What's interesting so far is what the State has left out. Ordinarily, the Prosecution tries to get all of the weak points into its case, so it can control the disclosure of those weak points and, in particular, appear to be forthcoming and honest.
The failure to do so leaves that story to be told by the Defense, on direct examination when they re-call Jane Doe. And ordinarily, the State does not want the Defense to be telling that story on their terms.
So it is a little baffling that the State did not do so, and the only plausible reason why is that the State knew that the testimony would leave it, at the close of its evidence, with a thoroughly demolished case and there was no way they could present the material without exposing the fatal fractures of their case.
The strategy must be, then, to attempt to prevent the evidence and testimony from coming in by objection during the Defense presentation.
It's going to be a battle. And the State will be relying heavily on the fact that the Judge's entire career was in prosecution, and that offers to them the advantage of "having two Prosecutors" at the trial, and only one Defense.
The key points the Defense will bring up, or try to bring up, on direct of Jane Doe:
1) certain aspects of her medical history,
2) her obvious willingness to ruthlessly lie to one of her closest friends in order to spend the evening with JJ,
3) that she was particularly angry that all JJ said was "thanks" when she dropped him off, and then after hearing nothing further from him, the letter she wrote to JJ two weeks after the "date" and to which he did not reply,
4) her actions two weeks after that to get a TRO against JJ based on her "fear" when, in fact, he was REFUSING to have anything to do with her, which appeared to be the primary reason for the TRO -- to get his attention and make the first public "statement" as part of her ongoing "campaign" -- which is how it will be portrayed. She will be shown here to have been willing to lie under oath -- another ruthless lie -- in order to "get" JJ,
5) Her history with JJ and her efforts to make it appear publicly as though she was his girlfriend,
6) the Forester's Ball where, learning that he was there with a date, an enraged, intoxicated Doe -- "alcohol-fueled" -- confronted JJ, announced mainly to JJ's date that she "would do him any time," and attempted to create a scene which JJ admirably attempted to defuse by placating her, which was the rationale behind the follow-up date the next day,
7) Her calls to the "Law Firm" that sued for money, and her resulting extraordinary efforts to track down JJ's entire sexual history -- the necessary key finding of "serial" behaviors which was necessary to sue UM for negligence,
8) The Defense will emphasize that she is articulate, sharp, ambitious, and controlling, and that she will bully people to get her way -- that was the reason for the State's seemingly odd questions about that to her friends that testified, the State knows what's coming on that count -- they were trying to answer questions that hadn't been asked yet, which came across as weak testimony,
9) The Defense will review her earlier testimony in detail; getting her to repeat the devastating things she has already admitted to. It will be high drama, as the Defense emphasizes those key points, in particular the testimony that she said "no" very early in the "date," changed it to babytalk "no's," and then finally actively participated in the actual "act" itself. They will go over and over that. She will be confronted with the fact that she did not, in fact, say "no" to the act of sex, and she will be asked to confirm the fact that she has stated that she doubted JJ understood that she did not want to have sex "because of her mixed signals," which were, the Defense will show, were not very mixed at all because, as she has now said, she engaged in the actual act of her own volition. She said that. And the State left that without qualification on re-direct and that was a devastating failure.
I suspect the line up will be an expert or two, the character witnesses, Jane Doe, and then JJ as the last witness. The Jury's last views of this case will be Jane Doe in tense confrontations attempting to rationalize many conflicting, contradictory, and overtly calculating behaviors and statements, too many, and her own words under oath. There will be tears. She is being coached this very weekend on how to act "vulnerable" and "meek," to appear to be the "victim" of ruthless and overbearing Defense attorneys; that she is being made a victim twice in this case. It will be a performance. The State will be objecting strenuously which will leave the Jurors with the notion that the State does not want the Jury to hear the full case -- the danger of too many objections.
And then they will hear JJ, who, as the roommate testified already, comes across as quiet, polite and shy. He will explain that by the time of the Forester's Ball incident, he was feeling stalked, hunted by Jane Doe. Yet, he liked her. They had some fun casual dates. But, after "that night" at the Ball, he got the feeling that she had crossed over the line. But, he also felt badly for her self-inflicted public humiliation. Because he is a nice guy.
And he made a mistake.
...
