gordonzola (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gordonzola) wrote2003-05-10 08:22 am
gordonzola) wrote2003-05-10 08:22 am
Entry tags:
Hate Crime Comedy
Just because it’s a hate crime trial, doesn’t mean there aren’t humorous moments.
When we entered the courtroom yesterday,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ilipodscril noticed an empty seat behind Jack Broughton. He sat down behind him and breathed heavily on his neck for the next 15 minutes while we awaited the preliminary trial to continue.
When it did continue, and with my friend Mariah on the stand, the defense attorney continued his fascination with words unfamiliar to him. "Yvette referred to you as ‘her girl’, can you tell me what that means?"
""Uh, it’s a term of affection. We’re friends."
Evidently the day before when Yvette was on the stand he had spent a long time trying to understand what exactly "my girl" meant. Most likely he was trying to insinuate that they were lovers, highlight the strange ways of the queers, and underline her "ghetto" phrase. During the above interaction the audience starting laughing and the judge looked annoyed.
Defense Lawyer had been working the angle that Broughton and his girlfriend had been made to feel unwelcome at the event. The day before, while questioning Yvette, he had asked her to estimate the amount of straight people, gay people, women, men etc. to the point that the judge said, "Do you think she took a survey?"
Yesterday Defense Lawyer asked Mariya, "You referred to this in your statement as a ‘queer’ event. What does that mean to you?" He stumbled on the word "queer".
Mariya, not missing a beat, said, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Others."
The defense lawyer, looking cheaper and less effective by the day, also kept confusing the names Yvette and Jean, (Jean Earl being Broughton’s girlfriend who started the incident by hitting Yvette while Broughton and Earl were being removed by bouncers for making homophobic and racist remarks and looking for trouble.) Mariya, keeping her wits about herself amazingly kept answering the actual questions. Defense Lawyer, thinking he had gotten her to contradict herself would pounce on it, only to be reminded by the judge or DA that he had mixed up the names. Again
But my favorite part was when the defense lawyer asked some confusing question and Mariya asked him to rephrase it. He just kept switching it around in confusing ways until Mariya finally said, "You know, I’m a literature major at State and you keep using a double negative which makes me unsure of how to answer the question. Can you rephrase it without a double negative?"
The DA chuckled and even the judge smirked. Most of the cross examination dealt with such groundbreaking information such as, "In your statement you said you were three feet from the door. Couldn’t it have been five feet?" The defense attorney skipped by the part where Broughton stood above Yvette, already likely unconscious, kicking her and calling her "faggot and/or "dyke"
The Judge ruled that all charges would stand and that the date for the real trial would be set in two weeks. I’ll keep you posted.
When we entered the courtroom yesterday,
ilipodscril noticed an empty seat behind Jack Broughton. He sat down behind him and breathed heavily on his neck for the next 15 minutes while we awaited the preliminary trial to continue.When it did continue, and with my friend Mariah on the stand, the defense attorney continued his fascination with words unfamiliar to him. "Yvette referred to you as ‘her girl’, can you tell me what that means?"
""Uh, it’s a term of affection. We’re friends."
Evidently the day before when Yvette was on the stand he had spent a long time trying to understand what exactly "my girl" meant. Most likely he was trying to insinuate that they were lovers, highlight the strange ways of the queers, and underline her "ghetto" phrase. During the above interaction the audience starting laughing and the judge looked annoyed.
Defense Lawyer had been working the angle that Broughton and his girlfriend had been made to feel unwelcome at the event. The day before, while questioning Yvette, he had asked her to estimate the amount of straight people, gay people, women, men etc. to the point that the judge said, "Do you think she took a survey?"
Yesterday Defense Lawyer asked Mariya, "You referred to this in your statement as a ‘queer’ event. What does that mean to you?" He stumbled on the word "queer".
Mariya, not missing a beat, said, "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Others."
The defense lawyer, looking cheaper and less effective by the day, also kept confusing the names Yvette and Jean, (Jean Earl being Broughton’s girlfriend who started the incident by hitting Yvette while Broughton and Earl were being removed by bouncers for making homophobic and racist remarks and looking for trouble.) Mariya, keeping her wits about herself amazingly kept answering the actual questions. Defense Lawyer, thinking he had gotten her to contradict herself would pounce on it, only to be reminded by the judge or DA that he had mixed up the names. Again
But my favorite part was when the defense lawyer asked some confusing question and Mariya asked him to rephrase it. He just kept switching it around in confusing ways until Mariya finally said, "You know, I’m a literature major at State and you keep using a double negative which makes me unsure of how to answer the question. Can you rephrase it without a double negative?"
The DA chuckled and even the judge smirked. Most of the cross examination dealt with such groundbreaking information such as, "In your statement you said you were three feet from the door. Couldn’t it have been five feet?" The defense attorney skipped by the part where Broughton stood above Yvette, already likely unconscious, kicking her and calling her "faggot and/or "dyke"
The Judge ruled that all charges would stand and that the date for the real trial would be set in two weeks. I’ll keep you posted.
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That made me laugh out loud.
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