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ARRINGA DIFESA A CURA DI MR. BAMIEH

 

SUPERIOR COURT OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA

FOR THE COUNTY OF VENTURA

COURTROOM 26 HON. JAMES P. CLONINGER, JUDGE

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF

CALIFORNIA,

Plaintiff,

vs.

CARLO PARLANTI,

Defendant.

____________________________________

)))))))))))

No. 2002026651

REPORTER'S PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005

APPEARANCES:

For the Plaintiff: GREGORY TOTTEN

District Attorney

BY: GILBERT ROMERO

Deputy District Attorney

800 South Victoria Avenue

Ventura, California 93009

For the Defendant: RON BAMIEH

Attorney at Law

Copies of this transcript are not certified and do not conform with the provisions of Government Code Section 69954(d) For certified Copy please contact :

 Official Reporter 800 South Victoria Avenue Room 313 Ventura, California 93009

Official Reporter

800 South Victoria Avenue

Room 313

Ventura, California 93009


Pag. 1 

  1.                                 VENTURA, CALIFORNIA; FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005

  2.                                                     --oOo--

  3.                            (Proceedings were had and reported, but not transcribed

  4.                                                       herein.)

  5.  

  6. THE BAILIFF: Remain seated. Come to order, please.

  7. Court is in session.

  8. THE COURT: We are back on the record in the case of

  9. People versus Parlanti. We have all jurors, counsel and the

  10. defendant.

  11. Mr. Romero, you may make your closing argument.

  12. MR. ROMERO: Thank you, your Honor.

  13. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Before I get

  14. into my argument, a couple of things I want to say: First

  15. off, I want to thank you very much for your time and your

  16. patience and your service on this jury the last week or so

  17. that we have been together;

  18. Second thing I want to say is I actually get to

  19. argue two times. I'll make my argument now, defense counsel

  20. will come up, make their argument, and then I get to go a

  21. second time. And I know if you watch the TV shows, you don't

  22. see that second argument, and the reason for that is -- the

  23. reason why I get to argue twice is because I have the burden

  24. of proof. It's my burden to prove to each and every one of

  25. you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.

  26. So, the first thing I would like to start off with

  27. to let you know is that there are some things that you, as

  28. jurors, are not going to get as evidence, and I want to bring


Pag.2

  1. that to the forefront right now so you don't ask about them

  2. during your deliberations. You are not going to get the

  3. police reports. There are legal reasons why this evidence is

  4. not going to come before you, and you are not to speculate as

  5. to why or why not you are getting them. You are not going to

  6. get any transcripts that were referenced to. You are not

  7. going to get the full and complete diaries that we talked

  8. about, and you are not going to get any of the medical reports

  9. that Dr. Manchester talked about.

  10. I'm going to move around. I don't want to block

  11. everybody's view the whole time.

  12. Now, what you are going to do, as jurors, is have

  13. certain responsibilties and obligations. The first thing is

  14. that you have a duty to deliberate individually. That means

  15. that Mr. Parlanti is entitled to each and every one of your

  16. individual opinion. Everyone must participate. Everyone must

  17. give their reasons why they feel one way, and everyone must be

  18. treated equally in the jury deliberation room.

  19. You have a duty not to allow sympathy for the

  20. defendant or the victim or victims enter into your

  21. deliberations in any way. As much as you possibly can,

  22. emotion should not in any way enter into your decision of

  23. whether or not the defendant is guilty of the crimes he is

  24. charged with.

  25. You have a duty not to allow any prejudice with the

  26. defendant or the victim enter into your deliberations, and you

  27. have a duty not to speculate. What that means is you must

  28. base your decision on the evidence that you have before you.


Pag.3 

  1. You cannot consider what may or may not be out there. You

  2. have to base your decision on the evidence that was presented

  3. before you. That's the way it works in our criminal system.

  4. There's a jury instruction that reads that neither

  5. party is required to call all the evidence we possibly can in

  6. a trial. That would extend trials weeks and weeks and weeks,

  7. if possible. So, you have a duty not to speculate on what

  8. else may be out there. You make your decision on what you

  9. have before you.

  10. And you have a duty not to consider in any way what

  11. you believe the penalty or punishment may be in this case.

  12. That cannot influence your decision of how you vote in any

  13. way.

  14. Now, you have two jobs as jurors. I talked to you

  15. about you being the judges of the facts, and that's what you

  16. must do. You determine what the facts are in this case. The

  17. judge will then give you the law, and then you apply what you

  18. believe the facts to be in this case to the law, and you make

  19. your determination of whether or not you believe the defendant

  20. is guilty of the crimes charged.

  21. One thing you all bring in this courtroom that you

  22. will use throughout this entire process is your common sense.

  23. I'm going to refer to that several times throughout my

  24. presentation.

  25. One of the jury instructions you are going to be

  26. given is going to list some things that you can use as a guide

  27. to determine whether or not you believe a witness is credible,

  28. and it's not limited to the items that are listed. It's just


Pag.4

  1. kind of a guide giving you things that you can look at; such

  2. as, you can look at the opportunity or ability of a witness to

  3. see, hear or otherwise be aware of what they're testifying

  4. about. Now, that's an important one. I'm going to come back

  5. to that a little later.

  6. You can talk about or you can consider the ability

  7. of a witness to remember or to communicate what they are

  8. testifying about; the character and quality of their

  9. testimony, meaning their character and quality of their

  10. presentation that they gave to you while on the witness stand;

  11. the demeanor and manner of a witness, whether a witness was

  12. hiding behind a monitor screen, whether the witness was

  13. shaking while testifying. All of that you can consider in

  14. your deliberations. The existence or non-existence of bias;

  15. some kind of ulterior motive or interest you can consider in

  16. determining how much weight to give a particular with witness;

  17. and you can also look at statements previously made that are

  18. consistent or inconsistent with the testimony that the witness

  19. is -- the witness gave during the trial. All of those are

  20. things that you can consider.

  21. Now, this is what I must prove to you beyond a

  22. reasonable doubt. Count 1 alleges the unlawful sexual

  23. intercourse. In order for me to prove beyond a reasonable

  24. doubt that he is guilty, I need to prove there was an act of

  25. sexual intercourse by two people who were not married, the

  26. intercourse was against the will of Ms. White, and that it was

  27. completed by means of force, violence, duress, menace or fear

  28. of immediate and unlawful bodily injury. That's what I must


Pag.5

  1. prove. If I prove beyond a reasonable doubt those four

  2. things, the defendant is guilty.

  3. Count 2, this is what I must prove beyond a

  4. reasonable doubt. I must prove that the defendant willfully

  5. inflicted bodily injury upon Ms. White, and the bodily injury

  6. resulted in a traumatic condition. What a traumatic condition

  7. is, it's an injury. Did she have an injury as a result of

  8. being struck by the defendant?

  9. Count No. 3 is false imprisonment. This is what I

  10. must prove. The defendant intentionally and unlawfully

  11. restrained, confined or detained Ms. White, compelling her to

  12. stay in her bedroom; Ms. White did not consent to the

  13. restraint, confinement or detention; and the restraint,

  14. confinement or detention was accomplished by violence or

  15. menace.

  16. Now, one thing I want to tell you is in the facts

  17. that were presented to you, there are multiple acts that could

  18. constitute a number of those crimes charged. For example, the

  19. rape. Ms. White talked about multiple sexual encounters with

  20. the defendant that she alleges was against her will. If you

  21. believe that that happened, all you have to find is that she

  22. was forced to have sex one time. If you find that, then that

  23. is -- then that is sufficient to find him guilty because there

  24. are multiple allegations of rape that she has made. There's

  25. not a count for each one. As long as you believe that it

  26. happened one time, then that is sufficient to find the

  27. defendant guilty for the one count of rape.

  28. Same with the bodily injury, there's only one count.


Pag.6

  1. It's Count 2. But in the facts that you were given, you can

  2. find that there were several instances where the defendant

  3. inflicted bodily injury, bruises to her face. She said she

  4. was slapped repeatedly, and she had taken some photographs of

  5. the bruises to her face. If you believe that that happened,

  6. that is sufficient to convict him of Count 2. There's also

  7. another set of facts where she says she was kicked in her ribs

  8. by the defendant repeatedly, and she had some fractured ribs.

  9. If you believe that to be true, then that is sufficient to

  10. find him guilty of the 273.5, Count 2.

  11. You don't have to say which circumstances you

  12. believe happened to find him guilty of a 273.5. All you have

  13. to agree is that on one of those occasions, that happened, and

  14. the defendant is guilty.

  15. MR. BAMIEH: I'm going to object, your Honor, as to the

  16. first comment by Mr. Romero. I believe it misstates the law.

  17. THE COURT: I'll speak to counsel here at the bench.

  18. Nothing that was said jumps out at me about the statement of

  19. the law. I need to know what you are talking about.

  20. ///

  21. (Bench conference held off record and not reported.)

  22. ///

  23. THE COURT: Thank you, counsel. The objection is

  24. overruled. I didn't hear it that way, but perhaps you can go

  25. back over it, Mr. Romero.

  26. MR. ROMERO: Sure.

  27. If you believe the defendant kicked Ms. White and

  28. fractured her ribs, you can convict him of Count 2 as long as


 


 

 Pag.7

 

  1. you all agree that happened. If you believe that the

  2. defendant slapped Ms. White and left bruising on her face, you

  3. can convict him of that count as long as you all agree that

  4. that happened.

  5. Same with the false imprisonment. If you believe

  6. that the defendant bound Ms. White with zip ties, then you

  7. find -- you can find him guilty of that count. Now, she

  8. testified that she was bound more than once; initially, when

  9. they had sex, and then he unbound her, and then he bound her

  10. again. If you all agree that he bound her initially, that is

  11. sufficient to find him guilty of the false imprisonment. If

  12. you believe he cut the ties and then bound her again, as long

  13. as you all agree that happened, that is sufficient to find him

  14. guilty of that count as well.

  15. The point is, there are multiple acts that Ms. White

  16. described where you can find the defendant guilty of the

  17. charges. You all just have to agree as to what acts

  18. constitute the particular charge that you are finding him

  19. guilty of.

  20. Now, Ms. White -- I told you in my opening statement

  21. that Ms. White was very dependent on the defendant, and that

  22. is abundantly clear throughout the trial. She was dependent

  23. on his affection, his validation, and she did everything she

  24. thought she could to make him happy, and she let Mr. Parlanti

  25. do what he wanted. She let him talk to other women. She let

  26. him possibly go on business trips and be with other women, and

  27. she kind of just accepted it as part of the relationship.

  28. Now, Ms. White is who she is. Prosecutors don't get


Pag.8

  1. to choose who victims of crime are. Victims of crime come in

  2. all forms. Ms. White came to court, and she testified that

  3. she was beat, bound, and raped by the defendant, and she comes

  4. with all she has. She comes with all the baggage. She comes

  5. with everything you saw her testify to in court, and you

  6. decide whether or not you believe Ms. White.

  7. Gail Pincus came, and she testified, and she shed

  8. some light as to the dynamics of an abusive relationship. She

  9. talked about how initially a batterer is a gentleman, is

  10. romantic, sweeps the victim off her feet, has them fall in

  11. love with him, enchants them. Then once they have established

  12. that sense of trust, that's when they begin to impose the

  13. power and control.

  14. Ms. Pincus drew the circle, the wheel of violence.

  15. And at the very center of that wheel, when she described the

  16. dynamics that took place in the relationship, was a need for

  17. power and control that batterers have over their abusers.

  18. Now, 85 percent of batterers are male, and the reason why they

  19. batter is because they have that need to exert that power and

  20. control over their significant others.

  21. The defendant, very clear, fancies himself a Romeo.

  22. He likes to go out and meet women. He likes to talk to women.

  23. He likes the way women make him feel. There was no doubt

  24. about that in this trial. In fact, Ms. De Barra flew from

  25. Ireland and told you that in a six- to seven-week relationship

  26. with the defendant, she had him move in, into her apartment in

  27. Ireland, and she thought he was a perfect gentleman, greatest

  28. guy in the world; so much so that she allowed him to move in


Pag.9

  1. with her even though she knew he had a girlfriend in Italy.

  2. That's how charming he was.

  3. Well, that relationship only lasted a few weeks, and

  4. Mr. Parlanti did not get an opportunity to follow through with

  5. his pattern of behavior of first enchanting and entrusting,

  6. and then given the opportunity to exert the power and control.

  7. Ms. White told you that on June 29th, she was at her

  8. apartment here in Ventura County, and the defendant got drunk.

  9. He started drinking some wine. The defendant, for some

  10. reason, got angry with her, and I believe the testimony from

  11. Ms. White was whenever the defendant gets drunk, starts

  12. drinking, that's when she becomes afraid. And I believe

  13. Ms. Sandra Lavagnino said the same thing. She was fearful of

  14. the defendant when he started drinking. The defendant starts

  15. drinking, has her go buy him some more wine. She comes back,

  16. and he's angry, tells her to get out of the office where they

  17. were. She goes into her room. He comes in, gets her out of

  18. bed, tells her, "No, I didn't want you to get away from me. I

  19. want you out of the apartment." And she's pulled to the door.

  20. She has her head banged against the wall. She described how

  21. that was done. He then pushed her to the adjacent wall and

  22. banged her head some more. He then slapped her, choked her

  23. where she fell to the floor -- I believe she said

  24. unconscious -- and that's where he began to kick her in her

  25. ribs on her side.

  26. He then -- excuse me. He then got her into the

  27. bedroom where he bound her with the zip ties and where he

  28. raped her multiple times. That's what she came and testified


Pag.10
 

  1. about. She did not report the incident until July 18, 2002

  2. almost three weeks after it happened.

  3. Now, when I just told you about what happened, did I

  4. include every detail that she testified to on the stand? No.

  5. I could tell you what she testified to on the stand in detail,

  6. probably take me a few hours, and she was on the stand for

  7. several days to be able to tell you everything that she said.

  8. And if I were to give my closing argument a week from now and

  9. talk about what she told you, I could probably tell you the

  10. same thing, but not exactly the same thing.

  11. When she talked to the deputies almost three weeks

  12. after it happened, she described it to them many times. She

  13. talked to Deputy Fullerton. She described the incident to him

  14. a few times. The very next day, she talked to Deputy Reilly.

  15. She described the incident to him a few times. Did she say

  16. the exact same thing in every letter or e-mail that she sent

  17. out? Because it's clear that as soon as she started talking

  18. about it, she didn't stop. She wrote either e-mails or

  19. letters to the defendant's therapist. She wrote e-mails or

  20. letters to the defendant's attorneys, to the defendant's

  21. girlfriend in Italy. She couldn't stop talking about it.

  22. Why did she do all that? I don't think there's any

  23. one answer to that. Maybe she was feeling angry, and she

  24. wanted to hurt the defendant. Maybe she just wanted to tell

  25. everybody because she wanted to unload. Maybe she thought it

  26. would help her. There's probably no single answer for that.

  27. But she did. She told everybody who she could think of what

  28. happened. She told the defendant's business partner. She

 

 


Pag.11

.

  1. wrote him a couple of e-mails describing what had happened,

  2. but did she say the exact same thing in every one of those

  3. communications? No. And it's ridiculous to think that she

  4. would; that to think that she would say the exact same thing

  5. every time she talked about it.

  6. Now, you -- you may consider the ability of

  7. Ms. White to see, hear or otherwise be aware of what happened.

  8. When she talked about what happened over several hours of that

  9. night of June 29th over several hours, when she talked about

  10. it, was she really -- do you really think she was paying

  11. attention to how many times the defendant initially banged her

  12. head against the wall? Was she counting them? Or do you

  13. think she was trying not to get too hurt?

  14. When the defendant banged her head against the

  15. adjacent wall, do you think she was counting how many times he

  16. was banging her head? Or do you think she was thinking about

  17. not getting hurt? When the defendant choked her and she fell

  18. to the floor and he started kicking her, do you think she

  19. counted how many times he kicked her? And if she says, "I

  20. think he banged my head about 30 times," to the best of her

  21. recollection, that's probably what she remembers. Was she

  22. counting them? No.

  23. When she says, "I think he kicked me ten times," to

  24. the best of her recollection, that's what it felt like to her;

  25. that he banged her head 30 times. Did he bang her head

  26. against one wall 30 times and then banged her head against the

  27. adjacent wall 30 times? Probably not. But does that change

  28. the fact that that's what it felt like to her when she's being


 


Pag.12
 

  1. beaten like that? when she's being slapped? when she's being

  2. kicked? Is she going to have an accurate recollection of all

  3. that or is she just going to be thinking at that time, "I need

  4. to make sure to protect myself as best I can. I don't want to

  5. get too hurt"? You need to look at the core of what Ms. White

  6. said.

  7. Clarence Darrow was a famous, early 20th-century

  8. attorney, and he represented John Scopes, Scopes' monkey trial

  9. is probably his most famous case. He was a criminal defense

  10. lawyer and a labor lawyer. He also represented Leopold and

  11. Lowe, two well-to-do guys from the Midwest who were charged

  12. and I believe they pled guilty to killing a young guy. Those

  13. are probably his two more well-known cases, but he had a very

  14. long and distinguished career.

  15. And one of the persons he represented in about 1920

  16. was a young guy, who was accused of bombing the Los Angeles

  17. Times Building, here in Los Angeles. And the prosecution in

  18. that case had a star witness. They had a person who

  19. personally I.D.'d this defendant running away from the scene

  20. of the bombing of the L.A. Times Building.

  21. So, the district attorney's office in Los Angeles

  22. sent Mr. Darrow the statement of this witness and he read it.

  23. And sure enough, "I saw your client bombing the building, and

  24. I saw him run away." Mr. Darrow hired his investigator, and

  25. he sent this investigator out to talk to this witness. He got

  26. the report back, looked at it, same thing. "I saw your client

  27. bomb the building and run away." Looked at the initial report

  28. that he was provided by the district's attorneys office, exact


Pag.13

  1. same thing.

  2. They get to trial. This witness gets on the stand

  3. and testifies to the exact same thing, word for word,

  4. verbatim. And Mr. Darrow got a "not guilty" for his client

  5. because he argued to the jury that that is not the way things

  6. work in real life. We don't work off of scripts. Maybe in

  7. television, but in real life, we do not work off of scripts.

  8. People do not say the same exact thing, word for word, every

  9. time they talk about an event.

  10. I'm asking you to consider all of the evidence. Not

  11. just the minutia, the minuscule, little inconsistencies that

  12. have flooded this case.

  13. The defense's theory is to attack Ms. White with the

  14. tiniest of details and make the record as messy as possible.

  15. We spent an inordinate amount of time in this trial going over

  16. things she said to Deputy Fullerton that were different than

  17. things she said to Deputy Reilly the next day that were

  18. different from what she faxed to Deputy Reilly on the 22nd

  19. that were different than what she testified to in the

  20. preliminary hearing earlier this year.

  21. If we were to have another hearing and had her

  22. testify again, would there be things that she said over the

  23. trial these last three days that she never said before? Yes.

  24. You can talk about something over and over and over, but what

  25. you need to look at is the core. The core.

  26. Is she being consistent with what she has said? She

  27. may not remember three years ago what happened over four to

  28. five hours. She may not be able to remember that. The


Pag.14

  1. deputies were given transcripts, taped transcripts, verbatim,

  2. word for word, of what was spoken three years ago; given an

  3. opportunity to review them before they came on the stand to

  4. testify, and they couldn't remember what they were talking

  5. about. They had to keep referring to the report. And in

  6. fact, they just kept reading through the report when they were

  7. being asked questions. They weren't testifying on their

  8. memory. They were -- "Yeah, that's what it says here. That's

  9. what it says here." And I made that objection two times with

  10. both deputies. I was watching. Several questions. "Oh,

  11. yeah, that's what it says here. That's what it says here."

  12. Ms. White didn't have an opportunity to do that, to look at

  13. her transcript, taped statements, and see exactly what she

  14. said.

  15. That's what the defense is trying to do here. They

  16. are trying to get the record as messy as possible. Looking at

  17. your notes, you probably don't have an exact word-for-word

  18. exchange of what was said on the stand because it was so

  19. minuscule, so tiny, it was difficult to follow everything that

  20. was being said. The defense wants you to lose focus of the

  21. big picture by pointing out every single variation, including

  22. the most miniscule of each of Ms. White's statements, but I'm

  23. asking you, look at the core.

  24. Three years ago, my brother got married; my older

  25. brother, someone who I love very much. He got married in San

  26. Luis Obispo. I have a very large family. I have relatives

  27. here in California, in Texas, Michigan, Florida as well as

  28. Mexico and Brazil. A lot of them came to the wedding up in


Pag.15
 

  1. San Luis Obispo. It was in June of 2002, three years ago.

  2. Little over three years ago.

  3. And I drove up from the wedding because I live here

  4. in Ventura, got in my car the day of the wedding, the day of,

  5. drove up, had lunch with my brother, and it was -- the wedding

  6. was actually on a ranch, a small ranch; had a lot of family

  7. there.

  8. After having breakfast, we went over to the ranch,

  9. and I had a bunch of cousins, little cousins ranging from

  10. three to about 16 years old there. And the ranch actually

  11. belonged to the parents of the bride, and they had really nice

  12. horses. They had this area -- kind of like a park area where

  13. people were playing football, and I remember taking my -- a

  14. group of my cousins, about ten of them, like I said, large

  15. family, and we walked over to the horses. We were able to pet

  16. the horses, comb their hair; afterwards, played a little

  17. football with some other relatives.

  18. Then the wedding started. Sat through the wedding.

  19. As soon as the wedding was over, I left; drove back down to

  20. Ventura.

  21. Now, since that time -- actually, shortly

  22. thereafter, I got phone calls, and I spoke to relatives who

  23. weren't able to make the wedding, and they asked me about it.

  24. So I told them. I told some about the actual wedding. I told

  25. some about the horses. I told some about the football. I

  26. told some about my cousins.

  27. If you were to go back and look at every statement

  28. that I made to those relatives about that day -- and it wasn't


Pag.16
 

  1. something traumatic. It was a wonderful day, seeing my

  2. brother get married -- would they all be consistent? No.

  3. They wouldn't be. That's a natural tendency. If they are all

  4. consistent, exactly the same, that's when you start to wonder.

  5. What is going on here? Why are they so consistent?

  6. In all of the information that was launched at

  7. Ms. White while she was on the stand for those three days, all

  8. the e-mails, all the letters that were given to her, was --

  9. was it ever stated that she said she lied? that she said she

  10. was not beaten? that she said that she was not raped? Did

  11. that ever happen? No. Ms. White never made that statement.

  12. She might have talked about it endlessly to anyone she can

  13. think of, but did she ever say she lied? that she was not

  14. raped? that she was not beaten? No, she did not.

  15. Corroborating evidence. Going back to my story of

  16. my brother's wedding. Let's say I had to prove that I was

  17. there three years ago. Let's say I had to prove that I was

  18. there, okay. You have my statement to you that I went there.

  19. Well, how about some more proof? Okay. I remember on the way

  20. back, I stopped by a gas station, and I used my credit card

  21. for some gas. I can produce that document showing that my

  22. credit card was used on a particular date in San Luis Obispo.

  23. Corroborating evidence to show that I was there on that date,

  24. proving I was there.

  25. Well, we have Ms. White's testimony. And should you

  26. look at it with a critical eye? Yes, you should. Look at it

  27. with a very critical eye. The allegations she is making

  28. against the defendant are serious. Look at it.


Pag.17

 

  1. What else do we have to show that she is telling you

  2. the truth? Well, we have people who came in and testified

  3. that they saw Ms. White shortly after the 29th walking slow.

  4. None of them said they saw any bruising on her face. None of

  5. them recalled that, but they do recall her walking very slow.

  6. She was not making eye contact. Couple people said she was

  7. kind of looking down. Before that, she would say "hi." She

  8. would look at them. "How're you doing?" Superficial

  9. greetings. But then remember her -- and I think it was Kevin

  10. Bunch and Sarah Campbell said, "Yeah, after the 29th, you

  11. know, she really wasn't making eye contact with us anymore.

  12. Didn't see any bruising, don't really recall any arguments,

  13. any loud noise on the 29th coming from their apartment or

  14. anywhere around that time, but I remember there was something

  15. different in her demeanor." Corroborating evidence.

  16. The photographs that Ms. White took of herself in

  17. the bathroom. She took two photographs of the bruising to her

  18. face with the disposable camera, and she kept them. During

  19. this time, she's still living with the defendant. She's still

  20. sleeping in the same bed right next to him, and she was only

  21. zip tied to him at night.

  22. During the day, he would be gone. She would be able

  23. to leave if she wanted to. Why didn't she leave? I can't

  24. answer that question. I'm sure there are profound,

  25. psychological reasons why Ms. White stayed in that apartment;

  26. why she did not just call 9-1-1; why she did not just go to a

  27. neighbors; why she didn't do a number of things. She did take

  28. pictures of herself.

 


Pag.18
 

  1. Almost three weeks later from the date of the

  2. incident, she finally does go to the sheriff's department, on

  3. July 18th, and they take photographs of Ms. White. And they

  4. also came in and testified to the best of their recollection

  5. they don't really remember seeing that type of bruising on her

  6. face or any bruising; don't really remember seeing that

  7. bruising on her face. Well, they do recall seeing some faded

  8. bruising on her arm, I believe -- and I believe that was

  9. Deputy Reilly testified to that. And Deputy Keller, Jody

  10. Keller, is the one who took these photographs, and she said,

  11. "She might have had some bruising on her arm, and I think I

  12. remember seeing some bruising on her back near her ribs."

  13. Well, almost three weeks later, the bruising that

  14. she suffered faded. So when she went to the deputy sheriff,

  15. that evidence was not there at that time, but there is another

  16. injury that she had that doesn't heal like bruises, does not

  17. heal that quickly. Three weeks or so was not enough time.

  18. And what I'm talking about is the two fractured ribs that she

  19. had.

  20. On July 22nd, she goes to Doctors On Duty in

  21. Monterey, and she sees Dr. Troy Manchester, and she gets

  22. treated. And Dr. Manchester takes x-rays of her ribs because

  23. she's been complaining of this pain. She's been having

  24. problems, walking slow. The residents at the apartment

  25. complex testified to that. The sheriff's deputies testified

  26. to that, her moving kind of slow. She's got two fractured

  27. ribs. You can tell -- he can put the fractured ribs, in his

  28. opinion, as happening between two and six weeks before. July


Pag.19
 

  1. 22nd, two to six weeks before. That puts June 29, 2002 in

  2. that range. Takes a lot longer for fractured ribs to heal

  3. than it does for bruises. That is corroborating evidence.

  4. And the defense might come up and argue that: Well,

  5. she could have fractured her ribs doing a number of things.

  6. The evidence was clear that when Dr. Manchester examined her,

  7. she had no other injuries on her face. She wasn't in no

  8. recent car accident where she still -- where her ribs hit the

  9. steering wheel possibly. There was no bruising there.

  10. Corroborating evidence that the defendant beat her on

  11. June 29th.

  12. What other corroborating evidence do you have that

  13. the defendant did this to Ms. White? Sandra Lavagnino.

  14. Sandra Lavagnino came in, and she testified that the defendant

  15. was charming in their relationship when they first started

  16. dating. She fell in love with him, and she moved into his

  17. apartment. And once she was in his apartment, that's when the

  18. abuse started. She talked about lying in bed, sleeping.

  19. Defendant comes in and throws cold water on her. Other

  20. occasions, lying in bed, sleeping. Defendant comes in and

  21. flips the bed over. No apparent reason. She talks about the

  22. defendant choking her to unconsciousness. She talked about

  23. the defendant and her having a conversation and something

  24. being said, she didn't recall exactly what, but the defendant

  25. then just losing it, threw her in the sink, hit her with a

  26. colander on her head, ripped off her dress and lit it on fire.

  27. The defendant likes the power and control. He takes

  28. out his frustrations on his significant others. That's what


Pag.20
 

 

  1. he does. And the purpose of that evidence, the purpose of

  2. Ms. Lavagnino coming here and testifying is to show you just

  3. that; that you can consider that to show that he has a

  4. propensity to act violently against his significant others.

  5. Finally, what other corroborating evidence do we

  6. have? Well, Ms. White testified that the defendant left on a

  7. business trip on July 16th. She reported the incident on the

  8. 18th. Detective John Reilly testified that when he got

  9. involved in the investigation, he went looking for the

  10. defendant at Dole Foods. He testified, "I went to Dole Foods,

  11. and I talked to a couple people, one of them being a security

  12. officer there, looking for the defendant. Didn't find him

  13. there."

  14. The evidence shows -- where is the next time we see

  15. Mr. Parlanti? Katia testifies that we see Mr. Parlanti in

  16. late July or early August of 2002 back in Italy. I'll let you

  17. think about that.

  18. The diaries. We spent a lot of time talking about

  19. the diaries that Ms. White kept. She kept two diaries; one

  20. for herself, and one to help the defendant to help the

  21. defendant in some type of litigation that he was involved in.

  22. And the diary that she kept to help the defendant, she didn't

  23. put any of the abuse in. Why? This was for his attorneys,

  24. for the defendant, to help him in his lawsuit. So there

  25. wouldn't be anything about violence in that diary. There was

  26. no mention of beating that happened on June 29, 2002 in either

  27. one of those diaries.

  28. Ms. White stated on the stand, "I remember Carlo


Pag.21
 

  1. telling me to get out of the office and go into the bedroom,

  2. and I remember that's where I made the entries in both

  3. diaries." That's what she testified to. Then Mr. Bamieh

  4. showed her the two diaries and said, "There's different color

  5. ink. How could you have made the same entry if there's a

  6. black pen and a blue pen?" She really didn't have an answer

  7. for him at that time. She said, "I think it might have been

  8. two pens on the night stand. I don't remember."

  9. On cross-examination, I asked her about it. And

  10. then she says, "The entry that I made" -- actually, she says

  11. this on direct initially, too. She says the entry she made on

  12. June 29th, in her personal diary, she made before the abuse

  13. happened. That's why there's no more -- that's why there's no

  14. discussion of the abuse.

  15. MR. BAMIEH: Objection. Misstating the testimony on

  16. direct examination.

  17. THE COURT: Overruled. The jurors are the judge of what

  18. the evidence is.

  19. MR. ROMERO: Then I show her the entry of the diary from

  20. -- that she was keeping to help Mr. Parlanti because that has

  21. entries that go beyond the 29th. So, I physically handed her

  22. the diary and asked her, "Will you look at those dates?" And

  23. she looked at them. And in her personal diary, her entry for

  24. the 29th is on one page. In the diary -- you will get this.

  25. In the diary that she kept for Mr. Parlanti, her entry for the

  26. 29th is just a few sentences, the very bottom. And at the

  27. very top, you have June 24th, next entry, June 25th through

  28. the 28th, and then at the bottom, June 29th. All in the same


Pag.22
 

  1. color pen, all -- if you look at it, looks like the exact same

  2. pen, same ink.

  3. Ms. White testified that after June 29th, that the

  4. defendant asked her to make the entries into the diary. He

  5. actually asked her why she wasn't still doing it. This is the

  6. diary that she was supposed to be keeping to help him. Look

  7. at those entries. June 24th, June 25th through 28th, and

  8. June 29th. Same pen. Same ink. Made at the same time, after

  9. the June 29th date.

  10. Go to the next page. June 30th, July 1st, July 2nd,

  11. and you will have this part when you go back to deliberate.

  12. Very short. Very brief. All in blue ink. All the same. But

  13. a little different than entries on the other side, which

  14. corroborates her testimony that she wrote them all at the same

  15. time. Mr. Parlanti asked her, "Why aren't you still writing

  16. in this diary?" She takes it, and she makes some entries.

  17. Another occasion, she takes it, she's makes some more entries.

  18. All the same.

  19. Now, I admit that when she was initially asked on

  20. cross-examination about the diaries that she said, "I think I

  21. made them both at the same time the few minutes that I had

  22. before he came in and pulled me out of bed." And my response

  23. to that is: You can't expect a person who has been testifying

  24. for three days about an incident that lasted several hours,

  25. more than three years ago, to remember every little thing that

  26. happened. That's unreasonable. That is unreasonable to

  27. expect that.

  28. As I said, there's no mention of the beating in the


Pag.23
 

  1. one that she continues to write in after June 29th because

  2. that's the one she's keeping to help Mr. Parlanti. And if

  3. he's checking it, how would it help him if she were to discuss

  4. him beating her and raping her?

  5. What did Ms. White gain by coming and testifying for

  6. three days in this trial? She's got no lawsuit against the

  7. defendant or his company. She did not take any money from the

  8. defendant even though he gave her power of attorney over his

  9. finances. She didn't take any of his money; had the

  10. opportunity, did not do it.

  11. And in opening arguments, Mr. Bamieh actually said,

  12. "Ms. White is the one with the power in this relationship.

  13. She had the power of attorney." Well, that was before you

  14. heard the testimony. Did Ms. White have any power in that

  15. relationship? No, she did not. She didn't take his

  16. belongings. She took photographs of the apartment before she

  17. left. And in it, it has all of his belongings; his suit, his

  18. computer. You can all see it clearly there in the photograph.

  19. She didn't even take the furniture.

  20. There was an e-mail that she sent about the

  21. defendant promising to pay for her daughter's -- for her

  22. daughter's college education. And because of that, Heather

  23. should get the computers, but that didn't happen. That was

  24. Ms. White talking out of anger after what Mr. Parlanti did to

  25. her, and she's talking to everybody.

  26. She sat through several days of examination. She

  27. was asked tough questions both by the prosecution and by the

  28. defense. And she came back day after day after day and


Pag.24

  1. answered those tough questions. The defense stated in their

  2. opening statement that it was Ms. White, who was driving this

  3. investigation.

  4. Well, you heard her daughter Heather Reeves come to

  5. court and testify. And she said, "I flew out to help my mom

  6. move." Didn't see any bruising on her face; packed up her

  7. stuff, spent the night in the hotel, and drove up to Monterey.

  8. She was being honest. Was Heather Reeves being honest? Was

  9. she credible about her testimony? Did she say, "Oh, my mom

  10. was so beaten up"? No. She told you what she remembers three

  11. years ago.

  12. You had Sarah Campbell and Kevin Bunch and Alfred

  13. Berger come and testify, who said they saw Ms. White walking;

  14. that she was walking slow, didn't see any injuries on her

  15. face, but I noticed something different in her demeanor. Did

  16. Ms. White dictate their testimony? No.

  17. Sandra Lavagnino, was she credible? She was on the

  18. stand, and she was shaking. She didn't even look at the

  19. defendant. She couldn't look at the defendant. What else

  20. does she have in common with Ms. White? Don't want the

  21. defendant to know her new last name. Don't want to even look

  22. at the defendant.

  23. Dr. Manchester. Did Ms. White dictate what

  24. Dr. Manchester came to court and testified? Of course not.

  25. What Ms. White did do was provide information on who

  26. to contact. So, does that mean that she's driving the

  27. investigation because she says, "You know what? I -- I talked

  28. to my friends, and here are their phone numbers. Go and talk


Pag.25
 

  1. to them"? Does that mean she's driving the investigation?

  2. How else is law enforcement supposed to contact potential

  3. witnesses if we don't get their contact information? We need

  4. that. It's a common sense thing. We need to talk to the

  5. people that she talked to. The defense wants to make it seem

  6. that just because she was providing us with that contact

  7. information, that she was driving the investigation.

  8. The defense whole theory in this case is to attack

  9. Ms. White at every opportunity and to make the record as messy

  10. as possible, so it's so confusing that the jurors say, "I

  11. don't know what's going on."

  12. I'm asking you to look at the big picture. Look at

  13. all the evidence. Look at what Ms. White testified to and

  14. look at the evidence that corroborates what she said. If you

  15. consider all the evidence in this case, it's clear that the

  16. defendant beat, bound, and raped Ms. White for the simple

  17. reason is that he could. That's what he liked to do to

  18. Ms. White on this occasion.

  19. He saw Ms. White not as a person, but as another one

  20. of those things he collects. He's a Romeo, who likes to go

  21. out and meet women and talk to women and enchant them. That's

  22. what he does.

  23. Look at all the evidence. Look at the big picture.

  24. One of the things we are taught at law school from the very

  25. beginning is you don't want to lose sight of the forest by

  26. looking at an individual tree. Look at everything. Look at

  27. the entire forest. Don't get caught up on individual trees.

  28. It's time that the defendant be held accountable for

 


Pag. 26

  1. what he has done to Ms. White three years ago. It's time that

  2. he be held responsible for what he did to Ms. White. And when

  3. you look at all of the evidence, there's only one reasonable

  4. conclusion you can come to, and that is the defendant loves to

  5. exert power and control, and he beat, bound, and raped

  6. Ms. White on June 29th. Thank you.

  7. THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Romero.

  8. Folks, we will take the morning break at this time,

  9. 20 minutes. Between now and the time you come back to court,

  10. please don't discuss the case. Please don't form or express

  11. opinions. Court is in recess.

  12. ///

  13. (Off record - recess.)

  14. ///