James Grippando - Hear No Evil

Lindsey appeared somewhat nervous, which was to be expected, but it didn’t prevent her from capturing exactly the right look. Jack and Sofia had choreographed her image right down to the tiny American flag on the lapel of her navy blue business suit. Sofia had helped with her hair in the rest room, a conservative twist suitable for a single mother. They didn’t want to overdo it with a too-traditional, Laura Ashley-inspired matronly look-that just wasn’t Lindsey-but Jack had definite guidelines. Two-inch heels or less. No cleavage. No flashy jewelry; pearls preferred. Easy on the makeup. Tell the truth.

That last one was his only remaining worry.

“Good morning,” said Jack. “Would you please introduce yourself to the jury?”

“My name is Lindsey Hart. I was married for twelve years to Captain Oscar Pintado, United States Marine Corps.”

“Did you and Captain Pintado have any children?”

“We were unable to conceive, so we adopted a baby boy. Brian is ten years old now.”

“Would you say you were a happy family?”

She hesitated, considering it. “We were at one time. For several years, yes, we were very happy.”

“When did things start to change?”

“When Oscar was transferred to the naval station at Guantánamo. About four years ago.”

“What was it about Guantánamo that had such a negative impact on your family?”

“I don’t think it was anything specific about Guantánamo. Oscar simply started to change.”

“How so?”

“Brian and I seemed to become less important to him.”

“Was there something or someone else who became more important?”

“His friends, I would say.”

“Any friend in particular?”

“Lieutenant Damont Johnson. He was with the Coast Guard. He was Oscar’s best friend.”

“Did you get along with Lieutenant Johnson?”

She averted her eyes. “No. Not in the least.”

“Ms. Hart, you’ve heard testimony about a possible relationship you may have had with your husband’s best friend. Did you have any kind of relationship with Lieutenant Johnson?”

“Yes.”

Jack softened his tone, but it didn’t make the question any easier. “Was that relationship sexual in nature?”

“It was entirely sexual.”

That raised a few eyebrows, including the judge’s. Jack asked, “How long did this relationship go on?”

“Over a six-month period, I’d say.”

“During that period, how often did you have sex with Lieutenant Johnson?”

She lowered her eyes and said, “As often as Oscar told me to.”

If jaw-droppings could make a sound, there would have been a cacophony from the gallery of spectators. Jack let the answer settle upon the jurors, then said, “Tell us about the first time you and Lieutenant Johnson had sex.”

“I’ve never had any recollection of it.”

“You mean you’ve forgotten it?”

“Not in the sense that I once remembered and have now forgotten it. From the day it happened, I’ve never had any memory of it.”

“Were you conscious when it happened?”

“No. I had been drugged.”

“How do you know it occurred?”

“I know my body. I know when I’ve had sex. And if there was any doubt, Oscar showed me the photographs he took.”

“Photographs of you and Lieutenant Johnson having sex?”

“Yes.”

Again, Jack paused. The packed courtroom seemed to take a collective breath. Jack said, “You say you were drugged. How do you know you were drugged?”

“Because one moment I was feeling fine. Then Oscar brought me a glass of wine. I drank just half of it, and I’d never felt like that before. Dizzy, disoriented. Then I passed out. When I woke up, my body felt so strange. The only thing I can compare it to is when I had my appendix out and I came to after the anesthesia. And then…”

“Then what?”

“Then Oscar showed me the photographs.”

“The ones of you and his friend having sex?”

Her eyes were beginning to well. Her voice shook as she said, “Yes.”

Jack gave her a moment to compose herself. “Do you know who gave you the drug?”

“I assume it was-”

“Objection. The witness is clearly speculating.”

“Sustained.”

Jack asked, “Did you drug yourself?”

“No.”

“So someone else gave it to you?”

“Clearly.”

“Do you know what kind of drug it was?”

“No. I don’t.”

“Getting back these photographs of you and Lieutenant Johnson, when your husband showed you those photographs, was Lieutenant Johnson with him?”

“No. It was just Oscar and me.”

“Do you know who took the photographs?”

“All I can say is that when Oscar showed them to me, they were still on his digital camera. They weren’t developed or printed out. He brought them up electronically on the LCD display.”

“How did that make you feel, when you saw those photographs?”

Her eyes clouded over, and she reached for a tissue. “I was drugged and violated by my husband’s best friend. And my husband took photographs. How do you think it made me feel?”

He gave her more time. “I’m sorry I have to ask these questions,” said Jack. “Just a few more on this. Do you know what happened to those digital photographs?”

“No. Lord knows I searched the house for that camera. I wanted to destroy the images. But I never did find anything.”

“Before this happened, would you describe your sexual relationship with your husband as normal?”

“No,” she said, her voice quaking.

“I’m not prying for too much detail, but I have to ask this. What about it was not normal?”

She pulled herself together, took a breath. “After we were unable to conceive, Oscar took it as a blow to his manhood. It was a slow process, but he never really recovered. It was so irrational.” She paused as if searching for strength to continue. “I felt so much anger coming from him every time we were intimate. It was a perversion of the Marine mentality, that if you suck it up and try harder, you’ll succeed. But finally he had to accept that there was something wrong. We weren’t going to have our own child. And like I say, that realization was a real blow to him. As time went on-I’m talking years, now-it became more and more difficult for him to…perform.”

“When this incident with Lieutenant Johnson took place, did you have any sexual relationship at all with your husband?”

“No,” she said, staring down into her tissue. “Unless you call hiding in the closet and snapping photographs of your wife with another man a ‘relationship.’ ”

“What did your husband do with these photographs?”

“He kept them.”

“Do you know why?”

“He told me that-”

“Objection,” said Torres. “We’re getting into hearsay.”

Jack said, “Judge, the testimony is offered simply to prove that the witness felt threatened. It’s not offered to prove the truth of the matter asserted.”

The judge made a face. He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed when it came to evidentiary matters such as hearsay, and Jack had given him just enough to scare him away from excluding the testimony. “Overruled. The witness may answer.”

Lindsey said, “Oscar told me that if I didn’t continue to have sex with Lieutenant Johnson, he would divorce me and use the photographs to take Brian away from me. Prove I was an unfit mother, having sex with another man in my own bedroom while my deaf child slept in the next room.”

“But the photographs showed that you were unconscious, didn’t they?”

“It was hard to tell in the photographs. Lots of women close their eyes at some point while having sex.”

“So what did you do?”