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Then, knowing full well DeSegonzac would not have had access to either Chloe or Denise, Aguilar brazened ahead. “In conducting your evaluation, wouldn’t it have been better to be able to interview all the parties involved, Mrs. Abernathy and the child?”
“Depending on the questions being raised, yes,” DeSegonzac replied.
Next, taking the same unsuccessful route he took with Toffett, Aguilar asked whether DeSegonzac had looked at the records of Larry Kupersmith, Bill’s therapist.
“No,” DeSegonzac answered.
“No,” Aguilar said, facing the judge to dramatize the doctor’s response. Prior to conducting his evaluation of Bill, DeSegonzac hadn’t reviewed Denise and Chloe’s records either. And although acknowledging that some of these tests can be masked by taking alcohol or drugs, he also hadn’t run any tests to determine whether or not Abernathy had consumed alcohol or drugs prior to taking the tests. Neither did he verify what Bill told him in the clinical interview as far as his educational background, criminal history, interpersonal relationships, friends, parents.”
Aguilar turned to DeSegonzac. “In other words, your evaluation is based wholly on what Mr. Abernathy told you, correct?”
“Yes, it is.”
“Is it fair to say, if he’s not telling you the truth, then your opinion would be affected?”
“Yes.”
“And you don’t know whether or not he was telling you the truth for sure?”
“Beyond the shadow of a doubt, no.”
I’m Not Clairvoyant
Bea tried to repair any damage. “Doctor, do you generally run tests for alcohol or drugs on the people you diagnose and treat?”
“No, we do not.”
“Is it a common practice or part of the standardized procedure that in other—”
“We look for signs of it in preparing the person for the laboratory or during the examination, but we don’t conduct blood tests or urine tests.”
“When you were interviewing and examining Bill Abernathy, did you see any signs of him having imbibed alcohol or taken drugs?”
“I saw no evidence on any of the four or five interviews I had with Mr. Abernathy.”
“You were asked whether he was telling you the truth, and you responded, ‘Not beyond a shadow of a doubt.’ Could you please explain your answer a little more?”
“Well, there is no absolute lie detector. I can rely only on whether the person is logical and consistent with the image he’s presenting. I’m not clairvoyant.”
Motion to Strike
“Your Honor,” Bea said. “I have two matters I’d like to take up prior to calling my next witness. First, after we left here last week, I found a stipulation Joseph Aguilar had prepared and we both signed showing our acceptance of Dr. Gene Frechette as guardian ad litem. I move to strike Maryellen Murphy’s testimony, because the stipulation shows she had, indeed, been removed as the guardian ad litem, and we’d both accepted the Court’s suggestion that Gene Frechette serve as guardian ad litem.”
“This has been ruled on by Judge Quimper,” Aguilar said.
“That’s not so,” Bea said. “That motion was to preclude prior to her testifying. This is a different motion, one after her testimony, a motion to strike.”
“I will deny it,” Goldblatt said.
Damn, thought Bea. Can’t he make a determination as to her status?
Goldblatt continued. “I’ve accepted the testimony of Maryellen Murphy for whatever purpose it was. She’s testified, and your rights are all reserved.”
“The other matter is about Ruth Stanton, Denise Abernathy’s psychotherapist, whom I believe is a social worker. Because Aguilar was considering calling her as a rebuttal witness, I subpoenaed her process notes, curriculum vitae, and case file on Denise, as well as her own body to court today, but Stanton has not obeyed the subpoena.”
“I can’t do anything about that,” Goldblatt replied. “If she isn’t here and you want to enforce your subpoena, you’ve got to get a court order. Let’s proceed with this witness now.”
A Nervous Guy Named Bill
“My name is William Arthur Abernathy,” Bill said, looking simultaneously anxious and happy to be on the stand.
For his sake, Bea was pleased they were in the judge’s spacious lobby. He should feel less trapped. He was wearing a well-fitting gray suit, a light blue shirt, and a modest tie with a range of burgundies. His ensemble blended with the hues of the Oriental rug and the tasteful paneling and stone fireplace behind him.
She was also grateful Denise stayed marbleized along the rear wall out of his line of vision while he was testifying.
Bea took Bill through his married life. For legal reasons, it was the same story he had told DeSegonzac, but Bill added a few warm notes. He and Denise were born six months and a day apart. An astrologer’s dream.
Wonder what this case will do to believers, Bea thought.
He agreed with the essentials of Denise’s testimony reiterating what she called the rape in July 1983. Delighted with Denise’s pregnancy, he was less than pleased to see her become visibly upset. It had strained their relationship.
“How did she manifest that she was upset?”
“She became withdrawn, tearful at times. We started to go to birthing classes. That was, you know, part of the process, and we went together. Denise appeared to be unhappy during the classes... although she was happy at other times. We didn’t have too much sexual intercourse at that time. It seemed to be a little bit more difficult, the way I looked at it.”
“What manifestations showed you she was unhappy at the birthing classes?”
“She was short-tempered with me and didn’t seem to listen. I felt bad because I was there to be supportive, to help her with all the exercises. We were supposed to be working together. Instead, at times, we were fighting or she’d withdraw.
“She didn’t want to be a part of the group. She was always very shy in public. She had difficulty dealing with other people on a one-to-one basis. I tried to join in with the group, you know, talking with the other people, and Denise appeared to, like, shy away, to try to get away from it.”
Bea and Bill covered some of the same ground Denise had, but they’d agreed not to burden the court with listening to the same stuff over and over again with only very slight differences. Where his version of the material facts only slightly disagreed with what Denise had said, he’d just say he agreed with the “essential elements.” The big issues were whether he had abused Chloe and which of them, Denise or Bill, was fit to be the custodial parent. That, of course, brought their psychological make-up into play.
“Did you ever entertain thoughts of divorce after Denise moved out of the bedroom?” Bea asked.
“They were fleeting thoughts, but I never really serious considered divorce. We had a beautiful child in Chloe, and I thought it’d be better to have a family to take care of her. I also figured I’d just sort of stick it out because, even though Denise was having problems, she was seeing a therapist and had started going to Alcoholics Anonymous meetings. Her problems were coming into a little more focus.
“I wanted to be close to Chloe, too. That was my other major reason. I wanted to stay with her. If Denise and I got a divorce, I’d be separated from Chloe, and with court-ordered visitations, I wouldn’t see her as much. These were the most important years of her life, you know, especially the ages three, four, and five, when she’d be starting to develop and talk and becoming older. Being there would be really important for me as a father. As a result of all those things, I figured I’d stay.”
“Did you make any other observations of Denise’s behavior after the child was born?”
“Yes,” Bill said. “She became even more withdrawn. She tended to stay in the house with the shades drawn during the day. It just seemed to get more and more noticeable. She appeared to be, what I observed, more depressed. The shades were only up when I put them up. This was probably between ‘84 and ‘86, before Denise went to see Ruth Stanton.
“It was difficult to get her out of the house; she didn’t want to go to parties and social events. She rarely took Chloe out in the stroller. When I came home from work, she went immediately to bed and slept until after Chloe went to sleep most evenings. She was tearful at times, and we got into frequent arguments. As soon as I came through the door at four-thirty after work, it was almost like she was attacking me right away. She reminded me many, many times of the incident in 1983.”
Bill continued. “As Chloe got older, we went out to dinner, but that was rare.”
Meal preparation was relevant to who was most fit to have custody, so Bea had Bill describe year by year who prepared the meals for the baby and who fed and spoke to Chloe.
“Denise did the lunches then for the most part. I did them whenever I was home at lunchtime—maybe twice a week. Sometimes during the middle of the day, if there was a problem, I’d come home. I could be there within a couple minutes, for example, if the washing machine broke down.”
Bill did dinners because Denise went to bed early when she was hung over. He also went on too long about how he and Chloe shared their breakfast time.
“Let’s see if we can speed it up a little,” Goldblatt said, having clearly heard enough about meal preparation.
“Around age two or three, Chloe started to dress and undress herself. I’d help her, when needed, to get out of her clothes and into her pajamas. When she got older, she did most of it on her own.
“I’d feed her dinner around six or six-thirty. By then, Denise had gone to nap. Chloe would then watch television or read or whatever, and she’d go to bed around seven-thirty or eight or so. I used to read her, you know, nighttime stories.”
“Did Denise read her nighttime stories?”
“Most nights, no.”
Bea moved on to the karate lessons, at which Chloe joined him twice a week, for approximately a six-month period.
“Chloe and a couple of the other children basically played around the class. They were sort of part of the family, you know, and they participated in small ways. They might imitate us and do a little bit of kicking or rolling or bowing. And, if there was a problem, the karate instructor, Denzil Fillmore, used to take them aside and play with them a little bit. On occasion, Chloe would get very upset, so I’d take her aside and just kind of comfort her a little bit.”
“What would she get upset about?”
“Maybe one of the kids was playing too rough or she fell down or maybe I yelled at her. Occasionally we’d stand around in a circle talking, and she’d come over and grab onto my leg, you know, and the same with the other kids and their fathers.”
Bill described taking Chloe to swimming lessons at the Y for what he said was “a good ten-month period,” when she learned how to swim. It was he who’d bought her the bathing suit.
“I had to help her get into the bathing suit. She was so young. But I couldn’t go into the girls’ end, you know, so I used to bring her to the boys’ end; then I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. Later she got more comfortable and was getting pretty good at getting in and out of the suit.
“We used to take a quick shower before. Then we’d walk down to the pool and she’d have her swimming lesson, which was, like, forty-five minutes. A lot of the parents were there in the first class, but then the instructor kicked the parents out. They wanted the kids by themselves, so I’d leave and pick her up afterwards. I used to have her take a shower and then help her get out of the bathing suit and dressed.”
Then Bill broke into a grin. “She used to stare at the boys, you know. I used to just kind of try to block her.
But there was this one particular time, I remember, she said, ‘No, no, no, Daddy. I want to look,’ you know. And she wanted to go over near the boys; they were undressing and stuff. So that was a little uncomfortable, but it wasn’t a big problem. She got upset with me, because she wanted to go over and I wouldn’t let her, but that was okay.
“I used to take her to the playground, some puppet shows. We flew kites at Shipley Park and visited my family... my mother, my sister. I remember taking her to Boston to join in singing for a well-known children’s television show on Nickelodeon.”
“Now, if you were to get custody of the child, what provisions have you either thought of or are prepared to take in the care of the child?”
This was an important question. Bea had told Bill the court would want to know how he could care for the child if he were working, so she wanted him to work out a schedule to see if, indeed, he’d be able to pull it off.
Aguilar interrupted. “Do we want to stop for lunch?”
“I will hear this answer,” Goldblatt said.
Bravo! Bea thought.
“First of all, since I work an eight to four-thirty shift, I’d be able to drive her in the morning, because my hours are very flexible in the morning. I can arrange to come in a little bit later, so I can bring her to school in the morning, to the Bingham School. She starts around quarter of nine.
“There’s an after-school program at the YMCA youth division where Chloe took her swimming lessons. The van will pick her up at quarter of three when she gets out of school and will bring her down to the youth division, where they have games and organized activities up until six.
“I’d pick her up after I got out of work—around four-thirty. I could pick her up at any time, depending on how she enjoyed it, up until six. If there’s a problem, my father is always there, and can fill in for me at any point.
“They even have a summer and an all-day program. The summer program goes from eight-thirty to six. And even vacation, school vacations. I get five weeks of vacation a year, so I would arrange my vacations—”
“Why don’t we suspend for lunch at this point?” Goldblatt suggested. It was a few minutes after one o’clock.
Someone’s Listening
Bill and Bea were alone for lunch. The Toffetts and DeSegonzac had done their jobs.
“You did very well. A little nervous, but straightforward. I think that was noticeable to Goldblatt. It made a good impression, I’m sure.”
“I felt beat up. It was hard hearing DeSegonzac tell my life story, but it was nice because he had only good things to say. Until now, no one has listened to where I’ve been for the past year and a half. I’m glad someone is listening now.”
“Maybe it’s only seemed they weren’t,” Bea said. “Maybe people haven’t known what to say. Maybe some of your friends think, ‘There but for the grace of God go I. Thank goodness my wife isn’t angry at me.’
Maybe others hesitate to say anything because they’re powerless to do anything to help you. Maybe they’re just scared. It’s the witch hunt all over again. And this time, it’s not just in Salem.”
“It isn’t, is it?” Bill asked. “All those nursery school teachers, too, being accused of molesting the kid in their schools. Some of those stories are incredible. Unbelievable. Right across the States.”
“Well, so long as the people in the industry are going around saying kids don’t lie, this is going to continue,” Bea said.
“Yeah, it will.”
“I told you about a seminar I went to, didn’t I? Where the psychologist, Ken Herman, from Judge Baker’s Children’s Center, said kids don’t lie? And then a few other nutsos backed him up. I challenged him. It was like dropping a bomb in the room. At least two hundred lawyers thought I was from outer space. Some disagreed with me vehemently. Others thought I was out of my mind for speaking up. If a few more had balls as large as mine—sorry, Bill—things would change. But they don’t. They’re scared. Scared or fanatic.” Bea stopped, suddenly aware of her frenzy. “Oh, hell, let’s enjoy lunch... what’s left of it.”
And they did. The restaurant with the clipper ships had plenty of available tables. Bea ordered antipasto. Bill, a tuna sandwich and salad. Bea had coffee. Bill, tea.
“I’ve been meaning to ask you. Have you seen Chloe?”
“Yeah, I didn’t stop visiting—despite all this. She told me she is taking soccer. She was sad I couldn’t go to the games. I’m sad about it too.”
As sadness wasn’t conducive to dessert, they skipped it and walked back to court.
The Father, the King
“I believe Mr. Abernathy was just testifying about what would happen during vacations and the summer programs,” the Master, Retired Judge Goldblatt, said. “Go ahead, Mr. Abernathy.”
“The youth division has all sorts of activities during the day. Summer camps only go for a few weeks, but the youth division of the Y goes all summer, from eight to six; it’s a solid time.” Bill had considered it as an alternative for when he wasn’t on vacation.
Bill went on about his plans to provide Chloe with art classes, dancing and swimming lessons, and more karate classes.
“Depending on the season, we used to go swimming at the neighborhood pool,” he said. “We did that all the time, especially when Denise worked on Sunday. I used to take Chloe out to breakfast for pancakes, that sort of thing. Besides getting her meals, I used to give her a bath on Sundays.”
“Did Denise give her a bath during the week?”
“Occasionally. We were dividing it up; Denise would give her a bath one day a week, and I’d give her another day a week. I’d sometimes give the baths both times per week, but sometimes we used to split it up.”
Water, water! Wish I knew, Bea thought. Denise appears to have an aversion to water.
“Before Chloe was born, we used to go quite often to our time-share apartment near Lake Winnipesaukee on weekends. After she was born, we didn’t go often at all. Denise didn’t like swimming. Any time we got near water, Denise didn’t—she didn’t have a bathing suit—she didn’t want to go swimming, so we never went swimming.”
Leave it, Bea. It’s an unsolved mystery.
“What living arrangements would you have were you to get custody?”
“Right now, my landlord has given me permission to have Chloe move in where I’m living. The house is in the same school district as the one she’s in now. It’s really close. It wouldn’t take her away from her friends, you know. She’d have the same teacher; she’d have continuity. If I was to get the house on Howes Way, then we’d live there. Then, again, the continuity wouldn’t be broken up. She could continue with her same friends, classmates, that sort of thing.”
“I don’t think I’ve asked you yet where you are working now,” Bea remarked as she looked over her notes containing the areas on which she wanted to question Bill. He explained he had two jobs. He’d been working at his primary job for five years, and at his second job for about seven months. “The second job is to cover my legal fees. If I get custody, I’ll taper off the second job so I can spend more time with Chloe.”
He’d made an arrangement with his father for the money to pay his legal expenses and experts. The liberal pay-back program was probably the only reason he’d gotten by so far.
“You’ve read the descriptions of the alleged acts you’ve been accused of performing on Chloe?”
Bill winced at the question. “Yes.” His voice echoed his pain.
Bea paused. She had to ask the next question. She’d inflict even more pain with it, but it had to be done. “Do you deny or admit performing those acts as alleged?”
Bill knew it was coming. He’d answered it during his deposition with Aguilar. Bea had heard the answer before. Aguilar had heard it before. Denise had heard it before. Yet, had this been the season for flies to be buzzing around and one had been buzzing on the window sill, everyone would have heard it. “I deny,” Bill said quietly.
He didn’t say what he denied! Bea hoped no one else noticed. Knowing he was an avid believer, she was concerned. Did he fear having to confess a lie?
He’d said also he’d bring Chloe to a licensed child psychologist.
“In view of your denial, what would be the purpose of the therapy?”
“Chloe has been, I think, emotionally abused. All these people who have been involved, you know, social workers— This whole process has, I think, emotionally upset her, confused her. They’ve tried to cut her off from her daddy, and I believe she’s in a quandary right now. I’m not sure she knows how to treat me. I’m not even sure what she thinks about men. I think they’ve done a tremendous disservice to her and—”
“Judge, I’m going to object.”
“I think he may answer this question,” Goldblatt said, overruling Aguilar’s objection.
“I want her to talk to someone who can gently talk to her—just to bring out her feelings about everything in a really non-threatening manner. Somebody she could talk to once a week about how she could get out of this situation, you know, about these false allegations, and how she can treat her daddy.
“And I think the biggest disservice she’s had is that even if something... if she had been abused at all by anybody... if it happened at all, okay, and they had treated her appropriately, that would’ve been the end of it.”
Bea thought, He must be thinking of Denise’s father, George Willow, or her cousin. We still don’t have evidence that either of them did anything to Chloe.
Bill said, “She’s a young child, five years old, okay? If she’d been abused, they would’ve treated her, brought her to the whatchamacallit. But what I’ve seen and heard from all these people, they’re only obsessing and going all out to prosecute me. They’re not looking at anyone else, so Chloe is confused.
That’s why she really needs to see somebody competent.”
“And who might that be? Have you looked into that at all?”
“Yes. Rhonda Argentine is her name. I know of her through my therapist, Dr. Laurence Kupersmith, and a psychologist at the VA.”
“For what purpose are you seeing Dr. Kupersmith?”
“I’ve seen him for the purpose of trying to deal with these false allegations against me. I’ve used him as a support. I see him once a month, once every couple weeks, and he’s someone I can air my frustrations to, someone who can sort of check on how I’m doing emotionally. He sort of checks certain things I’m having a difficult time with. If it’s something I don’t want to talk about, he can sometimes feel me out a little bit. So I talk about my feelings for, you know, forty-five minutes: how I’m doing, how I’m doing with Chloe, you know, what new things I can do to help myself get through this.”
“How have the visitation visits been thus far?”
“Let’s see,” he said, stalling for time to think. “The visitations at my house, at 82 Howes Way, with Denise, my father, and Chloe are artificial. It’s a very artificial environment. What I’ve observed is Chloe being overwhelmed by Denise’s actions. Chloe is very intimidated by Denise. She constantly looks at Denise. It’s really— I find it—” Bill choked up. He looked at the court. “I’m sorry.”
“Anything else you’ve observed during those visitations?”
“Chloe and I play very well together. We usually end up playing games and rolling around on the mat. I bought her a little tumbling mat, and we play little spontaneous games. We just sort of start off with a doll or a couple dolls and just play off that. And we run around a lot, play games with chase, hide and seek.
Sometimes we play bull and the matador, you know, with a blanket, and Chloe’s the little bull, or sometimes I’m the bull.” As he spoke about playing with Chloe, he regained his composure and a small smile.
“We play Cinderella, which is kind of her favorite, or used to be. We don’t play it right now, but—let’s say it went on about a year and a half. We used to play Cinderella.
“Right now, we’re playing The Little Mermaid. One of her idols is the little mermaid, and so we play I’m the prince, or the king. I’m the king. The father, the king. That’s right.”
Heather Bruce was right after all. He does get child-like. Bill wasn’t just describing the visits. He was reliving them. At that moment, he was King.
With pride in his and Chloe’s creativity, the newly crowned King purred detail by detail how he and Chloe played the game.
When he finished telling everyone what the game was, he began to be Bill again and self-consciously said, “So it’s really spontaneous kinds of games we play, because we’re not allowed to talk about anything regarding the alleged abuse stuff.”
The home visits, he said, are not supervised by the social workers, but he’d been told by the social worker Heather Bruce what he could and could not say or do. She’d admonished him for saying certain things to Chloe.
As a result of the conversations with Heather, he knew he shouldn’t give Chloe any hope that they could go to Florida or to Disneyland or to the playground. “It’s like there’s no future between the two of us. I mean, that’s the impression I got.” His feeling of hopelessness permeated the elegant chamber.
He continued. “The particular one that really hurt me a lot was that I couldn’t express any hope that Chloe and I would ever, ever again do anything together.” His eyes filled.
“Have you been able to give her a hug or something if she falls during these supervised visits?”
“Yes, on occasion.”
“As a result of your hugging your daughter, has another event occurred?”
“Yes. Chloe has told me at times on a following visit I shouldn’t touch her.”
“Judge, this is getting into hearsay.”
The nerve of Aguilar, Bea thought. All Leavitt’s testimony was hearsay.
But Goldblatt ruled otherwise. “What Chloe told him is not hearsay. You may have that. She’s not telling him any facts; she’s making a statement, though. She may have that.”
“Thank you,” Bea said.
“What else has she told you along that nature?”
“She said no touching was part of the rules. The no-touching started back in March of 1990.”
“In March of 1990, you heard from whom about the no-touching rule?”
“Heather Bruce.”
“And as a result of hearing the no-touching rule from Heather Bruce, what did you believe you could or could not do as regards Chloe?”
“Objection.”
“Just the question.” Goldblatt said. “Don’t prompt him.
Goldblatt wants to hear this. Had I not said, “as regards Chloe,” Aguilar would have objected saying “about what?”
“I believed Chloe was upset with me touching her, that I was supposedly too rough with her.”
“Did you believe you were hurting Chloe by giving her a hug?”
“No.”
Bea turned to Aguilar. “Any cross?” she said as jauntily as she could.
Sheer Foolishness
Aguilar began cross-examining Bill on his financial statement. From his two jobs, at the VA Hospital and the Hanksville Community Health Center, Bill earned $1,083.60 a week. Bill’s income had increased roughly two to three thousand dollars a year since the divorce began. And Bill’s health was very good: he never had a sexually transmitted disease, including chlamydia.
Aguilar tried to diminish the style in which Chloe would have to live were Bill to gain custody. He and the child would live where he was then living, which meant sharing the kitchen and bathroom with other tenants.
Aguilar sought details about Bill’s living expenses, savings, debts, including his attorneys’ fees for both Bea and James Phinney, and expert fees. Bill’s debt had accumulated to tens of thousands of dollars. Everything would have absolutely no meaning were Bill convicted of rape of child.
Aguilar was quibbling over foolishness. He asked, for instance, what repairs to his four year old car Bill foresaw.
A very brief argument ensued regarding Bill’s finances and his financial statement.
Aguilar then cross-examined Bill about the drawn shades, brought out as an example of Denise’s abnormal behavior. “Mr. Abernathy, you testified on direct examination that from 1984 to 1986 your wife put the shades down. Were they always drawn?”
“Uh-huh.”
“When you were at work, you don’t know for sure what the shades were doing at home, do you?”
“Right, when I was at work.”
“So she may have had them up? You don’t know?”
“No, I don’t.”
Aguilar then asked similar questions about Bill’s knowledge of how often Denise took Chloe out in the stroller. Trying to demean Bill, Aguilar called attention to his having stopped paying after the first year for Leavitt’s so-called treatment of Chloe.
“During the time that Chloe was seeing Roberta Leavitt, did you ever make an appointment to sit down and talk to Roberta Leavitt?”
“No.”
“Yes or no, did you ever call Roberta Leavitt to discuss your daughter’s case?”
“No.”
“And it’s your testimony today that you would not, if you got custody, you would not have Chloe continue in therapy with Roberta Leavitt?”
“That’s right.”
“Did Roberta Leavitt ever refuse to talk to you?”
“Yes, back in March or April of 1990.”
“Was that after you stopped paying for the visits?”
“That was before.”
“I have no further questions.”
“Redirect is limited to cross, and we have limited cross,” the judge reminded Bea.
Preparing Chloe
On redirect, Bea asked, “You didn’t put the payments you made to Roberta Leavitt anywhere on your financial statement, did you?”
“No, I didn’t.”
“Do you remember the total amount you paid Roberta Leavitt for supposedly giving therapeutic treatment to Chloe?”
“It was approximately fourteen or fifteen hundred dollars.”
“How did you pay Roberta Leavitt?”
“Every week I went for Saturday visits, and I gave one check for $300, which included the alimony and child support payment. And I gave her another check for $45 to pay Roberta Leavitt for the therapy.”
“Were you ordered to pay Roberta Leavitt through the court?”
“No.”
“Why did you stop paying when you did?”
“Well, by reading Roberta Leavitt’s notes and her deposition transcript, it appeared to me she was not giving Chloe therapy. She was preparing her as a witness to prosecute me. I thought that was outrageous, and I shouldn’t pay for it.”
“Now, if you do gain custody of the child, but you do not gain access to the house, what options have you considered as to the living arrangements?”
Bill replied he had three options available. Two of them he had already described, to live where he was or in the house on Howes Way. His third option was to get another apartment in the same school district, so as not to lose the continuity which he thought would be important for Chloe. “I’m flexible,” he said.
Part 21 of 41 will be posted on Thursday