Originally published at: In this incredible court hearing Zoom meeting an alleged abuser is discovered to be at victim's house | Boing Boing
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Fuck this guy. I am glad the Judge realized what was happening. Finally, a good use for cops.
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This is an awesome outcome (despite the fact that Mary must have been crawling out of her skin). It makes a good point that we only perceive what we see, and a lot of the controls that might normally be in place are now based on trust only.
Perhaps Zoom court proceedings should require participants to go to sites where all parties are in separate controlled (but safe) spaces. Then the network can be local as well.
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Is it just me or was the judge Bob Newhart?
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That was awesome. All of that happening in real time.
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Yeah but how did the prosecutor get wind he was in the same house? Because that was the Columbo moment.
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Mary kept looking off to the side, like she was looking at something or someone. Also, those paint colors on the walls behind both of them looked similar when she moved around. I think it was more of the former than the latter, though.
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This should be more widely known.
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The prosecutor would also know the facts and testimony at this point of the case, and was probably surprised by the change in both attitude of the witness, and the answers being given. That probably got her thinking about the situation as being weird, and took it from there.
Excellent work on her part, and on the police’s part on moving so quickly. Very impressive.
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I’m surprised the face-palm wasn’t from the defense attorney.
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Agreed! He was just being professional, and I do appreciate the judge basically saying we know you had nothing to do with that moron’s behavior.
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This. The only way this intimidation scheme works is if he convinces this poor woman that he is willing to commit violence against her in a way that will be immediately obvious to the authorities. There is no way that he hasn’t told her that he is going to kill her if she doesn’t cooperate. So much scuz.
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Yeah, the defense attorney was pretty composed throught all of this. The bit at the end where the judge said that none of this was his fault was pretty interesting.
I need to rewatch the video and see who picked up on the situation at the house first. IIRC, the officer was on his phone pretty quickly–and I’m assume that was to get the officers to the house.
At 6:40, Ms. Davis starts to start acting different in her questioning.
At 7:29 she is convinced and struggles with how to phrase it properly.
At 7:35 she makes the accusation.
At 7:48 Officer Edgington looks down–probably at his phone to call for help.
At 8:33 he’s on a voice call.
At 9:30 officers are at the door. If he somehow got them moving at 7:48, that’s 1:42 to get there. If it was from the voice call time, that’s 0:57! That’s amazing response time.
Amazing work, Ms. Davis and Officer Edgington.
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Suddenly realized that some prosecutors are doing great work, quite a 180 from the anger I have felt towards them and the corrupt and harmful system. Proud example of getting it right, I’m thankful I got to see this.
Thank you Deborah Davis!
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That caught my (completely and utterly legally naive) ear too, felt like it was purposeful and not simply conversational. How was the judge able to determine that without even asking the attorney?
Maybe the palm was for the witness, she is now going to have to navigate through potential obstruction charges or something else. My heart was breaking for her, hoping for her future.
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At 10:46 Ms. Lindsey shuts off her video. I am guessing she did so at the direction of one of the officers at the door so that Mr. Harris would not be able to listen in on their conversation.
At 11:08 the jig is up and Mr. Harris’s video goes blurry and then shuts off.
At 11:48 he’s back long enough to drop off the call. Mr. Gipson is not happy!
At 12:41 the judge has the observation that these things didn’t happen back in his day.
At 13:30 Mr. Harris is back with his mea culpa.
At 13:34 There’s the facepalm!!!
At 13:41 the judge tells Mr. Harris to STFU.
At 14:21 Mr. Harris fails to STFU.
At 14:48 the judge tells Mr. Gipson “I know that was all completely outside of your knowledge or consent.”
At 16:17 Judge Middleton puts Ms. Davis and Ms. Lindsey into a breakout room. (I would not have known what that was a year ago.)
At 16:32 the judge lets Mr. Gipson leave. He is very happy to go.
At 17:15 the judge talks about his suspicions and how they fit into the timeline.
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This is partly why I couldn’t get that Tingle Monsters short out of my head!
ETA:
What occurred to me about #SignalForHelp is that scenario probably had something in common with the court case. The prosecutor and police knew the woman’s address, and it seemed like the person receiving the signal for help would need that information, too. In the past year, I’ve been on at least one hundred Zoom calls where most of the participants had no idea where the others were located. This is part of what made the video above so scary.
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