Susan Polk accuses detectives of staging husband's death scene
By Lisa Sweetingham, Court TVFri Jun 2, 4:27 PM ET
MARTINEZ, Calif. (Court TV) - The cross-examination of murder defendant Susan Polk wrapped up Thursday with the prosecutor questioning Polk about her theory that detectives staged her husband's death scene to look like a murder.
"They were primarily focused on ensuring it did not look like self-defense," Polk said when she was shown photos of her 70-year-old husband Felix Polk's pale, blood-soaked body, surrounded by white numbered place markers indicating shoeprints.
Assistant district attorney Paul Sequeira put on a game face and indulged the defendant's theory.
"Well, it looks as if someone - maybe a female deputy, because they're really small shoes that fit in your shoe size range - maybe walked around the body and then walked to the bathroom. Is that how it happened?" Sequeira asked.
Polk has previously testified that she went to the bathroom to wash her face after the October 2002 altercation with her husband. But she claims she was barefoot, and she accuses investigators of moving Felix's body and pouring water on his head wound to make the scene appear bloodier.
One of her shoes was likely "dipped in blood" by investigators, she testified, and then stamped around the room.
"They either brought blood with them or diluted the blood [at the scene]," Polk said.
"I think you guys goofed," Polk said. "I mean, to put two shoe prints, right-side shoes, side-by-side - like, what, I jumped up and did a whirligig?"
Polk told jurors she "put it all together" during a brief period when she was out on bail and noticed that one of her cross-country athletic shoes was missing from her closet.
"Not only would that have been dumb luck," Sequeira went on, "but some of the prints &- you heard [defense attorney criminalist] Song Wicks testify - some of them were just partial prints!"
Polk straightened up in her chair, fluttered her eyelids and smiled.
"Yeah," she said. "You guys did a bad job."
Polk, 48, is representing herself at trial and claims her psychologist husband was mentally and physically abusive during their 30-year relationship.
On the night she stabbed him, she said Felix punched her three times, lunged at her with an ottoman, and attacked her with the paring knife before she kicked him in the groin and slipped the blade from his hands.
Polk says she sprayed Felix with pepper spray and tapped him on the head with a�Maglite, but that he continued to attack her.
Sequeira asked Polk why she destroyed evidence that evening, noting that she said she laundered and sewed her jeans, threw the pepper spray in the trash, and washed the paring knife, which could have been tested for evidence of her husband's fingerprints.
"I didn't intend to destroy exculpatory evidence," Polk said. "No one would! Unless they were investigating officers."
"You're saying it's exculpatory," Sequeira interjected.
Polk began her redirect testimony Thursday by addressing her children's damaging testimony about her.
She sobbed when she praised her son, Eli, 20, who testified on her behalf.
She said her sons�Adam, 23, and�Gabe, 19, would have to live with their decision to testify against her.
"In time, they'll have to forgive themselves for it," Polk said through tears. "I've forgiven them."
She said that her decision to wash the blade and her bloody clothes was not an attempt to hide a crime, but a part of her nature, a way to get things back to what they were.
"I worked to restore a sense of cleanliness," Polk said. "That was my purpose."
She told jurors that although her�diary, of which portions are in evidence, makes reference to her political views about�Israel, she is not anti-Semitic.
"I never said, 'I hate Jews,' and I don't hate Jews. My children are half -Jewish," she said, adding that she was Italian, British and American.
And although she had attempted to have Judge Laurel Brady removed for bias, Polk said, it was not because the judge was Jewish. She also named a Jewish reporter in the courtroom to whom she had given interviews.
She took issue with the suggestion that she "snapped" when she went to visit her husband in the poolside cottage where he was staying during the couple's nasty divorce.
"I don't snap. I'm not a snapper. I'm not somebody who snaps. But my husband was," Polk said.
Adam and Gabe have testified that their mother is delusional and openly discussed ways to kill their father.
Eli says his brothers have been brainwashed by years of abuse at their father's hands and are now part of a conspiracy to loot the family's estate.
Polk admits that she believes she has psychic predictions and that her husband was likely an agent for the Israeli Mossad. She told jurors Thursday that before her trial began, she successfully fought a court order for a psychological evaluation.
"I'm not going to play crazy. I'm not going to say I snapped when I didn't," Polk said. "And I'm not going to pretend this DA isn't out to frame me for murder and this judge's rulings are not biased, when I believe they are."
Polk's redirect testimony continues Friday. She said she hopes to rest her case by Monday.