Уильям Макгиверн - Summitt

“I’m not exactly sure. Close to full time.”

“Which means a twelve- or fourteen-hour day?”

“You’d have to check my office for those specifics.”

“You are staying at the DuPont Hotel in Wilmington, Delaware?”

“Yes, I am.”

“In a suite?”

“Yes — I need a sitting room for reading and writing, dictating notes and so forth.”

“A chauffeured limousine brings you from your hotel suite to the courtroom each morning?”

“Yes, it does, but—”

“And returns you in the evening?”

“Yes.”

“And these expenses, the hotel suite, all meals and gratuities, the chauffeured limousine — these are paid for by the attorneys who represent the accused?”

Davic stood. “I object, Your Honor. These questions are obviously designed to exaggerate the plain fact that expert witnesses are in heavy demand and are paid accordingly. There’s nothing unusual or culpable in such arrangements.”

“Your Honor,” Brett said, “I think it’s only fair that the jury be given a clear picture of these financial arrangements. Nothing in my questions has suggested that they are unusual or culpable. Those are Mr. Davic’s words.”

“Your Honor,” Davic protested, “I just denied that such payments were unusual or culpable.”

Judge Flood then said, “Since you first used those terms, Mr. Davic, the court cannot hold People’s counsel responsible for repeating them.”

“Thank you, Your Honor... Dr. Clemens, isn’t it true that while your fee is one hundred dollars an hour, you will not accept commitments at that rate unless they are computed on a weekly basis?”

“That’s generally true, I believe.” The doctor crossed his legs. “But circumstances vary, as I’ve pointed out. In any case, these matters are handled by my office...”

“I can understand the demands on your time, Doctor, but isn’t it a fact that you are being paid for a full two months for your testimony in this trial?”

“That may be true, yes... but I’m at a loss to understand your persistence. You must be aware that flexible fees and schedules are of necessity standard—”

“And you have earned on your flexible schedule — if my arithmetic is correct — only three hundred dollars in professional fees for talking directly to the plaintiff, Shana Selby, for three hours. Is that right, Doctor?”

“Your arithmetic is fine, Miss Brett. Three times one hundred is three hundred.”

“But in another phase of this flexible schedule, Dr. Clemens, you will receive close to seventy-five thousand dollars. Is that correct?”

“Yes, for many days of preparation, for additional extensive reading in recent studies in adolescent sexual psychology, for the time I need to analyze and confirm my impressions of the plaintiff, to modify those concepts, and to refine my definitions and evaluate any possible ambiguities. Yes, I’m paid extra for those contributions.”

“The suite at the DuPont Hotel at two hundred and sixty dollars per night, is that also one of the extras? All of your expenses for two months, in fact?”

Davic objected angrily. “Your Honor, this line of inquiry is trivial and irrelevant. People’s counsel knows the cost of services of expert witnesses has escalated in the last few years in just about direct proportion to the number of unmerited rape cases that have recently burdened our judiciary system, thanks in part to so much publicity from well-meaning women’s groups who—”

“Your Honor!” Brett stared at Davic. Someone in the rear of the crowded gallery began clapping. A stir of laughter, and Judge Flood sounded his gavel. “Now, Miss Brett, I think you have made your point in regard to the remuneration of the witness. Please move on.”

Brett inclined her head to the bench and turned back to the witness. “Dr. Clemens, you testified that the plaintiff, Shana Selby, was especially troubled by the death of her mother — damaged, you said — because the loss occurred just before the onset of Shana’s own sexual maturity. Are you saying that Shana was compelled to seek out a sexual experience — even if it meant being tortured and raped to get it — because her mother died? ”

“I believe my testimony is quite clear and explicit on that point.”

“I disagree. I find your testimony both obscure and diffuse.”

“With all respect,” the doctor replied, “you may not have the qualifications in psychiatry or medicine to support your differing views.”

“Perhaps... Dr. Clemens, did Shana Selby tell you she wanted and needed intimate relationships after her mother’s death?”

“No... not explicitly—”

“Did she suggest that she was eager for such relationships no matter how violent or dangerous they might be?”

“Not in so many words—”

“Did Shana imply that she was compelled to find partners for violent and dangerous sexual activity?”

Dr. Clemens cleared his throat. “Not in such vivid terms.”

“Then would you please tell the court how you knew with such accuracy what this fourteen-year-old child was thinking and feeling? How, in short, you reached the conclusions you testified to?”

“My conclusions, please remember, embody a class of sexually pathological females, not necessarily one specific individual—”

“But you weren’t hired for seventy-five thousand dollars to examine a class of sexual psychopaths, were you? You were hired to examine one teenaged girl, Shana Selby, which you did, for the fee of three hundred dollars. Now I’d like to know, and I’m sure the jury wants to know, exactly what scholarly qualifications you employed to refine and localize your general observations so that they applied precisely and exactly to the plaintiff, Shana Selby. Just how did you go about that, Doctor?”

“I’m a psychiatrist. My adult life has been spent in the field. You have to understand that what isn’t said by a patient is frequently more revealing to the professional observer than those things that are said.”

“Are you telling us, Dr. Clemens, that your conclusions are based on what Shana Selby didn’t tell you?”

“The significance of inferential information is an accepted fact, and is widely used as an aid in many areas of psychiatric interpretation.”

“Then it’s true, isn’t it, that some of your conclusions are based on your own inferences — not on things that Shana Selby said to you?”

“Yes... that’s true—”

“You analyzed her silences . Is that it?”

“That is only partially it.”

“Did you also analyze Shana’s body language, Doctor? Her so-called victim-signals? Her clothing and shoes for evidence of potential collusion?”

Davic came around the table, glaring at Brett. “I object, Your Honor. This litany of questions is rhetorical and derisive. It is insulting.”

Judge Flood rapped his gavel. “Mr. Davic, there’s some validity to your objection, but I have allowed Dr. Clemens a deliberate leeway in his testimony. This is a consideration a court does well to extend to expert witnesses. We shouldn’t inhibit scholars with procedure. The doctor has, as an expert witness, made certain charges by inference against the plaintiff s emotional balance. In fairness, I will allow Miss Brett to protect the People’s interest with a correspondingly extensive and flexible inquiry.” He tapped his gavel a second time. “The People will proceed.”

After collecting her thoughts, Brett said, “Dr. Clemens, I’d like you to explain what you meant when you stated that damaged females often sublimated their sexual drives into safe areas. And then tell us how you concluded Shana had retreated into such an unrealistic sanctuary?”