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Jurisprudence 2012 - Opening Arguments
(If you need to catch up: Preview and Dramatis Personae.)
Opening arguments commenced on, as you might expect, the first day of the trial. We were all settled into our chairs -- our seating order would be identical for the next five weeks, with one minor exception near the end -- and Colbert started out, detailing the story we were about to spend the next five weeks listening to.
The stories really only have one central point, which is Matt, the defendant. Then, the substories can really be broken into three parts: that of Alice, the earliest prostitute we heard from, that of Jennifer, who was the subject of the kidnapping charge, and that of Rose, who was a minor player in the drama, except for the fact that she was, actually, a minor, which makes things much worse for Matt.
The story of Alice began a year or two ago, when she started working for Matt. She started working for him willingly, and the story skips to a trip she and he took to California on a whim, about a year ago. This trip did not go very well. She thought she was Matt's girlfriend (tangentially, all three women would prove to have very dysfunctional notions of what it means to be in a relationship with someone, and there are heavy-handed doses of domestic violence mentality scattered throughout the tale). Then Matt's real girlfriend, Nancy, showed up part way through the trip -- when they'd started out, she was in jail -- and things went downhill fast. Alice was put out to walk the street everywhere they landed, and told to make money, or else. The or else part came down soon enough, and she was beaten repeatedly on the return trip.
Next up, Colbert told us about Jennifer, who was lured in to Matt's clutches through Alice, and would shortly thereafter find herself shoved into the trunk of Matt's car, where Matt repeatedly threatened to kill her, taking her down to a casino next to a river, and eventually driving her around in that trunk for over 24 hours, only to turn her out and get her turning tricks with as much speed as possible.
As it happens, these opening statements didn't necessarily bear a 100% relationship to the truth which was eventually stated in the trial, but this is what we were told at first.
The Elf's turn came up after lunch, and was surprisingly short, if not sweet. He somewhat sternly admonished us as to the nature of evidence, and what is and what is not evidence. Interestingly, his opening statement didn't have much to say about the case itself, particularly anything we might be thinking about as regards Matt's involvement in any of what was to come.
And with that, with surprisingly little ceremony, the testimony started. The state presented first, and Colbert called in his first witness. This was a police officer who is apparently one of two experts nationwide on the practices of prostitution and pimping. Luckily for everyone involved, he's based out of Kent. I would have figured that every major city would have a guy like this, but apparently not. We're just blessed with a real expert around here.
The method of extracting information from a witness, in case you're not familiar with it (and if you've watched courtroom dramas, you're probably not) is pretty straightforward. For a friendly witness (we didn't have any hostile witnesses in this trial), the attorney who called him or her is allowed to ask general questions. "What did you do at this time and place," that sort of thing. He is not allowed to lead the witness, which would be a question like, "Were you driving a green Cadillac at this time and place?" The witness is not allowed to volunteer information outside the scope of the original question, or ask questions of the attorney (although "I didn't understand," or "Could you please rephrase the question?" are allowed). In addition, there are apparently ridiculously complicated rules about hearsay, which boil down to, "You can't tell us what other people said; you can only relate direct observations." Ask a lawyer.
Then, on cross-examination (which the opposing attorney is entitled to after any direct examination), the opposing attorney may ask the witness leading questions, and generally has greater license to make mischief. Nothing like actual license to make mischief, of course, but I think it's seen as a trade-off for having to deal with a witness who may be interested in thwarting you. Suffice to say that our policeman turned pimp expert wasn't particularly batting for either team, so the confrontational style wasn't demonstrated quite yet. That comes later.
Our expert related, through a series of questions, more or less the following information: first, some terminology. The place where prostitutes walk is called the track or the blade (including the much more pedestrian the street, but I suppose no one needed to be told that). The free-spending gentlemen who pick them up are called dates or tricks, and are no longer frequently called johns. No one said it, but I think the term john is now somewhat dated, and might be what an older person would say to make themselves seem with it.
Prostitutes now get their dates primarily through two methods: online, or walking. Online, there are two major choices, which are backpage.com and tnaboard.com (no links; you wanna check 'em out, type it in yourself). Craigslist used to be a major player, but they took down their "escort" section a few years ago after a major scandal. Backpage is where you post ads, as you might post an ad on Craigslist. Tnaboard.com is more of a forum-style place, where you don't have to pay, and can have conversations and profiles, and clients can leave you reviews. There are a few other place, but those are the big ones.
Walking is much what you'd expect. The girl walks along a major arterial such as Aurora Ave N, International Blvd, and similar roads: traffic moving below 50 MPH, lots of places to pull off, usually light industrial or stripmalls. Prospective client comes up, brief chat ensues, during which time the girl tries to feel out if the fellow in the car is a cop or not (policemen do not have to tell the truth to the question, "Are you a cop?"). If the client passes muster (and I got the impression they pretty much always do), the girl gets in the car, and they head off to either a hotel, or a secluded parking lot, depending on what the date wants.
For online dates, the girl will post their phone number, along with creatively misspelled text and larger-than-life photos -- if you've ever tried to buy something on Ebay or Craigslist, you have an impression of the concept, if not the exact execution. The date calls the girl, they have a similar conversation, trying to suss out if the guy is a cop, and then arrange a time and place to meet. For these dates, the girl usually rents a room in a hotel, and not the fleabags I had always associated with hookers on Aurora. Most of the hotels we heard about were the same moderately-priced but decent places I use when I travel: Best Western, La Quinta, Ramada, etc. This hotel room would be the location for the date.
Either this guy or another of the police officers described a "big hug" the girl would give you, which would give them a chance to see if you're armed, as they moved the hug to different places where you might have a gun strapped to your body. It sounded somewhat comical in the telling, although as with everything else in this case, it's deadly serious.
The rules of the Game (aka the Life) are like something out of a particularly vicious fairy tale: if you look another pimp in the eye, or talk to another pimp, he's allowed to steal you away like a wicked fairy. You're not allowed to talk to another man than your pimp, unless it's specifically in service of setting up or transacting a date. You're not allowed to talk to other women unless you're recruiting them for your pimp. All the money, and I mean all the money goes to the pimp at the end of the night. If you need some food, or clothes, or anything else, you ask your pimp for it, and he pays for it. If you're caught holding back money for yourself, this is justifiable cause for a beating or other similar punishment. Likewise, if you're caught talking to another man who's not a client, beating or similar. Likewise for breaking any of the other rules.
Pimps have more or less three tools they use to keep their prostitutes in line: charm, threats, and violence. You can imagine the order they go in, and how quickly the relationship usually progresses. First contact will usually be very pleasant, and it's not uncommon for the girls to believe the pimp is falling in love with them, in a relationship, committed to them, and so on. Flattery and charm are the name of the game at that point, with a healthy dose of manipulation thrown in. When the charm starts wearing off, the threats come out. Should these fail, the threats are quickly fulfilled. I won't go deeply into this, because it is depressingly familiar. The same techniques are used in pretty much every domestic violence situation everywhere. Flattery, cajoling, abuse, violence, apology, repeat. The woman thinks she's in love, and if only she could change these awful things about herself, he'll come back/change/quit being an asshole. It doesn't work, of course.
He had some interesting terms, of which I only remember one, for the types of pimp. The one I remember is gorilla pimp, which is what you call a pimp who relies on violence to keep his girls in line. Matt would prove to fall under this category frequently, which is probably why I remember it.
Up next, we hear our first testimony which relates directly rather than generically to the trial.
Posted at 23:04 permanent link category: /jurisprudence
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater