Page 21 of The 24th Hour

“During the course of this trial, we will introduce noted psychologist Dr. Laurie Birney, a specialist in the field ofdissociative identity disorder. We will also introduce you to Dr. Stuart Aronson, Ms. Hayes’s treatment psychiatrist, who will testify about her condition and how it affects her emotions and behavior.”

Yuki explained, “Alternate personalities, Olivia and Loretta, took over for Ms. Hayes when she was experiencing terrible fear, pain, and stress. This happens when the dominant personality, Mary Elena, is ‘bumped’ into a dark place that people with this disorder often call ‘lost time.’ This lost time is a form of amnesia and a hallmark of DID. Accordingly, Ms. Hayes does not remember what happened to her in the changing room at Xe Sogni, but it cannot be disputed. The beating and the rape did occur, and we will prove this to you with medical reports and forensic evidence showing a 100 percent match to Mr. Cates’s DNA.”

There was a murmur in the gallery that was shut down of its own accord. What would the ADA say next?

Yuki was pacing now, looking down at the floor as she collected her thoughts. Keiko’s calming voice was in her head:Okay now, my daughter, you are doing very well.

Yuki launched the next and last part of her opening. “The defendant did indeed assault and rape Ms. Hayes. And whether or not he knew what Ms. Hayes’s mental disorder was called, he knew that her name and personality changes that took place in his presence were not normal. Still, he violently assaulted her, sexually penetrated her as she screamed for help. Mr. Cates chose to take advantage of the situation, possibly thinking that it was his lucky day.”

Ed Schneider objected to Yuki’s putting her thoughts into his client’s mouth and Judge St. John sustained his objection,ordering Yuki’s last comment stricken from the record. Yuki felt it was a price worth paying.

She thanked the court and said, “We’ve concluded our opening statement.”

Yuki returned to the counsel table, nearest to the jury box. She took her seat on the aisle and leaned across Gaines and whispered to Mary Elena, “Okay?”

Mary Elena said softly, “We’re fine.”

Gaines gave Yuki a hearty thumbs-up and then Judge St. John addressed the defense.

“Mr. Schneider, please proceed with your opening statement.”

CHAPTER 23

YUKI HAD NEVER met Ed Schneider, but he was well-known in California as a cutthroat criminal defense attorney with an impressive batting average. Now, Tyler Cates’s attorney rose to his feet. He buttoned his jacket and staked out a position behind the podium in the center of the well. Facing the jury box, he began to dismantle Yuki’s platform, one board at a time.

“Your Honor, good people of the jury. I don’t intend to take an hour to give the defense opening statement. The witnesses will fill you in on the events that took place in Xe Sogni because they were there.

“For now, let me say this.

“The defendant did not know that the plaintiff had a theoretical mental illness that blocks out real words and actions happening in actual present time. Why is knowledge of this theoretical mental illness critical to the prosecution’s case?

“It’s critical because my client has sworn that he did not know that there was anything wrong with Ms. Hayes. If hehad known, it would have meant that Ms. Hayes could not give consent to having sex with him. That is the prosecution’s case because sex without consent with a disabled person is a crime.

“There was no witness to the commission of the sex act, let alone that the defendant believed Ms. Hayes was mentally disabled. Ms. Hayes told my client that she wanted to have sex.

“Furthermore, when I say that Ms. Hayes’s disorder is ‘theoretical,’ I mean there is no scientific proof that DID even exists. It’s simply theory. Guesswork and make-work for untold numbers of psychiatrists, psychologists, psychiatric researchers, and social workers. However well-meaning, the expertise of these people lies in detecting and analyzing symptoms, then labeling them as mental disorders. They are not scientists, and I repeat, scientific evidence of DID does not exist.

“For example, a theory of another psychological disorder: It’s been posited by psychiatrists for decades that depression is caused by a shortage of serotonin, a feel-good neurochemical produced in the brain. Until lately, the theory has been that early trauma causes the human brain to create additionalreceptorsfor this neurochemical. The effect of many additional receptors, according to this theory, is that the serotonin is sucked up into those receptors so quickly that it does not sufficiently bathe the brain cells with feel-good serotonin, and so the individual becomes depressed.

“Ever hear of a book calledListening to Prozac? This book posits that if a patient responds to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, like Prozac, they are therefore sufferingfrom a shortage of serotonin, ergo, their depression is a psychiatric disorder and can be treated by serotonin.

“Manufacturers of a huge class of these selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors sold them by the boatload. Not long ago, it was proven that this theory—sold as ‘science’—is faulty. SSRIs cured nothing. But Big Pharma pushed the theory disguised as proof and made billions.

“Back to the case at hand. Actually, there is no medication for DID. Psychoanalysis is recommended. Meditation. Learning what trauma triggers the presence of so-called ‘alters.’ Tranquilizers. In other words, there’s no standard of proof that DID exists. I could go down the list of psychological disorders where the proof is in the interpretation of symptoms, not in physical structures or provable disorders.

“Tyler Cates has common sense and a tenth-grade education. He washes vegetables and dishes for a living. He did not know if Mary Elena Hayes had dissociative identity disorder or a vivid imagination or just wanted to get roughed up by an attractive stranger. He didn’t know, I don’t know, and whatever Ms. Hayes says, I honestly say to her, ‘You have a big and active imagination. You put yourself in a situation you couldn’t control. You shouldn’t do that again.’

“Mr. Cates couldn’t take advantage of this so-called mentally disabled person who could not or did not give consent, because only the two of them were present in that changing room. There is no way to establish if Ms. Hayes has such a mental condition or if it just makes for good fiction or a rationale after the fact. At any rate, Tyler Cates didn’t know a thing about it. Mary Elena Hayes, by any name, came on to him. He complied with her wishes.”

Ed Schneider strode heavily back to the defense table, roughly pulled out his chair, and when it snagged on the table leg, he wrangled it into submission and sat down.

Schneider didn’t intimidate Yuki and she’d remained unfazed while he spoke. Now it was time for Yuki to call her first witness.

CHAPTER 24

JOE WRENCHED THE steering wheel, sending his old Mercedes into a hard right turn around the curve on California Street. Bao fell against her seat belt, then was thrown back in her seat as Joe, staying close to Cyber Security Incorporated’s Tesla, climbed the forty-five-degree incline of Jones Street. Bao hung on to the armrest, and as Joe took the hilly roads, she told him what she knew about Thordarson and Wooten.

“Sveinn Thordarson graduated MIT with honors in math—Jeez, Joe.”

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