11:03am | 05/16
"This honorable court of the District of Columbia Courts Judicial Circuit with the honorable Judge Rodriguez is now in session. All rise."
I stood up and watched as the judge walked in and sat down behind the bench. She instructed everyone to sit down which they did.
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this case involves the alleged rape and assault of Mary Murphy. In this case, Mary Murphy, who is a college student at Howard University, is the plaintiff and Masai King who is also a student at Howard University is the defendant. Mary Murphy is asking you to decide whether or not Mister King is guilty of this heinous crime. Miss Murphy is being defended by the district attorney today, do you wish to make an opening statement?"
"The evidence in this case will prove that on Friday, March 8th, Masai King deceived Miss Murphy into entering her room and later used physical force to preform unwanted sexual acts on her. When asked to stop multiple times and when told no he continued to act in such a way. When done he physically abused her, called her nasty names and continued to emotionally abuse her. He broke down Miss Murphy and brought her to a place she'll never be able to leave"
"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my client, Masai King, has been wrongly accused of abusing Miss Murphy physically and emotionally. During the time of the alleged incident he was playing basketball with his roommate and has never seen or been in the same room as Miss Murphy until the accusations came about. In fact, the accusations were non-existent until a case of my clients past—which was dismissed—was released to the public. Miss Murphy may have been raped on the night of March 8th, but my client was not the one to do so"
So he's using Wayne as his alibi like he said...interesting.
Masai and I haven't spoken since our argument at Storms graduation party. I even decided to stay in New York after that so he had to come back by himself—and he brought Roman with him.
After some time to think about it, and talking with Tay and Majesty, I'm not as mad at him as before. He's known Wayne much longer than he's known me. Yes he owes me honesty, but he also owes Wayne his loyalty. I can't expect him to tell me Wayne's business if he doesn't want me knowing about it—just like Leigh. My issue with the situation though was that Masai was involved, therefore being his business which is then my business. To top it off, Masai is suffering from this and not Wayne.
He's tried contacting me all week but I ignored him. I needed a break from him and I'm standing by my word. Until he's ready to be honest with me we need some space. He still texts me good morning every morning and good night as well. This morning he even called me multiple times and texted me saying he needed to speak with me urgently but I still ignored it.
So why am I here then? because no matter what we go through I still have love for him, this little break does not mean I hate him. me ignoring him is truthfully a way for me to hurt him the way I feel hurt by him not trusting to tell me. also because Carter said it'd look good for him if I still stood by his side in court, despite our issues.
"District attorney, please call your first witness" The judge said
"I call Mary Murphy to the witness stand"
Mary, who was sitting next to the DA stood up and walked over to the stand. She looked nervous and tired on top of that. Her mother and I guess other family members sitting on the other side of us in the court room. A part of me feels bad for her. She was raped—maybe—but also lost her father as a result.
"Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" The court reporter asked
"Yes"
"Please state your name" The DA asked her
"Mary Murphy"
"and what school do you attend?"
"Howard University, I'm a junior there"
"Please stick to answering only the questions asked please" He said before standing up and walking towards the bench "now, could you describe to us what occurred the night of March 8th, before the incident"
"I-I was studying for my human resources management midterm"
she's a business student.
"and where was your roommate during this time?"
"it was Friday night so my roommate went out with her friends, I had the room to myself"
"okay so now how did your introduction with Mister King go and how did he get into your room?"
"objection!" Carter yelled "leading question"
"sustained. reword your question Mister Racine"
"okay. during your study session that night, was there anything that interrupted?"
"yes"
"please explain"
She took a deep breath then looked at the jury then turned back to the DA before starting to speak.
"I was in the middle of a snack break when I heard a knock on my door, so I got up to go answer it—"
"and behind it was?"
"the defendant"
"and then what happened?"
"he said he was a friend of my roommate's and that he needed to drop something off for her and that she knew about it..."
"and you let him in freely?"
"of course not. I've met most of my roommate's friends, he was new so I was skeptical. So I told him to hold on and called my roommate to ask. She didn't pick up though since she was out"
"so then how did he get in?"
"well he held a textbook, that was what he said he needed to drop off. in my head I thought maybe it was for her to study for a midterm coming up in the next week, and so I let him. that was my first mistake. I could've just taken the book from him and put it on her desk myself, but instead I opened the door wide enough for him to walk in. I now know it was a stupid mistake but I wasn't thinking anything of it. He held a book, not a sign on his forehead saying he's a rapist"
"okay so he's in your room now, then what happens?" The DA asked
"so I'm still standing by the door, holding it open for him to leave. He puts the book on her desk then starts to walk in my direction, towards the door. On his way out he spots my human resources textbook on my bed and walks towards it. he asks me if I'm taking the class and I said yes. I found it weird for him to be standing that close to my bed so I walked over to close my book and push it away. I'm thinking he got the message because he starts to walk to the door. Instead of walking out though, he closes it then locks the door. I'm confused now so I ask him what he's doing. He didn't give me an answer though, instead he turned off the lights and smiled.
"immediately something clicked in my head. I know now that he's about to do something, I don't know what but I know it's bad. so I begin to reach for my phone which is on my desk. Before I could touch it though he pulls out a knife, about the length of a pen or pencil. As he did that he said I wouldn't if I were you"
As soon as she said that I knew she was lying. Masai wouldn't pull out a knife on anybody, not after how his dad died.
Ever since he started getting nightmares of him stabbing his dad he's been scared to even use kitchen knives to cook. He wouldn't pull out a knife on her. She's lying.
"please continue" The DA said noticing she's stopped talking after mentioning the knife
Her eyes landed on me.
"he started to...force me to do things I didn't want to. things orally, vaginally, anally..."
"did you at any point in this consent to him?"
"No! I told him no, I begged him to stop but he didn't" She began to cry for empathy points of course
"when he was done he started to get dressed to leave. I felt sick with myself for letting him abuse me like that. So I pushed him...that's when he started to hit me"
I kissed my teeth and rolled my eyes. This doesn't even sound like something Masai would do. I remember he got so defensive this one time when we were watching the news and some guy beat on his girl. He's very passionate when it comes to guys abusing girls.
I pulled out my phone and started to scroll through it. I can't stand to listen to the rest of this girls false testimony. She's straight up perjuring herself on that stand.
The DA continued to question her for a good ten minutes.
"one last question, what floor do you live on in your hall?"
"the fourth floor" She answered
"no further questions, your honor" He said before taking a seat
Carter then stood up and walked over to the stand to question her next. I put my phone away and decided to listen for this one.
"Mary—may I call you that, Mary?" He asked
She nodded her head in response
"Mary did you tell anybody about the incident after it occurred?"
"no" She whispered
"why not?"
"I didn't think anybody would believe me"
"why not?"
"he's the star of the basketball team for one, plus school's never take rape cases seriously especially when it comes to athletes"
"okay. so then what made you decide to come out and say he raped you, the day the article of his past came to the light actually?"
"because there was proof now, he's done it before and got away with it. I didn't want him to get away with it again. the article also gave me his identity. I didn't know who he was, how could I have reported it earlier?"
wait.
"So you're saying you did not know who the defendant was when the rape occurred?"
"no—I mean yes. I did not know him"
"but a second ago you said he was a basketball star, you knew that much right?"
"I found out that after, yes"
"but you said that was the reason you didn't report him, because he was a basketball star and the school wouldn't take it seriously if you had reported the incident. but then you said you didn't know him which is why you didn't report him. so which is it? did you know him and his status which is why you didn't report him or did you not know him?"
She looked stuck once he asked that question. She began to stutter but no answer came out of her mouth.
"objection, badgering the witness" The DA called out
of course.
"I'm simply asking if she knew the defendant during the incident. this is crucial to understanding the timing of her allegations"
"objection overruled, witness will answer the question" The judge said
as she should.
"so did you know Mister King during the event, yes or no?"
"I knew of him yes, just not who he was until the article came out"
"interesting. now Mary, you said in your testimony that your roommate was out during the time correct?"
"yes"
"—and my client, according to your testimony, came to your room with something for your roommate—a textbook. correct?"
"yes"
"did he ask you if your roommate was there first or did he just say he needed to drop off the textbook?"
"I opened the door and he said he needed to drop off a textbook for her"
"basically he knew she wasn't there is what I'm gathering. so help me understand this. you did not know my client before the incident. in fact, not many people know of you. from talking to the little friends you have and your roommate you stay to yourself, you don't go out much. I won't speculate so please tell us when was the last time you might have went to a social gathering, club, meeting, left your room in general"
"objection, relevance?"
I kissed my teeth and rolled my eyes.
"the relevance will be clear very soon your honor" Carter explained
"overruled"
"so Miss Murphy. The last time you've been to a social event or out of your room to go anywhere besides school was?"
"uh I-I don't really go out much. I went to a party once fall semester" She answered
"so you rarely go out, you and my client have absolutely no classes together, and I doubt you're on the mens basketball team. so how is it that my client would've known you out of the thousands of other students on the campus who are more social? how would he have known your roommate was out? based on how you described his methods of entry—using your roommate and a textbook—we would infer that he plotted this. but how would he have known to choose you to be his victim?"
"I-I-I don't know. you're asking the wrong person"
"or maybe you've got the wrong person. no further questions, your honor" Carter said before heading to his seat
Mary stood up and went to go sit down in her seat. The judge began to write stuff down then looked up.
"Plaintiff's counsel, you may call your next witness" She said
"I call Mister King to the stand" He said then stood up
Carter whispered something in Masai's ear before he stood up. He turned to look at me before walking towards the stand.
I felt a hand on my shoulder causing me to look up. It was my dad.
He smiled then went to go sit next to Sai's mom who was in the row in front of mine. He must've just got here.
"Raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear that the testimony you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" The court reporter asked again
"I do" Masai said with his right hand risen
"State your name for the court" The DA began
"Masai King"
"and what school do you attend?"
"Howard University as well"
"okay, let's jump right in then. On the night in question where were you between the hours of eight pm and twelve am?"
"I was playing basketball with my roommate—Wayne Colbert—in Blackburn Center, the schools recreation center" He answered
"all throughout that time?"
"yes"
"you played basketball for four hours?" The DA asked again
"I said yes didn't I?"
"I'm only asking because I find that interesting. I would like the court to turn to the tv. This is footage of the elevator surveillance camera the night in question. It's sped up for time purposes but the intent is still served"
He walked over to the TV that was by the court reporter and turned it on. He then lifted up the remote and hit the play button.
The footage showed people riding up and down the elevator. It was pretty useless for the first ten seconds, but then we all understood it's purpose. Masai entered.
The way that the camera was positioned you not only saw who got onto the elevator, but you were able to see where they were going until a certain point. So you see him press the fourth floor button—the same floor the girl lives on.
When he exits he walks down the hall, with a textbook in hand, and to a door. That's when the elevator door closes and you no longer see him. The footage is then sped up more to about an hour later where you see Masai once again, getting onto the elevator.
He has the textbook in hand again but his hair is messy this time, clothes kind've distorted.
To make matters worse he turns to look at the camera and smiles into it.
He did it?
"so now I'm conflicted" The DA started "you said you were playing basketball from eight to twelve, yet the footage shows that at nine o'three you were in the elevator of Miss Murphy's building, heading to the fourth floor with a textbook in hand. you then got in the elevator again at nine fifty-four leaving her floor messily dressed. then you smiled at the security camera, confirming it's you. so I guess my question is, was that you in the footage?"
I stared at him waiting for an answer because I wanted to know to. I know my eyes are not deceiving me. I saw what I saw. His eyes met up with mine as he answered.
"I plead the fifth" He said
oh hell nah.
I stood up and walked out of the courtroom.