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Jurisprudence 2012 - Jennifer's Story (part 1)
Two things to note before we get started: first, you can follow along with the whole story (albeit in reverse order, go read the last entry first) here, which will include any newer entries at the top.
Second: this entry includes descriptions of prostitution, and other upsetting topics. Our defendant was not sitting in court because he was a nice man.
This is Jennifer's story.
Jennifer met Matt, the defendant, after doing solo online ads on Backpage, a website that caters to escorts (and by extension, prostitutes). She'd also worked for/dated Bob, another pimp. Once he had snared her, Matt crowed to a friend about snagging a blond girl.
Jennifer's testimony was, like the other prostitutes we heard from, occasionally inconsistent, particularly on small details. She would change her story literally minute-by-minute, and although I took notes after each day's testimony, I couldn't remember all of it. I'll probably get bits and pieces of this story wrong, although the arc of the story will probably be with me for a long time.
Jennifer had been working for Matt for a number of months, and wanted to get free of him. He had left for Tennessee for a funeral, and Jennifer was "pretty sure he knew" that she had broken free of him, based on phone conversations they had. She never told him, "I'm not working for you any more," or any variation on that theme at any point. But she thought he understood that that was her intention.
In the first incident, Jennifer thought that Matt was still in Tennessee. She had gone to the Auburn Supermall to meet up with a friend, Kenny, and buy a phone from him. It was a Blackberry, and she didn't yet have the unlock code for it. That evening, with Rose (a fellow prostitute), she went to the Red Roof Inn to meet with dates arranged via Backpage.
Both young women were extremely surprised when, entering an elevator up to their room, they spotted Matt outside, in the parking garage. This was an elevator shaft in the middle of an L-shaped building, far from the office. Rose escaped into the elevator, but Jennifer ended up talking to Matt briefly, then went back up to her room. Unbeknownst to Jennifer, Kenny was a good friend of Matt's, and (although this was never stated in court, it seemed clear) he had told Matt where to find her.
Some time later, perhaps a few hours, Matt called Jennifer up and said he was parked outside, and asked if she would come out and talk with him. She did, thinking this would be a good way to bring the relationship to a close. It didn't work quite like she hoped: he tried to convince her to come back and keep working for him, and wouldn't be dissuaded. Finally, she gave up, and got out of the car. Possibly there was a quick trip up to the room, but she and Rose decided to leave the scene rather than stick around to see what happened.
They got into Jennifer's car, but before they could leave, Matt came over and grabbed some key items from them: cell phones, wallets, car keys, room keys, money. He took stuff from Jennifer, but also from Rose (more on Rose later). Robbed of their ability to start the car and drive away, Jennifer and Rose got out and went for a walk: anything to get out of there. It was clear that Matt wasn't going to give their stuff back. They also tried calling Kenny, who showed up quickly, but took Matt's side in the argument.
There was a fair amount of confusion around the subject of phones. Matt had definitely taken one or more phones, but Jennifer had at least two phones on her at the time: her old one, which was working, and the new one from Kenny, which wasn't working. Matt probably took the new one, but that story was never clear, and anytime she made a committment one way or the other, she'd contradict herself a short while later.
Once they'd gotten away from the Red Roof Inn, they used Rose's phone to call Bob, Jennifer's old pimp and friend, to see if he could come help get their stuff back from Matt. They were out for an hour or two, and had also stopped into the office to see if they could get replacement room keys. No dice there: the room was in a client's name (room in exchange for services rendered). Finally, lacking other options, they went back. During this time, there were several calls to Bob trying to get him to show up. It would take him until 1 in the morning to arrive.
When Bob did finally arrive, he did so in the company of three of his finest friends, one of whom was armed with a pistol, and he was intent on showing Matt a thing or two. They faced off in the parking garage (outside the sight of any of the video cameras), and Matt received the beat-down of his life. Finest Friend #2, with the gun, kept him covered while Bob and the Finest Friends belabored him about the head and shoulders and retrieved the missing items belonging to the girls, helping themselves to any extra cash Matt may have had, as well as his sneakers in a humiliating final flourish.
Somewhere in all this mess, Nancy, Matt's girlfriend (and future wife) showed up, and attacked Jennifer and Rose with harpy-like vigor, challenging them both to fight, screaming, berating Matt, and generally making a scene. I wouldn't go so far as to say that Nancy was playing the part of Lady Macbeth to Matt's Macbeth, but that's only because Matt was far more culpable and intentional than poor, harrassed Macbeth ever was.
One of the video segments we watched was of Matt wandering away from the parking garage, looking a bit dazed, and apparently wearing no shoes (he had bright white shoes and bright white socks; the difference on video was too slight for me to see, but Jennifer assured us he was shoeless in that shot).
The conclusion of this particular episode was, after Jennifer and Rose had had all their possessions returned to them, and Matt was off fighting with Nancy somewhere, thus: Jennifer drove to the parking lot exit nearest to Matt's parked car, pulled out a huge stick, and proceeded to smash the bejeezus out of his windshield.
All of this, of course, was related in questions and answers, in video footage (some of it interpreted by Jennifer, using it to refresh her memory of the night), and endlessly frustrating slow-talk technophobia by the Elf, the defense attorney. He continued his habit of asking questions with far more clauses, diversions, tangents and lack of context than are ever required in any situation. Jennifer kept answering him despite plainly not understanding the question. Colbert (the prosecuting attorney) resolutely failed to object to these questions, although I suppose there are no legal grounds for objection when the opposing lawyer is being obtuse and difficult to understand.
We heard from Jennifer in the third week of the trial, and she ended up being on the stand for more than three days. On the third day, she was visibly beaten-down, and answered most of the questions with "I don't know," and "Sure," and "I guess so," no matter what the question was (frequently contradicting herself). Occasionally she would become active again, and in those moments, her answers made sense. It was clear she was done with the process at the end, and fortunately both lawyers recognized that, and stopped bugging her.
We also heard some about her home life: she lived with her dad and brother in the Renton highlands, in a duplex. Her dad came in and testified, although he was only on the stand for about 20 minutes, during which time we learned that Jennifer would usually check in if she wasn't going to follow her normal schedule, and that during the period of the kidnapping (the subject of the next entry), she didn't check in as normal.
Coming up next, Jennifer makes the mistake of giving Matt a ride to his mom's house, and ends the day 34 hours later in protective police custody.
Posted at 12:57 permanent link category: /jurisprudence
Categories: all aviation Building a Biplane bicycle gadgets misc motorcycle theater