you to appear?” he asked.

  “No, there isn’t.”

  “Stay home for now. I’ll find out what’s going on and call you back. Have the guys bring Brittany in but you and Floyd might as well wait.”

  Marc had anticipated this. All three of the Rileys were on both the prosecutions and the defense witness lists. Barbara was obviously the one they were after. He believed the next few witnesses were going to be the investigative deputies and they would need Barbara to corroborate their belief that Brittany was a pathological liar.

  Marc set his briefcase on the defense table and hung his overcoat on the portable coat rack along the wall. He turned from the coat rack and just about ran into Danica Hart.

  “Sorry,” she smiled. “We need to talk about Barbara Riley. We served her this morning.”

  “I heard,” Marc said. “When do you want her?”

  “That’s for us to decide,” Vanderbeck said. He had been standing behind Hart looking annoyed.

  “Lowell, please,” Hart said. “Not every little thing needs to be adversarial.” Hart turned back to Marc and said, “Is there any reason they won’t be available with a couple hours notice? We’ll send a sheriff for them.”

  “No, not really,” Marc said. “It’s up to you, of course. But, Floyd’s a waste of time. Barbara’s running the show in that house.”

  “We’re not sure exactly when we’ll get to them. Probably not before Thursday,” Hart said. At that moment A.G. Peterson joined them, looked at Marc and said a pleasant good morning and extended her hand to him.

  “Good morning,” Marc replied. “I’m sorry but I’m not sure what to call you. Madam Attorney General or just…”

  “Anne will be fine.” She smiled surprising Marc with her informality.

  “Okay Anne.” He looked at Hart and said, “I told them to stay home. Why don’t we tell the judge what’s going on and then I’ll call them.”

  Shannon Keenan, one of the four investigators was called to the stand promptly at nine o’clock. As she was being sworn in, a man and a woman entered and sat down on the bench with Butch Koll and Andy Whitmore. Tony Carvelli silently shook hands with both men. Vivian Donahue handed her cashmere topcoat to Tony who gave it to Andy to place on the empty seat next to him.

  Vanderbeck did the direct examination of Detective Keenan. He started out by having her talk about her credentials, to have Keenan tell the jury about her education, years on the job and her experience as an investigator and then to establish her in the minds of the jury as a professional to be taken seriously.

  Keenan was being used to explain to the jury what steps the sheriff’s office took to find the child and how seriously the sheriff and all of the personnel involved treated a missing child case. Not just the sheriff but every local and state police department and agency would assist to leave no stone unt
urned.

  Shannon Keenan made an excellent witness. She had testified in court many times and was quite poised, comfortable and well prepared. Coaching a witness and preparing a witness are two very different things. Coaching a witness means putting words in her mouth, telling her what to say. Obviously this is not allowed. Preparing a witness is going over their testimony to make it smooth and credible and helping the witness through any potential nervousness or problems but, letting the witness tell the jury what they know about the case. Keenan was very well prepared. Except in Marc’s opinion, Vanderbeck made a mistake that is difficult to avoid.

  During the morning break, Marc introduced Vivian and Tony to his client. Brittany had seen them at her bail hearing and knew who she was but did not have the chance to meet her. They shook hands and a tear trickled down Brittany’s cheek. Seeing this Vivian held out her arms and gave the younger woman an affectionate hug.

  After that Vivian went through the gate into the courtroom well and was warmly greeted by Anne Peterson. They chatted for a minute then Vivian bluntly asked her, “Anne, why are you here? I must tell you, as friendly as possible, with all of the lawyers on your side, it looks a little ridiculous, like you’re ganging up on this young girl.”

  “I was wondering about that myself, Vivian. Do you think so?”

  “Yes, and it doesn’t make you look good. Stay or go, it’s up to you but…”

  “I think I’ll go. Thanks. No one else would tell me that. Why are you here? I heard you paid her bail.”

  “I believe she’s innocent. Or, at least deserves her day in court. Besides, you know the media and me. I love to tweak them and give them something to gossip about. Great to see you again,” Vivian said to a woman she secretly loathed. But, she thought with smug satisfaction, I did get her to leave.

  Court resumed after the break with a very noticeable absence of Attorney General Peterson and her two toadies. Marc silently caught Danica Hart’s attention, tilted his head to look at Peterson’s empty chair then back to Hart who was concealing a large smile from Lowell Vanderbeck.

  Keenan was on the stand, not counting breaks and lunch, a total of over four hours. Using her, notes which is permissible to refresh her memory, she told the jury, in detail, everything that Keenan and her partner, Kristin Williams did. Every minute they spent driving around with Brittany. Every apartment complex they visited and whatever they did at each one to locate the missing Bob Olson. Each and every person they talked to in an effort to bolster their suspicion that Bob Olson did not exist and Brittany was not being honest.

  Possibly the most damaging thing she testified to was the lock on the outside of Becky’s bedroom. A picture of it was put up on the TV screen and Keenan explained to the jury exactly what it was. She tried to give her opinion about why it was there but Marc objected and Connors sustained him. That likely didn’t matter since it was obvious the latch was there to keep Becky locked in her room. While Keenan testified about the latch, Marc stole glances at the jury and several of them, mostly the women, had a look of distaste if not disgust about it.

  Vanderbeck, for the most part, did an excellent job of asking her open ended questions to allow Keenan to testify. The one thing he did too much of, the mistake Marc believed he made, was to interrupt her and ask her a question and to highlight a point he wanted to make by repeating her testimony.

  “After you finished at this apartment complex and found no evidence of the mysteriously vanished Bob Olson, what did you do next?” was a question or a variation of it that he used so many times it became predictable. By the time they finished most of the jury seemed lost except, every one of them got the message that Vanderbeck wanted them to get. Bob Olson did not exist and Brittany Riley led the cops on a wild goose chase looking for him. It was also clear that this intelligent, educated, experienced detective believed Brittany was lying. Without saying it, that message came across loud and clear.

  Keenan tried to testify what Brittany’s friends had told them. She was looking for a way to bring out the lies Brittany told during the time Becky was missing and before Barbara called the police. This was clearly hearsay and, since Brittany’s friends were on both witness lists, they could testify themselves.

  Marc objected as soon as Keenan started down that path. Judge Connors, an experienced judge and trial lawyer himself knew exactly what the prosecution was trying to do. He quickly sustained Marc’s objection and gave Vanderbeck a mild admonishment for the effort, warning him not to try it.

  Score one for the defense, Marc thought. He hoped the jury would see this as the state trying to pull something underhanded.

  Judge Connors called for a short break when Keenan finished her direct and before Marc could cross examine her.

  On cross examination Marc decided to not waste a lot of time. One by one he went over the list of people she had personally interviewed and asked the exact same line of questions.

  “Isn’t it true you asked Annabelle Oslund her opinion of Brittany as a mother?” was an example of Marc’s question.

  “Yes,” Keenan always replied.

  “And it’s also true that Ms. Oslund had nothing but praise for Ms. Riley as a parent?”

  “Yes.”

  “That Becky was always well cared for. Always clean, well fed, clean clothes and was a very happy little girl, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “And she also told you, because you specifically asked everyone who knew her that Brittany was a loving, caring mother, didn’t she?”

  Marc got Keenan to admit they asked everyone about Brittany as a mother. She also had to admit they were unable to find anyone who knew Brittany and Becky, who had anything bad to say about her as a parent.

  He then shifted his inquiry to the search of Brittany’s apartment which Keenan had overseen. Marc had a list of every item removed by the deputies and went over every item on it. What he got was Keenan to admit they found nothing in the search of Brittany’s apartment, her cell phone, computer or anything else taken from her apartment to indicate Brittany had anything to do with her daughter’s disappearance.

  FIFTY ONE

  Shannon Keenan’s partner, Kristen Williams was called to the stand next. Hart would conduct her exam and she started off basically the same way Vanderbeck had with Keenan. Hart walked the witness through her experience, education and any pertinent awards and commendations. Williams then testified about riding around with Brittany visiting various apartments in Burnsville, restaurants and other places Brittany claimed they had been together. She also used her notes but did not go into the detail that Keenan had. Hart used this testimony mostly to bolster what Keenan had told the jury and, to point out that two veteran detectives believed Brittany was lying about the missing Bob Olson.

  “After about two weeks of this, we were all very suspicious of her story. It was decided that Shannon and I would start to investigate her, Brittany Riley. You have to remember, every law enforcement officer and department in Minnesota was looking for her daughter. Plus the Rileys were conducting searches throughout Dakota County with thousands of volunteers trying to find her. At that point we pretty much assumed she was dead and we had a homicide to investigate and, without even a hint that Bob Olson existed, Brittany was the obvious suspect.”

  “What did you do at that point?”

  “We began by interviewing her closest friends first,” Williams told the jury. Hart used the same questioning technique with Williams that Vanderbeck had used with Keenan. Whenever Williams paused, which, of course had been carefully prearranged and rehearsed, Hart would repeat a significant point Williams had just made and put it back to her in the form of a question.

  For the next two hours, the two of them went through the entire list of people the female detectives had interviewed. They started with Brittany’s three best girlfriends, then ex-boyfriends, relatives and acquaintances. With each one, Williams would inform the jury of what their relationship was with Brittany. She would then tell the jury enough o
f their interview to make it clear what they had to say but not quite enough to draw a hearsay objection.

  Testifying as to what you claim somebody else told you is the very definition of hearsay and is normally not allowed. Marc could have objected but what Williams was telling the jury wasn’t harmful to his case. Plus, too many objections can alienate a jury and make them believe you’re trying to keep something from them and every one of the people she interviewed and talked about was on the prosecution’s witness list and were going to testify anyway. And if they didn’t, they were all under subpoena by Marc and he would bring them in. Marc let it go for a while then, after the sixth or seventh time they did it, he had enough.

  “Objection, your Honor,” he said as he arose from his chair. “Your Honor, these little statements the witness keeps making claiming someone they interviewed said such and such are clearly hearsay. I’ve let it go hoping they’d stop. If they want to have the jury hear what someone said, they can have that person testify themselves.”

  By making a lengthy objection, Marc was explaining to the jury what was going on. The judge certainly did not need Marc to explain it to him. But, it would help the jury understand and maybe lead them to believe the prosecution was trying to pull something over on them.

  “I agree,” Connors said. “Sustained. No more of it, Ms. Hart.”

  “Sorry, your Honor,” a slightly chastened Danica Hart said as Marc sat down.

  “Did you interview any co-workers of the defendant?”

  “No, I did not. Stu Doyle, one of our other investigators working the case did. I believe he did so while trying to locate…”

  “Objection,” Marc said as he stood up again. “Detective Doyle should be able to testify as to what he did.”