"Hillocks of Sweetness"

And talking of installments...

You Be the Jury ...Here's part one of a serial, addressing the myth?at least a myth in California these days?that a criminal defendant should be convicted or acquitted based on whether he or she had committed the crime, not on whether he or she had committed prior misdeeds and is therefore a bad person who should be put away. This principle was a basic part of California jurisprudence for many, many years. Not anymore.

This week, the facts of the case.

In May of 1997, April C., 29 years old at the time, was living with her husband Michael in an apartment in a town north of Los Angeles. Not long before Mother's Day, April and Michael encountered Robert F. downtown. All three were members of the Association for Retarded Citizens (here and after referred to as The Arc). Michael invited Robert to stay with them, a course of action April later claimed perturbed her because she had been told by Kathleen W.?another member of The Arc?that Robert had once raped her in a motel room. April informed Michael that she feared Robert would rape her too.

Robert duly moved in with April and Michael on May 10. The three of them watched the Playboy channel and adult movies on several occasions, a practice hitherto enjoyed by the couple, though April later claimed she told her husband she didn't think Robert should be in the party. April testified that Robert asked her to have sex on numerous occasions. The first incident occurred when April was showering while Robert used the toilet in the nude. April tried to dress and urged Robert to do the same. Instead he touched her breasts, buttocks and vagina with his penis. April later testified she told Robert this wasn't nice and furthermore didn't feel good. She contends she screamed for help, and though Michael was in the apartment doing dishes at the time, he did nothing. April believes he heard her cries and knew what was going on.

Michael did however forbid a subsequent overture by Robert in which he attempted to remove April's clothes. Later the same day, while Michael was relaxing in the living room, Robert followed April into the bedroom. April says she commanded him to stop, but he put his penis on her breasts and buttocks and in her vagina. A similar episode took place a few days later.

The final incident took place when Robert, naked at the time, was rubbing April's back and telling her that he loved her. April rejoined that she did not share this emotion. April's brother-in-law Jeff?taller than Robert?was showering in the bathroom at the time, said bathroom being accessible only through the bedroom. Robert asked April to take off her clothes but she demurred, saying that Jeff might come in and call the police. Robert then forced April's head down on his penis and asked her to suck on it. They fought physically, with April pushing the appellant in the stomach and kicking his penis. But Robert seized April's hands and pushed her head onto his penis again. April testified later that Robert used his fingers to plug up her nose, forcing her to open her mouth. Then he put his penis in her mouth. April says she told Robert this was not polite, and said "No" when Robert asked her if he could repeat the activity.

Cross-examination during Robert's subsequent trial for rape elicited contradictions in April's memory of how long she had been married to Michael, with statements to the effect that the duration had been six months, then six years. April had divorced Michael not long after the assault by Robert. April conceded that while Robert had been staying with her and Michael, they lived in the same room and in the same bed, watching movies together. She also said it was Michael's idea to watch the Playboy channel; that he had prevented her from calling the police, and that she had declined all invitations from Robert to have genital or oral sex. She also conceded that though her brother-in-law Jeff was showering at the time of the charged oral copulation, she did not scream for help.

In the trial a deputy sheriff testified that he had interviewed April two days after she called the police. Then she had seemed hesitant and upset. She told the deputy that the three had often watched movies together in their bedroom; that she and Robert had been having sex together for three months, beginning on Mother's Day; that she had watched adult films and the Playboy channel before and during sex with Robert; that Michael had been present during these activities; that each bout of sexual activity between her and Robert began when they were watching adult films, though she also said she told Robert he shouldn't be viewing these materials with her and her husband.

Kathleen W. testified that Robert had raped her three years earlier in a motel room, and Robert's defense counsel stipulated that the sexual episode was nonconsensual. During his stay with them Robert slept in the same bed as April and Michael. The first instance of sexual intercourse between Robert and April occurred within a day or two of Robert's arrival. April had sex with Robert in Michael's presence and sex with Michael in Robert's presence. April's mother lived four blocks away and April joined her when she left the apartment on June 14.

Though the four principals were all members of The Arc, both the prosecution and defense stipulated that the "mental capacity of the Defendant and the witnesses is not at issue." This agreement notwithstanding, the transcript of the trial shows that April had difficulty in recalling the relevant chronology of what happened in the apartment, and that the prosecutor was afforded much latitude in eliciting her testimony.

So, should the court have allowed the jury to hear details of Robert's sexual misconduct with Kathleen? And should the jury also have been permitted to hear details of sexual activities in the apartment prior to the final episode, the day Jeff was taking his shower? And after Robert had been convicted and sentenced to spend several decades in prison, how did the Appeals Court rule earlier this year?

Next week: the rest of the story.

Gay Master Plan

This has been making e-mail rounds:

Many of you have heard Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell and others speak of the "Homosexual Agenda," but no one has ever seen a copy of it. Here is a copy, obtained directly from the Homintern; precise authorship is unknown at this time.

6 a.m. Gym and Tanning Bed

8 a.m. Breakfast (oatmeal and egg whites)

9 a.m. Hair Appointment

10 a.m. Shopping

12 p.m. Brunch (salmon Benedict, roasted potatoes, mimosa)

2 p.m. (1) Assume complete control of the U.S. federal, state and local governments, as well as other national governments; (2) Recruit all straight youngsters to debauched lifestyle; (3) Destroy all healthy heterosexual marriages; (4) Replace all school counselors in grades K-12 with agents of Colombian and Jamaican drug cartels; (5) Establish planetary chain of "homo-breeding gulags," where overmedicated imprisoned straight women are turned into artificially impregnated baby factories to produce prepubescent love slaves for devotedly gay leadership; (6) Bulldoze all houses of worship; and (7) Secure total control of the Internet and all mass media for the exclusive use of the Liberace Society

2:30 p.m. Get Beauty Rest to Prevent Facial Wrinkles Caused by the Stress of World Conquest

3:30 p.m. Protein Shake

4 p.m. Tea Dance

6 p.m. Light Dinner (soup, salad and skinless chicken breast, with a crisp Chardonnay)

8 p.m. Theatre

11 p.m. Bed du Jour