She tells this to the State Attorney, and she repeatedly tells it to the defense attorneys who come at her one after the other, trying to shake her story. In the transcript, each attorney is initially identified as he begins his cross, and then the form reverts to a simple Q and A, so that it is not necessary each time, over and over again, to indicate MR. AIELLO for Tran’s attorney or MR. SILBERKLEIT for Ho’s, or MRS. LEEDS for Jessica herself, it is Q and A, Q and A, Q and…
A: I got out of the car to change it. I didn’t realize I was going to be raped.
Q: Objection, Your Honor. We are here precisely to determine whether…
A: Yes, yes, sustained, Mr. Aiello. The jury will please ignore the witness’s answer.
The “A” this time is from the Circuit Court judge hearing the case, a man named Sterling Dooley, who has a reputation as a hanging judge. The team of defense attorneys — there are eight of them sitting at the defense table — would have preferred a different judge. They did, in fact, ask for a change of venue because of the publicity the rape (or alleged rape, as they would have it) generated in the media, but their request was denied. So they are stuck with Dooley, who now asks the clerk to please read Aiello’s question again—
“What did you do when you discovered the flat tire?”
— and the Q and A continues.
A: I got out of the car to change it.
Q: Yourself?
A: Yes, myself. I was alone.
Q: I mean… don’t you belong to any club offering emergency road service?
A: No, I don’t.
Q: Couldn’t you have called a garage?
A: I know how to change a tire.
Q: But the way you were dressed…
A: The way I was dressed has nothing to do with changing a tire.
Q: I merely thought… high heels… a short skirt…
A: Objection, Your Honor.
This from the State Attorney. Skye Bannister himself. In person. Hair as golden as wheat, eyes the color of his given name. Tall and rangy and enormously good-looking. Undoubtedly leaping to his feet in high dudgeon.
A: Sustained. Leave off that line of questioning, please, Mr. Aiello.
Q: Couldn’t you have called your husband to help you?
A: I didn’t want to get him out of bed.
Q: You knew he was in bed, did you?
A: He had a cold. He was in bed when I left the house that night.
Q: And this was now what time?
A: A quarter after ten.
Q: So naturally, you didn’t want to get him out of bed. Was it a quarter after ten exactly?
A: I can’t say exactly. I’m assuming it took me ten minutes or so to walk to the car and put my packages in the trunk.
Q: And you say there were three men standing outside the back door to the restaurant when you…
A: Yes. The defendants. The three men sitting right…
Q: I haven’t asked you to identify anyone, Mrs. Leeds.
A: Well, that’s who they were.
Q: Your Honor…
A: Yes, strike all that. Witness will please not offer testimony unless it is asked for.
Q: Did you speak to these men?
A: No.
Q: Had you seen these men prior to this time — a quarter after ten, you say it was?
A: Around a quarter after ten. No, I hadn’t seen them before then.
Q: That was the very first time you saw them.
A: Yes.
Q: But you’re not sure it was a quarter after ten exactly.
A: Not exactly. But certainly around then.
Q: Could it have been half past ten?
A: I don’t think so. It wouldn’t have taken me that long to walk back to the car.
Q: How about twenty to eleven? Could it have been twenty to eleven?
A: No.
Q: Or ten to eleven? Could it have been ten to eleven?
A: No. I told you, it was…
Q: Or a quarter after…
A: No, it was.
Q: Let me finish the question, please.
A: I thought you were finished.
Q: Could it have been a quarter after eleven? Rather than a quarter after ten?
A: No, it was a quarter after ten.
Q: Mrs. Leeds, what time did you arrive at the mall that night?
A: Around eight o’clock.
Q: To do your shopping.
A: Yes.
Q: Was it dark when you arrived?
A: Yes.
Q: And did you park your car behind The Pagoda at that time?
A: Yes.
Q: Were there lights behind the restaurant?
A: Yes.
Q: Was there anyone standing out back at that time?
A: I didn’t see anyone.
Q: Didn’t you see three men standing there, smoking cigarettes? Under the light over the back door?
A: No, I didn’t see anyone.
Q: Didn’t you see the three men you later…
A: No.
Q: Your Honor, may I please be allowed to complete my question?
A: Mrs. Leeds, please listen to the entire question, won’t you, before you answer? Go ahead, Mr. Aiello.
Q: At eight o’clock that night, when you parked your car behind the restaurant, didn’t you see the three men you later claim…
A: Objection, Your Honor.
Skye Bannister again.
“Mrs. Leeds has already stated that she did not see anyone standing behind the restaurant. Mr. Aiello is merely asking the same question in a different guise. And it has already been answered.”
“Mr. Aiello?”
“Your Honor, we have heard a previous witness testifying to the fact that a conversation took place between Mrs. Leeds and the three defendants shortly after she parked her car that night. We have heard from the defendants themselves what the content of that conversation was. I am merely trying to refresh Mrs. Leeds’s memory of the exchange.”
“I’ll allow the question.”
Q: Mrs. Leeds, isn’t it true that as you were getting out of your car, you turned to the three defendants and said, ‘Good evening, boys’?
A: No.
Q: You didn’t see them, so naturally you couldn’t have said anything like that to them.
A: I wouldn’t have said anything to them in any case.
Q: Well, ‘Good evening’ is only a form of greeting, isn’t it? Nothing provocative about that. Nothing seductive. Why couldn’t you have said, ‘Good evening, boys’?
A: Because I’m not in the habit of talking to strange men.
Q: Especially when they’re invisible, isn’t that so?
A: I don’t understand your question.
Q: Well, you said they weren’t there, didn’t you? That means they were invisible.
A: No, that means they weren’t there.
Q: You only saw them later.
A: Yes.
Q: These same three men.
A: Yes. No. I didn’t see anyone at eight o’clock, I only saw these men when I came back to the car.
Q: At a quarter after ten…
A: Yes.
Q: … or a quarter after eleven, whenever it was.
A: It was a quarter after ten. I’ve already told you…
A: Really, Mr. Aiello.
Q: I’m sorry. Your Honor, but if you’ll allow me…
A: Where are you going?
Q: I am trying to show, Your Honor, that the witness’s account of what happened at what time, or what was said at what time, is confusing at best. And if she’s confused about the basic facts of the…
A: I’m not confused about anything that happened that night. You’re the one who’s trying to confuse the facts!
Q: Your Honor, may I please proceed?
A: Let’s hear where you’re going, Mr. Aiello.
Q: Thank you. Mrs. Leeds, you say these three men were standing outside the back door of the restaurant, smoking under the light back there, when you returned to your car at a quarter after ten.
A: Yes.
Q: You heard them testify earlier, did you not, that they were in the kitchen at that time, washing dishes?
A: I heard them, yes.
Q: One of you must be mistaken, don’t you think?
A: Not me.
Q: You heard them testify, did you not, that the only time they saw you was at eight, when you parked the car?
A: I heard them.
Q: Are they mistaken about that, too?
A: Or lying.
Q: And were they lying when they said you showed a great deal of leg while you were getting out of the car…
A: No one was there when I got out of the car!
Q: And that you said, ‘Good evening, boys.’ Was that a lie? The testimony of all three men to that effect?
A: It was a lie.
Q: Did you hear the testimony of the chef, Mr. Kee Lu, to the effect that these three men were in the kitchen washing dishes at a quarter past ten and could not possibly have been outside smoking at that time?
A: I heard him.
Q: But he must be mistaken, too. Or lying. Or both.
A: If he says they weren’t outside, then he’s lying.
Q: You alone are telling the truth.
A: About that, yes.
Q: But not about anything else?
A: I’m telling the truth about everything.
Q: As, of course, you’ve sworn to do. But you say these others are lying.
A: If they claim…
Q: Everyone’s lying but you, is that it, Mrs. Leeds? But isn’t it possible that you’re confusing what happened at eight o’clock with what happened at a quarter past ten?
A: I wasn’t raped at eight o’clock!
Q: Nor has anyone said you were. But, tell me… were you worried about getting raped when you parked the car?
A: No.
Q: While you were parking the car, you weren’t concerned about the possibility of rape?
A: No, I didn’t even consider that possibility.
Q: Because if you had, you might have parked the car elsewhere, isn’t that so?
A: There weren’t very many spaces left when I got to the mall. Anyway, it’s an expensive car, I was worried it might get damaged. So I parked it away from the other cars.
Q: But if you’d considered the possibility of rape, you might have parked elsewhere, isn’t that so?
A: No, it was only a short walk to the mall.
Q: You weren’t worried about getting raped on your short walk from the car to the mall, were you?
A: No.
Q: Or on your walk back to the car after the mall closed, were you?
A: No.
Q: So, really, Mrs. Leeds, you weren’t worried at all about getting raped there where you’d parked the car, were you?
A: No, I did not expect to be raped.
Q: When you came back to the car, did you expect to be raped then?
A: No.
Q: Even though there were three men standing there behind the restaurant?
A: I knew they worked there.
Q: How did you know that?
A: They looked like kitchen help.
Q: Isn’t it possible that you weren’t afraid of getting raped at a quarter past ten because there was no one there to rape you at that time?
A: Oh, they were there, all right.
Q: But not when you say they were there.
A: Objection!
A: Was that a question, Mr. Aiello?
Q: I’ll rephrase it. Your Honor. What time was it when you claim to have seen these three men?
A: A quarter past ten! How many times do I…?
Q: While they were washing dishes in the restaurant kitchen!
A: No! While they were raping me on the hood of the goddamn…
Q: Objection!
A: Sustained. Please answer the question, Mrs. Leeds.
A: That’s the only time I ever saw them. The only place I ever saw them. While I was being…
Q: No further questions.