Before Robin can make her exit, I tell the judge I will call her as my first witness. I want to hear what Robin and Joe Hofstra say first, so I can try to keep Lauren from getting sandbagged. Robin looks at the judge, who tells her to remain in the courtroom and directs her to the witness box. For this hearing she is wearing black heels, a red and green jumper, and a white blouse. She looks stunning. Her blond hair is soft and silky and has grown out since I last saw her. Since the only issue is her past sexual conduct, the judge cautions me to ask only the most basic preliminary questions, and in less than a minute I get to the point.
“Ms. Perry, have you at any time had a sexual relationship with Dr. Joe Hofstra?”
Though I expected to have to pull the story from her, Robin answers without any hesitation, “Yes, I did. It occurred last summer. I was in his history class the first term of summer school and began seeing him in June. I stopped seeing him at the end of the summer session in August. I haven’t been alone with him or talked to him since then.”
Binkie has her well prepared, and though I didn’t expect her to admit that she was sleeping with Hofstra at the time she was raped, I am impressed at how poised she is concerning a subject that has to be a source of embarrassment to her. I can’t imagine it will last too long.
There is too much pressure on her.
“Did you tell anyone you were having sexual relations with Dr. Hofstra?”
“I told Lauren Denney, who was my roommate last summer.”
“Did you tell Lauren Denney this fall approximately a week before you say you were raped by my client that you were still sleeping with Dr. Hofstra?”
Robin’s face flushes.
“No! I never told Lauren any such thing!”
I press her.
“You don’t recall having a conversation with her to that effect one day after cheerleading practice as you were walking across campus?”
“I didn’t tell her that!” Robin says, losing her compo sure.
“I hated Lauren by that time!”
She begins to cry. I ask, “You don’t recall telling Lauren that afternoon you’d do anything to keep the relation going with Dr. Hofstra, or words to that effect?”
“No! No! No!” Robin yells, wiping at her eyes.
“I didn’t ever, ever tell her any such thing.”
“Isn’t it a fact that you hated Lauren, in part at least, because you were afraid she would tell others that you had been sleeping with your professor?”
“She’s a liar!” Robin blurts.
“I knew I couldn’t trust her not to tell, even though she said she wouldn’t.”
“But you told somebody, didn’t you?” I ask, knowing I have an easy guess.
“Didn’t you tell your roommate this fall. Shannon Kennsit?”
Binkie gets to his feet and objects, “Your Honor, who she told is irrelevant.”
Judge Franklin shakes his head, not even requiring me to respond.
“I don’t think so. Answer the question.”
Robin, still wiping her eyes, answers, “I can trust Shannon. I did tell her.”
“Isn’t it a fact that you trusted Lauren enough to share an apartment for three months last summer?”
“I didn’t know her very well,” Robin says, sniffing.
“You had been a cheerleader with her the entire past year, hadn’t you?” I scoff, and wait for her answer.
Robin mumbles, “But I still didn’t know her.”
This is a good stopping place, but I need to get her to admit how intimate she and Hofstra became.
“How often did you see Dr. Hofstra last summer?”
Binkie pops out of his chair.
“Objection, Your Honor!
The issue is whether Ms. Perry was raped by Dade Cunningham in October, not what was happening in the summer.”
On my feet, I respond, “The issue is her credibility.
Your Honor. If this was a casual, one-time thing, it might be a lot easier to believe her testimony that she broke it off.”
“Answer the question,” Judge Franklin says, looking at Robin.
Binkie is furious, but he can’t do a thing except sit down. Robin blushes deeply.
“I would go up to his office after class two or three times a week to talk to him.”
“How many times did you have intercourse?” I press.
Binkie again objects.
“Your Honor, that question is irrelevant,” he says.
“It doesn’t prove one thing in this case.”
“I would hope it tends to show. Your Honor,” I say, “how deeply involved they were.” I look at Franklin, willing him to agree. The more specifics I can get out of her, the more likely Hofstra is to contradict her.
“You have to answer,” Franklin instructs her.
Robin closes her eyes as if she has begun to pray. If Sarah could have known what Robin would go through, I doubt she would have given me any information.
“I think,” she says through her tears, “six separate occasions.”
I draw out the moment, pretending I am making notes.
“Where did these six separate acts of intercourse take place?”
“I met him every time at the Ozark Motel.”
The Ozark! I almost laugh out loud. I haven’t even watched a dirty movie there.
“Who paid for the room?”
Binkie objects, and Judge Franklin tells me to move on.
“That’s not what is at issue here” he says, giving me a hard look.
I could make an argument, but not wanting to piss him off, I don’t.
“Why did you end the relationship in August?”
Robin’s eyes are as red as the material of her dress.
“I felt guilty,” she says, her voice now thin and reedy like an old woman’s.
“I met his wife and children at his office.
Before I went home that weekend, I told him we had to stop. He knew it, too, and agreed we shouldn’t see each other again.”
Until she came back for the fall semester, I think, certain my cynicism is justified.
“So either you or Lauren is lying about whether you said you were still involved with your professor in October, is that correct?”
“I’m telling the truth!” Robin insists.
“Tell me, Ms. Perry,” I say, unconcerned what her answer will be, “did you care about the truth of the statements that were being told to Professor Hofstra’s wife on the six occasions you slept with him?”
Binkie is on his feet objecting.
“Your Honor, there is no evidence of any statements. Counsel is assuming facts not in evidence. I doubt if he was going home and telling his wife, “Honey, I had some really great sex with a student today.”
” “Sustained,” Judge Franklin rules, smirking at me.
Though I violate the law school rule that a lawyer is supposed to end crossexamination with some kind of admission, if possible, I pass the witness to Binkie. I have made my point. If you’re having an illicit affair, it is a little hard to stand up and brag about what an honest person you are, whether you’ve told any outright lies or not.
Walking even slower than usual, Binkie comes over to the podium and has Robin reinforce her testimony that she broke off the relationship with Hofstra during the summer, but he stays away from the details of the affair except its time frame.
“Did you go home or remain at the university the end of the second semester summer school in August?”
Robin, who is no longer crying, says, “My algebra exam was over August eleventh, and I didn’t return to school until almost two weeks later for the fall term.”
Binkie, slouching against the podium, asks, “Did you have any contact with Dr. Hofstra during this period?”
“None at all,” Robin responds.