Street roots., July 06, 2012, Page 10, Image 10

street roots
11
July 6, 2012
ABUSE from page 10
or fourth-degree assault. Then the state made
its closing remarks.
Hershkowitz reviewed the charges against
Richard, Brandy’s injuries, her loss of
consciousness. He told the jury the defense
would probably invoke self-defense for Richard,
which was a distortion of the facts. “The
defendant is trying to fit square pegs through
round holes,” Hershkowitz said.
He dissected each of the five counts,
showing how the state had met its burden of
proving Richard’s guilt. Hershkowitz stressed
the definition of strangulation: putting your
hands on someone’s neck with intent to put
pressure. “Is Brandy’s version of the events
more reasonable than the defendant’s version
of the events?” he asked. Yes, he added, they
were.
In the defense’s
closing arguments,
Warden said that cuts
and bites on Richard
showed signs of an
attack. She said
Richard had the legal
right in Washington
state to protect
himself: “It was classic
self-defense.” She
added, “If you think
there’s a reason to
believe Mr. Duncan’s
recounting of events
—” and the defense
thought there was
then you have a
reasonable doubt.”
Based upon that
reasonable doubt,
Warden asked the jury
to consider lesser
charges, since the jury
had the discretion to
find Richard guilty of third- or fourth-degree
assaults. Warden, noting that no one deserves
to be abused, said Brandy’s credibility was
problematic, and Francisco’s testimony didn’t
fully corroborate Brandy’s: more reasonable
doubt. She mentioned the landline Brandy
didn’t use. And the state didn’t prove Brandy’s
neighbor s apartment down the hall — Ian was
with them — and when they returned, Richard
went to the bedroom to go to sleep, while
Brandy laid Ian down. And as Richard talked,
the story he told of that night differed
significantly from Brandy’s.
Richard said Brandy came into the bedroom
and wanted to be intimate. “I told her no.”
Then he felt a sharp pain in his shoulder, he
said. Before he could see what happened,
Richard said Brandy jumped on him, hit with
him wild blows, then grabbed on to his arm
and took a big bite.
“And were you doing anything while she was
doing this?” Pang asked.
“I hit her, uhh, with my right hand,” Richard
said. “I’m not sure if I hit her square in the
face. I don’t know, but she wouldn’t let go, so I
was hitting her.”
Brandy continued hitting him, he said, so he
grabbed her by the side of the head and
pushed her off the bed. He went to grab the
rent money, but Brandy blocked the bedroom
door. When she wouldn’t move, he said, he
pushed her. Brandy grabbed his leg and after
jerking free, he left the apartment.
Richard said he bought some beer, drank
one, then returned to the apartment — where
he met Francisco at the door. Richard turned
over his keys, then left, sat outside the
apartment and had another beer.
“What’d you do after you cracked a beer
open?” Pang asked.
“Started drinking it,” said Richard, “and
then the police arrested me.”
“OK. And thank you. Your witness.”
Richard’s cross examination began.
Although DPA Hershkowitz had been sensitive
to Brandy, he peppered Richard with
statements and questions.
“You get angry when you’re drunk?”
Herskhowitz asked.
Richard paused. “No.”
“Sometimes get physical when you’re
drunk?”
Another pause. “No.”
“You’ve hit Brandy when you’re drinking?”
“Yes.”
strangulation. “We are asking for a finding of
The testimony turned to the April assault.
not guilty as charged on counts one, two, three
“You shoved her down,” Hershkowitz said.
and four,” Warden said.
“Yes,” Richard answered.
Hershkowitz offered a brief rebuttal. Then
“You assaulted her.”
the jury was excused into the jury room. Two
“I pushed her.”
minutes later, the court adjourned.
“You assaulted her,” Hershkowitz repeated.
“Objection,” Pang said. “Calls for a legal
conclusion.”
“Overruled,” said Judge Yu.
Day 6
Hershkowitz said once again, “You assaulted
esday, June 14, 2011
her, sir.”
The jury began deliberation, breaking
“Yes,” said Richard.
3r lunch around noon. Once the jury returned,
The cross examination continued,
nore deliberation. Then, after less than five
Hershkowitz firing questions and Richard
lours, the jury had reached a verdict.
hitting back answers like well-matched tennis
opponents. Hershkowitz referenced the photos
of Brandy’s injuries. Richard admitted to
The Verdict
causing the swelling on her right cheek.
Mie presiding juror handed the bailiff a red
“You also strangled her as well, didn’t you?”
file filled with verdict forms. Judge Yu
Hershkowitz asked.
ped through them, then presented them to
“No,” Richard said.
clerk to read in open court. Richard stood.
“Put significant pressure on her throat?”
We, the jury, find the defendant, Richard
“No.”
ican, not guilty of the assault in the second
“Made her have difficulty breathing?”
¡ree” for intentional strangulation. “We, the
“No,” Richard said.
¿,” the clerk read, “find the defendant,
As Hershkowitz served more questions,
hard Duncan, guilty of the lesser included
Richard returned answers, mostly “Yes” or
ne of assault in the fourth degree.”
“No.” A police photo of Richard with a scratch
We, the jury, find the defendant, Richard
on his forehead was shown in court.
tican, not guilty of the assault in the second
Hershkowitz asked Richard if the police caused
free” for causing substantial bodily harm,
it.
e, the jury,” the clerk read, “find the
“I know Brandy was hitting me and biting
endant, Richard Duncan, guilty of the crime
me, and that’s all I can say,” Richard said. I
issault in the third degree.”
don’t definitively know where I got a specific
‘We, the jury, find the defendant, Richard
scratch.”
wwncan, not guilty of the crime of felony
“But you’re pretty clear that she bit you,”
lation of a no-contact order,” due to the not-
Hershkowitz said. “And you had to defend
lty verdict on the strangulation charge. “We,
yourself, isn’t that true?”
: jury,” the clerk read, “find the defendant,
“Yes,” Richard said.
hard Duncan, guilty of the crime of
“No further questions,” Hershkowitz said.
lation of a court order.”
Pang asked Richard whether Brandy had
‘We, the jury, find the defendant, Richard
scratched him. Richard said she had. Pang said
ncan, not guilty of the felony harassment.
he had no further questions.
:‘We, the jury,” the clerk read, “find the
Judge Yu told Richard he could step down,
end’ant, Richard Duncan, guilty of the lesser
then asked Pang and Warden if they were
luded crime of harassment.”
done.
When it came to the aggravators in the case,
“The defense rests,” Pang said.
1 jury had been asked if the third-degree
Richard’s testimony lasted 55 minutes,
;ault showed evidence of an ongoing pattern
barely one third as long as Brandy s.
psychological or physical abuse. The jury s
When the court returned from lunch, Judge
rdict was “Yes.”
Yu read jury instructions, which informed
It took Richard a moment to understand
jurors that if they couldn’t agree that the
2 full scope of the verdict, but then, smiling,
defendant was guilty of a second-degree
thanked the jurors.
assault, they could find him guilty of a thir
P
Richard had just beaten a possible sentence
of life in prison.
anything other than a wife beater. If you
look at me on paper, I’m not a nice guy. But
would you say I’m bad person? I think I’m a
nice guy.”
The enigma
SU, the Minimum Security Unit at the
Monroe Correctional Center, sits on a
flat hilltop, just beyond a looming guard
tower. Razor wire-topped fences delineate
the prison’s perimeter, caging in a series of
beige-colored buildings. To the east, on a
clear day, the snow-frosted caps of the
Cascade Mountains mark a jagged boundary
on the horizon.
On an afternoon in late January 2012, in a
nondescript conference room inside an MSU
building, Richard
Duncan, 39, sits at a
table, a prison ID
clipped to his shirt.
He exudes a
magnetic, affable
charm, offset by
moments of intense
shyness.
Even though the
trial took place more
than six months
before, he says he
still doesn’t know
why the jury only
found him guilty of
lesser charges,
allowing him to evade
life in prison. “Do I
think people believed
me?” he asks. “No.
You can look at me
and tell that I’ve done
something wrong.”
He laughs, but then becomes serious. “It’s
been really eating me up inside,” he says.
“The last thing I ever wanted to do was to
hurt Brandy like that.”
When it came time for his sentencing,
Richard, after avoiding plea bargains
M
The happiness
n early April 2012, as Brandy Sweeney,
29, sits in a friend’s apartment
somewhere in Washington, two-and-a-half
year old Ian dances with a Rock ’n Roll Elmo
across the room. As she watches her son,
she says she feels hopeful about her future.
When she heard the verdict, she felt the
opposite. “I was devastated,” she says. “I
was just like, ‘Are you freaking kidding me? I
went through all of that?’ [Testifying] was
one of the worst things I’ve had to do.”
On the stand, she says her emotions
tugged her this way and that: love for
Richard, but also a fear of him. And even
though she didn’t necessarily want him to
go away for life, she hoped to send him a
message: “That I really don’t want you in my
life anymore.”
She says the state prosecutor’s office told
her Richard’s conviction and sentence, even
at 29 months, represented a victory. To
thank her for testifying, Brandy says the
state prosecutor’s office sent her a check.
For $10. She stuck it to her refrigerator with
a magnet. It’s still there.
Hearing the verdict initiated a tough
period. Not long after the trial, she learned
her mother, Joy, in Pocatello, Idaho, was
gravely ill. Brandy arrived hours before she
died. To honor her, she got a tattoo of “Joy”
on her throat, not far from where the red
mark was the night of the April 2010 assault.
While in Idaho, Brandy says she reconnected
with her 9-year-old daughter, Skye. Her
mother and brother had joint custody of the
child, and Brandy hopes Skye and her
brother will move out to Washington some
day, so the whole family can be together.
Brandy says when she’s in the area, she
I
throughout the court case, struck a deal:
attends church with her old friend Morgan
For the assault in the third degree charge,
he was sentenced to 12 months; for the
aggravator he received 17 months.
Remarkably, the other convictions did not
lead to sentences due to a post-trial
agreement.
As a result, Richard, instead of serving life
in prison, will serve 29 months, minus 196
days for time served in King County Jail.
That amounts to roughly 22-and-a-half
months. “It still hasn’t sunk in,” he says,
chuckling.
Enrolled in a mental health program at
MSU, Richard says he doesn’t know what
he’ll do after his release. He dreams of
being a beekeeper or running a pumpkin
farm but doubts parents would let their
children near him. “They [would] think I’m
the biggest piece of shit,” he says.
His sentence mandates he complete 12
months of probation, undergo alcohol
counseling and, he says, participate in
domestic violence treatment. But he thinks
Brandy should attend similar treatment,
since she hit him. “She still has an
advocate,” Richard says. “Where’s my
advocate?”
He says he longs to see his son, Ian. The
separation nearly brings him to tears. “I
don’t want to talk about it,” he says. Though
Richard wonders: Would Ian be better off if
Richard stayed out of his life?
As for Brandy, the sentencing instituted a
no-contact order that bars Richard from
seeing her for five years. He confesses he
still cares for her - after all,'he says, he
tried to care for her, protect her - but they
shouldn’t be together. Which raises a
question: If he admits he abused Brandy,
how can her abuser also be her protector?
“It’s an enigma,” Richard says.
Even with a 29-month sentence, he says it
still feels as if he’s serving life, because if he
slips into addiction after his release and
commits the smallest offense, he’ll return to
prison. He knows in everyone’s eyes, he’s
seen as violent. But Richard views himself
differently:
“To look at me and to think that I’m
anything other than a white supremacist,
look at my record and think that I’m
Price and stays in touch with Karen Ciruli.
She hasn’t spoken to Francisco Mitchell
since before the trial.
As for Ian, she says he’s happy - and he
looks it. Ian is a flurry of activity, and he
resembles a little linebacker. In their
apartment in an undisclosed part of the
state, he’s taken to diving down the stairs,
which Brandy doesn’t like so much.
But what she does like is where she finds
herself now that she’s sober and has pulled
free from her relationship with Richard. “It’s
like when you’re in the middle of a storm,
you can’t see anything beyond what’s going
on,” she says. “But once it stops, then I can
start to piece together my life and get things
back together, and to know what I’m
supposed to do and where I’m supposed to
go.
And yes, she expresses some trepidation
that Richard will be out of prison soon, that
something bad could potentially happen. But
she says she’s come too far to let anything -
or anyone — control her. Besides, there
might not be any trouble from Richard at all.
“I’d be living in fear for nothing,” she says.
“And why waste the happiness?”
The release
n January, he had said, upon his release,
he would consider a paternity test to
prove he’s Ian’s father, if that can help him
have joint custody. He really wants to see
his son.
But that may prove difficult. Anticipating
Richard’s release, Brandy contacted a
domestic violence advocate to set up a safety
plan. Part of the plan led her to file a
protection order against Richard, which bars
him from not only having contact with her
until June 2013, but Ian as well. Brandy says
she also plans to keep her and Ian’s
whereabouts a secret.
As far as Brandy Sweeney’s concerned,
that better life she dreamed of years ago is
here, right now. And she intends to live it
without Richard Duncan and abuse.
I
You can read all o f The gravity o f abuse on
our website, www.streetroots.org. Republished
from Real Change-News, Seattle, Wash.