street roots
July 6, 2012
ABUSE from page 9
Felony violation of a no-contact order -
domestic violence;
Assault in the second degree - domestic
violence, for intentional strangulation;
Assault in the second degree - domestic
violence, for causing substantial bodily harm;
Felony harassment - domestic violence;
Plus three domestic violence aggravators,
mitigating factors that could affect the length
of a sentence.
Even with the charges, Judge Yu said the
state bore the burden of proving Richard’s
guilt. “The presumption of innocence is
real,” she said.
The prospective jurors then went through
a process called voir dire, during which
defense counsel and the prosecutor
questioned prospective jurors on their
backgrounds and any potential prejudices
that could impact their decision-making if
chosen to sit on the jury. A dozen
prospective jurors from the pool were
excused before the court adjourned. Richard
returned to his cell.
Day 2
esday, June 7, 2011
As voir dire continued, more
prospective jurors were excused, with others
restocking the pool. Sometime after noon, 13
jurors — five men, eight women — were
sworn in and impaneled, one serving as an
alternate. The court broke for lunch.
Before the jury returned, the defense
team made a motion for a mistrial because a
juror had commented that Richard’s bald
head and tattoos indicated he was a
skinhead. Judge Yu, finding the jury hadn’t
been tainted, denied the motion. Richard sat
still.
After opening statements, the first
witnessed testified.
DPA Hershkowitz asked a radiologist what
Brandy’s being "choked” meant. Hands were
placed around her neck, and pressure was
placed there, the radiologist replied.
Defense attorney Matthew Pang asked the
radiologist to confirm that strangulation
wasn’t a diagnosis when Brandy visited the
ER after the assault. “That is correct,” the
radiologist said.
When the Renton police officer who had
responded to Brandy’s 911 assault call from
November 2009 took the stand, DPA
Hershkowitz asked about Brandy’s demeanor
that night. “She was crying, she was shaking,
she was having a hard time talking,” the
officer said.
Following a cross examination, the court
adjourned for the day.
T
Day 3
ednesday, June 8, 2011
As an officer who arrested Richard
testified, Brandy waited in the hallway
outside the courtroom. Terrified at seeing
Richard again, she wondered whether
testifying against him was the right thing to
do. His freedom was at stake. But then
again, so was her safety.
Her domestic violence advocate — there,
along with Brandy’s friend, Karen Ciruli —
had told Brandy that her mix of emotions,
after months of being controlled in a
relationship with someone she cared about,
was natural. But she had warned Brandy
that, in court, her character would be
brought into question. Brandy wondered:
What would they say?
The courtroom door swung open. It was
Brandy’s turn.
Brandy took the stand at 10:10 a.m. She
hadn’t seen Richard since the assault, more
than 13 months before, and from her seat
facing him, she couldn’t believe her eyes:
“He looked like crap,” she recalls. She found
it hard to look at him, but DPA Hershkowitz
asked her to identify Richard, for the record.
She pointed. “He’s got, um, a gray shirt.”
Hershkowitz asked her what she had found
appealing about Richard when they met. She
said that he was nice, sweet; he really cared
what happened to her.
Answering questions from the prosecutor,
W
Brandy detailed the August 2009 assault
when she was eight months pregnant, her
speech broken by crying. Because of that
misdemeanor assault, Richard had been
arrested, and the court had enacted a
no-contact order, barring Richard from
seeing her. But when he got out of work
release, Richard moved in with her and the
two-month-old Ian in Renton. DPA
Hershkowitz asked Brandy her thoughts
about Richard before that happened.
“I didn’t want Ian not to have his dad, you
know, um, and I started to, like —” Brandy
began to cry, “— miss him, and I didn’t — I
just wanted to be with him, you know.”
“Was Ian born while the defendant was
away?” the prosecutor asked.
“Yeah.”
“How did that make you feel?
“Really bad.” Brandy sobbed, unable to
stop.
“How soon after he got out - Do you want
a moment?” DPA Hershkowitz asked. “Your
honor, may we take a break?”
“Yeah,” said Judge Yu. “Members of the
"B ra n d y what did lie te ll you
to convince yew to come? to
have I II» come back?"
Brandy coaldnrt control her
tears. "la s t that he loved
and he was sorr> and ho
would never let —"
"D id yon believe him this
t im e r D P I Her sh ko w iti
ashed,
" I believe him every tIm e /F
Brandy said,
jury, let’s take a very brief recess. Please
rise.”
Brandy had been on the stand 16 minutes.
When the court reconvened, Brandy
explained that she had wanted to give her
relationship with Richard a shot, to believe
he wanted to be with her and Ian. But saying
that, with Richard watching, made her more
nervous. She tried not to look at him.
She told the court how she and Richard
would drink and yell, that things would
become violent so fast. Maybe she would
throw something at him, try to hit him,
Brandy said, but she wasn’t as strong as he
was. The more the story of their relationship
came out and the more she described her
torn emotions, the more she cried.
“Do you still love Mr. Duncan?” DPA
Hershkowitz asked. “Do you still want him in
your life?”
“I can’t,” Brandy said, “can’t have him in
my life.” She continued crying.
“Why can’t you?”
The tears flowed. “We can’t. We don’t get
along. We, we can’t, we just can’t.” More
tears. “It’s not a good thing.”
“Brandy, what did he tell you to convince
you to come, to have him come back?”
Brandy couldn’t control her tears. “Just
that he loved me, and he was sorry, and he
would never let —”
“Did you believe him this time?” DPA
Hershkowitz asked.
“I believe him every time,” Brandy said.
Yet even with that belief, Brandy said she
tired of feeling unappreciated, unloved in the
relationship.
The prosecutor asked her to describe the
April 2010 assault. She struggled to say,
definitively, how long Richard’s hands had
been around her throat, how much pressure
he’d applied. As for the punches: “It’s really
scary,” she said. “But it, like, it doesn’t really
hurt, though, when it’s happening. That’s the
good thing.”
The state had entered 23 exhibits into
evidence, including photographs that police
officers had taken of Brandy after the
assault. DPA Hershkowitz brought her down
from the stand to examine the photos, to
state for the court who caused the bruises,
the bloody lip, the scratch on her neck,
allegedly from being choked. Her voice
cracked. DPA Hershkowitz asked Brandy to
speak up. She did: “Richard.”
The court broke for lunch. Brandy had
testified for 97 minutes.
After lunch, Brandy described how
thankful she was Francisco had walked in
during the assault, and she described calling
911. DPA Hershkowitz asked what residual
effects she’d experienced. Seeing bruises
that lasted for weeks was a continuous
reminder, she told the court. But there was
another effect: “Emotional pain.”
Then Richard’s defense team started its
cross examination. Alison Warden and
Brandy exchanged a “Good afternoon,
Brandy” and a “Hello.” Then Warden showed
pictures of bite marks on Richard’s arm. She
asked Brandy if she bit him. Brandy said she
couldn’t say for sure.
“Would there have been times where
you’ve initiated a punch against Mr.
Duncan?” Warden asked.
“Correct,” Brandy said.
“Or a slap against Mr. Duncan?”
“That’s correct.”
“Throwing something at Mr. Duncan?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“And biting Mr. Duncan?” Warden asked.
“That was a defensive move, ma’am,”
Brandy said.
Defense counsel Warden continued. Did
Brandy take Richard back because she hoped
he could contain his anger? “Yes, ma’am.”
Did Brandy help him get into work
release? “Yeah.”
Did Brandy say mean things when she
drank? “Yup.”
Did the fighting always end when Brandy
said, Stop? “I don’t
Brandy sighed.
Warden told her that’s what she’d testified
to earlier.
Brandy started to feel badgered by the line
of questioning. “They kind of make it to be
your fault,” she remembers. On the stand,
she prayed.
Karen Ciruli, seated in the gallery, had
never attended a trial before, and she found
the process cold. “It was hard sitting there
knowing that she had gone through those
things,” Karen remembers, “and that she
wasn’t being believed.” Karen wanted to nod
to Brandy, to encourage her, but she had
been warned not to: It could be perceived as
coaching the witness.
Richard, sitting at the defense table, didn’t
heed such warnings. As Brandy answered
questions, Richard caught her eye. Then he
whispered, You’re doing a good job.
“That, I thought, was just a psychological
move,” Brandy recalls.
Warden’s questions kept coming. She
asked Brandy whether Richard, on the night
of the April assault, had rebuffed Brandy’s
attempts to discuss her emotions.
“Ma’am, he never wanted to talk to me,”
Brandy said.
“And on this incident he didn’t want to
talk about it?”
“No, ma’am.”
“But you kept going with him, right?”
Warden asked.
“Yeah, I made him hit me, too.”
Judge Yu struck the gavel.
“I never suggested that,” Warden said.
“I’m just asking if you kept going verbally
with him.”
“You know, I, um
Brandy took a sip of
water. “You’ve got to, got to give me a
minute, OK?”
After 10 more minutes of pointed
questioning, Brandy asked for a break.
Following the short recess, Brandy made it
through a final barrage of questions. She left
the stand, exhausted, glad to be done. But
she was shaken.
Brandy’s testimony had lasted more than
two hours and 40 minutes.
Next, the state called Francisco Mitchell,
who had been Brandy and Richard’s
roommate. DPA Hershkowitz directed
Francisco’s attention to the evening of April
29, 2010. Francisco, who had been out at a
bar, said when he came home he heard
Brandy screaming from the apartment. “I
think she was saying, ‘Get off me, get off
me.’”
After opening the door, Francisco said he
saw Brandy lying on the floor. DPA
Hershkowitz asked if he saw Brandy get
strangled? “No.” But the room was messed
up, with desk drawers on the floor. “You can
see the signs of a struggle.” He said he found
a broken cell phone the next day in the
kitchen.
Hershkowitz asked Francisco about
Richard. “You don’t want to see anything bad
happen to him?”
“No,” said Francisco.
Warden began cross examination. She
asked Francisco if he’d seen Richard’s hands
around Brandy’s neck. “No.” She asked if
there was a landline that Brandy could have
used to place a call. “Yes.” But since Warden
didn’t ask if it was a working landline,
Francisco didn’t mention the landline had no
phone service.
“I think that’s all I have,” said Warden.
After 32 minutes, Francisco stepped down
from the stand.
Shortly after, the court adjourned for the
day.
Day 4
hursday, June 9, 2011
The court heard testimony from a
medical examiner, an emergency room social
worker, an officer who had helped arrest
Richard and then a second doctor. Since the
superior court only hears cases Monday
through Thursday, the court adjourned for
the weekend.
T
Day 5
onday, June 13, 2011
Early in the morning, the defense
called Richard to the stand. He’d never
testified in his own defense. A screw up could
amount to a life sentence.
Once Richard was sworn in, defense
attorney Matthew Pang questioned Richard
about his relationship with Brandy. Richard
detailed their violent past, which led Pang to
ask about April 29.
Richard said he and Brandy had gone to a
M
See ABUSE, page 11