Now that you have been warned, I continue....
A Jury to Decide (Part 1)
A Jury to Decide (Part 3)
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The testimonies began with the 'victim' herself. I use the parentheses because, at the beginning, we were not to view her as a victim, but merely as an accuser. Once again, I was forced to remind myself that I was not there to determine a just punishment for a rapist, but the validity, if any, in the story of the accuser.
Katie Smith was called to the stand and sworn in. The first thing I noticed about her was that she was a small girl, thin and demure. The second thing I noticed about her was that she appeared smaller than she actually was. Her body was folded in around herself and, throughout her testimony, she seemed to duck her head and hunch her shoulders, almost as though she was ashamed or scared. When she was asked a question, her eyes locked with the lawyer she was talking to and sometimes, when I let my thoughts run away with me, I imagined that the eye contact was a life line to her, helping her distance herself from her horrific story. And when she was not being asked to do anything, whether the lawyers were conferring or looking through their notes, she glanced frequently at the 13 of us who might decide her fate.
I shall take the time to run through her testimony as I remember it, and also that of Fred Jensen's. I will try to do this in chronological order, inserting differences in their testimonies wherever I believe they are relevant. There were many other witnesses called, some who had contact with Fred and/or with Katie, the officers who arrested Katie, and one expert who testified to the DNA evidence that was submitted and I will submit them when relevant. But as both parties admitted that sexual intercourse had taken place, and there had been no eye witness accounts to Katie refusing consent, it ultimately came down to his word versus hers. And now we begin.
Katie had woken up on a Saturday morning in late October of last year (2012). She had some plans to go to a worship practice and to get her car's AC repaired in the afternoon, but neither were set in stone. Her boyfriend, Nate, had stayed the night, though they did not have sex that night. Both had woken up when they heard a loud knock but, as it was Katie's apartment, only Katie got up and dressed enough to see who was at the front door. Fred Jensen, who had been to Katie's apartment once before to use the bathroom after a work shift, was standing there. Fred and Katie knew each other, but not by name. Fred worked as a gas station attendant at a station that was frequently visited by Katie and her friends and family. Katie, thinking it was funny for him to be at her door again, asked him if he needed to use the bathroom again and when he said yes, she let him in.
---My thoughts at this moment: why did he come over the first time if they were only barely acquainted? I am sorry to say, I never got that question answered.----
This is where the story starts to get fuzzy. Katie, after letting Fred in, says that he came back from the bathroom and wanted to ask her a question. When she got close, Fred pulled out a knife and threatened her for money. When she said she didn't have any, Fred started to pull her to the bedroom but Nate was in there so he improvised by taking her out of the small town and into the country where he forced her to have sex. According to Katie, the time spent in the apartment was no more than 15 minutes. Backtrack to the beginning of this paragraph. Fred said that he came in, really pissed off at his wife and wanting to talk. He was high on meth, so all of his emotions and desires were heightened. He said he went to Katie's apartment to hook up, but, after using the bathroom [an odd consistency in all of the testimonies], suddenly he started talking about his problems at home with his wife. He said he was crying, was depressed and angry at the way he treated his wife and that she didn't someone like him, who had been caught cheating before. But he couldn't hold in his desires. After at least 30 minutes, he started coming around to his original purpose. Fred asked Katie if she wanted to have sex and her words were "We can't. My boyfriend's in the bedroom". Thinking that this might be a ruse, Fred gets up, checks, and sees she's not lying. So they make plans to meet up later (directions were found in her handwriting from approximately her town to a location very near where Fred lived). But Fred still wanted it then and there, so he thought that if he could just get Katie out of the house, maybe she'd change her mind. His testimony was that she left her house willingly without shoes, her cell phone, or even her apartment key to go have sex with him out in the country. We'll get to that later, but in essence, Fred spent nearly an hour in Katie's apartment. And stranger still Nate's testimony estimated about the same time within the apartment. So why did Katie lie?
Returning to a chronological order: Katie said that she was forced into the back seat. (Fred's story was that Katie jumped into the backseat first, before he asked what she was doing and told her to sit in the front seat. Another weird consistency...) She said that she was told to keep her head down whenever any cars drove by (Fred said she kept ducking down). They got to the first location which was an access road to a creek. Katie, without shoes and only in PJ bottoms, a flannel over-shirt, and a sports bra, went into the forest (forced, walked willingly, I think you know whose story is whose). When they got away from the road, Katie (was forced, willingly) took off all of her clothes, Fred dropped his pants and Katie (was forced, willingly gave) oral sex to Fred. Katie then walked, naked, across the creek where, in a clearing, Fred and Katie tried to engage in anal. Here's a very important part so as disgusting as it is, I'm going to walk with you through this one because I, as a juror, took this into serious consideration when deliberating.
Katie's Story:
Fred kept saying "You know you want it. You know you want me to fuck you in the ass." His pocket knife was closed but in his hand and, scared, she let him do it to her.
Fred's Story:
Katie wasn't thrilled with the idea but she was willing to try anyway. They didn't get very far before he had to pull out because she was in pain.
Here's where it gets gross but important. Immediately after anal, Fred's penis was wiped with Katie's sleeve and she put it in her mouth and began to give him oral sex. From Fred's testimony, the jury would be led to understand that Katie did it of her own free will. She willingly stuck something that had just been in her butt into her mouth. While Katie's story had made me question some of her credibility in the earlier stages in this affair, the fact that both parties agreed on the exact order of events at this point made me analyze what I know about myself and every girl I know. And what I came up with was that Katie's story made more sense. None of the girls I am familiar with, none of the girls that any members of the jury were familiar with, would willingly perform oral on a man immediately after anal sex. In a jury of her peers, Katie's testimony was the most reasonable explanation of events.
After oral wasn't going fast enough for Fred, Katie turned over (once again, whether it was upon coercion or done willingly depends Katie or Fred) and they engaged in vaginal sex. [ In testimony from the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner, the jury saw in a diagram that Katie sustained a laceration on the back of the opening of her vagina which is common in really rough sex or non-consensual sex and in the crotch of her pajama shorts, there was a stain that looked like blood that verified the laceration's existence.] Because the vaginal sex was going to fast for Fred, he pulled out, Katie wiped his penis with a sleeve again and then performed oral sex until he, once again, ejaculated onto the grass nearby. Katie then (was allowed to, or did on her own) got dressed and the two walked back through the woods and got into Fred's car. It is at this point that I would like to remind readers, as well as myself, that it was late October. Autumn was well underway and it was cool out. Cockle-burs and dead leaves and sticks blanketed the ground that Katie walked over without shoes. Setting is key.
Katie got into the front seat this time and Fred drove them to a different location, what happened to be a dead-end road nearby a couple of farm houses and another creek. Fred led Katie through a cornfield and down a bank to a clearing in the woods by a creek. There, Fred once again pulled down his pants and pulled up his shirt (Katie said that the pocket knife was in his hand in his shirt. Fred admitted he had a pocket knife but that it never left his car.) Katie started giving him oral but they were interrupted by the sound of a 4-wheeler. A Mr. Stevens lived across the way, saw Fred's car parked at the end of the road and came to see what was going on at the edge of his property. Fred told Katie to stay in the trees while he talked to the man on the 4-wheeler, making up some story about him and a friend fishing. The exchange took place a distance away from the woods and it was pointed out by Mr. Paulsen that Katie could have run (earlier, he had given a fantastic barrage of questions leading up to the point that Katie could have bitten Fred's penis hard or even off, could have pulled his scrotum down and twisted it or shoved it hard into his pelvic region if she felt that she was being violated, but she didn't. Why didn't she? Sorry. Tangent.). Katie could have run into the creek, run away, run towards the man on the 4-wheeler, screaming. Why didn't Katie try to run for help?
When Mr. Stevens drove away on his 4-wheeler, Fred came back and told Katie that she had to get dressed and that they had to leave this location. Katie got back in the front seat and Fred then drove to a third location near a fairly busy bridge. Katie, still without shoes, walked the rocky downhill to the bottom of the culvert and then (was told to, willingly) jumped into the large drain in the side of the culvert. But what would compel her to just get into this drain in the bottom of a culvert when not many people can see her?
Fred, after looking around decided that the bridge above the culvert was too busy for him to finish the oral that was started in the second location. So Katie got out of the drain (about 4 feet off the ground), and they went back to Fred's car. Fred had decided to take Katie home, roughly 5 hours after they had first left her apartment. Here's where kidnapping really comes into play. It may have been a little suspicious in the apartment in the morning, but Fred does himself in. Watch.
Katie's Story:
"I kept telling him, 'Just stop the car. Let me out. I can walk from here [about 2 miles from her apartment]. If you let me out, I promise I won't tell anybody, just let me go'. He started driving down the road that would lead to the street to where my apartment was. He kept saying things like, 'Shit, what did I do? I'm so sorry'. I kept saying 'It's ok, just let me go'. But when he got to the street where my apartment was, he turned the opposite way. I thought he was going to kill me and then dump me somewhere and I started crying."
Fred's Story:
"She was getting all weird on me. She kept saying things like I didn't really love her, that I only wanted to use her body, that she was going to be in so much trouble with her boyfriend. So I was just going to take her home. Yeah, I turned down a different way than that street that went to her apartment. But I needed to make sure that she wasn't going to tell anyone. I couldn't let it get back to my wife. She'd be so disappointed. So yeah. I went the long way. I asked her 'What are you gonna tell your boyfriend?' but she wouldn't tell me. She kept freaking out."
Here he admits that he took her, against her will, somewhere that she didn't want to go, careless of her feelings. Kidnapping 101.
Apparently, Katie was "freaking out" so much, that Fred just slowed the car down and Katie jumped out on a bridge into the main part of the town. Fred told her to just get back in, that he was sorry she felt bad (but whether bad was in regards to a rape/kidnapping or to being used for her body and that he didn't actually care about her or her reputation is up to the storyteller. ) But Katie refused to move until Fred drove down the bridge. As he started driving away, Katie began to walk down the bridge into the town. Fred turned his car around at the bottom of the bridge (he said that it was simply because where he lived was the other direction, but Katie's testimony was that he pulled up to her again to say he was sorry and to get her to promise not to tell anyone. She said she promised). Once Fred's car was on the other side of the bridge however, he turned around again.
Katie's Story:
"I was afraid that he had realized that he made a mistake in letting me go. I was afraid he was coming back to kill me."
Fred's Story:
"I turned around because it was a busy street and I shouldn't have let her just walk on the bridge by herself. I was going to just pick her up and take her back home."
Regardless of the rationale, when he turned around again to come back up the bridge, Katie jumped the guard rail and took off to the nearest row of houses whose back yards were less than 25 yards from the bridge. After sprinting to the fronts of the houses, she located a driveway with several vehicles parked in it, ran up to there door and started ringing the doorbell over and over again until a teenage boy answered.
From here until the end of this post will be Katie's story about the rest of the events that occurred that day. All of it was verified by the testimonies I heard from those who interacted with her after she reached this house.
Katie was looking over her shoulder when the boy (last name McMiller) answered the door. She pushed her way past him saying, "I need to get in" and then she shut the door quickly behind her and sank against door in a huddle. The boy was (understandably) confused. Katie and the McMillers had never met before and yet here she was, sobbing, shaking, dirty, and without shoes in the front room of their house. The McMiller boy called his mother, an RN or Registered Nurse, up from downstairs where she was watching a movie. When Mrs. McMiller came upstairs and saw what was going on, she first tried to comfort the girl a bit before pulling aside her son, asking if he knew what was going on and who the girl in their house was. He said no and by this time, Katie was asking for a phone to call her mom and her boyfriend. Mrs. McMiller called to Mr. McMiller, a volunteer fireman, and told him to bring the house phone.
Katie called her mom first but she as soon as she heard her mother's voice, she fell into incomprehensible hysterics. Mr. McMiller took the phone from her and explained that no, he was not the one who had made Katie cry like that and no, he was not aware of what was going on, but he was going to call 911 and get someone out to help them figure the situation out. Mr. McMiller then handed the phone to Mrs. McMiller to explain where they lived and how Katie's mom could get to the McMiller residence while Mr. McMiller called the 911.
By this time, Katie had calmed down enough to allow the McMillers to lead her to the living room and sit on their couch and ask questions pertaining to her physical and emotional states. Katie, after prompting, told the McMillers (and through them, the 911 operator) that she had been kidnapped and raped. Her emotional state was consistent with that of a trauma victim. She would cry intermittently and she was incredibly apologetic for small things like getting the McMiller's couch dirty, walking on their floors with dirty feet, crying so often, barging in on them, etc.
Because Mr. McMiller was a volunteer fireman and Mrs. McMiller was an RN, they knew (although the 911 operator told them) what Katie could and could not do. She was allowed water but she couldn't brush her teeth or shower or clean herself in anyway that might remove evidence of her claims. An ambulance arrived shortly after Mr. McMiller ended his call with 911, and a few minutes after that, a county sheriff's vehicle arrived. After an initial check up with the EMTs and a few questions from the officers (Katie didn't want to relive her story again and brushed off the officers at the McMiller house), she rode in the ambulance to the hospital where she was to be given a SANE examination (Sexual Assault Nurse Examination. Yes, I know the last part is redundant, but that kind of thing happens with exam or test acronyms).
The SANE exam was given to her by a nurse who had had lots of experience with women who have been or who claim to have been sexually assaulted. She was knowledgeable and skilled, and knew what to expect from someone who truly had been sexually assaulted. Her assessment of Katie's emotional state and overall composure throughout the exam was that Katie's reactions and attitudes during the exam and towards the exam itself where consistent with those of a woman who had experienced sexual trauma.
The SANE box (a sealed box that is only opened once when the person is to be examined and again when the evidence is tested by the lab) had a packet of questions about a potential victim's situation (which the SANE nurse asked Katie, initiating the exam in a non-invasive way), an envelope for pictures of all injuries, an assessment for immediate medical attention (which, if Katie had had a broken bone or internal bleeding or some other medical emergency, the SANE nurse would have deferred her to the emergency room), a head-to-toe body exam, a comb and paper for head and pubic hair combings, small plastic containers for stool and urine samples, and swabs for the mouth and exterior genitalia. The exam would also include an exam of the exterior genitalia and rectum and the internal genitalia and rectum. Each procedure, it is important to note, is completely under the directive of the potential victim. Katie had the right at any time within the procedure to say, "No, I don't want this. This is too invasive." And the nurse was required to ask, before starting anything knew, if Katie wanted to or was ready to go on with the examination. The examinations have been known to take up to even 6 hours for those who need time to come to terms with what has happened and what is happening to them. Katie took several breaks between portions of the examination and submitted to everything but the internal examinations of her genitals and rectum, two very commonly declined portions of the exam.
During the exam, her mother was nearby, as was her boyfriend Nate, who Katie had instructed the McMillers to get in touch with. Several hours later, after the SANE exam, an interview with a deputy, and picking out Fred Jensen from a photographic line-up, Katie went home.
Sexual Assault Examination Kit
