Page 20 of The 24th Hour

The expected time limit for an opening statement is fifteen minutes. Yuki glanced at her watch. She was six minutes shy of fifteen, so she picked up the story where she’d left off, this time with more energy.

She said, “The apparent victim told Sergeant Boxer that her name was Loretta, but when the sergeant located her wallet, the name listed was Mary Elena Hayes. Apart from Ms. Hayes, there was only one other person in the changing room: the defendant, Tyler Cates, who worked in the kitchen. Sergeant Boxer located him half hidden behind a locker door. He was also naked from the waist down.

“At that point, Mr. Cates told Sergeant Boxer that the name of the woman on the floor was Olivia, not Loretta, that she was a liar, and that she had asked him for rough sex. He admitted, and we have his sworn statement, that he’d had sexwith Olivia but insisted that she was the one who’d initiated it and directed him as to when and how.”

Yuki continued the narrative, stating that Sergeant Boxer had called for help from a doctor. San Francisco’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Claire Washburn, then came upstairs. Dr. Washburn gave Ms. Hayes a cursory examination while she waited for an ambulance to arrive. At about that time, backup in the form of two uniformed officers took Mr. Cates into custody to SFPD’s Southern Station, right here in this building two floors up.

Yuki said, “Mr. Cates was questioned and he gave a statement to detectives before hiring an attorney. This interview was videotaped and will be entered into evidence by Sergeants McNeil and Chi, who interviewed Mr. Cates, and who will testify and show the videotape.

“But here’s the main point. Mr. Cates told the detectives that when Mary Elena came into the room, he called out, ‘Hey. Who are you?’ And Ms. Hayes told him that her name was Mary Elena.

“That is a seemingly innocuous verbal exchange but let me repeat it again. When asked her name, Ms. Hayes told Mr. Cates that her name was Mary Elena. The answer is pivotal to determining what happened in Xe Sogni that day.

“Let me shift gears for a moment. Ms. Hayes has a mental disorder known as dissociative identity disorder, or DID. It was formerly known as split personality, or multiple personality disorder. In the course of this trial, you will hear from two highly qualified psychiatric experts who will tell you about this disorder and what it means to have alternatepersonalities. It’s possible that while Ms. Hayes is testifying, one or more of those personalities will emerge.

“But for now, the critical point to know and remember is that this syndrome is the psychological result of severe childhood trauma. Some of those afflicted with this disorder may have two or even dozens of alternate personalities who exist to protect ‘the body’—in this case, Ms. Hayes—from danger.”

Yuki explained to the jurors that it was a crime to have sex with a person whose mental disorder makes it impossible for them to give informed consent.

“Here’s how we know that Mr. Cates understood that Ms. Hayes had a psychological disability: Mary Elena Hayes told Mr. Cates her given name, Mary Elena. But she almost immediately felt threatened by Mr. Cates, which caused Olivia, one of her alternate personalities, to emerge. Olivia is a peacemaker and a people pleaser, and she moved Mary Elena out of the picture and dealt with Mr. Cates as best she could.

“But Olivia was no match for Mr. Cates. When she couldn’t distract him or otherwise hold him off, another of Ms. Hayes’s personalities, a tougher personality called Loretta, stepped in to fight back. Instead, Loretta absorbed the violent abuse. It was Loretta who told Sergeant Boxer, ‘He raped us.’

“Us. Mary Elena, Olivia, and Loretta.”

Yuki turned her head and briefly took in the gallery, the counsel table, and the defense table, where Tyler Cates’s expression was as flat as a wall. As Yuki walked back to the prosecution table, she felt all the people in the courtroom watching her.

CHAPTER 21

CINDY THOMAS AND a dozen other avid journalists had stampeded around the Hall of Justice to the back entrance and, once there, had been flatly turned away by security guards. No surprise, really, but Cindy felt personally attached to Mary Elena, who’d been attacked and raped while the Women’s Murder Club had been lunching on caviar.

Trying again to get into the courtroom, this time through the front door, Cindy maintained her pole position in the lead while Alison Kiel from theAmerican Enquirerquestioned her, trying to make friends, hoping to follow her into the Hall. Cindy put on extra speed. By the time she and the rest of the pack reached the Hall’s front entrance and cleared security, court was in session.

Cindy adjusted her computer bag, hoisting its weight onto her shoulder as she took the elevator up to the second floor. Clearly, she’d wasted time trying to snare a quote from Yuki or Mary Elena, but hell, she’d had to try. She hoped that Louie Mack, one of the two court officers who manned thedoors to Courtroom 8G, would hold “her” seat in the last row and would admit her to the court while it was in session.

Cindy didn’t see Louie outside the courtroom as she headed toward it, and then, as if he could see through six inches of oak—he opened the door.

“Anybody else would be left standing in the hall,” he said.

“Thanks, Louie. I was chasing a scoop. How’d you know?”

He said, “ADA Castellano texted me. Get in here. Quick.”

Cindy edged into her seat, closest to the door. She plugged her devices into the socket in the baseboard and checked the time, again. It was later than she’d thought. Yuki was winding up her opening statement. Damn it. Cindy loved to watch Yuki work and now she’d missed her setup for the trial.

“Shit.”

The woman sitting in the seat to her left gave her a hard look. Cindy ignored her and concentrated on Yuki.

CHAPTER 22

YUKI SUBMITTED THREE copies of each of her exhibits to the clerk: the photos of Mary Elena’s injuries, the transcript and a thumb drive of the police interview with Tyler Cates before he lawyered up, with a video of the interview. The clerk logged the exhibits and passed them to the judge for his approval. Defense counsel had already seen them so the clerk delivered the exhibits to the jury, who, to Yuki’s eye, still looked a little shocked from her opening.

When the exhibits had been viewed and returned to the clerk, Yuki addressed the jurors again.

“As you saw from the photos, Ms. Hayes suffered a vicious attack. Mr. Cates punched her, strangled her, pulled her legs apart, and forcibly penetrated her. As you will see on the videotape, Mr. Cates claimed that Ms. Hayes ‘asked for it.’

“It will be up to you to decide if her screams contradict this statement.

---