“Mr. Sanborne, please tell the court how you first came to meet Mr. Goldman,” Adam began casually.
“Mr. Goldman came to me and asked me to investigate two fictitious name entities, FLHC and FSSL. From the Florida department of business, I learned that the two were registered by Audrey Munson on January 22, 2008.” Mr. Sanborne was just as direct as Andrew. He was every bit the pro he claimed he was when I hired him.
“Thank you, Mr. Sanborne. Did you at any point begin surveillance on Ms. Munson?” Adam asked, walking back toward our table.
“Objection, Your Honor. According to this report, Mr. Sanborne was not the actual investigator that night.”
“Mr. Sanborne, were you the actual investigator that night?” Judge Andrews inquired, peering over at the witness.
“No, I was not. One of my employees was,” he confirmed.
“Is this employee here today?” Walton asked, tilting his head in condescension.
“No. However, I was in constant contact with the investigator by phone and GPS tracking. I knew exactly where he was at all times.”
“Objection sustained,” Judge Andrews ruled, governed by a law requiring that the actual investigator need testify. As a result, the surveillance of the tricks Audrey turned at Boca Bay at 10 p.m. and Mission Gardens at midnight on Saturday, November 23, 2009 were inadmissible, and a blown opportunity. Sanborne was dismissed and I was furious. I had paid Sanborne close to $10,000 for his work, work which was now worth nothing. How could he let this happen? And how could Adam miss this? I gave Mr. Sanborne a menacing look as he walked out of the courtroom, considering a possible new lawsuit against him for dereliction of duty. Glancing over to Adam, I mouthed “How?” Adam shrugged apologetically and called our next witness, Bob Thompson, to the stand.
Determined to overcome his glaring omission, Adam began his careful questioning of Bob, who was a critically important witness for us. “Please state your name and relationship to Ms. Munson.”
“My name is Robert Thompson and I am the second husband of Audrey Munson,” Bob said, leaning forward in his seat.
“How long were you married, sir?” Adam asked. He was now standing close to Bob and his tone was soft, no doubt to put him at ease.
“Four months,” Bob said with a nod, glancing over at Audrey.
“Mr. Thompson, why did you divorce Ms. Munson?” Adam again asked softly, speaking as if they were having a casual conversation.
“I just couldn’t trust her. I caught her in lie upon lie upon lie, concerning all areas of her life.”
“Did Ms. Munson ever ask you to put her name on your assets?”
“Yes, after two months of marriage.”
“And what assets were those?” Adam asked, turning away from Bob to face Audrey and her lawyer.
“Stocks, and other things,” Bob replied, now looking from Adam to Audrey, and back again.
“Thank you, Mr. Thompson,” Adam said, turning back to Bob with a nod. He was dismissed with no cross examination from Walton. Again, I felt another, small point had been scored for our team. Our case was building, a pattern was developing, and I was trying to forget the Sanborne investigation debacle. It also seemed like the testimonies were moving swiftly. Adam was already moving on to our fourth witness, Audrey.
The bailiff summoned her to the witness stand. Audrey stood slowly and gently pressed her dress. She quietly approached the witness box, her face doing its best to look innocent and victimized. I suppressed my impulse to laugh outright at this performance.
Our first line of questioning focused on Audrey's contribution to our marriage. “Ms. Munson, did you contribute any money toward the down payment of the California house?” Adam asked.
“No, but I contributed in other ways,” she responded, in a voice that was much softer than I’d ever heard from her.
“Oh, how so?” Adam asked, matching her air of innocence.
“I looked for the house with Paul online, and I attended the closing.”
“I see,” was all Adam had to say, knowing full well that, legally, this was not a contribution at all. Next to come was Adam's focus on Audrey’s defrauding me during our engagement. I handed him one of Audrey's bank statements. “Ms. Munson, please take a look at your Bank of Florida statement from February 22, 2007, during your engagement period to Mr. Goldman. Please read these items to the court,” Adam instructed, pointing to the words before her. Audrey leaned in and squinted, apparently forgetting that she was wearing glasses:
22 February, 2007: Merchant purchase Neiman Marcus Las Vegas - $1,515.76. 22 February, 2007: Merchant purchase Jimmy Choo Las Vegas - $1,112.63.
Audrey spoke the names Neiman Marcus and Jimmy Choo as if they were a total mystery to her, in what was turning out to be a laughable performance.
“Thank you, Ms. Munson. Now, having testified that your income is only $1,600 a month, where did the money come from to spend over $2,500 in these two stores in Las Vegas in only one day?”
“I bought those items for a friend. His credit card was not working,” Audrey explained, shaking her head. Throughout our short-lived marriage, Audrey had always kept her closet locked, an obvious attempt to conceal her appetite for designer labels. As for Las Vegas, well that was an interesting mid-week trip for a stay-at-home mom engaged to another man. I handed Adam our next exhibit.
“Ms. Munson, please read these two emails to the court, in which you told Mr. Goldman, during your engagement period, that you would be in Cocoa Beach caring for your ailing grandmother several days each week.” Adam handed her the first email.
All I can offer is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday until around 6 p.m. What kind of marriage is that?
Adam handed her another email.
Sorry it’s been so long since I’ve been able to read my email. Been real busy. Grandma is not well, she is mentally failing. With this new issue comes change, just a flop in schedule. Now I will be gone Saturday through Wednesday.
“Now, Ms. Munson, please take a look at your debit charges from your bank account for the days you were supposedly in Cocoa Beach. You see there are no debit charges in Cocoa Beach, but a lot in Jupiter and this local area. Ms. Munson, you were never in Cocoa Beach caring for your grandmother, were you?” Adam’s tone was very matter-of-fact, doing his best “Columbo” impression.
“I was in Cocoa Beach, and Jupiter, and Stuart,” Audrey lied. Adam smiled back at her, while shaking his head. He then returned to our table and collected the next batch of exhibits, focusing on the Florida Health Company fraud.
“Ms. Munson, did you create a fictitious name entity called FLHC, tell Mr. Goldman it was Florida Health Company, and obtain a check in the amount of $6,930 from him, telling him it was for health insurance for you and your kids?”
“I’m very sorry and ashamed about that. I was so desperate for money after he kicked me out of the house in February,” Audrey defended herself, trying to refocus the fault on me for kicking her out.
“But, Ms. Munson, you created these entities before you were kicked out of the house, in January, not in February, when you were still happily married.”
Audrey stared back at him, and said nothing. Adam paused and allowed the silence to sink in. I wanted to scream at Adam, “Make her respond! Make her answer the question!” but instead I sat quietly in my seat, transfixed along with everyone else in the courtroom. A single spiral of Audrey's hair fell from its place, but Audrey made no motion. Adam moved on to Audrey’s next fraud.
“Ms. Munson, please read to the court these two emails written by you in February 2008, in which you demanded that Mr. Goldman put your name on his assets,”
Adam instructed, handing the first email to Audrey. She stared at the page for a moment before reaching out to take it. Despite the damaging evidence presented so far, Audrey was not the least bit rattled. She remained expressionless, and cleared her throat before she began to read.
I don’t remember my name on everything (from the business to the cars, from the
houses to the bank accounts, etc. As for full disclosures, I already told you no problem but I also would like your full disclosure of all transactions and holding. Let me know when you have all this prepared and then we can start to be equal an honest, trusting, loyal, gentle languaged family
Audrey quickly looked over at her lawyer before continuing to the next email.
Please justify to me why a person would treat their son any different than their wife. The son has everything in his name along with his father. However, his wife has merely a home in California (not Jupiter, not Boynton Beach, not even the car that was bought for her to drive) in their joint name.
She finished reading and returned the page to Adam.
“Ms. Munson, why did you write these emails to Mr. Goldman, demanding that he put your name on his assets?”
“I wanted us to be equal,” Audrey directed her answer to the judge, her eyes widening in feigned innocence.
“Ms. Munson, was the only way you could be equal was to have your name on all his assets?” No response. The silence was palpable before Adam went on calmly to the next exhibit. He showed Audrey the Nerve.com dating site profile she made after we had spent only twenty-five days together as husband and wife, in which she wrote her “relationship status” as “single.”
“Ms. Munson, please take a look at this profile from the internet dating site Nerve.com. Your Honor, this profile, obtained from the hard drive of Mr. Goldman’s computer, was created on December 19, 2007, five days after the closing of the California property. The ‘Username’ of the profile is ‘Lady_Audrey_3,’ as you can see.” Adam pointed out the name on the exhibit for the judge before returning to Audrey. “Ms. Munson, please read to the court the answer you typed in for the question, ‘What I am looking for in a person?’”
A person that will help me test the laws of physics.
“Well, that's a peculiar phrase, Ms. Munson. What does that mean?” Audrey simply stared at him, and said nothing. After a moment, Adam continued, “Now, please read to the court the answer typed in to the question, ‘Relationship Status?’”
Single.
“Thank you, Ms. Munson. Ms. Munson, did you create this profile, looking for a new husband, advertising yourself as single, on the date stated, knowing as you did that your name was on the deed to the California property and it had over $200,000 of equity?” Adam turned and started walking back to the table.
“No,” was Audrey's response, denying the obvious. At that, Adam's head spun around, he looked at her incredulously, glanced over at the judge, and then continued his progress to get the next exhibit from me. He collected her fraudulent “Affidavit of Indigency” exhibit from my hand and calmly walked back over to Audrey. The affidavit had been created by Audrey in an attempt to overturn Welfare’s decision to take away her welfare benefits. Welfare claimed she did not qualify for them, because she had too much income. Audrey had not included as income her child support payments from Bob Thompson (also forgetting to mention the average $3,000 monthly cash deposit income). After Welfare made their decision, drastically cutting down her benefits, Audrey, true to form, appealed, and when her appeal was denied, exhibiting the sociopathic quality of believing she is invincible and everyone else is an idiot, Audrey appealed yet again. This time, as part of her appeal she created an Affidavit of Indigency, declaring under oath that she had no assets of any kind.
“Ms. Munson, I have here an application for Welfare that you filed on December 18, 2009. Is that your signature?”
“Yes,” Audrey nodded.
“Ms. Munson, would you please read the highlighted items to the court?” Again, Audrey squinted and read the damning evidence before her:
I have $0 in assets. No cash. No real estate. No motor vehicles.
She sat back in her chair and stared insolently at Adam.
“Ms. Munson, please take a look at this vehicle registration of a 2001 Honda Accord with your name. Is this your car?” Adam held up the registration for her to see before showing it to everyone in the courtroom.
“Yes.”
“Ms. Munson, please take a look at this deed from the California townhouse, the one you are claiming a 50% ownership in. Is this your name on the deed along with Mr. Goldman’s?”
“Yes.”
“Then why did you lie on your application for Welfare and state that you had no real estate or motor vehicles? Did you realize that if you did claim these you, probably would not qualify for Welfare?” Audrey looked straight ahead, and said nothing. I looked over at Judge Andrews, curious to know how he’d react to Audrey defrauding a system that he was a part of. I expected the judge to instruct Audrey to answer the question, but he let it pass.
After that, court was dismissed for lunch. In the hallway, Mia O’Shea, the TV news person, was interviewing Walton, her attorney, when Adam and I entered the hallway. Standing just a few feet away, I watched as Walton called me delusional for implying his client was a prostitute. “But even if she is,” he continued, “it's irrelevant to the legal matter in front of the court, which is the division of marital assets.” Audrey refused to say a word to Mia, instead choosing to cross her arms and glare at the wall.
When they finished their interview, Mia O’Shea said she wanted better lighting, so Adam and I walked outside with her and her cameraman, where Mia interviewed both of us. I said I believed that Audrey Munson was the madam of, and a working prostitute in, a huge multi-state prostitution ring. I told her about emails and phone logs. Mia then asked Adam if he also thought Audrey was a prostitute. Adam agreed, saying, “Look at all the emails and the one-time phone calls to hundreds of men. And the cash deposits, the calls to hotels, and the trips to Vegas and Chicago. Ms. Munson is definitely not a stay-at-home mom. If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, my experience as a lawyer leads me to believe that it's probably a duck.”
Over lunch, I decided I had to ask Adam about his lack of follow-up questions. “What the hell were you doing? You had her on the ropes, and didn’t go in for the kill!” All my pent up emotion during the trial now came bursting out, with Adam the unfortunate recipient.
“Calm down, Paul,” Adam said. “I know what I’m doing. This is a very smart judge. He’ll easily be able to fill in the blanks. Less is more. I know you want it, but we don’t need ‘overkill.’ I’ve done this long enough to know that we’re doing the right amount of questioning. By her silence and her lies, she’s hanging herself. Trust me.”
I thought about what Adam said, and decided to trust him completely. He had been right about almost everything up until this point, and he had no personal emotions about the case to interfere with his strategy and techniques. I, on the other hand, was too emotionally involved and too inexperienced in legal matters to fight him on that, so I apologized and promised to trust him. We walked back to the courtroom where it was time to confront Audrey with more damning emails, including the love letter emails from her to Royce.
Eager to continue the point by point dismantling of Audrey’s credibility, Adam wasted no time in presenting those love emails, beginning with the one she wrote to him the day before our marriage.
“Ms. Munson, would you please read to the court this email, written by you to Royce Rocco one day before your wedding to Mr. Goldman?” Audrey seemed to stifle a sigh, before picking up the paper and reciting its contents:
We could spend as many seconds of our lives together or apart. It’s always been YOUR choice. Isn’t life for love? Can you lock up the demons in your head and release the love in your heart? Will you love light shine or die like everything else? Will your next 50 years chime of continued self-imposed struggle, suffering and pain? Or, can you surrender to the fact that you have met the love of your life, your soul mate, your life partner.
“Ms. Munson, did you write this email?”
“No,” she replied flatly.
“Ms. Munson, would you please read this email to the court, dated October 8, 2007, just twenty days after y
our marriage to Mr. Goldman?” This time Audrey grabbed the paper hostilely:
I will never move on. I will just cry and cry ‘til death do us part.’ Don’t you get that? You can choose to continue & make both of us miserable, that’s your choice. I think we are a good team and feed off each other because we are meant to be together, but you fight it. You have no idea what you’re doing and understand why you can do this. You can be in a very loving and happy relationship. I love you and always will. You can’t tell me who to choose in life to be my partner and I can’t either. It’s just meant to be and we are meant to be. Some day you’ll get that and surrender to the forces that are over us and put us together for life. Until we hold each other again, Your Princess.
“Ms. Munson, did you write this email?”
“No.” She did it again, denied the obvious. Straight-faced, without emotion, lying. She was real good at this lying, I thought. So far today, every word out of her mouth was a lie. Then, I asked myself, was there any difference between today and the entire time I knew her? The answer, sadly, was no.
“Ms. Munson, would you please read this email to the court, dated November 22, 2007, approximately two months after your marriage to Mr. Goldman?” Audrey cleared her throat and began again:
How about calling me when you can finally surrender and admit that you love me, can kiss me passionately, and appreciate our relationship. This is what I deserve from you. Until then, I’m going to try and let my heart and head rest.
Love you ‘til death do us part.’ Audrey.
“Ms. Munson, did you write this email?”
“No.” And with another email and another denial, I looked over at Audrey’s lawyer, wondering how he could possibly overcome all of this. Peter Walton didn’t even seem to be listening as he closely regarded his fingernails.
“Ms. Munson, would you please read this email to the court, dated February 4, 2008, entitled ‘My Schedule’?”
How can you question my schedule when all you have ever offered me was 'dong dips' at your leisure? Unconditionally your heart & soul, Audrey.
Duplicity - A True Story of Crime and Deceit Page 27