Prosecution Resorts to Witness Intimidation

For several days I’ve watched in horror and amazement as Brian Blanchard and Roy Korte fumble their way through the examination of witness after witness. Not only do the prosecutors seem unable to anticipate how witnesses will respond to their questions, they often seem to have no idea what to ask them.

Some witnesses have accommodated the prosecution’s ineptitude by offering specific information and details to extremely vague questions. Other witnesses have asked prosecutors to be more specific. Two of Wednesday’s witnesses provide an excellent contrast.

Blanchard’s entire line of questioning with former ARC staffer Carolyn (Hughes) Jahnke consisted of Blanchard repeatedly asking, “Do you remember anything else?” Jahnke contributed what she could remember after six to eight years.

But when legislative staffer, Rose Smyrski continually asked prosecutors to be more specific and had difficulty remembering what calls she placed on her calling card six years ago, Assistant Attorney General Roy Korte audibly sighed and threw his pen down on the table in protest.

Not only was this stunt intended to intimidate the witness who faces the treat of prosecution if she does not satisfy her immunity agreement, but it also served to prejudice the jury by suggesting that Smyrski was not being honest or forthcoming.

Smyrski, the mother of two young children, repeatedly said that she was nervous and tired from being up much of the night with her four month old baby. Smyrski had difficulty remembering many of these details when she was initially interviewed by investigators in 2001. Should it really come as any surprise that her memory is even worse now?

Smyrski eventually left the witness stand in tears.

So after five years of investigation, hundreds of interviews and reams of paper, prosecutors are still not sure what their case is really all about, and they expect their witnesses to help make it up as they go along.

And I thought it was the prosecution’s responsibility to ask specific questions in order to make their case.