[Marc Kadella 03.0] Media Justice

by Dennis Carstens

  Hunt had met her in a bar with several other girls. They became quite friendly, especially after Brittany had a few drinks. One of Brittany’s friends mentioned her daughter and when Hunt asked her about Becky, she reluctantly admitted she was a single mom.

  The damaging part was Hunt telling the jury Brittany went on to say that sometimes she wished she didn’t have a kid. That sometimes being a single mom really sucked, her words he testified, and that she would be better off without the burden.

  About the best, Marc could do to soften this was to get Hunt to admit a couple of things. First that Hunt had physically and noticeably backed off and cooled toward her when he found out about Becky. And that Brittany had too much to drink.

  “The state calls Barbara Riley,” Hart announced after Connors indicated he was ready to begin the afternoon session.

  Barbara strolled up the aisle on the left-hand side of the gallery. Every head in the place turned to watch her and Marc almost laughed at the spectacle. The Queen making her entrance was the thought that went through his head because Barbara looked fabulous.

  She spent an hour at the hair salon that morning and was dressed to kill. She looked at least ten years younger than her forty-eight years. Her makeup was perfect and she wore just enough jewelry to look elegant and charming. It was the exact look Marc wanted her to have; the Queen Bee of the Riley household.

  Hart herself had interviewed Barbara preparing their case. Barbara foolishly had not been represented during the interview. Marc did not represent Barbara and he advised her to get a lawyer to go with her but she had almost arrogantly dismissed the notion.

  Marc had received a copy of the report and on paper, it didn’t look too damaging except he knew where they were headed. Hart had carefully probed her relationship with Brittany back to the cradle.

  For almost three hours, Hart walked her through the pertinent parts of Brittany’s life. What she got out of Barbara, at least so it seemed, was that Brittany was a habitual, if not pathological liar. Especially toward her mother after she got into high school. Marc knew none of this was particularly problematic. He had Brittany’s psychiatrist willing to testify that this mother-daughter relationship among teenage girls was quite normal. The damaging part was the lies Brittany told her during the ten days Becky was missing and Brittany failed to tell her or report it to the police.

  Marc had decided to go right after her during his cross exam. He didn’t like the woman anyway and saw no reason to coddle her. He had to be careful not to be too aggressive to avoid alienating the jury. The last thing he wanted was to make this vain, narcissistic woman look sympathetic to the jury.

  “Mrs. Riley,” he began, “isn’t it true that both you and your husband were in the delivery room when Becky was born?”

  “Yes, that‘s true,” Barbara answered.

  “Along with the baby’s father, Greg Mead, is that correct?”

  “Yes, Greg was there.”

  “Isn’t it true when the nurse had the baby cleaned up and went to hand her to the mother, Brittany, you stepped in and took the child from the nurse?”

  “Yes, I did,” Barbara answered looking puzzled wondering why he would be asking this.

  “It was your decision to name the baby Becky Ann, wasn’t it?”

  “Well, I ah, I guess, um yes, I guess I chose that name. I suggested it to Brittany. But it was ultimately her decision.”

  “Did she suggest any other names?”

  “Not that I recall,” Brittany lied.

  “How about Emily?”

  “Yes, that’s right. I forgot. A dreadful name.”

  “Did Brittany argue with you about you naming her baby Becky Ann?”

  “No, she was fine with that name.”

  “It was your decision to have Becky baptized when and where, wasn’t it?”

  “Objection,” Hart stood and said. What’s the relevance?”

  “Mr. Kadella?” Connors asked.

  Marc stood and said, “Your Honor, they probed every aspect of the witness's relationship with her daughter, I’m merely going down that same path to explain that relationship.”

  “Overruled,” Connors said.

  “The child needed to be baptized.”

  “Is that a yes?” Marc asked still keeping his inflection as neutral as possible.

  “Yes,” Barbara conceded.

  “Your son-in-law, Greg Mead, died in a car accident a few months after Becky was born, didn’t he?”

  “Yes, that’s right,” Barbara answered visibly relaxing.

  “It was your decision for Brittany to change her name and Becky’s name from Mead to Riley wasn’t it?”

  “I ah, don’t remember.”

  “Isn’t it true you hired the lawyer to help with the name change?”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “And you paid the lawyer to help get their names legally changed, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.”

  “Isn’t it true that you decided which personal injury lawyer to hire to handle Brittany’s wrongful death claim for her husband’s accident?”

  “I don’t see what…”

  “Please just answer the question, Mrs. Riley,” Marc politely said.

  “All right, yes. I suppose I did.”

  “It was your decision to have Brittany bring Becky to your house each day for babysitting while Brittany worked, wasn’t it?”

  “We offered. She was our granddaughter.”

  “You kept a separate dresser in Brittany’s old bedroom filled with clothes for Becky didn’t you?”

  “Yes. The child needed clothes.”

  “And even though Brittany always brought Becky to your house bathed and wearing clean clothes, you decided every day to bathe her and change her clothing didn’t you?”

  By now everyone in the courtroom was beginning to feel a little uncomfortable, a little creepy. Marc continued on for another twenty minutes with this line of questioning. Each question beginning the exact same way.

  “It was your decision to…”

  Finally, out of frustration, Barbara blurted out, “You’re trying to make it look like I thought I was Becky’s mother.”

  At that exact point, Marc thought gotcha, looked up at Connors and said, “I have no further questions, your Honor.”

  Hart tried her best to rehabilitate Barbara as a prosecution witness but too little, too late.

  Judge Connors adjourned for the day after that.

  That evening, Melinda Pace’s show ignored the cross exam of Barbara Riley completely. Instead, again showing carefully edited soundbites, Melinda and her guests, both lawyers were back, concentrated on the testimony of the ex-boyfriends and Barbara’s direct exam. The gist of it was that Brittany was unable to tell the truth, secretly wanted Becky dead and was a sleep around tramp. Andrea Briscomb, to her credit, tried to bring the discussion around to Barbara’s control problem but Andrea didn’t have much luck.

  The networks and newspapers all followed the same line. Sex and lies in a notorious trial would sell more than a domineering mother or mother-daughter relationship problems.

  FIFTY-SIX

  The next morning Marc was seated at the defense table concentrating on his case notes for Friday’s testimony. The previous evening he had talked to his lady friend, Margaret Tennant, for an hour about his case and the trial. By 8:30 he was snoring in his recliner and by 9:00 he was in bed sound asleep to get the first solid night’s sleep he had in weeks.

  The clanging hangers on the coat rack made him aware that Brittany had arrived. She hung up her coat and her escorts’ coats then dropped into the seat next to him.

  “How were things at home last night?” Marc asked referring to Barbara.

  “Fine,” Brittany said.

  “Good morning Marc,” he heard Barbara say from the bench behind them.

  Marc turned to look at her and saw her genuinely smiling at him while folding her coat to hold it in her lap.

  “Here, let me have that,�
�� Marc offered and took her coat and Floyd’s to hang them on the coat rack.

  “Um, about yesterday….”

  “Don’t worry about it,” Barbara answered him. “You did your job. Really, I understand.”

  “Good, thanks. Morning, guys,” he said to Butch and Andy who were sitting impassively.

  Madeline Rivers had deliberately waited in her car until almost nine o’clock before heading to the courthouse. The air temperature was a balmy five below zero this morning. This accounted for the sparse crowd of protesters in front of the building when she arrived. Minnesotans can find winter activities even in sub-zero weather but standing outside doing nothing isn’t normally one of them. This was much to her delight, if not at all surprising, the meticulously attired Ms. Rivers hurried up the steps and passed quickly through security.

  When she reached the top of the stairs, the hall in front of the courtroom was empty except for a solitary figure seated on one of the benches. Maddy recognized him right away. When he saw her he stood up and walked toward her.

  “Hello,” the man said flashing a perfect grin and extending his right hand. “You’re Maddy Rivers. I’ve heard good things about you. I’m Stu Doyle, an investigator with the Sheriff’s Department.”

  “Yeah, I recognize the name,” Maddy replied as they shook hands. “Nice to meet you,” she politely said.

  “Not at all, the pleasure’s mine,” Doyle said as Maddy extracted her hand. “Listen, I’d really like to get to know you better. Maybe meet for coffee or a drink sometime.”

  “I’m in a hurry,” Maddy said. “I’ll think about it but I gotta go. I have to talk to my boss,” she said as she brushed past him and went into the courtroom.

  While she walked up the left-hand aisle to the bench behind Marc, the door to the chambers area opened and the judge entered. Maddy smiled politely at Floyd and Barbara Riley, removed her winter coat and sat down next to Floyd when Connors told them all to be seated.

  Marc turned and looked at Madeline and she gestured for him to come to her. He silently rolled his chair back to the rail and Maddy whispered to him that Stu Doyle was in the hall waiting to be called. Marc nodded to her acknowledging the news then rolled back to the table.

  Connors solemnly looked over the crowd then told the state’s lawyers to call their next witness. In less than a minute, Stu Doyle was sworn and seated.

  Marc had guessed correctly that Doyle and his partner, Paul Anderson, would be called on Friday. The lawyers had met with Connors this morning for a few minutes and Hart had assured him they were on schedule. Connors admitted he did not want to take testimony over the weekend. His grandson was in a hockey tournament in Duluth and he had planned on going.

  Vanderbeck would conduct the direct exam of Doyle. He started out as he normally did by having Doyle tell the jury his résumé. Doyle had been in law enforcement for over fifteen years. He had testified in trials too many times to remember and made an excellent witness. Aside from being a very attractive man, with little effort, he came across as a calm, intelligent professional who knew his business. He already told the jury about his list of commendations, awards and law enforcement courses. Marc could see where a jury could take to the man. Vanderbeck again made the same mistake he seemed prone to make. It took him, including a longer than usual morning break, until after 11:00 to finish Doyle’s direct testimony. Vanderbeck went into too much detail, at least in Marc’s opinion, for what little Doyle had to offer. Vanderbeck took Doyle through every step he personally took, day-by-day, in his efforts to find the missing Bob Olson. By the time he was finished, even Marc was having trouble staying awake.

  Before Marc could begin his cross, Connors called the lawyers to the bench. He looked at Marc and asked. “How much do you have? The reason I’m asking, I’ve got a motion on another case I’m going to hear in chambers over lunch. In fact, I’ve been told the lawyers are already here. If you’re going to go much longer, I’ll break now.”

  “We would not object to breaking now,” Vanderbeck chimed in.

  “No, judge, I don’t have much,” Marc replied. “But I’d prefer to get it done now.” He wanted the jury to go to lunch knowing Doyle did not really have much to offer.

  “Okay. We’ll do it now.”

  Everyone took their seats and Connors gave Marc permission to proceed.

  “Detective Doyle,” Marc began, “I have just a couple of questions for you, but they concern only your personal involvement in the investigation. By that, I mean what you personally did and not what you may have seen or heard from one of your colleagues. Okay?”

  “Sure,” Doyle said.

  “You did not personally come across any evidence of any kind that would tie Brittany Riley to this crime did you?”

  Doyle looked past Marc at the back of the courtroom, thought about it for a moment then finally said, “No, I did not.”

  “Your part of the investigation was almost exclusively the search for Bob Olson, was it not?”

  “Yes.”

  “Isn’t it true that Brittany Riley was very cooperative with you in that search?”

  “Yes, she was.”

  “And she was very insistent that Bob Olson was a real person who had abducted Becky Riley wasn’t she?”

  “Yes, she was,” Doyle agreed.

  “Isn’t it also true that other than the fact you were unable to identify him, unable to find him, you personally never found any reason to doubt Ms. Rileys’ sincerity, did you?”

  “Um, no, I did not. But it was…”

  “I’m sorry detective, you’ve answered the question honestly and completely,” Marc said, cutting him off.

  “One last question,” Marc said. “Isn’t it possible that Bob Olson was in disguise when dating Brittany Riley and using a fake I.D. which is why you did not find him?”

  “Yes, it’s possible,” Doyle admitted.

  Doyle was excused and as he was walking out, he actually smiled and winked at Madeline. Unfortunately for him, Gabriella Shriqui saw him do it, rolled her eyes and made a mental note to warn Maddy.

  Judge Connors finished his other hearing early and the afternoon session started on time.

  Vanderbeck called investigator Paul Anderson as his next witness. A moment later Anderson came in through the hallway doors followed closely by Tony Carvelli escorting Vivian Donahue. Anderson walked up the aisle on the right as Tony and Vivian went up the left. Anderson was sworn in and seated while Tony and Vivian sat down next to Maddy Rivers.

  Vanderbeck again used simple questions to Anderson about his background and experience in law enforcement. Again, the object being to enhance the witness’s credibility in the eyes of the jury. Anderson had testified many times and was quite comfortable with it. His demeanor and clear, calm way of telling his story played well with any jury. A professional they could believe.

  Anderson and Vanderbeck made a smooth transition from Anderson’s personal credentials into the Riley case. He basically followed the same script that he had with his partner, Stu Doyle, relating to the jury his initial involvement. They had spent most of their time in the search for Bob Olson. Anderson testified he began having doubts about Brittany’s version of events before the others. He claimed his early suspicions were the result of interviewing some of Brittany’s friends. It seemed a little odd, a little too convenient, that none of them, including her family members, had ever met the missing Bob Olson.

  Anderson told the jury what they were doing as far as investigating goes, which after a while wasn’t much. By then they had exhausted all leads and were not getting anywhere. It was about then it was decided to arrest her for child neglect. Anderson tried to say she was certainly guilty of that. This drew an objection from Marc and a stern admonishment from the judge.

  He testified about the news of the body being found and Vanderbeck transitioned the testimony to the search of the Rileys’ home. Anderson explained that he obtained a search warrant and led the team to the Rileys’ and the subsequ
ent search.

  Vanderbeck asked Connors for permission to approach the witness. It was granted and he walked up to Anderson and handed him a document. Vanderbeck stepped a few feet away but did not sit down.

  “I have given you a document marked for identification as state’s Exhibit 7. Do you recognize this document?” Vanderbeck asked.

  “Yes, I do,” Anderson replied.

  “What is it?”

  “It’s a life insurance policy I found in a desk drawer in the den of the home of Floyd and Barbara Riley while we conducted our search.”

  Vanderbeck then had Anderson explain all of the details Vanderbeck believed were pertinent. Anderson first told them the date it was purchased which was barely three months before Becky disappeared. He then told them the amount of the death benefit, half a million dollars on the life of Becky Riley and of course, the beneficiary who was Brittney Riley.

  Vanderbeck took the policy, verbally offered it into evidence and receiving no objection from Marc, had the clerk mark it as entered. He then slowly walked over to the jury box and handed it to the forewoman. While the jurors passed the document around to each other, Vanderbeck returned to his chair.

  Along the wall next to the defense table was a cart with a blanket over it. Vanderbeck nodded to one of his flunkies who stood and wheeled the cart in front of the witness. The young man removed the blanket and exposed the six cinder blocks and the rope removed from the Rileys’ garage. They had been marked as state’s Exhibits 8 through 14.

  Vanderbeck had Anderson identify the cinder blocks and rope by the evidence tags he had placed on each item as the ones from the Rileys. They were entered into evidence and the cart was placed next to the table with the cinder block and rope found on Becky Riley in the river. Obviously, they were the same. Anderson tried to testify that they were an exact match to the rope and cinder block used to drown Becky Riley.

  “Objection,” Marc said as he stood. “This witness did not…”

  Connors help up a hand to stop him and said to Anderson, “Did you personally conduct tests on the rope and cinder blocks found in the garage?”