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“Yes.”
“Who am I?”
“You’re my father’s lawyer.”
“Do you know my name?”
Chloe just shook her head.
“Bea Archibald. How do you do, Chloe Abernathy?”
“Good.”
“Let me ask you this: When was the last time you saw Carol Tracy?” Not getting an answer, Bea asked, “Do you remember?”
“No.”
“Did you only see her the one time you went to visit her?”
“No. I saw her once more.”
“When was that?” Again no answer. “Do you remember?”
“No.”
“Was it shortly after you first saw her?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Well, were you alone when you saw her the second time?”
“No, I was with my mother.”
“With your mother. Did your mom take you to see Carol Tracy the first time?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember Carol Tracy asking you, ‘Do you know why you’re here?’
Do you remember that?”
“No.”
“Okay. Do you know now why you were brought to Carol Tracy?”
“I’m going to object to that, Judge,” Cooke said.
“I’ll allow it.”
“You may answer. Do you know now why you were brought to Carol Tracy?”
Chloe again just nodded.
“And that was to say what Ms. Cooke asked you to say?”
“Objection, Your Honor.”
“Excluded.”
“Do you remember playing with any dolls when you were with Carol Tracy?”
“No.”
“You don’t remember dolls?”
Chloe shook her head.
“Do you remember playing with dolls at Roberta’s?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the name of the doll you have in your hand?”
“Roseberry.”
“That’s Roseberry. And Roseberry is your favorite doll?”
Chloe just nodded.
“You have had Roseberry for a long time?”
Chloe just nodded.
“Do you remember when you first got Roseberry?”
“When I was three.”
“When you were three? Do you remember what you got for Christmas last year?”
“I got a lot of stuffed animals and two cats.”
“And anything else for Christmas?”
“I got a bear that can talk. You just press certain parts.”
“A band?”
“A bear.”
“A talking bear?”
Chloe just nodded.
“Oh, my. And did daddy send over a gift to you at Christmas?”
“A bike.”
“And before that for your birthday, do you remember what you got for your birthday before that, when you were eight years old?”
“No.”
“Do you remember what you got for Christmas when you were eight years old?”
“No.”
“Do you remember what you got for your birthday when you were seven years old?”
“No.”
“Do you remember what you got for Christmas when you were seven years old?”
“No.”
“Do you believe in Santa Claus now?”
“Not really.”
“Did you ever believe in Santa Claus really?”
“Yes.”
“When was that?”
“When I was eight, seven, and six.”
“Eight, seven, and six.”
“Yes.”
“What about his reindeer?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you believe in the reindeer?”
“Yeah.”
“And they took him from rooftop to rooftop.”
“Yeah.”
“Are they going to take him this year also?”
“Maybe.”
“Okay. So the reindeer can fly? They’re special reindeer, aren’t they?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Now, did you say that when dad took you upstairs to the bedroom, your mom was downstairs in the living room?”
Chloe just nodded.
“So when dad put his penis in your vagina, did you say anything to him?”
“No, I was too scared to.”
“You were too scared to? Did you cry out?”
“No.”
“You didn’t say, ‘Dad, that hurts?’”
“No.”
“Now, what was Mom doing downstairs?”
“She was laying down and taking a nap, either playing Nintendo or taking a nap.”
“She was playing television or taking a nap?”
“Yes.”
“Okay. And it was just that one time, is that it?”
“No, many, many times.”
“And where was mom during those many times?”
“Downstairs.”
“Downstairs?”
Chloe just nodded.
“Was she watching telly?”
Chloe just nodded.
“And was she taking a nap also downstairs?”
“Yeah.”
“Did she take a lot of naps—Mom?”
“Yes.”
“And did she do a lot of television watching?”
“No, she sometimes read her book.”
“She read her book. On those many times, did you ever say anything to Dad?”
“No.”
“And every single time, Mom was downstairs watching television or reading her book and Daddy put his penis into your vagina and you never said anything at all?”
“No.”
“And Mommy never ever heard?”
“Objection, Your Honor.” Cooke’s objection was correct. Denise’s and Chloe’s ears were different ears. Bea could have perhaps asked Chloe the same thing in another way, but chances are it would have been unproductive.
“Excluded.”
Even though the objection was sustained, the jurors heard the question and were probably asking themselves the same question. At least, that is what Bea would have wanted.
“You never said anything at all?”
Chloe just shook her head.
“Did you look at anything when daddy did that?”
“No, I had my eyes shut sometimes.”
“You had your eyes shut sometimes? And now, how did you get upstairs from downstairs when this happened?”
“Well, my dad asked me if I want to go upstairs with him. I said Yes because I was afraid that he
would do it downstairs.”
“You were afraid that he would do it downstairs?”
“Yeah.”
“In front of Mommy?”
Chloe just nodded.
“Now, in 1985 you were one year old, right?”
“Yes.”
“When you were one, did he tell you also to come upstairs?”
“No.”
“He didn’t?”
“No.”
“So what did he do then? How did you go from downstairs to upstairs?”
“Well, I was only abused when I was six, seven, and five.”
“When you were six or seven, okay.”
“And five and four.”
“Six, seven, five, and four. Okay. So seven was two years ago in 1991, right?”
“He really didn’t abuse me when I was six and seven. I just got all confused. It was five and four.”
“Because Daddy wasn’t living at home when you were six and seven, was he?”
“No.”
“Now, do you remember your karate lessons?”
“No, not really.”
“Do you remember going to the Y, the YMCA?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do at the Y?”
“I learned to swim.”
“And who took you to the Y to learn how to swim?”
“My dad.”
“Your dad. And how many times did you go to the Y to swim?”
“I don’t know. I think it was many times.”
“Because you are a good swimmer.”
“Yeah.”
“And did Mom ever take you to the Y?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Okay. Do you remember the karate lessons at all?”
Chloe just shook her head.
“Not at all?”
“Nope.”
“Do you remember Denzil Fillmore?”
Chloe just shook her head.
“You don’t remember the good hand and the bad hand?”
“No.”
“Dick and Joe and all of that?”
“No.”
“Do you remember the exercise mat?”
“Yes.”
“Do you remember playing with Dad on the exercise mat?”
“No.”
“You don’t remember that?”
“No.”
“When Grandpa Abernathy was there?”
“No.”
“Okay. Now, do you remember going to the group where there were a lot of kids who were supposedly also abused? Do you remember that?”
Chloe just nodded.
“What was the name of that place?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?”
“Nope.”
“Now, you went more than once?”
Chloe just nodded.
“And the place you’re thinking of now is the one you went to this year?”
“Objection, Judge.”
“Is that right? When did you go to that? Do you remember that?”
“I went there when I was six.”
“When you were six? Hilda Crowley’s? Do you remember Hilda Crowley’s?”
Chloe just shook her head.
“Do you remember the name Victims of Sexual Addiction?”
“No.”
“And did Mom take you there?”
“Yes.”
“And did you hear the other stories the kids told about how they were abused?”
“Yes.”
Bingo! “And what kinds of stories did they tell you?”
“Objection.” This was a reasonable objection. Bea was asking for hearsay.
“Excluded.”
“Do you remember someone by the name of Rachel Gidseg?”
“No.”
“Do you remember someone by the name of Kristin Uhler?”
“No.”
“Do you remember someone by the name of Heather Bruce?”
“Yes.”
“And you used to meet with your dad there to visit with your dad?”
“Yes.”
“And you used to do a lot of playing there?”
“Yes.”
“Did you have fun playing?”
“Yes.”
“And do you know how many times you met with your dad at Heather’s?”
“No.”
“More than once?”
“Yes, more than once.”
“Was it lots of times?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Do you know what karate is?”
“Yes.”
“What is it? Can you describe that for me?”
“Objection, Your Honor.”
Cooke had no basis for making this objection. She simply did not want the story of the karate coming in because it would explain the so-called punching and kicking.
“Excluded.” This was error on Mathers’ part. This question had relevance to the alleged kicking and punching and rough-housing in general. It didn’t matter that the subject was not brought up during the direct examination.
“Note my objection.”
“Well, you don’t remember going for the karate lessons?”
“Excluded.”
“One moment, Your Honor,” Bea said. Bea walked over to the table where she had her notebooks.
She was looking up the names of the children Chloe had played with at the karate classes.
“So do you have a friend called Katie?”
“Yes.”
“Who is she?”
“She is a friend of mine who lives next door.”
“Lives next door to you? Do you remember Katie from the karate class? Did you know another Katie?”
“No. I have a friend that’s a girl named Katie, but I don’t remember the other Katie.”
“Okay. Do you remember Allen? Allen Fillmore? Do you remember him?”
“Kind of.”
“Kind of. All right. But do you remember knowing him in the karate class?”
“Yeah, okay.”
“Do you remember his daddy, Denzil Fillmore?
“No.”
“But you remember Allen?”
“Yes.”
“What did you do with Allen?”
“I’m going to object, Judge.”
“Counsel.”
To the sidebar, they went.
“Where are you going with this?” Mathers asked Bea.
“Just to bring her back to the karate to see whether she remembers it, because that’s where the outgrowth of the secret came out of. It came out of the karate class, Your Honor.”
“What do you mean ‘the outgrowth of the secret’?”
“Well, remember Ms. Cooke said in her opening that—”
“She told her mother that she and her father had a secret.”
“Right. And daddy was in the room at that time. And that was because mommy never went to karate class with Chloe and daddy, and that was the secret and that was the story. When Denise gets on the stand I’m sure Ms. Cooke will have her explain how this secret came out. It involves hands, because they used to do karate at the YMCA and that’s where this is going. Whether she remembered Allen.”
“All right.”
“Thank you.”
End of sidebar.
“Do you remember what games you played with Allen?”
“No.
“But was it, do you remember—was it at the YMCA?”
“Yes.”
“And do you remember going there with daddy?”
“Yes.”
“Did mommy ever go to the Y with you?”
“I don’t remember.”
“But Allen you knew real well, didn’t you?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And you played with him every week, didn’t you?”
“Yes.”
“And did you play with him on the exercise mats?”
“No.”
“Did you wear a costume like your dad did?”
“Sometimes.”
“What color was your belt?”
“White.”
“White belt? Oh, good. And what color was your dad’s belt?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember? Do you still have your white belt?”
“Yes, I do.” Chloe smiled from ear to ear.
“Oh, wow! And it’s at home?”
“Yes.” Her smile was real. Almost as if she were comfortable saying Yes to things she really did remember.
“And who bought you that white belt?”
“I think it was my dad.”
“Would you describe your karate costume to us.”
“Well, it was white and it had these little ribbon things on the side of the shirt. And you had to tie them and the belt kept the shirt together.”
“And was it fun to wear?”
“Yeah.”
“Did you do much kicking and punching while you had your karate costume on?”
“No, not much. Just some.”
“Just some.”
“Yes.”
“Did you do a little practicing with your dad with the kicking and punching?”
“I don’t remember.”
“When you went to the karate class did you do the ritual—stand next to your dad when everybody did the ritual? Do you remember that part of it?”
“No.”
“Do you have a rocking chair in your room?”
“Not in my room but in my living room.”
“Did you ever have a rocking chair in your old room? Do you remember that?”
“Oh, yeah, I do, and I still have it in my room too.”
“What color is that?”
“Yellow.”
“Yellow. Did daddy used to read you some stories in that rocking chair? Do you remember that?”
“No.”
“Too long ago?”
“Yeah.”
“Do you have any favorite books from when you were little still hanging around that you remember?”
“I have plenty of them.”
“You have plenty of them! Can you tell me the titles?”
“Well, I remember one.”
“What’s that?”
“My Pop-Up book of Zoo Animals.”
“Pocketbook of new animals? Popeye book? Popeye book of new animals. Is that the name of it?”
“Pop-up book.”
“Pop-up book, oh, yes. When you open it, Jack-in-the-Box pops up?” Bea’s voice was playful and warm.
“Animals from the zoo pop up.” Chloe reacted warmly to Bea.
“Animals from the zoo pop up. Okay!” Bea said, delighted that she finally understood what the child said. “And that was one of the only books that you had?”
“Yes.”
“Did you have a monster book?”
“I don’t remember.”
“You don’t remember?”
“No.”
“Did you have a book with a name Shadows in it?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Did you have a book about the closet, what was in the closet?”
“Yes.”
“What was that book?”
“I think it was called the Monster in the Closet.”
“The Monster in the Closet. And who bought you that book?”
“I don’t remember.”
“Do you remember who read it to you?”
“No.”
“Did you like that book?”
Chloe just nodded.
“Did it make you feel happy?”
“Uh-huh.” Chloe nodded.
“And safe?”
“Yup.”
“And made you feel secure?”
“Uh-huh.” Chloe nodded again.
“Do you remember daddy opening up the closet door and saying, ‘Hey, there’s no monster in here’?
Do you remember that at all?”
Chloe just shook her head.
“Nice meeting you, Chloe Abernathy,” Bea said, then to the court, “I have no more questions for Chloe. Thank you.”
Six 5s, Six 3s, One 4, One 1
During recess, Bea and Peter went through the What-do-you-thinks. Peter, who at least had a profile view of Chloe during the questioning, said Chloe had been smiling throughout. Would she have been smiling if she really was abused? At no time did she sound as if she were in pain.
Bea thought the tone of her voice was not unlike the tone a child might use after an unexciting day at school. Pleasantly bland, lightly flavored with a slight grin from getting paid a little attention.
Peter brought out his notepad. He had written: “The DA said you’d hear it in her child words. We heard nothing in her “child” words about abuse—only adult words describing sexual acts.”
Because Bea’s back had been to the jury during the cross-examination of Chloe, she asked Peter and Bill what they had seen of the jury.
“The jury liked the way you questioned Chloe, Bea,” Peter said.
“All? Some? Which ones?” Bea asked.
“On a scale of 1 through 5, 1 being bored, 5 being very involved. In the back row, the first three closest to the judge—the old lady, the guy next to her, and the black guy—I gave them a 3. The guy in the middle, the truck driver, seemed bored. The young girl next to him was hanging on every word, a 5.”
“Terrific,” Bea said. “That’s Joanne Pearl, the daycare teacher who was involved in a case where the parents of one of the kids were convicted. She said everyone was surprised. I wanted her big time.
Sorry, who else?”
“The guy next to her—30-ish. He was very attentive. And the woman on the end. Mid-40-ish. She was attentive.
“The front row. I gave the foreman a 5. He’s been a 5 all the way. The two young kids. Initially I thought they were uninterested—like too cool to be interested—but I gave them a 3 while you were examining Chloe. I also gave the guy in the middle a 3. He was the middle-age guy.
“The former FBI guy, the guy with the DA daughter—I gave him a 4. And the last two. The middle-age guy has been quite involved all along, trying to get a good grasp of things. I gave him a 5. I could be wrong about the guy on the end, but I still gave him a 5.”
Bill was sad. He listened to Peter, but didn’t try to add anything. Bea believed he had to be disappointed by Bea’s opening statement, but even more significant, if Bea had to guess, he was devastated hearing his daughter say he put his penis into her vagina and into her mouth.
The clerk came out and said the judge was ready to come in.
Visit to Tracy
The Commonwealth’s next witness was Denise Abernathy. She testified Chloe was in diapers when the family moved to Howes Way, and described who slept where before and after 1986, when she moved into the spare bedroom. She said she worked part-time in 1986, but Cooke didn’t ask her what hours, when, or how often. It was just enough information to lead the jury into believing Bill had lots of opportunity to rape Chloe.
“At any point did Chloe spend time alone with her father?”
“Yes.”
“About how often?”
“Every time I worked, he babysat for her.”
“Any other times?”
“Yes, when I was cooking dinner, he and Chloe would be upstairs.”
“Any other time that they’d be alone?”
“After dinner they would go upstairs sometimes.”
“Now, Mrs. Abernathy, I direct your attention to on or about July 26th of 1989. Do you recall being at home in that time frame?”
“Yes.”
“Do you recall being in your home in the presence of your daughter Chloe and the defendant?”
“Yes.”
“Can you tell the jurors what took place at that time?”
“Chloe was standing beside her father and she was making her hands talk like they were puppets. And the hands were talking. One of the hands told me she had a secret. She made the other hand tell me Daddy didn’t want me to tell about that. At that point, Bill jumped up and said he knew what she was talking about.”
“And you say her hands would move. Can you describe to the jurors what she was doing with her hands?”
“Yeah, she moved the fingers like this.”
“Opening and closing?”
“Opening and closing them.”
“And did you ever see Chloe do that before with her hands?”
“Yes, she had done that often from the time she was a little, little girl.”
“Now, once the defendant jumped up and said he knew what she was talking about, can you tell the jurors what happened next?”
“He described something he called the hitting game. He said he held her down by the shoulders and he would pinch her and scratch her and kick her. He said he knew she didn’t like it, and he wasn’t going to do it anymore.”
Because this was a criminal case in which a spouse was a defendant, Bill had no voice in controlling what Denise said on the stand. By statute, Denise had the privilege of choosing whether she wanted to testify against her husband.
“Did Chloe say anything further to you at that point in the conversation?”
“Not that I remember.” At her deposition, she said she sent Chloe upstairs to bed and then went to her AA meeting.
“So at the point where you went in to see Carol Tracy, did you have any information from Chloe about this secret?”
“Just that her father scratched her and kicked her and punched her.”
“I direct your attention to a couple of days later, on July 28th, 1989. Could you tell the jurors what, if anything, you did on that day?”
Denise repeated what she’d said at her deposition and the divorce trial about taking Chloe to see Carol Tracy. After Tracy told her what she and Chloe talked about in the office, Denise got a restraining order to prevent Bill from being in the house and having access to Chloe.
Cooke then asked Denise about her talking to Chloe about the purpose of going to see Carol Tracy, but never asked her what she told Chloe the purpose was.
Would the jurors wonder, as Bea did, what Denise told Chloe? And how much would Denise own up to on cross?
Terrorism
As Cooke sat down, Bea stood up. Normally she would’ve been licking her chops to begin cross-examining, but the smoothness of Cooke’s direct examination sent a message that Denise had been extremely well prepared. Add to Denise having been examined twice and having seen many pleadings in the civil and criminal cases, there were no more surprises. Bea was sure she was ready for anything.
Add, too, the restrictions imposed by the court. Bea wasn’t licking her chops, she was hot and uncomfortable and nervous as all hell.
“When you took Chloe to the Salem Woods Rape Crisis Center to meet Carol Tracy, you already knew Carol Tracy, didn’t you?”
“Yes, I did.”
“For how long had you known her?”
“About three weeks.”
“Why did you choose to bring her to the rape-crisis center?” Bea would not normally ask why, but she wanted Denise to slip up and mention the rape group.
“Object.”
Bea was motioned to go to the sidebar.
Mathers inquired, “Has the witness been cautioned not to discuss her problems? I don’t want her to blurt it out.”
Bea couldn’t believe she heard him say that. First, she was concerned that Denise could hear him—
Denise was only a few feet away on the other side of the bench—second, “blurting out” was what cross-examination was all about. There are many different techniques of cross-examining, but they all have one end: to get the witness to “blurt out” the truth or have no alternative but to admit the truth.
Mathers had just said in so many words that he didn’t want the truth.
Cooke said, “What I told her was there was a possibility the Court may go into that by way of consideration. Obviously I don’t know what she’s going to say, but I would assume.”
“I assume she’s going to say ‘because I knew Tracy,’” said Mathers.
The nerve! He was saying aloud how the witness should answer. Bea was sure he believed Denise could hear him.
“I don’t want any breadth added to this situation. You may have the question, Did you take her to the crisis center because you had known Tracy in the past? Do you wish that question?”
“I don’t want to put that answer in her mouth because it’s not true,” Bea said. I want no part of your foul game. Mathers also seemed to forget that Denise had just answered a few questions ago that she had known Tracy only three weeks.
“Then I’ll exclude the question.”
End of sidebar.
Bea returned to resume questioning. Yes, Denise knew Tracy was neither a medical doctor nor a psychologist, but she didn’t know whether Tracy was a social worker.
“Now, did you ever see any scratches on Chloe? You didn’t, did you?”
“I saw cuts and scrapes from her falling down.” To Bea, this statement sounded like the sincerest statement Denise had made since her examination began.
“Did you ever see any cuts and scrapes that you hadn’t seen from her falling down?”
“No.” Denise’s voice was stronger on these answers than on the others.
“Did you ever see any bruises on her from being punched and kicked?”
“No.”
“She had a pediatrician, isn’t that correct?”
“That’s correct.”
“And you took her quite frequently?”
“When she was sick.”
“When she had a cold or an earache or stomach problems? She also had a constipation problem at one point too?”
“Yes, she did.”
“After you brought Chloe to Carol Tracy, you came to court and you got a restraining order. Do you remember just saying that to Ms. Cooke?”
“Yes.”
“And what reason did you give to the court to get the restraining order?”
No answer. Denise looked blankly straight ahead, toward the back of the room.
“May I approach the witness, Your Honor?”
“Yes.”
Bea held out a sheet of paper so Denise could see it. “Can you identify that?”
“Why don’t you tell us what it is, Ms. Archibald, and we’ll move on,” the judge said. This was unusual. Generally, if a document was not already an exhibit, the attorney who was showing the document had to go through a litany of questions before letting the jury know what the attorney was sharing with the witness.
Bea identified a yellow copy of Denise’s application for a restraining order and a copy of an affidavit Denise wrote and filed in court.
The application, which Denise had to make out in triplicate, had been approved and signed by the court. Upon being signed, the application itself becomes the restraining order. At the bottom of the yellow copy were the words Defendant’s Copy. That copy had been given to Bill.
“And this is, in fact, the application and the affidavit you wrote in order to get the restraining order.”
“Yes.”
“May I have this marked as Exhibit 1?”
Cooke said, “I object, Your Honor, to the actual restraining order coming in. I have not actually seen a copy of it.”
Once again, Bea was called to the sidebar.
Mathers greeted Bea with his hand out. “Why is this admissible?” he asked after reading the application and affidavit Bea had handed him.
“She was the one who brought up the restraining order and the fact that my client was kicked out of the house. I think it shows her bias. It goes right to the bias.”
“What is there about it that goes to bias?”
For crying out loud, Bea thought, she wrote that the man raped her and that she fears him doing it again. Assuming she believes that, she might be a little biased from all that. “Well, number one, it impeaches her. This whole part here is not what she testified to on the stand. That’s one part.”
After some discussion—the judge accusing Bea of wanting “to insert evidence in this case of the rape,” and she accusing him of not allowing her “to show evidence of bias”—Mathers decided to admit only part of the restraining order affidavit.
“Well, what you just said to me makes no point whatsoever as to the issue I have raised. I will allow that portion of the affidavit that indicates that the—”
“I want my objection noted for the record very strenuously.”
“That indicates that on Wednesday, July 26th, my 5 year old daughter related a secret to me involving suspected sexual abuse by her father. Both my daughter and I are in fear for our lives at this time.’ I will exclude the balance of this.”
“For the record, would you read that into the record, Your Honor?” requested Bea.
“The part I am excluding is ‘I am afraid of him as I have been under regular counseling for his forcibly raping me a few years ago. I am in constant fear of him raping me again.’”
“That is the bias.”
“That is excluded.”
“And again I object. Now, how do we fix it?” Bea asked, and added sarcastically, “Do we cut it off in the middle?”
“The clerk will take care of that,” Mathers said.
“Can I read the top part to the jury?”
“You may examine the witness on the part that I have allowed.”
End of sidebar.
“May I have this marked as Exhibit 1?”
“You may.”
The clerk took the three pages into his possession for “sanitization,” which Cooke requested.
Sanitization, a synonym in this case for keeping what Denise wrote from the jury. Redirecting her attention to Denise, Bea asked, “Now, wasn’t that talking-hands incident earlier than just Wednesday the 26th? Didn’t you say it was a few days before?”
“It was a few days before Wednesday the 26th. I got the restraining order, if I remember correctly, on the 28th, which was on a Friday.”
“Now, you said on the first line here ‘Plaintiff, Denise Abernathy,’ and your date of abuse is ‘7/26/1989.’ Was there any abuse on 7/26/1989?”
“I’m going to object to that, Judge.”
“Excluded.”
Why? Bea thought. I have a right to cross-examine on an exhibit.
“And you said that both my daughter and I are in fear of our lives at this time. Do you remember saying that on the affidavit?”
“Yes.”
“Now, why were you in fear of your life?” Bea purposely asked a broad question, hoping to draw Denise out.
“Objection, Your Honor,” Cooke said.
The judge again put a halt to any possibility that Denise might say too much, this time not by calling a sidebar but by excusing the jury and telling the lawyers that he would now ask Denise a few questions himself. This was the voir dire in which Mathers would make up his mind as to whether he’d allow Bea to question Denise about her obsession.
Part 33 of this serial will post on Tuesday, September 23rd