Driscoll Trial: Fourth Day

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 06, 2009

Trial: Fourth Day

"Patrick Murphy:

"Patrick started the morning off telling the Jury that he and Melissa were not in an exclusive relationship at the time of the alleged “attack”. He said that it would have been no problem for him if Melissa would have had sex with someone else that night. Assuming that’s true, think he would’ve minded if Melissa would have had sex with multiple men in one night? He just hurt his own credibility with this statement because the jury had already heard about the police report that Melissa filed in May where she admitted to withholding that information from the police originally to protect her new relationship with Patrick Murphy. He went on to talk about Melissa’s bruises. He said that due to her job, it was common for her to get bruises from work. Lifting clothing fixtures, racks etc. she would often get small bruises in clusters... WOW! Is it just me, or are those the exact bruises Melissa claims were caused solely by Kevin??? He went on to say that the bruises she had that next day were large, and inconstant with what she gets from work… Once again, that is not true! The pictures of the bruises show clusters of small “finger” sized bruises… Which leads me to my next interview…

Sergeant Corey Chase – Redmond PD:

If this guy has a job on Monday, I will be surprised. He is the other officer heading up this “investigation” (and believe me, I use the term loosely). The day Kevin was arrested, Sgt. Chase made a call to Kevin’s fiancé (at the time) on his cell phone to ask about her relationship with Kevin. When he stated this in court, Ted asked to hear the copy of the phone call… “What?! There isn’t one” Sgt. Chase said he was unable to record the conversation because he called her from his cell phone at the police department. He went on to say during Ted’s cross-examination of him that the police department didn’t have the technology to record phone calls until later— months later. But what?? You guys had just recorded a pretext phone call between Melissa Leahy and Kevin a few minutes earlier, and she used her cell phone. He had no answer for this, so Ted moved on. One of the things that he brought to the jury’s attention was that there were several people at Kevin’s house that night, and it doesn’t seem like the police department had talked to a single one of them. Ted asked Sgt. Chase if he’d talked to any of the other people there that night; his statement was that they have 129 cases, they don’t have the [resources / ability] to follow up and/or hunt down every lead. He, like Chris Wick, also admitted they had already made up their mind to arrest Kevin before they’d even questioned him. The burden of proof to arrest is opposite of the burden of proof to convict. Basically, no proof or investigation is required to arrest someone as long as the police think the crime could have happened, according to Detective Chris Wick and Sergeant Corey Chase. Again, they had decided to arrest Kevin with several charges before even talking to him."

 [Editor's note: Think about this: the police can arrest anybody for no reason.]

"Jessica Mondt:

"Another witness the prosecution called was Jessica Mondt, the Loss Prevention Manager of Sears, where Melissa works. I’m not sure what the jury thought of her—I couldn’t get a reading. I however, thought it was a ridiculous testimony. She told the jury her job at Sears is to watch what is going on in the store VIA CAMERAS, keeping an eye on the customers as much as the employees. She stated that she and Melissa aren’t friends, but that she noticed a real change in Melissa days following the “rape” in January. She said that Melissa was often outgoing and friendly, dressed in short sleeves…then immediately after the incident, Melissa became very withdrawn and began wearing long sleeve shirts, etc. (Winters in Central Oregon get very cold, and I would strongly suggest that a long sleeve shirt in January would be the appropriate attire.) She would often have to leave the sales floor to go sit in someone’s office and talk. This woman claims to know this much about Melissa and noticed a change in her over night to such detail it was ridiculous to me. She claimed they aren’t friends, so why would she pay this much attention to Melissa???

"Megan Elliott:

"Jody Vaughan called her to the stand. I found this woman being on her witness list very curious. We had originally subpoenaed her and then released her because we thought she had nothing to add to the case either way. She is the apparel manager at Sears, and was Melissa’s supervisor/manager at the time. The one interesting thing this woman had to say was in regard to Melissa’s attire. She stated that prior to the attack, she had several conversations with Melissa in regards to covering up and dressing more appropriately (hence the long sleeves?) She also said that Melissa has slowly but surely gone back to the borderline inappropriate way of dressing."

[Editor's note: I am told that Melissa has resumed her customary partying and pub-crawling lifestyle in the months since the alleged attack, with a variety of male companions.]

"There is no court on Monday, and Wednesday of this week. Tuesday, the prosecution should get their witnesses wrapped up, and the Defense will begin calling their witnesses. Tuesday the Forensic Pathologist should take the stand. As always thanks for your support and we will keep you posted!"