Page 76 of Choose Us
The witness testimonies were harder to come by; there was nobody with Mr. Wilde at the scene. There was nobody at the urinal at the same time, so there was nobody to corroborate his story. The only witness testimonies we had were character testimonies. They aimed to prove that the idea of Mr. Wilde committing sexual assault was ludicrous.
The provable factswere simple.
Mr. Wilde was assaulted—the physical injuries and the CCTV evidenceproved this.
Mr. Wilde was alone at the urinal with the assailant—CCTV evidence inside the pub saw Mr. Wilde enter first followed quickly by the assailant.
What couldn’t be proved was the alleged sexual assault. They were only alone in the toilet for three minutes before another gentleman walked in. When that gentleman was questioned, he recalled nothing out of the ordinary other than Mr. Wilde leavingin a hurry.
The police reports didn’t throw out any errors that I could see. The defences strategy was simple—self-defence. People were allowed to use “reasonable force” to defend themselves, but they were not allowed to carry on attacking someone when they were no longer in danger. Mr. Carlton attacked Mr. Wilde unprovoked; the CCTVshowed that.
The opening statement was critical to any case. Jurors often make up their minds about a case right after the opening statement, so it was vital I started strong and contradicted as much of the defence’s opening statement as possible. I spent a lot of time preparing my opening statements, but sometimes it was the bits you didn’t prepare that turned out to be the most effective.
Judge Baron sat stiffly in the judge’s bench. She had on a pair of petite rectangular glasses which sat on the end of her pointed nose. Her permed grey hair looked freshly cut, not a curl was out of place. Her facial expression rarely changed. With some judges you could see the humanity in their faces, the emotion that consumed us all, but with Judge Baron, her lips remained tight, her eyes wide and observant, nothing ever slipped past her. She knew every trickin the book.
She gestured to me, “Miss Garland, please provide the court with your openingstatement.”
I nodded. “Thank you, your honour.”
I slipped from behind the mahogany desk, taking one last glance at my notes strewn across it. I buttoned up the jacket of my pinstripe grey suit, a solid choice that morning because the defence attorney wore a navy-blue suit, which would’ve been my first choice had I not forgotten to pick it up from the dry cleaners. My hair was poker straight and recently cut. I made an effort for court.
“Good afternoon, my name is Holly Garland. On May 21st, 2021, the victim in this matter, Mr. Wilde, was severely assaulted. That is a fact. The evidence you see today will prove that. The defence will argue the reason he was assaulted was in retaliation. I will prove today through several witness testimonies and evidence that this isn’t true.” I pointed towards Mr. Wilde for dramatic effect.
“Members of the jury, this case is simple. Mr. Wilde is the victim here, not the perpetrator. Mr Carlton’s accusation of sexual assault came from nowhere, an accusation several witnesses will testify is completely out of character for Mr. Wilde and frankly not believable. The defence informed you in their opening statement that they have witness testimonies, one in particular who claims to have found Mr. Carlton visibly distressed in the urinal moments before he goes out and beats Mr. Wilde in the parking lot, but what the defence failed to tell you was their witness has a history of lying to the police, and a criminal record which we will address further.”
I walked before the Jury acknowledging them one by one; eye contact was key.
“The defence will try to convince you the alleged sexual assault in the urinal was Mr. Carlton’s motive. Why else would he conduct himself insuch a way?”
I pausefor effect.
“Three fractures, yes three. Imagine how much force someone must use to cause that kind of damage. You can see the scarring on the side of Mr. Wilde’s face as he sits here today. That scarring will haunt him for the rest of his life.”
The jurors’ eyes flicked to Mr. Wilde.
“What was the motive? It’s simple. According to his defence, Mr. Carlton is a happily married man, but he is also known to frequent dating apps. I’m not here to judge Mr. Carlton on his extracurricular activities outside of his marriage, but the evidence will prove Mr. Carlton was known to partake in homosexualbehaviour.”
There was a faint gasp from the courtroom; I didn’t turn to see the origin, but I imagine it involved someone on Mr. Carlton’s side.
“I have several witness testimonies that will paint a picture for you. It is a picture of a man trapped in a marriage, a man unable to accept his true sexual identity, a man who attempted to make advances on Mr. Wilde, and a man who was met with rejection. That would bruise any man’s ego, right? Even worse it would cause Mr. Carlton to panic. The fear of Mr. Wilde walking into the pub and telling people he’d had advances made by the “cock” of the town would ruin Mr. Carlton’s reputation. Instead, Mr. Carlton followed Mr. Wilde into the parking lot and beat him half to death.”
I let those words sink in. Mr. Carlton refused to make eye contact with me, but I knew I’dhit a nerve.
“Members of the jury, please consider all the evidence put before you. At the conclusion of this trial I will ask you to find my clientnot guilty.”
The rest of the day went smoothly. Fully in my favour? I wasn’t sure, but I was quietly confident. Mr. Carlton’s defence based a large part of their argument around the police statement Mr. Wilde had provided. The original statement claimed there was no sexual assault or any advances by either party. After speaking with my office, Mr. Wilde agreed to alter his statement to contain the full truth. I had to convince the jury of his credibility despite the statement change.
My response to the defence’s attack on his statementwas simple.
“Mr. Wilde is a respected man. He isn’t violent, and he tries to avoid confrontation as the evidence I have shown today clarifies. You can go all the way back to high school where he was horrifically bullied for years because he wouldn’t fight back. Mr. Wilde will tell you he was taunted in his early twenties and often called homosexual because of his mild nature and his avoidance of male chauvinistic behaviour. He didn’t want another reason to be abused, hence why he didn’t mention Mr. Carlton’s unwanted advances until he absolutely had to. The advances were no more than a glance over the urinal and a throwaway comment.”
After hearing witness testimony we adjourned for lunch.
I casually checked my phone; it was an automatic thing in the twenty-first century. I wasn’t expecting to see anything in particular, but I absolutely did not predict a missed callfromBrooke.
My stomach dropped all the way to my feet. My body should’ve been used to it by now; the fight or flight response was on alert. My heart raced, and my instinct for self-preservation kickedinto focus.
I’d had no contact with Brooke since our conversation at Beth’s apartment almost two weeks ago. I’d blocked her phone number on my return home from Japan. Did it feel slightly childish? Yes, but survival instincts took over, and I had to find a way to get through my first week back.
