by Luke Young
“Well, this one day, she knew Brian had a match, so she invited her old boyfriend over to meet her at the dorm. When Soros showed up, she wasn’t there. She had asked me to wait in the room for him and to bring him to the tennis court, so she could create some kind of scene between the both of them.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, I walked him to the court, and there wasn’t a scene, but Soros got mad at her and led her away, so they could talk. After that, she told me she got him all worked up and angry, and he left. And then after that, Natalie told me she waited on the trail back to Brian’s dorm, so she could mess with him, too. Sure enough, Brian saw her, and they had a fight.”
“At the deposition, you testified that you had no direct knowledge of Natalie’s boyfriends other than Brian and Rob.”
Cindy gave the judge a distressed look. “I, uh… well, I didn’t want to say anything bad about my friend and—”
“You knew you were under oath?” Stanley asked.
“Yes, I’m sorry, but there are some things that I didn’t know when I testified back then that I know now.”
“Like what?”
Cindy stared angrily at Natalie. “Like that… Natalie had sex with my boyfriend, Mitchell, behind my back.”
“I hate to ask you this, but are you aware of the type of sex that she had with your boyfriend?” Cindy glanced around the courtroom shyly and then looked to Stanley for support. He smiled apologetically. “It’s okay; just take your time.”
After taking a deep breath with tears forming in her eyes, she said softly, almost inaudibly, “Anal.”
Stanley widened his eyes as everyone leaned closer to hear the witness. “Could you move to the microphone and repeat that?”
Cindy moved forward and said loudly, “Anal sex.” The words blasted through the courtroom. Pointing directly at Natalie as the anger boiled over inside of her, she added, “That bitch let my boyfriend, you know, do her in the ass.”
The members of the jury looked at one another as the spectators began gasping, laughing, and murmuring.
Judge Maxwell banged his gavel. “I will have order in this courtroom!” As the disruption continued, the judge stood glaring at the crowd as he slammed his gavel down hard, sending the block shooting to the floor. The room quieted as the bailiff scurried after the wood block.
Maxwell remained standing with his eyes floating angrily around the room. He shook his head before returning to his seat. “Miss Taylor, while I realize this trial is rather unique in its subject matter, please… watch your language.”
“Yes, Your Honor. Sorry.”
Maxwell motioned to Stanley. “Continue, Mr. Parrish.”
“Thank you, Your Honor.” Stanley returned to the witness. “How did you come to learn this?”
“I heard a recording of Natalie admitting it, and then I asked—”
Josh jumped up. “Objection.”
Glaring at Parrish, completely annoyed, Maxwell said, “Counsel, approach.”
Josh and Stanley made their way to the bench. The judge covered his microphone, and the three discussed the matter for almost two minutes. Everyone looked on curiously as they conferred while the courtroom speakers emitted white noise. Afterward, the lawyers returned to their tables, and the judge said, “We will break for ten minutes.”
Brian, Jillian, and her legal team followed Judge Maxwell, Natalie, and Josh into the judge’s chambers.
The Judge began, “Mr. Nash, you made this recording?”
“Yes, Your Honor. I was leaving a voice mail for Jillian’s son, Rob, and Natalie stormed into the room and confronted me.”
“So, you did this without her permission?”
Brian raised his hands up. “I didn’t know it was recording. I thought I had disconnected after I left the message. It wasn’t until later that I realized—”
“Do you know recording someone without their permission is a violation of the law in this state?”
“As I said, Judge, I didn’t even know it was recording.”
Stanley Parrish said, “We believe Miss Brookhart should have reasonably assumed that her conversation with Mr. Nash was being recorded. She interrupted him on the phone, and he clearly stated to her that he was trying to locate Rob Grayson.”
Maxwell scoffed. “That’s a stretch, Counselor.”
“We would like to play this recording for the jury,” Stanley said.
Josh grumbled, “You can’t be serious! There is no way—”
Putting his hand up to silence Roth, Maxwell stared at Stanley, “Do you have the recording with you?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, let’s hear it.”
Stanley pulled out a digital tape player and started the recording. Natalie seemed unfazed by all of it, as Jillian looked on, half smirking and half mock-horrified. Josh was a little more than turned on.
When the recording finished, the judge glared at Natalie. “Miss Brookhart, is that your voice on the recording?”
“Uh, well you see…” she began. She switched gears almost psychotically and stared angrily at Brian. “You unemployed boy toy! I can’t believe you would—”
Jillian interrupted, “Look, Butt Girl, call him a boy toy again, and you’ll be spitting out teeth.”
“Knock it off,” Maxwell growled. “Control your clients.”
Both Josh and Stanley whispered into their respective client’s ears.
After shaking his head, Maxwell made eye contact with Natalie. “I’ll ask again. Is that you on the recording?”
“Yes,” she replied sheepishly as she stared down at the carpet.
Maxwell sighed. “I’m not sure if you’re having trouble with the semantics here, but when defense counsel asks if you have ever had sex, and you testify under oath that you haven’t, that you were still a virgin at the time in question, then if you are lying, that is perjury, and my dear, I assure you the court does not look upon that lightly.”
He stared at her until she looked him in the eye. “Now, I know a former President seemed to be a little confused as to what constitutes a sex act, but in my courtroom if you’ve had a man’s penis in your mouth, your vagina, and yes, even your anus, that does qualify, so to avoid a perjury conviction, I suggest you answer future questions about your sex life truthfully.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Stanley said, “We have a new list of witnesses as a result of Miss Taylor’s, uh, memory returning to her.”
“Let’s see it.”
Stanley produced a list consisting of a half page of names. He handed a copy to the judge and one to Josh.
Natalie snatched it out of his hands and began reading. Nodding, she studied a particular name curiously and smiled. “Oh, I forgot about him.”
Natalie glanced up and found everyone giving her an odd look. She snarled back, “What?”
“What? What do you think?” Jillian shot back.
“Why don’t you go f—”
Maxwell interrupted, “Shut up, Miss Brookhart, and keep your comments to yourself, Ms. Grayson.”
“Yes, Your Honor,” both women replied softly.
Maxwell said, “Why are we just seeing these now?”
“As I said, we’ve just been made aware of these names ourselves. We’ve been working the entire weekend to track some of these witnesses down,” Stanley replied.
“What kind of relationship do these witnesses have to the plaintiff?”
“They are all former boyfriends of Miss Brookhart.”
“I wouldn’t call them boyfriends,” Natalie shot back.
Maxwell ignored her comment and then asked, “And why weren’t these names revealed during discovery?”
Stanley said, “Miss Brookhart failed to provide the names.”
Returning his gaze once more to Natalie, Maxwell gave her a tired look. She simply shrugged. “I didn’t even know some of their last names. I…”
Maxwell shook his head and then turned to Stanley. “So, who gave them to
you?”
“Miss Taylor.”
“And why did Miss Taylor fail to provide these names previously?”
Stanley cleared his throat. “Well, Your Honor… for instance, she had no previous knowledge of her ex-boyfriend’s involvement with Miss Brookhart until she heard the recording and confronted Mitchell with it. Once she did, he was able to provide some other names, and well, there may have been some lapses in memory—”
“I suggest you stop talking, Mr. Parrish!” Everyone sat silently while Maxwell took a moment to ponder all of this. He shook his head in disgust and then finally said, “The recording is out. I will not allow it to be played.” He glared at Stanley. “Do not reference it again in my courtroom, got that?”
Josh began, “Then I move for a mistrial on the grounds the jury has been prejudiced by the mention—”
“Shut your mouth, Mr. Roth. There will be no mistrial. If you have an issue with this, I suggest you take it up on appeal.”
“Yes, sir.”
Maxwell continued, “It sounds like we’ve had way too many issues with lapses in memory during this case. I would suggest, counselors, that you inform your clients and witnesses of this little thing we like to call perjury and how damn serious it can be.”
“Yes, Judge,” Stanley replied.
“Yes, Your Honor.” Josh nodded.
Maxwell said in a loud voice, “We’ll deal with these perjury issues after this case is finished, but if I even have the slightest impression that such behavior is continuing on either side, some of you will be spending the night in jail. Got that?”
All nodded in unison.
After studying the list once again, Maxwell glanced up at Stanley with a weary expression. “How many of these witnesses do you actually plan on calling?”
“At least five. We have people trying to locate the others now.”
“Let’s wrap this up as quickly as we can, Mr. Parrish.”
“Yes, sir.”
Josh glanced at the list and frowned. “Judge, I’ll need some time in order to properly prepare to question these witnesses.”
“How much?”
“A week.”
“I’ll give you two hours.”
“Two hours?”
Maxwell narrowed his eyes. “Oh, do you not want the two hours?”
Swallowing hard, Josh stammered, “No, uh I think I can—”
“Good, now let’s go back out there are try to act like adults and finish this. We’ll wrap up Miss Taylor, and then Mr. Roth can take his two hours.”
35
The Judge instructed the jury to disregard what they heard about the recording and that no such recording was entered into evidence, nor should it be considered during their deliberations. Josh cross-examined Cindy Taylor, blasting her with questions about why she had changed her testimony since the deposition. He accused her of lying now in order to hurt Natalie. The jury appeared to have sympathy for her, and Josh’s bullying left her credibility only slightly damaged.
During the two-hour recess, Josh sat with Natalie in a conference room, poring over the potential witness list. She was aloof and bored during the discussion and offered little, if anything, that might help him during his cross-examinations. What she did tell him left him mostly holding his head in disbelief.
When court was back in session, the defense called its next witness.
After Mitchell Garrett was sworn in, Stanley asked, “How do you know Miss Brookhart?”
“I was dating her roommate, Cindy, and that’s how I met Natalie.”
“While you were dating Miss Taylor, did Miss Brookhart ever make a pass at you?”
“Almost from the first day we met. Whenever Cindy would leave the room and I was left alone with Natalie, she would make me feel uncomfortable.”
“How so?”
“She would change right in front of me. One time she took off all her clothes and got into her bed completely naked.”
“With you watching?”
“Yes.”
“And this began when?”
“I’d say in the fall of 2009.”
“And you never mentioned any of this to Miss Taylor?”
“No, um, it was all kinda harmless flirting at first, and, I mean, I felt weird about it, but I didn’t think Cindy would’ve believed me. She was crazy about Natalie, and Natalie just seemed so innocent and pure, you know… At one point, I thought that maybe I was misinterpreting what she was doing. She never touched me or said anything inappropriate. She was just naked a lot. I thought maybe that’s how she was raised or something… I don’t know.”
Stanley asked, “Did things escalate at some point after that?”
Mitchell glanced at Cindy, who was sitting with the other spectators. He cleared his throat. “Um, yes… one night we had all been drinking and Cindy had way too much and was pretty drunk. Natalie and I helped her back to the room and put her in bed. She was out cold. “
“And then what happened?”
“Natalie took off all her clothes and began touching herself. I, uh, told her I was going to leave and when I went to grab my coat, she moved in front of the door and sorta blocked it. She did this thing…” Mitchell’s eyes bugged out of his head as he continued, “She did this reverse hand stand with a split thing… I mean, I knew she was flexible and all, but my God, she… remember, she was completely naked. I’d never seen anything like that in my life. She has a perfect, like… dancer’s body, you know.”
Natalie beamed as Jillian sneered at the comment.
Mitchell said, “So there I was looking down at her, you know… that way… and I was drunk, and I just…” Mitchell gave the crowd an embarrassed look.
“Just tell us what happened.”
“Then Natalie got back on her feet and kissed me. I didn’t stop her. She moved down to her knees and started rubbing my, you know… penis, and I was really drunk and not thinking clearly. She pulled my pants down and began kissing it…. After that, she led me to her bed.”
“And all the while, your girlfriend, Cindy, Natalie’s roommate and best friend, was passed out just a few feet from you?”
“Yes,” Mitchell said softly.
“And then what happened?”
“She told me we could have anal sex, only anal sex. She said she was some kind of a virgin thing that I don’t remember exactly, but that she only did it that way.”
Stanley glanced to the jury and then returned to Mitchell. “Mitchell, did you have anal sex with Natalie that night?”
“Yes.”
After pausing for ten seconds to let the weight of that reply sink in, Stanley asked, “Did you notice anything unique about Miss Brookhart while you were with her?”
“Yes, she has this birthmark right between her… I guess you could call it her vagina and her…” He continued a little softer with everyone listening closely, “… assho— I mean, her ‘anus,’ is the proper term.”
“And could you characterize it?”
Titling his head, Mitchell appeared to be daydreaming.
With Josh’s mind wandering far away—and more specifically to Natalie’s ass and the birthmark he was suddenly remembering—his jaw dropped. He, too, was trying to figure out exactly what it looked like, and if it hadn’t been for all this, he might have objected to this line of questioning.
“Mr. Garrett?” Stanley prompted.
Mitchell’s eyes brightened. “Uh, yeah… it looks a lot like the state of Texas. It’s shaped, you know, just like it.”
Josh nodded in happy agreement before catching himself and painting on a solemn look.
A few random chuckles spread throughout the courtroom. Maxwell even found that comment comical. He let the interruption slide.
Stanley plowed ahead. “What happened after you had sex with Natalie?”
“Natalie told me if I ever told Cindy, that she would claim that I was the one who came on to her.”
Shooting the jury a confident look, Stanley said, “I have nothing
further.”
Maxwell said, “Mr. Roth, your witness.”
Natalie whispered into Josh’s ear. He paused a moment, then approached the witness stand.
“Mr. Garrett, isn’t it true that you became obsessed with Miss Brookhart?”
“Well, yes, but… that was after she seduced me that night.”
Josh gave him a skeptical look. “Oh, it was after… Isn’t it true that you were the one pursuing Natalie all those months and that you took advantage of her that night when you got her drunk?”
Sitting up straight, Mitchell narrowed his eyes. “No, that’s not true at all.”
“Come on, Mr. Garrett, you two were together, you both were drunk, and your girlfriend was passed out. You took advantage of my client, didn’t you?”
“Objection,” Stanley called out. “Asked and answered.”
Maxwell groaned, “Move on, Mr. Roth.”
After taking a deep breath, Josh glanced at Natalie. She returned an angry nod, and he continued, “On the night in question, weren’t you so drunk that you had trouble performing… sexually?”
Mitchell was taken aback by the query as everyone stared at him, waiting for a reply. He glanced around the courtroom nervously and then began, “I, uh, well… I mean, I wasn’t at the top of my game, but…”
Members of the jury grinned as an audible chuckle spilled out from the spectators.
The Judge banged his gavel once. “Quiet down.”
Shooting up out of his seat, Stanley said loudly, “Objection, Your Honor. Mr. Garrett’s sexual performance is not at issue here.”
Mitchell gave Stanley a grateful look.
“Sustained.”
Josh shook his head in disgust at Mitchell. “I have nothing else for this witness.”
Next up Rob, testified. He accounted his sexual experiences with Natalie. He described her now-famous birthmark. He testified how she only seemed interested in him once she found out that he had a longtime girlfriend waiting for him in Miami. He admitted he felt guilty about dating Natalie behind Brian’s back and recounted what he could about his impressions of Natalie’s manipulation of members of the opposite sex.
Josh tore into him with accusations of lying to protect his mother’s reputation and fortune, a fortune he was destined to inherit. He survived mostly unscathed. The jury appeared to believe him, and Josh’s constant attacks on the witnesses appeared to be tiring the members of the jury.