Thursday, August 16th.
Updated 3!
When I arrived on the 9th floor, ~having driven to court so I can take dini to the airport tonight~ Ciaran, Carlton Smith and Dominick are already there. Dominick was on the phone getting his next story fact checked with his editor. One of the camera operators comes over to where I was sitting next to Ciaran and Carlton to say hello. I then see K, enter my line of vision and ask to speak to the Judge's clerk, Wendy. Two of the people I was with later said they clearly overheard K speaking to Wendy saying, "...it was a conversation among the 'women' sitting near Dominick Dunne." I did not hear this, I just observed K speaking to the clerk, turn and point her finger at me, then turn back to face the clerk. I instinctively knew, this wasn't good. Who knows what else K embellished the story with. Inside the courtroom, dini is already in her seat. When I sat down next to her she told me, "I just overheard K say, I now know what it's like to be a celebrity."
Before the jury is brought in, I am stunned, shocked that the Judge singled me out and admonished me in open court. From what I remember the Judge saying to me, he was accusing me of discussing testimony and the jurors overheard it. He went on to rule that, if it happens again, I will not be allowed back into court, ever. I responded to the Judge with a single word, "Understand."
Throughout the rest of the morning session, I sat there in a frozen daze, trying to keep my tears from running down my face, feeling the sting of an envious, sloven harpy's retaliation. K sat there with an expression on their face, like a cat who just ate the canary.
I wrote a note to Dominick. What can I do? Because folks, it was clearly an outright lie. One of my seat mates ~sitting closer to the jury than I do~ later wondered, how could the jury have ever heard me say anything, when I'm sitting farther away from the jury than they are, and they never heard me say anything. Wendy approached the cameraman who overheard K's comments to her, and asked him if he heard it. He replied, "No." One of the reporters in my row said that there were trial watchers sitting behind us, who were clearly talking louder that I ever was.
Now, we know (because everyone in the hallway heard it yesterday) Rachelle loudly invited K to a party. Is K, Mrs. Spector's new "best, best friend" or did one of Spector's brilliant legal strategist's, (cough, cough) suggest this tactical move to K, of approaching the clerk? Or, could it have been one of K's other new "best, best friends," K has been chatting up with after yesterdays horrible intrusion at lunch. Well, it sure seems like one of these scenarios happened, because as you all know, at the first break Rosen stands up to whine about "someone covering the trial" (That would be ME!) was overheard by the jury making disparaging remarks about Mrs. Spector. Rosen says, "Remarks about Mrs. Spector's clothing were over heard by the jury." The Judge slaps him down saying, "I believe I already ruled on that." I was so upset, still trying to control my sobs, at the break, I left the court building entirely to clear my head. I told dini I was going fabric shopping in the garment district, and I wasn't returning to court. Outside, Rod Lindblum asked me where I was going, and I gave him a brief rundown on the events that happened yesterday and today in the hallway. He was trying to encourage me to stay, but I was too upset. I just needed to walk away and clear my head, and of course, call my attorney and give her the run down. Once she heard the whole story, she started laughing saying, "Betsy! Free speech. Hello? The National Inquirer. People Magazine. There's nothing this defense team can do to you. They can't sue you!"
I can't believe what I'm hearing. I've been in this trial about 90% of the time, and I've never realized that what Mrs. Spector was wearing was actually part of the trial testimony! I'm dumbfounded! What the jury supposedly overheard me say, could actually have an impact on the verdict! Do you want to know what it was, I whispered to dini about Rachelle's outfit yesterday? I asked her, "What would you call the color of that sweater?" dini replied, "It's a greige, hoodie three-quarter sweater." That's it folks. It is what it is. We already know that Rosen is spending Spector's cash like water, having his clerks print out and read my blog. Hellllloooooo Rosen! Have you heard of that little thing called the First Amendment? I would have thought you were aware of it, being an attorney and all. You never cease to amaze me though, with your brilliant trial strategy.
This defense team, unable to get Babydol and Raul Julia Levy on the stand, are now focusing all their high paid efforts on what this tiny little blogger is saying about 'gasp' Mrs. Spector's courtroom couturier, in an effort to get me ejected from court. Because you know, Mrs. Spector's feelings are pretty important as trial strategy goes. I wrote about the attorney's in the Melaine McGuire case, trying to use the writings of a Court TV poster (who attended that trial and wrote about it) as basis for an appeal. It was rejected of course. Bloggers are an easy target I guess, and Rosen, trying to spare the feelings of the delicate Mrs. Spector, made a buffoonish attempt to get me ejected from the courtroom. I would think he would be more concerned with his continually collapsing defense strategy, rather than focusing on the hurt feelings of the Playboy model wife.
K, envious of the friendship I have developed with Dominick Dunne, and unable to get him to drop everything, stop his life and write a BOOK about them, took their jealous rage out on me. It says volumes about who you really are K. I still can't believe this defense team would be so leaderless, that they would be spending their time and Spector's cash on this. With the other blunders this defense team has made, this is just icing on the cake. I mean, when you sit back and think about it, the absurdity of it is absolutely hysterical.
When I got back from shopping, I waited outside the courthouse for dini to come down, but the accused, the chicky wife and Mommy exited the building and walked right past me. As they all walked down the ramp, they each turned their heads and gave me the "death stare." I stared right back. It didn't work. I'm still here, blogging about this great defense team your hired. Soon afterwards, the Clarkson family came down the same ramp and gave me wonderful words of encouragement to return to court on Tuesday. I'll be there, just waiting to see what Rachelle pulls out of her closet next week!
Update: 10:15 pm
While I was driving dini to the airport, she was jogging my memory. Being Jennifer to my "pie" so to speak. dini said, "Sprocket, don't you remember, when you asked me about the sweater, you never mentioned Rachelle's name. You just asked me about the color of the sweater. It was obvious who you were talking about. And, when you spoke to me, you had turned your body so that you were facing the defense side of the room. Your back, was to the jury." I remember now. This is how it happened. What's interesting is, K was sitting on the other side of CCA, who was sitting next to dini, and K would have seen my face, and ask dini the question.
My previous entry has also been updated.
Update: 10:30 pm
When I installed a stat counter, I put it on invisible. I didn't think it was important to show the world how many people (or how few lol!) visited my blog. However, Thank You Defense Team, for pushing up my stat numbers! In my first few weeks of blogging, I had average daily numbers of well under 100 page loads, and even less unique visitors. Slowly, my numbers started to climb. On August 9th, I had my highest numbers so far. 1,039 page loads and 806 unique visitors. I hit a thousand page loads in a single day a few more times, but it wasn't until today that my stats went through the roof. I still have 1.5 hours more to go before the final tally, but today, so far, I've had 1,930 page loads, and 1,384 unique visitors. Not bad for just a little blog about fashion, and a few words here and there about the Spector trial.
Update: Friday, August 17th, 8:44 pm.
I finally had a brain fart, and reviewed my notes for Wednesday. Here are my rough draft notes, from relevant pages, before and after I made the note about what Rachelle was wearing.
Fidler is covering his face! to keep from showing he's laughing!
Sustained! You'd be sleeping on the couch for several months.
Obj! Sust! Calls 4 speculation!
ctroom erupts!
Isn't conflict of interest any intrest that has a conflict?
No, no!
Jury laughs~~
I'm a schmeiel compared to them!
After J asks you opinion competly independent of each other~~
# 8 & 9 look, smile, and whisper to each other
I think, The jury is really enoying AJ's cross
Now Baden states that backspatter in mouth is different than any other part of the body
I'm so rivited, I can't write much. I'm too mesmerized as to how AJ just keeps hammering away
Clerk comes in & hands Brunon a paper.
BREAK!
Towards the end of break, Phil/Rosen/Rachelle chat smile + laugh
smoke <--(I scratch that out) greige
sweater dress + black pants 3/4 length hoody pocketed sweater top
Back from break we wait.
AJ continues cross
Oh mother of God, lol! My question to dini occurred DURING THE BREAK! The sporkin' jury wasn't even THERE! WASN'T ME Judge! WASN'T ME!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Everyone wants their own 15 minutes
Wednesday, August 15th, 2007
Updated!
I've been told that high profile trials bring out the lunatic fringe and the publicity seekers. Over four years later and four months of testimony, this trial is no different. There have been a variety of interesting characters attached to this trial, on the stand as well as back behind the well in the gallery.
Who can forget the Pie, and Jennifer Hayes Riedl, or paramedic Stark for that matter? I have to question the Pie's motives, aligning herself with the defense camp. Something is truly wrong when this individual is presenting themselves as "Lana's best friend," yet, the best they can do is trash Lana. Was all this for a potential reality series or a book deal? Did she sell out her friend that easily?
Edward Lozzi is a somewhat well known person who claims to have been Lana's publicist. As well meaning as Mr. Lozzi is, ~maybe he truly does want justice for Lana~ her family and friends never heard of him before her death, and he has never presented any documentation to substantiate his claim. At lunch on Monday, Mr. Lozzi told me that "he was hostile to both the prosecution and defense." I found that to be an odd statement coming from someone who says they represented Lana, and supposedly had her best interests at heart. As a publicist, one would think his goal would be to protect Lana's memory rather than question it. I also wonder how he could have represented Lana, and at the same time, be associated with Jodi "Babydol" Gibson, who, it appears, thanked him in her book.
Ms. Gibson is another I-need-my-15-minutes-so-I-can-sell-my-book individual who has tried to connected herself to Lana. Judge Fidler ruled that Ms. Gibson could only be called to the stand if Phil Spector took the stand. In the mean time, she was ordered in open court not to discuss Ms. Clarkson in any way, shape or form for the duration of the case. It still remains to be seen if the entries in her "trick book" are proven to be altered. It's been alleged that the trick book has been altered, by either Babydol or the defense investigator Tawni Tyndall, who both accessed it while it resides in police custody. There is an entry that appears to have been changed from Ana to LAna, and a 'Cl.' written after it.
Raul Julia Levy is another I-need-my 15-minutes-so-I-can-get-noticed character who has tried in insert himself into the case, claiming to have had a past association with Lana. When Judge Fidler ruled that he would not be permitted to testify, then someone spammed the Court TV Spector forum with tons of links to a web site that appeared to show a document where Raul Julia Levy filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association against Alan Jackson. No where have I found a reputable news organization that has verified the documents as being an authentic filing with the State Bar.
There are other trial watchers in the room who I believe are there to write a book on the case or, in the case of one attention seeking person, trying to get a famous diarist to stop what he's doing and write a book about them. You may recall that back in June, I wrote an entry titled "The back finally gives out," and mentioned someone who's cell phone went off in court. Well, during the morning session ccarrolladams (CCA) was whispering to someone sitting next to him ~I'll call that person "K,"~ and the cell phone person, "W" leaned forward and I clearly saw W mouth the words to CCA, "SHUT UP!" It was rude and uncalled for. In response, CCA told W where they could go. Well, the K person (whose real name I know but will NOT give them the satisfaction of seeing their name in print), who also felt they were in charge of telling others to "shush!" was ~ for the moment ~ apparently outraged that CCA responded with the words he did. During the rest of the morning session I observed W intensly chatting it up with K, probably giving K a greatly embellished account of what they thought of CCA.
During the morning session, after hearing the email testimony about coffee and cigs, within earshot of the family K was complaining to dini that Lana was a drug addict. (When I heard that I was dumbfounded!) dini replied, "Well then, most people are addicts with something."
A little background here. I've seen K at court several times. The first time K came, they sat in Linda Deutch's regular spot she likes to sit in. When I politely told K that that is a reporter's regular seat and they would have to move, K got a bit ruffled and said that "..'they' were part of the media, too." At the time, I found that doubtful because K did not have a yellow "Media" badge handed out by the court's liaison office, that all accredited press have. Not long after Linda made K move, K leaned into the first row and tried to talk to Fawn. I was quite surprised by this because, whether or not K truly is media or not, the family attorney made if very clear in their press releases early on, that the family would not speak to the press, and that the press was not to approach them.
A week ago Wednesday, K corralled Mr. Dunne and pressed him to have lunch with them. Cornered, he sat down at K's table. Another person tried to sit at the same table with them that day, but K angrily shooed them away. K was trying to convince Mr. Dunne to write their life story. From my understanding, Mr. Dunne was polite but firm, explaining that at this time in his life, he needed to concentrate on himself, and his own memoirs. My thought on the matter was, "Who would care about K's life story?" I've had my own family tragedy and disinheritance. So what? Just because this happened to me, that doesn't mean my sad story is some compelling event the masses would be clamoring to read about. You get over it, move on, and make your own way in the world. It's what I did.
Later that day, it was relayed to me that one of Spector's supporters (I don't know who this man is, but he was in court a few times) came up to K and said something to the effect of, "You're here networking. That's not right." The very next day, even though Mr. Dunne explained at lunch to K, that he could not write a book about K, they still brought a bunch of materials about their sad sob story, pressing the xeroxed pages into his hand, begging him to read it.
Fast forward to the lunch hour today. Dominick, CCA, myself and houdinisback (dini), are sitting at a table by ourselves. All the tables in the lunch room are these three foot square tables, and they barely fit four people, one on each side, comfortably. Standing inbetween CCA and dini, K spoke to CCA, trying to invite themselves to sit at our table! I was shocked silent. I had never seen anyone be so pushy. CCA politely said, "Perhaps tomorrow K, we're having a private conversation." K, not happy with that answer, then moved to the other side of dini, and next to Dominick, and said, "Well! I'm going to go over here and sit next to my FRIEND," insinuating Dominick was her personal friend. My jaw about licked my instep at this.
Totally blown away that this person has no sense of personal boundaries, dini didn't even finish her meal. She immediately got up from the table as fast as she could and CCA followed suit. dini felt that I should leave too, and I said that I needed to stay seated, to protect Dominick. K was oblivious to how rude their behavior was. I was amazed that K seemed unfazed that they had cleared a table faster than a whirling dervish. K made a comment about them leaving then immediately started to talk about the dust up between CCA and W that morning, trying to put their "spin" on the event, totally taking W's side. Dominick, not really understanding what K was talking about, turned to me and said, "Is this about _______?" I replied, "Yes, and I will explain it later." K interrupted me and kept saying something to the effect of, "I'm just telling what I saw!" I had to repeat to K several times, "There's more to this story than you know."
Not long after that, I felt I could not remain silent any longer, and addressed K. I said to K, in a very calm low toned voice, "I've watched you. I've observed you in court. I would not do what you do." And immediately, the rants came. I was "two-faced!" I was a terrible person. I would "never be a good writer!" I replied to that comment, "I never claimed I was." "You're jealous!" K ranted, and on, saying I "would never have the talent! I have the talent!" After a few minutes of K going on like this, I felt I'd stood enough and got up from the table, not even finishing my lunch. As I left I said, "I would never invite myself to a table." As I walked away, I was furious, and had to step outside to walk off some steam. At the same time, I was flabbergasted that K had no clue how absolutely rude and pushy their behavior was.
Upstairs in the hallway, I was still quite upset about what happened, and dini informed me what Dominick said to K after I left the table and how dini gave K a piece of her mind. Everyone was packed at the door, waiting for the deputy's to let us in for the afternoon session. Rachelle was there with her Mommy, and K made a point to cozy up to Rachelle. By this time, Dominick was standing with the rest of the group crowding the door, and was almost exactly behind K. Rachelle announced in a very loud voice, addressing K (and obviously everyone else listening), "Oh, I'm going to invite you to the Castle for the big party! " Then looking directly at Dominick Rachelle said, "There are some here who won't be invited!" Dominick immediately said, "I guess that remark was directed at me." You have to wonder about someone who would want to go to a party at an accused murder's house, with the accused present.
Dini writes about the afternoon session better than I do, so I'll let her take over this part.
"K has appointed themselves the gallery monitor, admonishing us to be quiet, hissing at me this afternoon when the jury hadn't even entered. 'Course, it's okay that K entertained the entire courtroom with their American Idol vocalizing that the cameramen were howling over.
I had to laugh out loud as K was pursuing all kinds of people up on the 9th floor before glomming onto Chelle and wangling that Castle invite.
For someone who was so vehement about LC's addictions, all I can observe is she's addicted to negative attention. Toni home perms and calories....if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
After the lunch break and before the jury came back in, K started talking in a very loud tone about how lame bloggers are.
K was seated with some people who I had never seen before who were about a notch above the street sleepers I pass on the way to the courthouse every morning.
They were all taking in absolutes about how bloggers can't spell "that's how you know they are bloggers"....according to them, "they all want to be *reporters* but can't make the cut," and "nobody reads them anyway".... Now, how they've come to these conclusions without having read them, I don't know, but dang, those libraries have computers, so guess they ran over there at lunch."
So now it comes to me, and whether or not I've "pursued" my own 15-minutes at this trial. I've had my critics very early on in writing about my trial experiences. I'm sure some have said I'm doing this for the attention, or to become a writer or wanna be reporter or even to write a book. The truth is much more simple. I've never claimed to be a writer, or even aspired to be one. Well, let me rephrase that, lol! Back when I was in high school, over thirty years ago, the English department put together a little mimeographed copied phamplet called The Kaleidoscope. The editors thought my poetry was pretty hot, because during my Junior and Senior year, I had just about the most entries ever published in their little compilation. So, for the longest time, I wrote poetry, and considered my self a "wanna be" poet, but never in a million years did I ever think that I would actually get my poetry published. It was something I did for me, and not for a gazillion people to read.
Personally, I prefer the format of message boards, also known as "forums." I've participated on quite a few crime forums for over four-and-a-half years. I really enjoy the dialog and the interaction between a variety of viewpoints that a message board ofers. It's quite different than a blog format. For the entire time that I've been posting on crime forums with the moniker of "Sprocket" (which happens to be the name of my oldest cat), I never had any interest in starting a blog. The only reason I did start one, was because it was becoming quite cumbersome and time consuming to share my Trial Notes on so many different message boards. Previously, I had gone to each board that had a discussion on Spector, and posted the same notes. I thought it would be much easier for me if I just started a blog, and linked to it at each crime forum.
That's it people. That's the only reason I started a blog. It was just to make it easy on myself. In fact, if you go to several of the crime forums in my "Places To Go" links, you will find on every crime forum my early Trial Notes. It was never to somehow "promote" my sewing or get a job as a writer. As far as continung to blog in general, once this trial is completely over, there isn't another trial that I will be covering anytime in the near future. I go back to my regular life, and kick my sewing into high gear. I find getting an entry up every day, or even every other day very difficult for me to do. That's because I am still seeing clients in the evenings and on the weekends, and I do have a husband to take care of and a house to maintain. I'm always amazed that Kim, of The Darwin Exception does it as well as she does. She's a much more consistent blogger, and she's actually quite funny to read. Kim, I've always been a big fan ever since I read my first entry.
Updated!
I've been told that high profile trials bring out the lunatic fringe and the publicity seekers. Over four years later and four months of testimony, this trial is no different. There have been a variety of interesting characters attached to this trial, on the stand as well as back behind the well in the gallery.
Who can forget the Pie, and Jennifer Hayes Riedl, or paramedic Stark for that matter? I have to question the Pie's motives, aligning herself with the defense camp. Something is truly wrong when this individual is presenting themselves as "Lana's best friend," yet, the best they can do is trash Lana. Was all this for a potential reality series or a book deal? Did she sell out her friend that easily?
Edward Lozzi is a somewhat well known person who claims to have been Lana's publicist. As well meaning as Mr. Lozzi is, ~maybe he truly does want justice for Lana~ her family and friends never heard of him before her death, and he has never presented any documentation to substantiate his claim. At lunch on Monday, Mr. Lozzi told me that "he was hostile to both the prosecution and defense." I found that to be an odd statement coming from someone who says they represented Lana, and supposedly had her best interests at heart. As a publicist, one would think his goal would be to protect Lana's memory rather than question it. I also wonder how he could have represented Lana, and at the same time, be associated with Jodi "Babydol" Gibson, who, it appears, thanked him in her book.
Ms. Gibson is another I-need-my-15-minutes-so-I-can-sell-my-book individual who has tried to connected herself to Lana. Judge Fidler ruled that Ms. Gibson could only be called to the stand if Phil Spector took the stand. In the mean time, she was ordered in open court not to discuss Ms. Clarkson in any way, shape or form for the duration of the case. It still remains to be seen if the entries in her "trick book" are proven to be altered. It's been alleged that the trick book has been altered, by either Babydol or the defense investigator Tawni Tyndall, who both accessed it while it resides in police custody. There is an entry that appears to have been changed from Ana to LAna, and a 'Cl.' written after it.
Raul Julia Levy is another I-need-my 15-minutes-so-I-can-get-noticed character who has tried in insert himself into the case, claiming to have had a past association with Lana. When Judge Fidler ruled that he would not be permitted to testify, then someone spammed the Court TV Spector forum with tons of links to a web site that appeared to show a document where Raul Julia Levy filed a complaint with the California State Bar Association against Alan Jackson. No where have I found a reputable news organization that has verified the documents as being an authentic filing with the State Bar.
There are other trial watchers in the room who I believe are there to write a book on the case or, in the case of one attention seeking person, trying to get a famous diarist to stop what he's doing and write a book about them. You may recall that back in June, I wrote an entry titled "The back finally gives out," and mentioned someone who's cell phone went off in court. Well, during the morning session ccarrolladams (CCA) was whispering to someone sitting next to him ~I'll call that person "K,"~ and the cell phone person, "W" leaned forward and I clearly saw W mouth the words to CCA, "SHUT UP!" It was rude and uncalled for. In response, CCA told W where they could go. Well, the K person (whose real name I know but will NOT give them the satisfaction of seeing their name in print), who also felt they were in charge of telling others to "shush!" was ~ for the moment ~ apparently outraged that CCA responded with the words he did. During the rest of the morning session I observed W intensly chatting it up with K, probably giving K a greatly embellished account of what they thought of CCA.
During the morning session, after hearing the email testimony about coffee and cigs, within earshot of the family K was complaining to dini that Lana was a drug addict. (When I heard that I was dumbfounded!) dini replied, "Well then, most people are addicts with something."
A little background here. I've seen K at court several times. The first time K came, they sat in Linda Deutch's regular spot she likes to sit in. When I politely told K that that is a reporter's regular seat and they would have to move, K got a bit ruffled and said that "..'they' were part of the media, too." At the time, I found that doubtful because K did not have a yellow "Media" badge handed out by the court's liaison office, that all accredited press have. Not long after Linda made K move, K leaned into the first row and tried to talk to Fawn. I was quite surprised by this because, whether or not K truly is media or not, the family attorney made if very clear in their press releases early on, that the family would not speak to the press, and that the press was not to approach them.
A week ago Wednesday, K corralled Mr. Dunne and pressed him to have lunch with them. Cornered, he sat down at K's table. Another person tried to sit at the same table with them that day, but K angrily shooed them away. K was trying to convince Mr. Dunne to write their life story. From my understanding, Mr. Dunne was polite but firm, explaining that at this time in his life, he needed to concentrate on himself, and his own memoirs. My thought on the matter was, "Who would care about K's life story?" I've had my own family tragedy and disinheritance. So what? Just because this happened to me, that doesn't mean my sad story is some compelling event the masses would be clamoring to read about. You get over it, move on, and make your own way in the world. It's what I did.
Later that day, it was relayed to me that one of Spector's supporters (I don't know who this man is, but he was in court a few times) came up to K and said something to the effect of, "You're here networking. That's not right." The very next day, even though Mr. Dunne explained at lunch to K, that he could not write a book about K, they still brought a bunch of materials about their sad sob story, pressing the xeroxed pages into his hand, begging him to read it.
Fast forward to the lunch hour today. Dominick, CCA, myself and houdinisback (dini), are sitting at a table by ourselves. All the tables in the lunch room are these three foot square tables, and they barely fit four people, one on each side, comfortably. Standing inbetween CCA and dini, K spoke to CCA, trying to invite themselves to sit at our table! I was shocked silent. I had never seen anyone be so pushy. CCA politely said, "Perhaps tomorrow K, we're having a private conversation." K, not happy with that answer, then moved to the other side of dini, and next to Dominick, and said, "Well! I'm going to go over here and sit next to my FRIEND," insinuating Dominick was her personal friend. My jaw about licked my instep at this.
Totally blown away that this person has no sense of personal boundaries, dini didn't even finish her meal. She immediately got up from the table as fast as she could and CCA followed suit. dini felt that I should leave too, and I said that I needed to stay seated, to protect Dominick. K was oblivious to how rude their behavior was. I was amazed that K seemed unfazed that they had cleared a table faster than a whirling dervish. K made a comment about them leaving then immediately started to talk about the dust up between CCA and W that morning, trying to put their "spin" on the event, totally taking W's side. Dominick, not really understanding what K was talking about, turned to me and said, "Is this about _______?" I replied, "Yes, and I will explain it later." K interrupted me and kept saying something to the effect of, "I'm just telling what I saw!" I had to repeat to K several times, "There's more to this story than you know."
Not long after that, I felt I could not remain silent any longer, and addressed K. I said to K, in a very calm low toned voice, "I've watched you. I've observed you in court. I would not do what you do." And immediately, the rants came. I was "two-faced!" I was a terrible person. I would "never be a good writer!" I replied to that comment, "I never claimed I was." "You're jealous!" K ranted, and on, saying I "would never have the talent! I have the talent!" After a few minutes of K going on like this, I felt I'd stood enough and got up from the table, not even finishing my lunch. As I left I said, "I would never invite myself to a table." As I walked away, I was furious, and had to step outside to walk off some steam. At the same time, I was flabbergasted that K had no clue how absolutely rude and pushy their behavior was.
Upstairs in the hallway, I was still quite upset about what happened, and dini informed me what Dominick said to K after I left the table and how dini gave K a piece of her mind. Everyone was packed at the door, waiting for the deputy's to let us in for the afternoon session. Rachelle was there with her Mommy, and K made a point to cozy up to Rachelle. By this time, Dominick was standing with the rest of the group crowding the door, and was almost exactly behind K. Rachelle announced in a very loud voice, addressing K (and obviously everyone else listening), "Oh, I'm going to invite you to the Castle for the big party! " Then looking directly at Dominick Rachelle said, "There are some here who won't be invited!" Dominick immediately said, "I guess that remark was directed at me." You have to wonder about someone who would want to go to a party at an accused murder's house, with the accused present.
Dini writes about the afternoon session better than I do, so I'll let her take over this part.
"K has appointed themselves the gallery monitor, admonishing us to be quiet, hissing at me this afternoon when the jury hadn't even entered. 'Course, it's okay that K entertained the entire courtroom with their American Idol vocalizing that the cameramen were howling over.
I had to laugh out loud as K was pursuing all kinds of people up on the 9th floor before glomming onto Chelle and wangling that Castle invite.
For someone who was so vehement about LC's addictions, all I can observe is she's addicted to negative attention. Toni home perms and calories....if you know what I mean, and I think you do.
After the lunch break and before the jury came back in, K started talking in a very loud tone about how lame bloggers are.
K was seated with some people who I had never seen before who were about a notch above the street sleepers I pass on the way to the courthouse every morning.
They were all taking in absolutes about how bloggers can't spell "that's how you know they are bloggers"....according to them, "they all want to be *reporters* but can't make the cut," and "nobody reads them anyway".... Now, how they've come to these conclusions without having read them, I don't know, but dang, those libraries have computers, so guess they ran over there at lunch."
So now it comes to me, and whether or not I've "pursued" my own 15-minutes at this trial. I've had my critics very early on in writing about my trial experiences. I'm sure some have said I'm doing this for the attention, or to become a writer or wanna be reporter or even to write a book. The truth is much more simple. I've never claimed to be a writer, or even aspired to be one. Well, let me rephrase that, lol! Back when I was in high school, over thirty years ago, the English department put together a little mimeographed copied phamplet called The Kaleidoscope. The editors thought my poetry was pretty hot, because during my Junior and Senior year, I had just about the most entries ever published in their little compilation. So, for the longest time, I wrote poetry, and considered my self a "wanna be" poet, but never in a million years did I ever think that I would actually get my poetry published. It was something I did for me, and not for a gazillion people to read.
Personally, I prefer the format of message boards, also known as "forums." I've participated on quite a few crime forums for over four-and-a-half years. I really enjoy the dialog and the interaction between a variety of viewpoints that a message board ofers. It's quite different than a blog format. For the entire time that I've been posting on crime forums with the moniker of "Sprocket" (which happens to be the name of my oldest cat), I never had any interest in starting a blog. The only reason I did start one, was because it was becoming quite cumbersome and time consuming to share my Trial Notes on so many different message boards. Previously, I had gone to each board that had a discussion on Spector, and posted the same notes. I thought it would be much easier for me if I just started a blog, and linked to it at each crime forum.
That's it people. That's the only reason I started a blog. It was just to make it easy on myself. In fact, if you go to several of the crime forums in my "Places To Go" links, you will find on every crime forum my early Trial Notes. It was never to somehow "promote" my sewing or get a job as a writer. As far as continung to blog in general, once this trial is completely over, there isn't another trial that I will be covering anytime in the near future. I go back to my regular life, and kick my sewing into high gear. I find getting an entry up every day, or even every other day very difficult for me to do. That's because I am still seeing clients in the evenings and on the weekends, and I do have a husband to take care of and a house to maintain. I'm always amazed that Kim, of The Darwin Exception does it as well as she does. She's a much more consistent blogger, and she's actually quite funny to read. Kim, I've always been a big fan ever since I read my first entry.
Monday, August 13, 2007
She recognized "us"
"Are you Sprocket?" she asked. We were stunned. "Yes, I'm Sprocket," I replied. "I love your blog and read it all the time!, she said excitedly. Addressing houdinisback (dini), she exclaimed, "I recognized your photo with Beth Karas! And you, (addressing CCA) must be Dr. Adams! I thought it might be you when I read the reservation book."
But let me back up to earlier in the day before I spoil the surprise. dini told me that a Court TV poster, KatyDid, wanted to treat me, dini and CCA to a complimentary dinner. I was very skeptical at first. I just didn't feel right accepting an expensive dinner from someone I did not know. dini assured me that KatyDid was planning on coming to Los Angeles to attend the trial, but since real life issues kept her from traveling, she wanted to treat us to a special meal. It was then that I said okay. dini wanted to know where I wanted to go to eat. Since Mr. Sprocket and I don't eat out at fancy restaurants that much (that special diet ya know), I told dini that as long as I can get a steak and some green vegetables, you and CCA pick the place we're going to eat.
I drove to court so that it would be easy to just take my car into West Hollywood to CCA's condo, and depending on who took dini back to her hotel, I could easily drive home from the restaurant. It wasn't until court was almost over that dini told me where we were going to eat. We drove back to CCA's place, and were very lucky to find parking on his street. dini and I hung out on the Court TV Phil Spector forum for a couple of hours, joint posting about the testimony today.
CCA still wasn't feeling that well, so I drove to the restaurant. When we got seated at our table, we didn't know for sure but we were hoping that she still worked there, and that we might see her, or even a bigger secret wish of mine, that she would be our waiter. We were disappointed when our waiter was a totally different person. However, after our order had been taken and we had been served our table bread and wine, I spied her walking past. I immediately alerted dini. She was here! When she walked close to the table, we made sure to stop our conversation about the trial testimony. At the same time, we were amazed at how tiny and petite she is. Myself, I couldn't believe how naturally beautiful she was in person. Way prettier than what she looked like on TV. We were quite excited when she first brought our salad dressing to our table, and then came back with our salads. It was after she brought our salads that she totally shocked us by asking me if I was Sprocket. We were dining at The Grill on the Alley, and our waiter was Kathy Sullivan.
Kathy said she reads the message board and the blogs. She also asked about what happened with testimony today, because Court TV was having trouble with the online feed, and she wasn't able to watch as much as she liked. She wanted to know how Mrs. Clarkson held up on the stand, because she really thought it was terrible that Donna was called by the defense to the stand. Kathy told us that she has worked at The Grill for over sixteen years, and she really likes her job as a professional waiter. We asked her what she recommended for dessert. "The Key Lime pie," she said. Since she had just gotten off shift when she stopped by, we had a wonderful time visiting with her, and answering her questions about the trial.
We got Kathy to take some photos of us all sitting together at the table, as well as autograph a menu for us to send back to KatyDid as a big "Thank You" for treating us all to the wonderful meal.
But let me back up to earlier in the day before I spoil the surprise. dini told me that a Court TV poster, KatyDid, wanted to treat me, dini and CCA to a complimentary dinner. I was very skeptical at first. I just didn't feel right accepting an expensive dinner from someone I did not know. dini assured me that KatyDid was planning on coming to Los Angeles to attend the trial, but since real life issues kept her from traveling, she wanted to treat us to a special meal. It was then that I said okay. dini wanted to know where I wanted to go to eat. Since Mr. Sprocket and I don't eat out at fancy restaurants that much (that special diet ya know), I told dini that as long as I can get a steak and some green vegetables, you and CCA pick the place we're going to eat.
I drove to court so that it would be easy to just take my car into West Hollywood to CCA's condo, and depending on who took dini back to her hotel, I could easily drive home from the restaurant. It wasn't until court was almost over that dini told me where we were going to eat. We drove back to CCA's place, and were very lucky to find parking on his street. dini and I hung out on the Court TV Phil Spector forum for a couple of hours, joint posting about the testimony today.
CCA still wasn't feeling that well, so I drove to the restaurant. When we got seated at our table, we didn't know for sure but we were hoping that she still worked there, and that we might see her, or even a bigger secret wish of mine, that she would be our waiter. We were disappointed when our waiter was a totally different person. However, after our order had been taken and we had been served our table bread and wine, I spied her walking past. I immediately alerted dini. She was here! When she walked close to the table, we made sure to stop our conversation about the trial testimony. At the same time, we were amazed at how tiny and petite she is. Myself, I couldn't believe how naturally beautiful she was in person. Way prettier than what she looked like on TV. We were quite excited when she first brought our salad dressing to our table, and then came back with our salads. It was after she brought our salads that she totally shocked us by asking me if I was Sprocket. We were dining at The Grill on the Alley, and our waiter was Kathy Sullivan.
Kathy said she reads the message board and the blogs. She also asked about what happened with testimony today, because Court TV was having trouble with the online feed, and she wasn't able to watch as much as she liked. She wanted to know how Mrs. Clarkson held up on the stand, because she really thought it was terrible that Donna was called by the defense to the stand. Kathy told us that she has worked at The Grill for over sixteen years, and she really likes her job as a professional waiter. We asked her what she recommended for dessert. "The Key Lime pie," she said. Since she had just gotten off shift when she stopped by, we had a wonderful time visiting with her, and answering her questions about the trial.
We got Kathy to take some photos of us all sitting together at the table, as well as autograph a menu for us to send back to KatyDid as a big "Thank You" for treating us all to the wonderful meal.
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