Grim Sleeper Trial. The hatred between the D.A. and the Defense can no longer be hidden....

Well the last few days have been interesting more so with the contentiousness between the D.A. Beth Silverman and the Defense Seymour Amster.  On Wednesday the underlying hatred the two of them have for each other came to the forefront and nothing was going to stop them attacking each other publicly in front of the Jury.

Quoting below from LA Time Reporter ~ Stephen Ceasar who put it very eloquently:

The defense and the prosecution clashed Wednesday over whether prosecutors should have previously disclosed that an earlier witness had a conviction for attempted murder. The witness, Ray Davis, a former friend of Franklin's, testified that he once saw Franklin with one of the victims in the case.

Defense attorney Seymour Amster complained that he had never seen such an oversight by a prosecutor and called the late notification "egregious." Davis' testimony, he argued, should be stricken from the record.

Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy rejected his request, saying Davis could return to testify about his conviction.

"She doesn't matter enough," the defense attorney responded. "I feel pity for her, but that's as far as it goes.""I know you and Ms. Silverman don't much care for each other," Kennedy said, referring to Deputy Dist. Atty. Beth Silverman.

Some in the audience gasped and others laughed.

Silverman shot back, asking the judge to silence Amster for his comments and allow her a chance to respond. Nothing improper had occurred, and Amster was engaging in pointless, personal attacks, she said.

"I don't care what he thinks," Silverman said.

Amster complained that the judge was characterizing his personal feelings toward the prosecutor, but Kennedy interjected.

"I haven't been living under a paper bag for the last five years," Kennedy said. "I have observed hours and hours and hours of your conduct, her conduct, everyone's conduct — personal attacks, raising your voice."

It is quite shocking as to how this has been going on in the Courtroom for over 5 1/2 year between these two.  Sometimes the Judge has even thrown them both out until they can come back in and 'leave their egos at the door'.  She has told them both, in no uncertain terms, to basically grow up. However this was the very first time that the Jury had to become part of their ongoing hatred for each other.  Although this doesn't help the case at all, I suppose it does add some humour to a very dark subject that they will are forced to endure for at least a few months more.  

District Attorney, Beth Silverman is an attractive, tough yet brilliant woman and to watch her in action you can't help but respect her.  Seymour Amster on the other hand is.... I didn't think I'd write it publicly but.... let's just say some might call him 'the Village Idiot'. At least they would where I come from.  There is nothing professional or 'attorney-like' about him.  This is compounded by all his games, stalling tactics and complete lack of professionalism which is why this case has been delayed for so long.  At the present time and since we are now in full swing of the Trial, he seems to want to delay it even further by asking the same redundant question over and over again. (I will get to this later on as it happened again in the Courtroom today).

Every day the Alexander family are in the Courtroom patiently waiting for Justice to be served.  They seem like a very close knit, loving family who sadly lost their precious daughter back in 1988, Alicia "Monique" Alexander at the tender age of only 18 years old.  So far they have not missed one day of Court since the Pre-Arraignments all began over 5 1/2 years ago.  God Bless them all.

Over the past few days we have seen numerous Criminalists testify, Henry Tuazon, Jeffrey Lowe and Daniel Rubin.  Tuazon and Lowe found all sorts of womens' underwear strewn across the garages at the back of Franklin's residence.  Yesterday a good friend of Franklin's testified, Ray Davis, however it upset the Defense a lot due to his criminal background.  He was not on the stand for long and might return if he is called upon again.

Today, Witness Daniel Rubin took the stand again and for the entire day this poor man was under scrutiny and abuse generated by Seymour Amster, once he was allowed to cross examine him.  

Mr Rubin is a tool mark expert and Criminalist.  He sounded as though he is either from back east somewhere or Chicago.  My guess would be that he is from Brooklyn New York due to his strong accent and very apparent disdain for Mr Amster's antics.   After being questioned by Amster for hours and hours with redundant, degrading, offensive and an argumentative line of questioning, his demeanor made it very clear that often time he would like to reach over the Witness stand and strangle him.

After withdrawing the question over a dozen times and being told by the Judge repeatedly that his line of questioning makes no sense, Amster continued breaking down Mr Rubin's very professional examination of the bullet with:

Amster: Did you identify one of the bullets from the test fire with some type of number or something you could refer back to for comparison purposes?

Rubin: Yes

Amster: And what did you call them?

Rubin: I called them test fire 721A

Amster: How many reproducible marks did you find on 721A?

D.A: Objection. 

Judge: Sustained.  Mr Amster he's told you already several times that he doesn't count marks.  

Amster went on to ask the same question again 8 more times in different ways and it was clearly making Mr Rubin more and more frustrated.  Finally he just turned to the Jury and shook his head and wiped his brow all in one motion.  What made it more outrageous was when Mr Rubin had to answer the same question and he did it with the same answer each time.  It got to the point that he would then put a period in between each word of his answer when he spoke.  For example, "I have answered this question numerous times before, I... DID... NOT.. NEED.. TO.. COUNT.. THE.. MARKS.. ON... THE .... BULLET!"... And again Amster, who refuses to ever give up, keeps pressing on with:

Amster: Ok so the bullet you..... I withdraw the question... I want to confirm that the bullet that you were examining was from a 25 calibre hand gun, right?

Rubin: Yes

Amster: So how many 25 calibre firearms..... I withdraw the question... How many firearms in the County of Los Angeles could this bullet have been placed in to could have discharged that particular bullet?

Rubin: I .. DO ... NOT ... KNOW!

Amster: Is the 25 calibre automatic firearm a readily accessible firearm for purchase?

D.A: Objection.  Irrelevant.

Judge: Overruled

Rubin: Well that would depend on the circles that you travel with.

And the Courtroom erupted in laughter, to which Amster relished the attention and laughed for the longest time as if he'd just received a standing ovation for his performance at the Comedy Store.

More of this testimony will be in my book.....

Amster: And you cannot say that the pattern you saw on the Jackson bullet number 4 that you felt existed on the Wright bullet number 111 was the same pattern you saw on the Washington bullet number 10?

Rubin: Correct

Amster: Nor on the Alexander bullet number 14?

Rubin: CORRECT!

Amster: Nor on the Sparks bullet number 57 ?

Rubin: CORRECT!

Amster: Nor on the Lowe bullet number 3

Rubin: C.O...RRRR...E...C..T!!

Amster: Nor on the Ware bullet?

Mr Rubin became stronger and stronger with each obvious answer.  He then rolled his eyes yet again for the umpteenth time facing the Jury.  This time he was wiping his brow in a very overt way showing his complete exhaustion from Mr Amster's unrealistic questions.

After more lengthy and repetitive questioning by the Defense, which went round and round all day. And after 'withdrawing his question' numerous times.  And after breaking down and roaring in to uncontrollable laughter at nothing.  

And after flapping his arms about so much with his elbows firmly at his side (as if trying to take off). And after referring to items by the wrong names and being corrected by the Judge numerous times.  And after putting the wrong photographs on the Elmo...... Mr Amster finally gave up and said that he had 'nothing further'.  You could hear a subtle sigh of relief from everyone in the Courtroom.

The Judge looked at D.A. Beth Silverman to see if she wanted to ask the Witness any more questions... and she did.

D.A: Mr Rubin at some point in the Defense questioning I think there was the question that asked .... that long question.... whether or not you know the number of firearms in Los Angeles County that could have fired this unique bullet that you matched to this gun, what was your answer?

Rubin: ONE!

D.A: Ok, as I wasn't sure what your answer to his question was.  So as you understood the question regarding how many guns there were whether we're talking about Los Angeles County or all of California, you're saying there's only one gun that could have fired that particular bullet, right?

Rubin: Yes!

D.A: And that would be that Titan FIE 22 calibre handgun that we looked at yesterday and today.  The only gun we've looked at? 

Rubin: Yes!

Defense: Objection. Vague

D.A: Of all the guns that exist in the world how many guns could have fired that particular bullet that was pulled out of the body?

Rubin: One!  The only gun that we have examined here in the Court.  YES! (he blurted out as clearly as he could).

She went on to confirm the answers that Amster had asked him but in a much clearer way, to clarify the main points for the Jury.  In the 5 minutes she asked the questions, she made more sense to everyone in the Courtroom than Amster has done throughout the entire Trial so far.

Most of his responses were a firm, "YES!"

She had nothing further.

And if you can believe it possible.... Amster got up again to ask more questions even though it was at the end of the day.   I couldn't take another minute of his drivel, even though we had only 4 minutes to go, so I left.

To be continued.....