Home Vai alla versione italiana Go to Carlo Parlanti's web site
![]()
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
VENTURA, CALIFORNIA; FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2005
--oOo--
(Proceedings were had and reported, but not transcribed
herein.)
THE BAILIFF: Remain seated. Come to order, please.
Court is in session.
THE COURT: We are back on the record in the case of
People versus Parlanti. We have all jurors, counsel and the
defendant.
Mr. Romero, you may make your closing argument.
MR. ROMERO: Thank you, your Honor.
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Before I get
into my argument, a couple of things I want to say: First
off, I want to thank you very much for your time and your
patience and your service on this jury the last week or so
that we have been together;
Second thing I want to say is I actually get to
argue two times. I'll make my argument now, defense counsel
will come up, make their argument, and then I get to go a
second time. And I know if you watch the TV shows, you don't
see that second argument, and the reason for that is -- the
reason why I get to argue twice is because I have the burden
of proof. It's my burden to prove to each and every one of
you beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant is guilty.
So, the first thing I would like to start off with
to let you know is that there are some things that you, as
jurors, are not going to get as evidence, and I want to bring
Pag.2
that to the forefront right now so you don't ask about them
during your deliberations. You are not going to get the
police reports. There are legal reasons why this evidence is
not going to come before you, and you are not to speculate as
to why or why not you are getting them. You are not going to
get any transcripts that were referenced to. You are not
going to get the full and complete diaries that we talked
about, and you are not going to get any of the medical reports
that Dr. Manchester talked about.
I'm going to move around. I don't want to block
everybody's view the whole time.
Now, what you are going to do, as jurors, is have
certain responsibilties and obligations. The first thing is
that you have a duty to deliberate individually. That means
that Mr. Parlanti is entitled to each and every one of your
individual opinion. Everyone must participate. Everyone must
give their reasons why they feel one way, and everyone must be
treated equally in the jury deliberation room.
You have a duty not to allow sympathy for the
defendant or the victim or victims enter into your
deliberations in any way. As much as you possibly can,
emotion should not in any way enter into your decision of
whether or not the defendant is guilty of the crimes he is
charged with.
You have a duty not to allow any prejudice with the
defendant or the victim enter into your deliberations, and you
have a duty not to speculate. What that means is you must
base your decision on the evidence that you have before you.
Pag.3
You cannot consider what may or may not be out there. You
have to base your decision on the evidence that was presented
before you. That's the way it works in our criminal system.
There's a jury instruction that reads that neither
party is required to call all the evidence we possibly can in
a trial. That would extend trials weeks and weeks and weeks,
if possible. So, you have a duty not to speculate on what
else may be out there. You make your decision on what you
have before you.
And you have a duty not to consider in any way what
you believe the penalty or punishment may be in this case.
That cannot influence your decision of how you vote in any
way.
Now, you have two jobs as jurors. I talked to you
about you being the judges of the facts, and that's what you
must do. You determine what the facts are in this case. The
judge will then give you the law, and then you apply what you
believe the facts to be in this case to the law, and you make
your determination of whether or not you believe the defendant
is guilty of the crimes charged.
One thing you all bring in this courtroom that you
will use throughout this entire process is your common sense.
I'm going to refer to that several times throughout my
presentation.
One of the jury instructions you are going to be
given is going to list some things that you can use as a guide
to determine whether or not you believe a witness is credible,
and it's not limited to the items that are listed. It's just
Pag.4
kind of a guide giving you things that you can look at; such
as, you can look at the opportunity or ability of a witness to
see, hear or otherwise be aware of what they're testifying
about. Now, that's an important one. I'm going to come back
to that a little later.
You can talk about or you can consider the ability
of a witness to remember or to communicate what they are
testifying about; the character and quality of their
testimony, meaning their character and quality of their
presentation that they gave to you while on the witness stand;
the demeanor and manner of a witness, whether a witness was
hiding behind a monitor screen, whether the witness was
shaking while testifying. All of that you can consider in
your deliberations. The existence or non-existence of bias;
some kind of ulterior motive or interest you can consider in
determining how much weight to give a particular with witness;
and you can also look at statements previously made that are
consistent or inconsistent with the testimony that the witness
is -- the witness gave during the trial. All of those are
things that you can consider.
Now, this is what I must prove to you beyond a
intercourse. In order for me to prove beyond a reasonable
doubt that he is guilty, I need to prove there was an act of
sexual intercourse by two people who were not married, the
intercourse was against the will of Ms. White, and that it was
completed by means of force, violence, duress, menace or fear
of immediate and unlawful bodily injury. That's what I must
Pag.5
prove. If I prove beyond a reasonable doubt those four
things, the defendant is guilty.
Count 2, this is what I must prove beyond a
reasonable doubt. I must prove that the defendant willfully
inflicted bodily injury upon Ms. White, and the bodily injury
resulted in a traumatic condition. What a traumatic condition
is, it's an injury. Did she have an injury as a result of
being struck by the defendant?
Count No. 3 is false imprisonment. This is what I
must prove. The defendant intentionally and unlawfully
restrained, confined or detained Ms. White, compelling her to
stay in her bedroom; Ms. White did not consent to the
restraint, confinement or detention; and the restraint,
confinement or detention was accomplished by violence or
menace.
Now, one thing I want to tell you is in the facts
that were presented to you, there are multiple acts that could
constitute a number of those crimes charged. For example, the
rape. Ms. White talked about multiple sexual encounters with
the defendant that she alleges was against her will. If you
believe that that happened, all you have to find is that she
was forced to have sex one time. If you find that, then that
is -- then that is sufficient to find him guilty because there
are multiple allegations of rape that she has made. There's
not a count for each one. As long as you believe that it
happened one time, then that is sufficient to find the
defendant guilty for the one count of rape.
Same with the bodily injury, there's only one count.
Pag.6
It's Count 2. But in the facts that you were given, you can
find that there were several instances where the defendant
inflicted bodily injury, bruises to her face. She said she
was slapped repeatedly, and she had taken some photographs of
the bruises to her face. If you believe that that happened,
that is sufficient to convict him of Count 2. There's also
another set of facts where she says she was kicked in her ribs
by the defendant repeatedly, and she had some fractured ribs.
If you believe that to be true, then that is sufficient to
find him guilty of the 273.5, Count 2.
You don't have to say which circumstances you
believe happened to find him guilty of a 273.5. All you have
to agree is that on one of those occasions, that happened, and
the defendant is guilty.
MR. BAMIEH: I'm going to object, your Honor, as to the
first comment by Mr. Romero. I believe it misstates the law.
THE COURT: I'll speak to counsel here at the bench.
Nothing that was said jumps out at me about the statement of
the law. I need to know what you are talking about.
///
(Bench conference held off record and not reported.)
///
THE COURT: Thank you, counsel. The objection is
overruled. I didn't hear it that way, but perhaps you can go
back over it, Mr. Romero.
MR. ROMERO: Sure.
If you believe the defendant kicked Ms. White and
fractured her ribs, you can convict him of Count 2 as long as
Pag.7
you all agree that happened. If you believe that the
defendant slapped Ms. White and left bruising on her face, you
can convict him of that count as long as you all agree that
that happened.
Same with the false imprisonment. If you believe
that the defendant bound Ms. White with zip ties, then you
find -- you can find him guilty of that count. Now, she
testified that she was bound more than once; initially, when
they had sex, and then he unbound her, and then he bound her
again. If you all agree that he bound her initially, that is
sufficient to find him guilty of the false imprisonment. If
you believe he cut the ties and then bound her again, as long
as you all agree that happened, that is sufficient to find him
guilty of that count as well.
The point is, there are multiple acts that Ms. White
described where you can find the defendant guilty of the
charges. You all just have to agree as to what acts
constitute the particular charge that you are finding him
guilty of.
that Ms. White was very dependent on the defendant, and that
is abundantly clear throughout the trial. She was dependent
on his affection, his validation, and she did everything she
thought she could to make him happy, and she let Mr. Parlanti
do what he wanted. She let him talk to other women. She let
him possibly go on business trips and be with other women, and
she kind of just accepted it as part of the relationship.
Pag.8
to choose who victims of crime are. Victims of crime come in
all forms. Ms. White came to court, and she testified that
she was beat, bound, and raped by the defendant, and she comes
with all she has. She comes with all the baggage. She comes
with everything you saw her testify to in court, and you
decide whether or not you believe Ms. White.
Gail Pincus came, and she testified, and she shed
some light as to the dynamics of an abusive relationship. She
talked about how initially a batterer is a gentleman, is
romantic, sweeps the victim off her feet, has them fall in
love with him, enchants them. Then once they have established
that sense of trust, that's when they begin to impose the
power and control.
Ms. Pincus drew the circle, the wheel of violence.
And at the very center of that wheel, when she described the
dynamics that took place in the relationship, was a need for
power and control that batterers have over their abusers.
Now, 85 percent of batterers are male, and the reason why they
batter is because they have that need to exert that power and
control over their significant others.
He likes to go out and meet women. He likes to talk to women.
He likes the way women make him feel. There was no doubt
about that in this trial. In fact, Ms. De Barra flew from
Ireland and told you that in a six- to seven-week relationship
with the defendant, she had him move in, into her apartment in
Ireland, and she thought he was a perfect gentleman, greatest
guy in the world; so much so that she allowed him to move in
Pag.9
with her even though she knew he had a girlfriend in Italy.
That's how charming he was.
Mr. Parlanti did not get an opportunity to follow through with
his pattern of behavior of first enchanting and entrusting,
and then given the opportunity to exert the power and control.
Ms. White told you that on June 29th, she was at her
apartment here in Ventura County, and the defendant got drunk.
He started drinking some wine. The defendant, for some
reason, got angry with her, and I believe the testimony from
Ms. White was whenever the defendant gets drunk, starts
drinking, that's when she becomes afraid. And I believe
Ms. Sandra Lavagnino said the same thing. She was fearful of
the defendant when he started drinking. The defendant starts
drinking, has her go buy him some more wine. She comes back,
and he's angry, tells her to get out of the office where they
were. She goes into her room. He comes in, gets her out of
bed, tells her, "No, I didn't want you to get away from me. I
want you out of the apartment." And she's pulled to the door.
She has her head banged against the wall. She described how
that was done. He then pushed her to the adjacent wall and
banged her head some more. He then slapped her, choked her
where she fell to the floor -- I believe she said
unconscious -- and that's where he began to kick her in her
ribs on her side.
He then -- excuse me. He then got her into the
bedroom where he bound her with the zip ties and where he
raped her multiple times. That's what she came and testified
Pag.10
about. She did not report the incident until July 18, 2002
almost three weeks after it happened.
Now, when I just told you about what happened, did I
include every detail that she testified to on the stand? No.
I could tell you what she testified to on the stand in detail,
probably take me a few hours, and she was on the stand for
several days to be able to tell you everything that she said.
And if I were to give my closing argument a week from now and
talk about what she told you, I could probably tell you the
same thing, but not exactly the same thing.
When she talked to the deputies almost three weeks
after it happened, she described it to them many times. She
talked to Deputy Fullerton. She described the incident to him
a few times. The very next day, she talked to Deputy Reilly.
She described the incident to him a few times. Did she say
the exact same thing in every letter or e-mail that she sent
out? Because it's clear that as soon as she started talking
about it, she didn't stop. She wrote either e-mails or
letters to the defendant's therapist. She wrote e-mails or
letters to the defendant's attorneys, to the defendant's
girlfriend in Italy. She couldn't stop talking about it.
Why did she do all that? I don't think there's any
one answer to that. Maybe she was feeling angry, and she
wanted to hurt the defendant. Maybe she just wanted to tell
everybody because she wanted to unload. Maybe she thought it
would help her. There's probably no single answer for that.
But she did. She told everybody who she could think of what
happened. She told the defendant's business partner. She
Pag.11
.
wrote him a couple of e-mails describing what had happened,
but did she say the exact same thing in every one of those
communications? No. And it's ridiculous to think that she
would; that to think that she would say the exact same thing
every time she talked about it.
Now, you -- you may consider the ability of
Ms. White to see, hear or otherwise be aware of what happened.
When she talked about what happened over several hours of that
night of June 29th over several hours, when she talked about
it, was she really -- do you really think she was paying
attention to how many times the defendant initially banged her
head against the wall? Was she counting them? Or do you
think she was trying not to get too hurt?
When the defendant banged her head against the
adjacent wall, do you think she was counting how many times he
was banging her head? Or do you think she was thinking about
not getting hurt? When the defendant choked her and she fell
to the floor and he started kicking her, do you think she
counted how many times he kicked her? And if she says, "I
think he banged my head about 30 times," to the best of her
recollection, that's probably what she remembers. Was she
counting them? No.
When she says, "I think he kicked me ten times," to
the best of her recollection, that's what it felt like to her;
that he banged her head 30 times. Did he bang her head
against one wall 30 times and then banged her head against the
adjacent wall 30 times? Probably not. But does that change
the fact that that's what it felt like to her when she's being
Pag.12
beaten like that? when she's being slapped? when she's being
kicked? Is she going to have an accurate recollection of all
that or is she just going to be thinking at that time, "I need
to make sure to protect myself as best I can. I don't want to
get too hurt"? You need to look at the core of what Ms. White
said.
attorney, and he represented John Scopes, Scopes' monkey trial
is probably his most famous case. He was a criminal defense
lawyer and a labor lawyer. He also represented Leopold and
Lowe, two well-to-do guys from the Midwest who were charged
and I believe they pled guilty to killing a young guy. Those
are probably his two more well-known cases, but he had a very
long and distinguished career.
And one of the persons he represented in about 1920
was a young guy, who was accused of bombing the Los Angeles
Times Building, here in Los Angeles. And the prosecution in
that case had a star witness. They had a person who
personally I.D.'d this defendant running away from the scene
of the bombing of the L.A. Times Building.
So, the district attorney's office in Los Angeles
sent Mr. Darrow the statement of this witness and he read it.
And sure enough, "I saw your client bombing the building, and
I saw him run away." Mr. Darrow hired his investigator, and
he sent this investigator out to talk to this witness. He got
the report back, looked at it, same thing. "I saw your client
bomb the building and run away." Looked at the initial report
that he was provided by the district's attorneys office, exact
Pag.13
same thing.
They get to trial. This witness gets on the stand
and testifies to the exact same thing, word for word,
verbatim. And Mr. Darrow got a "not guilty" for his client
because he argued to the jury that that is not the way things
work in real life. We don't work off of scripts. Maybe in
television, but in real life, we do not work off of scripts.
People do not say the same exact thing, word for word, every
time they talk about an event.
I'm asking you to consider all of the evidence. Not
just the minutia, the minuscule, little inconsistencies that
have flooded this case.
tiniest of details and make the record as messy as possible.
We spent an inordinate amount of time in this trial going over
things she said to Deputy Fullerton that were different than
things she said to Deputy Reilly the next day that were
different from what she faxed to Deputy Reilly on the 22nd
that were different than what she testified to in the
preliminary hearing earlier this year.
If we were to have another hearing and had her
testify again, would there be things that she said over the
trial these last three days that she never said before? Yes.
You can talk about something over and over and over, but what
you need to look at is the core. The core.
Is she being consistent with what she has said? She
may not remember three years ago what happened over four to
five hours. She may not be able to remember that. The
Pag.14
deputies were given transcripts, taped transcripts, verbatim,
word for word, of what was spoken three years ago; given an
opportunity to review them before they came on the stand to
testify, and they couldn't remember what they were talking
about. They had to keep referring to the report. And in
fact, they just kept reading through the report when they were
being asked questions. They weren't testifying on their
memory. They were -- "Yeah, that's what it says here. That's
what it says here." And I made that objection two times with
both deputies. I was watching. Several questions. "Oh,
yeah, that's what it says here. That's what it says here."
Ms. White didn't have an opportunity to do that, to look at
her transcript, taped statements, and see exactly what she
said.
That's what the defense is trying to do here. They
are trying to get the record as messy as possible. Looking at
your notes, you probably don't have an exact word-for-word
exchange of what was said on the stand because it was so
minuscule, so tiny, it was difficult to follow everything that
was being said. The defense wants you to lose focus of the
big picture by pointing out every single variation, including
the most miniscule of each of Ms. White's statements, but I'm
asking you, look at the core.
Three years ago, my brother got married; my older
brother, someone who I love very much. He got married in San
Luis Obispo. I have a very large family. I have relatives
here in California, in Texas, Michigan, Florida as well as
Mexico and Brazil. A lot of them came to the wedding up in
Pag.15
San Luis Obispo. It was in June of 2002, three years ago.
Little over three years ago.
And I drove up from the wedding because I live here
in Ventura, got in my car the day of the wedding, the day of,
drove up, had lunch with my brother, and it was -- the wedding
was actually on a ranch, a small ranch; had a lot of family
there.
After having breakfast, we went over to the ranch,
and I had a bunch of cousins, little cousins ranging from
three to about 16 years old there. And the ranch actually
belonged to the parents of the bride, and they had really nice
horses. They had this area -- kind of like a park area where
people were playing football, and I remember taking my -- a
group of my cousins, about ten of them, like I said, large
family, and we walked over to the horses. We were able to pet
the horses, comb their hair; afterwards, played a little
football with some other relatives.
Then the wedding started. Sat through the wedding.
As soon as the wedding was over, I left; drove back down to
Ventura.
Now, since that time -- actually, shortly
thereafter, I got phone calls, and I spoke to relatives who
weren't able to make the wedding, and they asked me about it.
So I told them. I told some about the actual wedding. I told
some about the horses. I told some about the football. I
told some about my cousins.
If you were to go back and look at every statement
that I made to those relatives about that day -- and it wasn't
Pag.16
something traumatic. It was a wonderful day, seeing my
brother get married -- would they all be consistent? No.
They wouldn't be. That's a natural tendency. If they are all
consistent, exactly the same, that's when you start to wonder.
What is going on here? Why are they so consistent?
Ms. White while she was on the stand for those three days, all
the e-mails, all the letters that were given to her, was --
was it ever stated that she said she lied? that she said she
was not beaten? that she said that she was not raped? Did
that ever happen? No. Ms. White never made that statement.
She might have talked about it endlessly to anyone she can
think of, but did she ever say she lied? that she was not
raped? that she was not beaten? No, she did not.
Corroborating evidence. Going back to my story of
my brother's wedding. Let's say I had to prove that I was
there three years ago. Let's say I had to prove that I was
there, okay. You have my statement to you that I went there.
Well, how about some more proof? Okay. I remember on the way
back, I stopped by a gas station, and I used my credit card
for some gas. I can produce that document showing that my
credit card was used on a particular date in San Luis Obispo.
Corroborating evidence to show that I was there on that date,
proving I was there.
Well, we have Ms. White's testimony. And should you
look at it with a critical eye? Yes, you should. Look at it
with a very critical eye. The allegations she is making
against the defendant are serious. Look at it.
Pag.17
What else do we have to show that she is telling you
that they saw Ms. White shortly after the 29th walking slow.
None of them said they saw any bruising on her face. None of
them recalled that, but they do recall her walking very slow.
She was not making eye contact. Couple people said she was
kind of looking down. Before that, she would say "hi." She
would look at them. "How're you doing?" Superficial
greetings. But then remember her -- and I think it was Kevin
Bunch and Sarah Campbell said, "Yeah, after the 29th, you
know, she really wasn't making eye contact with us anymore.
Didn't see any bruising, don't really recall any arguments,
any loud noise on the 29th coming from their apartment or
anywhere around that time, but I remember there was something
different in her demeanor." Corroborating evidence.
the bathroom. She took two photographs of the bruising to her
face with the disposable camera, and she kept them. During
this time, she's still living with the defendant. She's still
sleeping in the same bed right next to him, and she was only
zip tied to him at night.
During the day, he would be gone. She would be able
to leave if she wanted to. Why didn't she leave? I can't
psychological reasons why Ms. White stayed in that apartment;
why she did not just call 9-1-1; why she did not just go to a
neighbors; why she didn't do a number of things. She did take
pictures of herself.
Pag.18
Almost three weeks later from the date of the
incident, she finally does go to the sheriff's department, on
July 18th, and they take photographs of Ms. White. And they
also came in and testified to the best of their recollection
they don't really remember seeing that type of bruising on her
face or any bruising; don't really remember seeing that
bruising on her face. Well, they do recall seeing some faded
bruising on her arm, I believe -- and I believe that was
Deputy Reilly testified to that. And Deputy Keller, Jody
Keller, is the one who took these photographs, and she said,
"She might have had some bruising on her arm, and I think I
remember seeing some bruising on her back near her ribs."
Well, almost three weeks later, the bruising that
she suffered faded. So when she went to the deputy sheriff,
that evidence was not there at that time, but there is another
injury that she had that doesn't heal like bruises, does not
heal that quickly. Three weeks or so was not enough time.
And what I'm talking about is the two fractured ribs that she
had.
On July 22nd, she goes to Doctors On Duty in
Monterey, and she sees Dr. Troy Manchester, and she gets
treated. And Dr. Manchester takes x-rays of her ribs because
she's been complaining of this pain. She's been having
problems, walking slow. The residents at the apartment
complex testified to that. The sheriff's deputies testified
to that, her moving kind of slow. She's got two fractured
ribs. You can tell -- he can put the fractured ribs, in his
opinion, as happening between two and six weeks before. July
Pag.19
22nd, two to six weeks before. That puts June 29, 2002 in
that range. Takes a lot longer for fractured ribs to heal
than it does for bruises. That is corroborating evidence.
And the defense might come up and argue that: Well,
she could have fractured her ribs doing a number of things.
The evidence was clear that when Dr. Manchester examined her,
she had no other injuries on her face. She wasn't in no
recent car accident where she still -- where her ribs hit the
steering wheel possibly. There was no bruising there.
Corroborating evidence that the defendant beat her on
June 29th.
the defendant did this to Ms. White? Sandra Lavagnino.
Sandra Lavagnino came in, and she testified that the defendant
was charming in their relationship when they first started
dating. She fell in love with him, and she moved into his
apartment. And once she was in his apartment, that's when the
abuse started. She talked about lying in bed, sleeping.
Defendant comes in and throws cold water on her. Other
occasions, lying in bed, sleeping. Defendant comes in and
flips the bed over. No apparent reason. She talks about the
defendant choking her to unconsciousness. She talked about
the defendant and her having a conversation and something
being said, she didn't recall exactly what, but the defendant
then just losing it, threw her in the sink, hit her with a
colander on her head, ripped off her dress and lit it on fire.
The defendant likes the power and control. He takes
out his frustrations on his significant others. That's what
Pag.20
he does. And the purpose of that evidence, the purpose of
Ms. Lavagnino coming here and testifying is to show you just
that; that you can consider that to show that he has a
propensity to act violently against his significant others.
have? Well, Ms. White testified that the defendant left on a
business trip on July 16th. She reported the incident on the
18th. Detective John Reilly testified that when he got
involved in the investigation, he went looking for the
defendant at Dole Foods. He testified, "I went to Dole Foods,
and I talked to a couple people, one of them being a security
officer there, looking for the defendant. Didn't find him
there."
The evidence shows -- where is the next time we see
Mr. Parlanti? Katia testifies that we see Mr. Parlanti in
late July or early August of 2002 back in Italy. I'll let you
think about that.
The diaries. We spent a lot of time talking about
the diaries that Ms. White kept. She kept two diaries; one
for herself, and one to help the defendant to help the
defendant in some type of litigation that he was involved in.
And the diary that she kept to help the defendant, she didn't
put any of the abuse in. Why? This was for his attorneys,
for the defendant, to help him in his lawsuit. So there
wouldn't be anything about violence in that diary. There was
no mention of beating that happened on June 29, 2002 in either
one of those diaries.
Ms. White stated on the stand, "I remember Carlo
Pag.21
telling me to get out of the office and go into the bedroom,
and I remember that's where I made the entries in both
diaries." That's what she testified to. Then Mr. Bamieh
showed her the two diaries and said, "There's different color
ink. How could you have made the same entry if there's a
black pen and a blue pen?" She really didn't have an answer
for him at that time. She said, "I think it might have been
two pens on the night stand. I don't remember."
On cross-examination, I asked her about it. And
then she says, "The entry that I made" -- actually, she says
this on direct initially, too. She says the entry she made on
June 29th, in her personal diary, she made before the abuse
happened. That's why there's no more -- that's why there's no
discussion of the abuse.
MR. BAMIEH: Objection. Misstating the testimony on
direct examination.
THE COURT: Overruled. The jurors are the judge of what
the evidence is.
MR. ROMERO: Then I show her the entry of the diary from
-- that she was keeping to help Mr. Parlanti because that has
entries that go beyond the 29th. So, I physically handed her
the diary and asked her, "Will you look at those dates?" And
she looked at them. And in her personal diary, her entry for
the 29th is on one page. In the diary -- you will get this.
In the diary that she kept for Mr. Parlanti, her entry for the
29th is just a few sentences, the very bottom. And at the
very top, you have June 24th, next entry, June 25th through
the 28th, and then at the bottom, June 29th. All in the same
Pag.22
color pen, all -- if you look at it, looks like the exact same
pen, same ink.
Ms. White testified that after June 29th, that the
defendant asked her to make the entries into the diary. He
actually asked her why she wasn't still doing it. This is the
diary that she was supposed to be keeping to help him. Look
at those entries. June 24th, June 25th through 28th, and
June 29th. Same pen. Same ink. Made at the same time, after
the June 29th date.
Go to the next page. June 30th, July 1st, July 2nd,
and you will have this part when you go back to deliberate.
Very short. Very brief. All in blue ink. All the same. But
a little different than entries on the other side, which
corroborates her testimony that she wrote them all at the same
time. Mr. Parlanti asked her, "Why aren't you still writing
in this diary?" She takes it, and she makes some entries.
Another occasion, she takes it, she's makes some more entries.
All the same.
Now, I admit that when she was initially asked on
cross-examination about the diaries that she said, "I think I
made them both at the same time the few minutes that I had
before he came in and pulled me out of bed." And my response
to that is: You can't expect a person who has been testifying
for three days about an incident that lasted several hours,
more than three years ago, to remember every little thing that
happened. That's unreasonable. That is unreasonable to
expect that.
As I said, there's no mention of the beating in the
Pag.23
one that she continues to write in after June 29th because
that's the one she's keeping to help Mr. Parlanti. And if
he's checking it, how would it help him if she were to discuss
him beating her and raping her?
three days in this trial? She's got no lawsuit against the
defendant or his company. She did not take any money from the
defendant even though he gave her power of attorney over his
finances. She didn't take any of his money; had the
opportunity, did not do it.
And in opening arguments, Mr. Bamieh actually said,
"Ms. White is the one with the power in this relationship.
She had the power of attorney." Well, that was before you
heard the testimony. Did Ms. White have any power in that
relationship? No, she did not. She didn't take his
belongings. She took photographs of the apartment before she
left. And in it, it has all of his belongings; his suit, his
computer. You can all see it clearly there in the photograph.
She didn't even take the furniture.
There was an e-mail that she sent about the
defendant promising to pay for her daughter's -- for her
daughter's college education. And because of that, Heather
should get the computers, but that didn't happen. That was
Ms. White talking out of anger after what Mr. Parlanti did to
her, and she's talking to everybody.
She sat through several days of examination. She
was asked tough questions both by the prosecution and by the
defense. And she came back day after day after day and
Pag.24
answered those tough questions. The defense stated in their
opening statement that it was Ms. White, who was driving this
investigation.
court and testify. And she said, "I flew out to help my mom
move." Didn't see any bruising on her face; packed up her
stuff, spent the night in the hotel, and drove up to Monterey.
She was being honest. Was Heather Reeves being honest? Was
she credible about her testimony? Did she say, "Oh, my mom
was so beaten up"? No. She told you what she remembers three
years ago.
You had Sarah Campbell and Kevin Bunch and Alfred
Berger come and testify, who said they saw Ms. White walking;
that she was walking slow, didn't see any injuries on her
face, but I noticed something different in her demeanor. Did
Ms. White dictate their testimony? No.
stand, and she was shaking. She didn't even look at the
defendant. She couldn't look at the defendant. What else
does she have in common with Ms. White? Don't want the
defendant to know her new last name. Don't want to even look
at the defendant.
Dr. Manchester. Did Ms. White dictate what
Dr. Manchester came to court and testified? Of course not.
What Ms. White did do was provide information on who
to contact. So, does that mean that she's driving the
investigation because she says, "You know what? I -- I talked
to my friends, and here are their phone numbers. Go and talk
Pag.25
to them"? Does that mean she's driving the investigation?
How else is law enforcement supposed to contact potential
witnesses if we don't get their contact information? We need
that. It's a common sense thing. We need to talk to the
people that she talked to. The defense wants to make it seem
that just because she was providing us with that contact
information, that she was driving the investigation.
The defense whole theory in this case is to attack
Ms. White at every opportunity and to make the record as messy
as possible, so it's so confusing that the jurors say, "I
don't know what's going on."
all the evidence. Look at what Ms. White testified to and
look at the evidence that corroborates what she said. If you
consider all the evidence in this case, it's clear that the
defendant beat, bound, and raped Ms. White for the simple
reason is that he could. That's what he liked to do to
Ms. White on this occasion.
He saw Ms. White not as a person, but as another one
out and meet women and talk to women and enchant them. That's
what he does.
Look at all the evidence. Look at the big picture.
One of the things we are taught at law school from the very
beginning is you don't want to lose sight of the forest by
looking at an individual tree. Look at everything. Look at
the entire forest. Don't get caught up on individual trees.
It's time that the defendant be held accountable for
Pag. 26
what he has done to Ms. White three years ago. It's time that
he be held responsible for what he did to Ms. White. And when
you look at all of the evidence, there's only one reasonable
conclusion you can come to, and that is the defendant loves to
exert power and control, and he beat, bound, and raped
Ms. White on June 29th. Thank you.
THE COURT: Thank you, Mr. Romero.
Folks, we will take the morning break at this time,
20 minutes. Between now and the time you come back to court,
please don't discuss the case. Please don't form or express
opinions. Court is in recess.
///
(Off record - recess.)
///