Posted on 12/05/2006 3:09:34 AM PST by Yaelle
LONG BEACH - Attorneys for the black youths accused in the Halloween beating of three young white women hammered at a witness' ability to identify the minors Monday, focusing on her admission that she couldn't recall any of the suspects' facial features and pointing out inconsistencies between her testimony and police reports.
It was the 18-year-old witness' fourth day on the stand at the Long Beach Superior Courthouse. She was given a break from testifying Friday in the trial - or adjudication as it is called in juvenile court.
The black teen - who the Press-Telegram decided not to identify due to charges of witness intimidation by the police and prosecutor - was questioned by six of 10 defense attorneys Monday and appeared weary by the end of the approximately three-hour session.
Three of the attorneys asked the witness if she could identify their clients as participants in the attack.
The witness - who testified last week that all 10 minors were involved in the attack - said Monday she could not identify their clients and that she did not recognize any of the minors in court Monday.
She said that she was able to identify at least two people - by their clothing and hairstyles - shortly Advertisement after the attack when police took her to a field lineup held in a parking lot where the minors were arrested.
Last week, Deputy District Attorney Andrea Bouas asked the witness to identify as many defendants in court as possible. She had shown the witness photos of the 10 minors taken during the field lineup, then asked her to identify them.
When the witness matched the wrong girl to one of the lineup photos, defense attorneys seized on the mistake. The seating order of the minors was changed, despite Superior Court Judge Gibson Lee's instructions not to move them.
During the start of cross examination last week, the witness explained that the mistake was due to her blocked view - she could not see all of the minors in the crowded courtroom.
Defense lawyers returned to the issue Monday, continuing their efforts to establish reasonable doubt about the witness recollections.
Several of the lawyers asked the witness if anyone in the crowd had called her vulgar names. Attorney Darrell Goss cited a police report - taken with the witness on Nov. 16 - in which the officer wrote that she recalled someone saying, "Whassup b----?"
Reading from the report, Goss said the officer also noted the witness had tried to flee but was blocked by the group of youths who attacked the three victims - two 19-year-olds and a 21-year-old.
"Did you tell Officer Neal that `I didn't leave because my car was blocked...?,"' Goss asked.
"No," the witness said.
Relatives of the accused minors seemed upset when the witness testified she had identified one minor by her T-shirt, then noticed later that three girls were wearing the same shirt, which read "I love Halloween."
"`She was punching the girl in the face who got hit in the face with the skateboard and she banged her head into the tree,"' Attorney Frank Williams Jr. read from a police report taken the night of the attack.
The report was attached to a photo of a minor wearing one of the Halloween T-shirts. The witness said that the information in the report was an officer's written summary of what she told police that night.
Several of the minors' relatives began their afternoon outside the courtroom Monday with a group prayer.
The families reacted loudly when the witness said it was possible there were other youths there that night who could have worn the same clothing and hairstyles she used to identify the minors in a lineup.
Another ripple went through the minors' relatives when the witness said she could not recall what her younger sister or friend wore that day.
Both her sister and her friend were with the witness at the time of the attack, as well as her 1-year-old son.
She said that she had spent the better part of the day with her sister and about 90 minutes with her friend.
Her sister changes throughout the day, the witness explained when asked why she couldn't recall their outfits but gave specific descriptions about the clothing worn by several minors during the attack.
The witness also said she wasn't concentrating on what her little sister and her friend wore, in part because they didn't dress up for the holiday. Only her 1-year-old son, she said, was in a costume, dressed as a little devil.
The 10 minors - nine girls and one boy aged 12 to 17 - are charged with three felony counts of assault with the intent to cause great bodily injury. A hate-crime enhancement was leveled against eight of the 10.
In addition to the 10, two 17-year-old Long Beach boys arrested several days after the incident have been charged with the same three felony counts and the hate-crime enhancement. They are pending adjudication.
All the youths have been in custody, scattered among the county's three juvenile halls, since their arrests.
The hate-crime enhancement stems from witness and victim accounts that many in the group yelled racial slurs as they attacked the three victims.
The 18-year-old witness testified Monday that she heard one male yell out, "F--- white people," before the three victims were attacked by a crowd of about 30 people.
All the victims suffered bruises and scrapes. Two victims had concussions and one suffered a dozen fractures on one side of her face - injuries that could permanently damage her eyesight.
Huge crowds of trick-or-treaters went to the neighborhood on the holiday for its lavish Halloween treats and displays, including a haunted house set up at one home on the 3800 block of Linden Avenue.
On Monday, the witness also testified that two red cars left the scene of the beating once the attack had stopped. She said one male and four females left in a red Ford Mustang and that another five females fled in another red car, possibly a Nissan.
Asked by one attorney if she counted the number of youths in each car, the witness said no, adding that she knew five people would fit in each car and that 10 youths were arrested by police.
"It's common sense," she said.
One attorney after another asked the witness to describe where exactly she was at various points of the attack, scrutinizing her descriptions of the neighborhood and asking her to gauge the visibility in the Bixby Knolls neighborhood at night.
She was asked to estimate distances between herself and the crowds and between the three victims, who she said were surrounded by groups of eight to 10 youths, mostly girls. They also repeatedly asked her to estimate how long the incident lasted.
At the end of the day, an aunt of one of the victims walked silently out of the courtroom holding up a sign.
It read, "This is why people don't come forward."
The witness is expected to return to court for further cross examination today.
Tracy Manzer can be reached at tracy.manzer@presstelegram.com or (562) 499-1261.
Local L.A. conservative talk-radio host John Ziegler went to the trial today and said that it appears to him that all of the lawyers for these vicious perps are higher powered. He said they did not seem to be public defenders, any of them. I have no idea whether that's true or not but he said it on KFI AM radio. He thought it would be a miracle if they could get a conviction the way they are manhandling the poor eyewitness.
Things that make you go hmmm. And make me so disgusted.
For later.
As a father I hold to the following: The justice system gets one opportunity to work. If that fails it my duty as a father to right the wrong done to my family. If that means I will quietly and clandestinely hunt down the perp(s). They will get what is coming to them. No law, no police, no lawyer can really stop an angry father intent on payback after the justice system has failed. That is why the justice system should NEVER fail....no matter how well paid or how sleazy the defense lawyer is.
Ping to witness grilling at the Long Beach hate crime trial.
They're going to walk.
The black race-baiting machine has cranked up the legal defense for these monsters.
Why has the American Judicial System failed? Yes, I have read my tea leaves and these 10 criminals will escape punishment, again.
But. Lets go back to my question.
IMHO there are some very simple reasons why it has failed and how it can be corrected.
The Judicial System used to be dominated by conservatives who dealt with reality. Now it is dominated by liberals who deal only in theory.
The conservative holds the individual responsible and realizes he/she is working in a flawed system designed, built, and maintained by humans. Therefore there will be problems and errors. He/she tries very hard to minimize these mistakes. The greater the penalty the harder they work. The liberal holds that the holy judicial system, handed to them by a god (of some type) must never make a mistake (zero tolerance). Therefore, no one can be held responsible for anything because by doing so the holy judicial system might make a mistake. And, gods can never be allowed to make mistakes - thats why they are gods.
How to correct this problem? Make one new law and enforce it. Every judge and lawyer will be held, to a very small degree (1% for lawyers and 1/10th % for judges (greater exposure dont you know)) for the future behavior of people brought into the judicial system.
IMHO that is where the system started to fail - the major participants were no longer held responsible for their performances within the system. No pain for making a mistake? So, why should I worry about making a mistake and turning lose a serial criminal?
BTW - your attitude is correct. What the players in the holy judicial system dont want the rest of us to realize is there is a contract between us and them. For a reasonable expectation of removing the criminals from our immediate lives we will not take an active part in their punishment. That social contract has been broken by the players in the holy judicial system. And now they are beginning to run scared - how else do you explain the new concept of judicial independence - which means no one can ever question why a judge (or their juvenal form - aka lawyer) ever does about anything.
Silly Wabbit...there is no such thing as a minority on white hate crime! (sarc/off)
I wish I was on the jury.
Marked for morning.
bump
You nailed it!
The victims are being victimised again by the shyster lawyers. These blacks will walk, it doesnt take a crystal ball to see that. They will be out stomping someone else before too long. Its isnt easy when you are on the ground being stomped to death to be able to look up and recognise those doing the stomping. The people who raised these animals are as guilty as the animals themselves. They are the fountain that this hatred flows from.
Domnt expect any justice here,it will not be forthcoming.
One day they will be judged by the Almighty,hopefully He keeps good records and judges the lawyers too.
I am scared of just that (them all walking). That justice was thrown a bone (their hate crime charges) and that perhaps Jesse et al IS THERE monetarily some way and that racism will be used to tell a boatload of young blacks that their evil behavior is OK because of their race.
Well said.
Dozens of dark thugs in maybe festive clothing, including hoods, on a dark street, beating up innocents. Well, well, who can be perfect at identification in THAT condition? Might as well give up and let them beat people nearly to death and rip their earrings through their flesh.
The suspects will probably sue the victims.
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