[Marc Kadella 03.0] Media Justice

by Dennis Carstens

  She sat down next to Tony who put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her on the cheek. “Hello, beautiful,” her friend and sometime mentor said.

  Maddy leaned forward to greet Vivian and Brittany. She looked at Butch and Andy who were both sneaking peeks at her and said, “Hey, guys.”

  Marc was about to speak to her when he heard the bailiff say, “All rise.” Judge Connors entered. Marc looked at Maddy and quietly said, “Gotta go,” as everyone stood.

  Kristin Williams was recalled to the stand once again reminded she was still under oath and stepped into the witness box. Judge Connors, while looking past Marc at Maddy, told Marc he could question the witness.

  The cross-examination is supposed to be limited to the evidence and testimony brought out during the direct exam of the witness. Usually, especially in a capital case, the defense will be given some latitude to go beyond that restriction.

  Marc started off by going over the same things he had crossed Shannon Keenan about except in much less detail, mostly to establish that they tried to find people to denigrate Brittany as a mother. He knew they had found a few people to testify that Brittany had made remarks about the difficulty of raising a child by herself. Those would be dealt with when they testified.

  He moved into her slide show of things Williams had discovered on the internet. She had found an old Myspace posting of Brittany and friends partying and underage drinking. There were more than two dozen pictures of the girls posing with drinks, with boys and sexually suggestive pictures of Brittany with multiple guys. Nothing explicit but certainly enough to give the jury the impression she was quite the party girl.

  Each of the photos was clearly dated and Marc replayed them all and went over the dates on each one. All of them were taken when Brittany was in her late teens. At least two years before Becky was born, which Marc was able to get Williams to admit. He also made her admit this fact was completely ignored during her earlier testimony.

  Marc then hit a button on his laptop and the picture on the TV screen changed to Brittany’s Facebook home page.

  “You recognize the image on the screen don’t you, Detective Williams?”

  “Of course.”

  “It’s Brittany Riley’s Facebook home page, correct?”

  During the direct exam, Hart made a point of always referring to Brittany as either the defendant or the accused. Not once did she use Brittany’s name. This was, of course, a subliminal message to the jury to dehumanize her in their eyes. Does this work? No one really knows. To counter that, Marc made sure he always referred to her by name for the exact opposite reason, to make her look as human as possible. Does this work? Again, no one really knows.

  “When you were sworn in, you swore to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, do you remember that?”

  “Objection!” Hart said rising from her chair. “Where’s he going with this?”

  “Overruled but there better be some relevance here,” Connors said looking sternly at Marc. “Answer the question.”

  “Yes, I remember that.”

  “During your direct exam, you and Ms. Hart went over a lot of postings Brittany Riley had on her Facebook site, isn’t that correct?”

  “Yes, we did.”

  “And the ones you showed the jury were ones in which Ms. Riley complained about the difficulties of being a young, single mother correct?”

  “Yes, that’s right.”

  “You didn’t show the jury this one, did you?” Marc asked as he pushed the button on his laptop to change the image on the TV. In place of Brittany’s Facebook home page, a posting she had written appeared. It read “I was off from work today and got to spend the whole day with my baby. She is beautiful! She is perfect! When she looks at me with those beautiful little eyes, I almost cry with joy. I will love her until the day I die.” It was dated less than two months before Becky disappeared.

  After reading it, the entire jury panel turned to look at Brittany. She stared at the screen and maintained her composure except for a single tear that trickled down her cheek.

  “Um, no I didn’t,” Williams quietly answered.

  “How about this one?” Marc asked as he tapped the laptop key and put another of Brittany’s postings on the TV screen. “Did you show this one to the jury?”

  The image changed to another of Brittany’s written postings very similar to the first one. It was dated two days after the first one Marc had shown the jury.

  “No,” Williams quietly answered.

  “How about this one?” And he repeated the procedure and put up another written posting just like the previous two. Marc elicited the same response from Williams and kept doing it ten more times before Hart finally objected.

  “Your Honor,” Hart said. “He’s being repetitious and…”

  Marc would not admit it but he was grateful Hart had finally objected. When Hart and Williams did the same thing during the direct exam, Marc let them go because the jury became bored with it. Fortunately, Hart objected before they became bored with him. In fact, he only had a few more he wanted to use anyway.

  “How many more of these questions are you planning on asking?” Connors asked Marc.

  “Your Honor, they went through quite a lengthy list. I should be allowed the same thing,” Marc replied after standing.

  “He has a point, Ms. Hart,” Connors said.

  Marc had prepared for this and was ready to respond and hopefully win some points with the jury.

  “However, your Honor,” Marc said, “in the interest of moving this along, I’ll use just one more example.”

  “Are you satisfied?” Connors asked Hart.

  “Yes, your Honor,” she said and sat down.

  Marc stared at the screen on his laptop pretending to search for the one he wanted. After a minute or so, he tapped a key again and the new Facebook entry appeared on the TV screen.

  “I haven’t been this happy since Greg died. I think I’m in love and Bob is great with Becky. I think he’d make a great dad for her and I’m really hoping this works out. Becky likes him and this could really be the one. I hope so!” It was dated two days before Becky disappeared.

  “You ignored this one, too, didn’t you?”

  “Objection! Argumentative,” Hart said.

  “Sustained,” Connors ruled. “The jury will disregard that last question.”

  Marc knew the question was inappropriate but he asked it anyway. The judge could order the jury to ignore it but would they? The next question, he believed was probably more objectionable.

  Marc pointed a finger at the TV screen and asked, “In your professional opinion, Detective Williams, would you say someone would write that two days before…”

  “Objection! Speculative,” Hart practically yelled as she jumped out of her chair. “And he needs to be sanctioned!”

  “Overruled,” Connors said.

  “Your Honor,” Hart persisted. “She’s not a psychiatrist…”

  “I’ll rephrase,” Marc said, delighted to get the chance to say it again by rephrasing it.

  “Very well. The objection is sustained, the defendant will rephrase the question,” Connors ruled.

  “Detective Williams,” Marc began, “in your experience, in your years as an investigator with law enforcement, have you ever seen such a case where the accused would write something similar concerning the victim two days before the crime was committed?” A question which was worse for the prosecution than the one Marc initially asked.

  “No, um, I have not,” Williams quietly answered.

  “Detective Williams, I only went back a couple of months for the postings by Brittany Riley that I showed to the jury today. Would it surprise you to know, that going back to when Becky was born, there are over two hundred such postings on Ms. Rileys’ Facebook account?”

  “No, ah, I guess not.”

  “And yet, you showed none of these to the jury did you?”

  Williams hesitated and looked at Hart to
see if she would object. Not getting one, she simply said, “No.”

  “Would you like to change your answer about claiming you told the whole truth to the jury?”

  “Objection,” Hart said much more quietly this time.

  “Sustained,” Connors said. He looked at the clock and said, “Fifteen-minute break.”

  Marc clicked a couple more keys and Brittany’s home page from the dating site Zoosk.com appeared.

  “Detective Williams, on the TV screen is the home page from Zoosk.com of Brittany Riley, do you recognize it?”

  “Yes, of course,” Williams replied, noticeably more guarded.

  “In fact, during your direct exam you went over this posting in great detail did you not?”

  “Yes, I suppose you could say that.”

  “Pointing out things that were surely exaggerated and let’s be totally candid, some things that were not true Ms. Riley put on her profile?”

  “Yes,” Williams answered. “She lied about not having a child.”

  “Yes, she did. No point denying it,” Marc agreed.

  He clicked his laptop a couple more times and her profile from Match.com appeared on the screen.

  “This is Brittany’s profile from Match.com, do you recognize this?”

  “Yes.”

  “You went over this one line by line during your direct exam also, pointing out pretty much the same exaggerations and the same lie, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Would you say that everyone who fills out a profile such as these is being completely honest?”

  “Objection,” Hart stood and said. “This witness is not an expert in this particular area.”

  “Mr. Kadella?” Connors asked looking for a rebuttal from Marc.

  “I’m not asking her as an expert, your Honor, just her opinion as an adult woman.”

  “Overruled,” Connors said. “The witness may answer.”

  “I couldn’t say. I really have no idea what people put on these things. If I had to guess, I believe people would be honest.”

  Marc hit a key on his laptop and a new Match.com profile appeared. An audible gasp came from the jury box and the jurors involuntarily leaned forward when the image appeared. Marc said nothing for ten seconds while the jury stared. The jurors turned back toward the witness who was fidgeting in her seat, her cheeks a light pink. Staring back on the TV screen was a flattering photo of Detective Kristin Williams.

  “Objection!” Hart stood. “The witness is not on trial…”

  “Her credibility is at issue, your Honor,” Marc calmly said.

  “Overruled.”

  “Is that your picture and your Match.com profile, Detective Williams?”

  “Yes, it is.”

  “Did you graduate magna cum laude from Wisconsin, Eau Claire?”

  “No,” Williams quietly answered.

  Marc started going over her profile line-by-line questioning everything she had put on it. Most of the entries were accurate but there were several more that she had to admit were a little inflated.

  Following the fifth such admission by her, she said, “Okay, you’re right. People aren’t one hundred percent honest when they fill out these things. But I didn’t lie about not having children. I cannot believe anyone would.”

  “Does the name Lisa Monroe sound familiar to you, Detective?”

  “No, it doesn’t,” Williams answered.

  “How about Cheryl Dean? Does that ring a bell?” Marc asked.

  “No,” Williams answered looking puzzled.

  “Robyn Grogan?”

  “Objection your Honor, relevance. Where’s he going with this?” Hart said.

  “Excellent question,” Connors said. “Mr. Kadella, where are you going?”

  “If the court will indulge me for just a couple more minutes, your Honor, I’ll get there,” Marc answered.

  “All right. Objection overruled, for now.”

  “Robyn Grogan,” Marc repeated.

  “No, I don’t believe I know the name.”

  “How about Chloe Stewart, Alexis Regan or Jamie Westlund?”

  “No, none of them,” Williams said.

  “Every one of these young women is between the ages of twenty and twenty-three. Each of them is single and has one or two young children and every one of them lied about it on Match.com. And if need be, I will bring them into this court and they will testify to it.”

  “Is there a question for the witness?” Hart asked trying to disrupt Marc.

  “Does it really surprise you,” Marc began ignoring Hart, “that a young, single girl, looking for companionship would lie about having a child while trying to meet someone and then tell him later?” It was a question Williams could answer either way, yes or no. But the real answer was obvious and Marc knew the jury would get it.

  “No, I guess not,” Williams quietly answered.

  Marc hit a couple more keys, scrolled down on what he was looking at then hit two more keys to put up a new image. On the screen was one of the photos of Brittany partying with friends.

  “During your direct exam, you testified quite a bit about Brittany’s behavior. At one point even using the word irresponsible, do you remember that?”

  “Yes,” Williams apprehensively answered.

  “How old was Brittany Riley at the time this picture was taken?”

  “Um, I’m not sure. I don’t recall her date of birth.”

  Marc told her what it was and said, “She was seventeen.”

  Marc hit a key on the laptop and another picture of Brittany appeared that the prosecution had used. It was another party picture of Brittany sitting on a guys lap with a beer in her hand.

  “According to the date stamped on this photo, how old was she when it was taken?”

  “She would have been, um, eighteen.”

  “And this one?” Marc asked after changing the image on the TV.

  “Yeah, um eighteen again,” Williams quietly answered.

  With that answer, Marc hit a key and the TV screen went blank.

  “Detective Williams, how old were you when you were suspended from Memorial High School in Eau Claire for smoking marijuana with several other students in the boy’s locker room?”

  “Objection,” Hart said.

  “Overruled,” Connors answered.

  “Detective?” Marc said.

  “Seventeen.”

  “And the first time you were arrested for underage drinking while in college at UW-Eau Claire?”

  “Eighteen.”

  “And the second time?”

  “Nineteen,” Williams said shifting around in her chair.

  “And you were only twenty when you were arrested for trespassing…”

  “That was a legitimate student protest,” Williams blurted out.

  “Really? And what were you protesting at the age of twenty?” Marc asked.

  Williams sat silently for ten seconds then said, “I can’t remember.”

  “Must have been really important.”

  “Objection,” Hart said.

  “Withdrawn, your Honor. I apologize,” Marc said. He looked at Williams who was trying to burn holes in him with her eyes. “Isn’t it fair to say that these events that you did when you were a kid should be classified as youthful indiscretions?”

  “Yes, it would be,” Williams conceded.

  “And isn’t it reasonable to say that virtually everyone did things in their youth that when they get older, they wish they had not done?”

  “Yes,” Williams agreed. “Even you, I’ll bet.”

  “Oh,” Marc said holding up a hand “Mea culpa, mea culpa. Especially me. I don’t even want to think about it,” he added to much laughter in the court. Marc looked over at the prosecution table and asked, “What about Mr. Vanderbeck? On second thought, probably not. Withdrawn.” Marc quickly said as Vanderbeck started to stand. “I have nothing further for this witness.”

  “We’ll adjourn for the day,” Connors said after the l
aughter died down.

  FIFTY-FOUR

  The jury filed out as the room was emptying of spectators. Marc was packing up when Brittany asked him, “How did you find out those things about her?”

  Marc smiled at her, swiveled his chair around to face the gallery, pointed at Madeline and said, “You can thank her. She has a way of getting people to tell her things they shouldn’t, especially men.”

  Vivian Donahue stood up and walked through the gate to Marc’s table. Vivian took his hand and firmly shook it. “Watching you this afternoon was worth the price of admission. You did great and I can’t believe how fast the time went by.”

  “That’s kind of you Vivian but we have a long way to go,” he said as they released each other’s hands.

  By this time, Tony and Maddy had joined Marc and Brittany and by now the courtroom was empty except for them.

  “I was thinking,” Vivian continued. “If you think it would help I’d be willing to act as a character witness for her.”

  “Bad idea,” Tony said.

  “He’s right,” Marc interjected. “I appreciate the offer…”

  “Me too,” Brittany chimed in.

  “But first of all, you don’t know her well enough. And if you get on that witness stand and testify about someone’s character, that leaves your character wide open. They’ll go after anything you’ve ever done and your family.”

  Marc leaned close to her and whispered in her ear, “Including the dearly departed Leo Balkus.”

  “That’s only a rumor,” she said with a twinkle in her eye.

  “It would still come out,” Marc answered her. “I appreciate the offer, Vivian. Really. But I’m not sure it would help. I wouldn’t want to put you through it.” He then said to Tony, “Give her driver a call and have him pull around to the back. You guys,” he indicated to Butch and Andy, “escort the ladies out to avoid the press.”

  “So, I’m not one of the ladies that need to be escorted out?” Maddy said giving him an evil look.

  “You walked right into that one,” Tony said.

  “Actually, I was hoping you’d escort me out,” Marc said. “We’ll go out front then I’ll sneak back to my car, okay?”