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ANNABETH: Why'd you call us so soon?
Don't you need to finish your investigation?
Oh, we didn't know what to do with him.
Wanted some guidance from the prosecutor's office.
She was in the car?
Mother's on her way to pick her up.
Guy gets into a fight with his kid in the car.
Where is this genius?
He's in with his attorney.
A cop on the scene said his first call was 911,
second was his wife.
And third was his lawyer.
So who is he?
Greg Paulson.
English professor, Central Indiana.
English professor?
This guy killed someone in a fight?
Road rage.
Says the other driver attacked him.
He fought back.
Looks like a lover, not a fighter.
Alcohol?
He did a voluntary Breathalyzer at the scene.
Not a drop.
Who's the victim?
According to his driver's license,
Mark Riggs. Coroner's prelim
blunt force trauma, fractured skull,
broken right forearm.
Defensive wound.
That'd be my guess. Weapon?
Bloody crowbar next to the body.
Who's crowbar? Probably the victim's.
There were some loose tools in his pickup, a hard hat.
A construction worker, carpenter.
Anything else?
Passenger side window of Paulson's minivan was smashed.
Few pieces of glass in the kid's car seat.
Lucky she wasn't cut up.
Witnesses? It was dark,happened fast.
In other words... We're working on it.
There's nobody helpful yet. (knocking on door)
Annabeth...
so glad you're here.
My client's ready to talk.
You're letting a client talk, Paul?
That's a novel strategy.
Well, you know the adage, Annabeth.
The truth will set you free.
Do I look like the kind of guy who'd start a fight?
Or finish one?
I teach Chaucer for God's sake.
I just wanted to get home with my daughter
and have dinner with my wife.
Guy cut me off.
Did you provoke him in any way,
flip him off, honk your horn?
Not until he swerved in front of me.
He blocked the road, wouldn't let me pass.
I honked.
I got out to talk to him
and... he just wentoff on me.
Why didn't you back up and drive away?
I would have.
But there was a car behind me.
I got blocked in.
You left your three-year-old in the car, Mr. Paulson.
I just wanted to talk to him.
I had no idea that he was going to attack me with a crowbar.
Where did he get the crowbar?
He must've grabbed it from the back of his truck.
All right, walk me through exactly what happened
when you and Riggs got into this.
Is that what his name was?
Mark Riggs.
Oh.
He pushed me.
He started yelling.
And you pushed back.
Just to keep him away from me.
Why not get back in your car?
Mr. Paulson wasn't the aggressor here, Ms. Chase.
Under Indiana law,
he had no duty to retreat.
I waed to, believe me.
Then suddenly he's brandishing a crowbar,
slamming it at Courtney's window.
He shattered it into a million pieces.
I mean, thank God for safety glass.
At that point, I had no choice,
I had to protect her, fight back.
How did you get the crowbar away from him?
I don't know how.
I just went berserk.
Into another zone.
Managed to wrestle it away from him.
And then?
I told him to back off.
He just kept coming, so, uh...
I hit him.
How many times? Once.
Just once?
Mm-hmm, in the head.
And then he just collapsed.
I just wanted to keep him away from Courtney.
Ms. Chase...
Hi. Sarah Paulson.
Hi, Mrs. Paulson.
Are you releasing Greg?
Not tonight.
It wasn't his fault. He said that man attacked him.
We're looking into his story.
Mrs. Paulson, there's some things we need to clear up.
Please, just let him come home with me.
With us.
I'll talk to my boss in the morning
and we'll decide then how to handle your husband's case.
Then you'll let him go?
We have 72 hours to decide
whether to charge him or release him.
Come on, sweetie.
You notify Riggs' family?
Yeah, we're looking for his next of kin.
Contact number in his wallet.
Linda Miller.
Just two guys driving home, huh?
Yeah, should've stayed in the car.
Yeah, he should've.
Let me know when you get the forensics.
An English professor with a nice wife
and a little kid. I know.
It's easier when they're scum.
They were pushing and shoving,
using the worst language.
Did you see either man with a weapon?
No, just their hands.
Then what happened?
I went back inside to call 911.
When I came out again, it was all over.
As I pulled up, they were getting out of their cars.
You know, bring it on.
Who got out first?
The guy in the pickup, I think.
But both of them were raring to go,
yelling, cursing. "What the hell are you doing?"
That type of a thing.
You didn't stick around?
Didn't seem that serious.
Just a couple of jerks
blowing off steam at the end of a hard day.
I did call 911.
I was listening to the news on the radio
and I heard a car window being smashed.
We've had some break-ins here recently,
so I found my glasses and I went outside.
How long would you say it took you to find your glasses?
Few minutes.They were upstairs.
I don't need them for the radio.
And then?When you went outside?
One man was laying on the ground,
another man was standing over him, holding a crowbar.
The man on the ground wasn't moving.
So where are you with the appeal?
Which?
The vehicular homicide,
the guy who killed Annabeth's husband.
Trent Bishop.
Bishop.
I'm working on the reply brief.
Is it a formality
or does Bishop really have a chance?
Afraid so.
Breathalyzer hadn't been recalibrated.
You're kidding.
Plenty of precedent for granting him a new trial.
Does Annabeth know?
She asked me to keep her in the loop.
I'll show her the draft when I'm done.
Hopefully, we can get this thing thrown out.
I'd hate for her to have to relive
this whole ugly experience over a technicality.
The professor versus the carpenter.
So, self-defense or something else?
Eyewitnessed testimony is inconclusive.
No one saw either man take the crowbar
from the back of Riggs' truck.
Paulson claims Riggs attacked him, smashed in his car window,
but forensics don't match.
Riggs' fingerprints aren't on the crowbar.
But Paulson's are.
Yeah, what you'd expect.
But he also struck Riggs twice.
The first blow broke Riggs' arm, trying to defend himself.
Paulson didn't need to strike the second lethal blow to the head;
he was no longer in danger.
If he had ever been.
We'll see how he defends himself against a murder charge.
Street fights, road rage, not great witnesses,
wouldn't manslaughter be an easier charge to make?
Charge high, leave yourself some room to negotiate.
We may need it. Our victim, Riggs, had a record.
DUI, misdemeanor assault.
Assault? Yeah, a couple of years ago.
Some kind of scuffle at the county fair.
He'd pled guilty, 24 hours community service.
Let me guess, Professor Paulson has no record?
Not even an unpaid parking ticket.
Sympathetic defendant, unsympathetic victim.
Paulson may be sympathetic,
but the evidence says he's lying.
The second blow, the fingerprints.
Professor Paulson claims self-defense against a guy who's bigger than him,
has a record of assault and driving under the influence,
who cuts him off in traffic, confronts him on the street.
The jury might find that persuasive.
This case is going to come down to character.
Riggs v. Paulson.
From what I just heard,
Paulson's got it hands down.
???? son, how do you plead?
Not guilty, Your Honor.
The defendant was acting in self-defense and to protect his child.
We ask he be released on his own recognizance.
This is a murder charge, Your Honor,
not a moving violation.
We ask the defendant be remanded.
Mr. Paulson has no criminal record,tenure at the university,
strong ties to the community.
Bail is set at $200,000. Cash or bond.
Thank you, Your Honor.
I'll see you downstairs.
So, why so adamant, Annabeth?
Paulson's hardly public enemy number one.
Mr. Paulson left a child he was supposedly trying to protect
in the car alone while he confronted Mr. Riggs.
That's what this is about? Leaving the kid in the car?
Forensics indicate Mr. Paulson was the aggressor.
He also lied to the police and this office
about what happened that night.
He didn't lie.
He gave contradictory statements under stress.
The lack of prints and the crowbar doesn't mean anything.
It will to a jury.
Your client picked up that crowbar, Paul.
He struck Mr. Riggs twice, not once.
The second time after disabling him.
There's no way this was self-defense.
Broken window in the mini-van?
Paulson broke the window himself.
Anyone see him do it? Didn't think so.
When you're ready to be reasonable, call me.
You'd be open to a deal?
Well, if it involves dropping the charges.
Have a nice day.
We need to paint a picture of these two men for the jury.
I'll take the dead guy, Riggs.
Let's talk to the guy he assaulted at the county fair.
See if his testimony will hurt us with the jury.
We ever reached that emergency contact?
DRUMMER: Linda Miller, his ex-wife.
See if she has anything nice to say about him.
His ex? I'm sure she won't have nice things to say about him.
Mine does.
I didn't know you've been married.
Neither does she.
I'll look into Paulson, see if I can find out
what kind of family man he really is.
The kind who gets into a fight with his kid in the car.
We know why she was with him?
He just picked her up from day care in his way home.
All right, I'll check that out.
Mrs. Paulson, it would be nice if one of you could talk to her.
She and Annabeth already had a run-in, so I'll go.
Why would she even open the door?
She left her daughter's blanket at the precinct.
I know, it's a long shot.
Well, it might work. At least it's a reason to knock.
WOMAN: As fathers go,
he was pretty involved.
Picked up Courtney almost every day after work.
That day, what kind of mood was he in?
Foul. He was running late.
It was getting dark.
I was anxious to lock up and go home.
He seemed stressed.
Courtney was cranky, she wanted to go home.
He raised his voice at me
like it was my fault she was the last here, not his.
Is he usually bad-tempered?
A lot. With everyone.
Huh. Seems so mild mannered.
Used to be.
He really changed a lot after his little boy died.
He lost a child? About a year ago.
Andrew. Three.
Beautiful boy.
Hit by a car right in front of their house.
Man, that's tough. Yeah.
Ever since that happened,
Mr. Paulson's just been mad at the world.
I would be.
Me, too. No question.
BLACKWELL: So tell me exactlywhat happened that day with this guy Riggs.
You're at the fair...
In line to get ice cream.
My kids are goofing around.
You know, not misbehaving, just rambunctious.
Suddenly, this guy's going off on me.
Yelling, telling me to control my kids.
Poking me in the chest with his finger.
The kids start screaming and crying.
It was a scene. Spoiled the day.
So you pressed charges.
I thought twice about it.
I heard he pled to a misdemeanor,
so tempers stay in the tea pot, huh?
You say you thought twice about it.
His ex-wife called me, asked me to cut the guy a break.
Said he'd been going through a rough time.
She say why?
No. I didn't ask.
My husband's lawyer says I shouldn't talk to you people.
Mr. Boscoe's right.
We can't compel you to talk to us about anything
your husband might have told you that night.
It's privileged.
But I thought you might want to talk about Greg in general.
Why would I want to do that?
We've been told your husband's
been mad at the world since your son died.
He's been upset. I have, too.
We just... deal with it differently.
I thought you might want to soften the picture of him a little.
Why would you want to?
You're prosecuting him for murder.
We're not monsters,Mrs. Paulson.
We want to know what really happened that night.
Maybe this whole tragedy doesn't have to end with a trial.
MRS. PAULSON: Greg has been depressed.
Distant.
I can understand how people think he has a temper.
He is angry,but not at the world.
He... blames himself for what happened.
Why? What happened?
I wasn't home.
I had taken Courtney and gone shopping.
They were out in the yard playing.
Andrew ran into the street.
I'm so sorry.
I can't imagine what that must feel like.
There are mornings you don't think
you can get out of bed and face the day.
But... we have Courtney, so we have to.
I mean, it's good.
She gives us both a reason to go on.
The day after he died, I hadn't read the paper,
no one phoned me yet.
So I picked up the telephone
to ask him to come over and help the trim the hedges.
You stayed close, even after your divorce?
Closer, actually.
We'd spent yearswatching Jenny die.
That's not an experience anyone can ever understand.
Jenny? Our daughter.Leukemia.
She was five when she got sick and nine when she died.
After she died, I went to bed for five months
an
Right.
Anyway, ever time I looked at Mark,
all I could see was Jenny,
When did you two...?
After the divorce, Mark got involved
with a support group for grieving parents,
pulled himself together.
He called me to see how I was doing,
and we started talking again.
We heard he had some trouble--
DUI, scuffle at the county fair.
All that was the year
after Jenny died, but he'd changed.
This group had really helped him.
That's why I was so surprised
to hear he had been in this fight.
You know where this support group meets?
Over at St. Stevens.
Jesse Abrams, he's the leader.
I was sick when I heard what happened to Mark.
You knew him
We spoke at length probably four times a week
for the past year and a half.
I got to know Mark inside and out.
His ex says you really helped turn him around.
She gives me too much credit.
Mark turned himself around.
Threw himself into this work, heart and soul.
His way of mourning Jenny.
Threw himself into it?
Her counseled other parents,
did outreach work for us at local hospitals...
He was good at it?
He'd been through it himself.
He could talk to parent who'd just been told his or her child had died.
That's not easy.
What would he tell them?
He'd stay with them, comfort them,
contact them a few days or weeks later,
tell them about the group,
ask them if they'd like to come to a meeting.
You keep records of those meetings?
Regular members and guests.
I can fax it to you.
What about the people he counseled?
That list I can give you right now.
I'll be damned.
Greg Paulson?
Riggs counseled him after his son died.
So Paulson lied about knowing Riggs.
He's been lying from the get-go.
They certainly weren't total strangers.
After they met at the hospital,
Riggs invited him to the grief group.
June of last year,
Paulson went to two meetings at St. Stevens.
I pulled a police report on the accident.
Paulson and his son were playing hide-and-seek on the front lawn.
He lost sight of his son for a few seconds
and the kid ran out into the street and got hit by a car.
Sad story.
Think they might try to use it with the jury?
How is that relevant to a self-defense claim?
State of mind.
However, if he did...
They might take pity on him and forgive him
for the inconsistencies in his story. Inconsistencies?
Under those circumstances,
going in front of a jury could be dodgy.
Maybe we could use the lie to leverage Paulson
to take a manslaughter plea.
We haven't even scratched the surface here.
Why would Paulson kill a guy
who was trying to help him mourn his son's death?
If we could find out
what they were really fighting about that night,
we'd have a motive to support the murder charge.
If we could, we might or we might not.
Offer Paulson voluntary manslaughter and let's put this to bed.
Your client lied to us, Paul.
He knew Mark Riggs.
You can keep accusing him of that.
He didn't lie, just didn't mention it.
How is it relevant?
It's still a road rage incident,whether they knew each other or not.
I thought we were here to talk about a plea.
Voluntary manslaughter, ten years.
Four suspended for mitigating circumstances.
Voluntary man, ten years, two suspended.
Eight years, Greg.
Make parole, you'll be out in four.
Done.
Tell me what happened that night.
We knew each other from the grief group, that's true.
But I hadn't seen Mark in months.
When he got out of the car, he looked familiar,
but I barely remembered him.
It was dark and it wasn't until afterwards
that I realized that it was him.
What were you and Riggs fighting about?
Well, it happened like I said.
He cut me off. I don't know why.
You're still claiming this was a traffic altercation?
Maybe he was irate
because I honked my horn at him.
All I know is that he came at me with a crowbar
and smashed my window.
I had to defend myself and my daughter.
You told us you hit him once.
The coroner's report is irrefutable.
I don't remember hitting him the second time.
I was in a state, I was fighting for our lives.
You were enraged. I was scared to death?
Even if that were true, Mr. Paulson,
your first blow broke his arm.
You were in no danger when you struck the lethal blow.
I didn't know that.
I don't believe you. You're a liar.
Annabeth, that's uncalled for.
You've lied to us from the beginning and you're lying now.
That's my story.
That's the story that I've told all a long,
and that's the only story that I'm going to tell.
Really? Well, then, we have a problem,
because I'm not going to let you lie to the judge.
Annabeth, please, we can make this deal.
Last chance, Mr. Paulson.
I already told you. If that's a challenge,
I'll take it.
And you'll be sorry I did.
????
I thought his proffer was line,
I didn't think Judge Lathrop would accept it.
He would have accepted it.
I accepted it, Paulson accept it.Everyone but you.
I don't feel comfortable settling with no idea of what really happened.
Your job isn't to know what really happened.
Your job is to accurately assess the strength of case.
Ambiguous evidence, inconclusive witnesses,
sympathetic defendant, semi-sympathetic victim.
This wasn't road rage.
They were fighting about something more important.
You don't know that. I'm trying to find out.
We got permission from Riggs' ex-wife to search his apartment.
Ed and Ray can go over there right now.
You have two days to show me something,
otherwise we go back to Boscoe and we make the deal.
Two days.
Okay.
?????They look like they were happy.
Family pictures always look happy.
Right-- who hangs the ones where everyone looks miserable?
His daughter dies,his whole life changes.
The death of a child rocks your world.
Drinking,assault arrest, losing his wife.
It's like a punishment.
What did he do other than have a kid who got sick? Nothing.
He made something out of it in the end.
The support group.
Look at these.
Recognize the names?
Recognize this one. Paulson.
Must be the people he counseled.
This is all about the Paulson's son.
Name, birthday,anniversary of death,
favorite food, toys.
Pictures.
Sarah Paulson.
Maybe Riggs counseled her, too.
Maybe.
He must have.
They went to Calvary Cemetery together,
where Andrew Paulson's buried.
Almost every Tuesday for the past year.
Almost every week. Regulars.
What was their routine?
What would they do?
Go to the gravesite for a while,
sit, hold hands, maybe walk around, talk.
Sometimes they'd even pack a picnic lunch, spend the afternoon.
What was your impression of their relationship?
Really good.
Better than most couples grieving a child.
You thought they were a couple?
The parents? Yeah. Definitely.
They told you that?
You can tell.
They'd touch, console each other,
and they always came together.
Together? A lot of parents come alone.
Grieve separately.
It's too painful for them to be together.
They blame each other or whatever.
These two were definitely helping the other one get through this.
Weekly visits to a cemetery hardly prove
Mark Riggs and Sarah Paulson were having an affair.
They talked on the phone several times a day for months.
And according to Mark Riggs' calendar,
they also met in restaurants, coffeeshops,
even his apartment occasionally.
He was counseling her.
Oh, is that what they're calling it these days?
Greg Paulson was so distraught over his son's death,
he temporarily checked out of the marriage,
and Sarah needed someone to confide in.
Riggs.
They fell in love.
I'm still not making the leap.
Look at the timeline of the phone calls.
Riggs meets Paulson at the hospital
Riggs brings Paulson to two grief group meetings at St. Stevens.
That's where their relationship ends.
No more meetings, no more phone calls.
between Riggs' and Paulson's office.
But for the first time a few weeks after that,
Riggs calls up Paulson's home and talks to someone there for almost an hour.
And you think he talked to Sarah Paulson, why?
Riggs never calls up Paulson's home number again,
only Sarah's cell phone, which he calls all the time.
Until this day,
shortly before the murder,
when the connection between Sarah and Riggs ends.
One of them broke it off. Or Paulson found out.
An affair? What else could it be?
They obviously were trying to keep their relationship secret from her husband.
And that's what Riggs and Paulson fought about that night?
I think so.
I want to talk to Sarah, ask her about it under oath.
All right. Depose her.
I lied because I didn't want to cause Greg any more trouble.
You were having an affair
with the man your husband killed, and you knew how that would look.
Could you not call it that, please?
What would you call it?
A friendship.
We have phone records, photos of the two of you together,
notes of the times you met at the cemetery, his apartment.
I know that it looks like an affair, but it wasn't.
Well, whatever it was, how did it start?
Mark called the house, looking for Greg.
I told him Greg didn't want to continue going to group.
He said he understood that,
and then he asked how I was doing.
And that just opened the floodgates.
We talked about Andrew.
Greg and I weren't talking about Andrew,
or anything else for that matter.
And Mark Riggs understood?
He had lost a daughter and a marriage.
He knew exactly what I was going through.
That was the beginning.
Did your husband know about this relationship with Mark?
He knew we were spending a lot of time together.
He knew Mark and I were close.
He asked me to break it off with him.
Is that why you stopped seeing each other?
My relationship with Mark was so intense.
At a certain point, I felt I was betraying Greg,
so I told Mark I wanted to tryand get my marriage back.
What did he say?
He said he was in love with me,
but for Courtney's sake and for mine...
he hoped that Greg and I could work things through.
I really thought he was okay with it.
Do you believe Mark Riggs confronted your husband that night?
I think when I rejected him,
Mark sought Greg out and attacked him
and put our daughter in danger,
and I feel responsible.
If I hadn't spent so much time with Mark...
Mark never touched that crowbar, Sarah.
Your husband is lying to you.
ANNABETH: We know what your client
and Mark Riggs were really fighting about that night:
Sarah Paulson.
Ah, yes, Mark Riggs-- Sarah Paulson's spurned suitor.
(laughing): Spurned suitor?
Did you pick up a few new phrases
from one of Professor Paulson's classes?
Mark Riggs was in love with Sarah, but she wasn't in love with him. I beg to differ.
I talked to the woman;it's obvious how she felt about him.
And she told you what?
They were just friends.
Exactly.
Riggs fell in love with her. It was unrequited.
He attacked my client in a rage.
My client knew nothing of Riggs' obsession with his wife
until Riggs attacked him that night.
Oh, please.
He knew they were having some kind of relationship.
He asked Sarah not to continue it.
That in itself would convince a jury he knew they were having an affair.
You don't believe they were having an affair.
It doesn't matter what I believe.
It matters what Greg Paulson believed,
and if he believed his wife was having an affair
with Mark Riggs, it explains y he attacked and killed him that night.
What really matters is what the jury believes.
Mr paulson told the police
he was attacked by a stranger with a crowbar.
This is a lie.
In fact, he knew the victim Mark Riggs quite intimately.
Mr. Riggs had counseled him over the death of his son,
and then Mr. Riggs counseled Sarah Paulson.
The evidence will show that Greg Paulson believed
Mark Riggs was having an affair with his wife.
Mark Riggs did not attack Greg Paulson with that crowbar.
It was the other way around.
What Greg Paulson did
was not self-defense.
It was murder.
This case is about one thing:
whether Greg Paulson was legally justified in defending himself
and his daughter from Mr. Riggs' attack.
Mr. Paulson wasn't jealous of a love affair between Mark Riggs and Sarah Paulson
because there wasn't one.
Mark Riggs loved Sarah Paulson,
but she did not love him back, not in that way.
This isn't about a jealous husband.
It was Mark Riggs who was jealous--
jealous of the Paulsons' marriage,
resentful that a woman he had cared about and had helped
and had fallen in love with was not going to leave her husband for him.
You will hear from Sarah Paulson,
who will tell you about the exact nature of her relationship with Mark Riggs.
You'll hear from an expert witness,
who will shed light on Greg Paulson's state of mind
the night Mark Riggs attacked him.
And you'll hear from the one person
who knows exactly what happened that night.
Greg Paulson will tell you himself
the fear he felt when Mark Riggs took that crowbar
and smashed that window,
spraying glass on his three-year-old daughter.
The question in this case is not why Greg Paulson responded as he did that night.
It is how we would judge a father
who did not.
BOSCOE: What did your husband tell you
when he called you the night of the incident?
He said Mark had attacked him.
Did he say why?
He wanted me to leave my husband.
That's what Greg said.
When did you end your friendship with Mr. Riggs?
A few days before he attacked Greg.
So you broke off your relationship
with Mr. Riggs, and a few days later,
he attacked your husband with a crowbar?
Objection.
Sustained.
ANNABETH: After your son died,
Mark Riggs counseled your husband.
Briefly.
He went to a few meetings,
but, um, he wasn't interested in Mark's help.
But you were.
Mark helped me a lot.
Did the two of you fall in love?
Yes.
Did you have an affair?
It wasn't an affair.
We became very close friends.
very close friends
which meant you spent a lot of time together?
Um, I don't know.
How many times a week did you see Mr. Riggs? Three or four.
How often did you speak to him on the phone? Every day.
Every day?
Yes.
Did you ever visit your son's graveside with Mr. Riggs?
Yes.
Every week, in fact.
You met him in coffeeshops, bars, at his apartment,
and all behind your husband's back.
SARAH: I needed a friend.
Mark helped me grieve, but that's all it was.
It wasn't an affair.
Do you think it may have been construed as an affair?
That's what you seem to have done. What about your husband?
Wouldn't it have looked like an affair to him?
No.
Well, then, why keep it a secret?
And when your husband did find out you'd been spending so much time with Mr. Riggs?
When he found out,
he said he'd rather I didn't.
He specifically asked you not to see Mark Riggs anymore?
Yes.
And did you do as he asked? Yes.
And when you ended the relationship with Mark Riggs, what was his reaction?
He was disappointed.
He said he was in love with me.
Sarah, did he seem angry?
No.
What did he say?
He said he hoped I could save my marriage.
No further questions.
BOSCOE: Dr. Eaton,
what did you hope to glean from your interview with Professor Paulson?
An understanding of his cognitive abilities
and of his personal history as they might relate
to the night of his conflict with Mr. Riggs.
And what did you conclude?
That there was an aspect
of his personal history that very well may have induced
in him a reasonable fear for his life
and for the life of his child.
And what aspect of his past are you referring to?
The death of his son Andrew a little more than a year ago.
Objection. Relevance?
This experience is absolutely relevant
to Mr. Paulson's claim of self-defense.
It framed his perception of the event and what was happening.
Sidebar, Your Honor.
I think chambers instead.
What are you pulling, Mr. Boscoe?
Marching a dead child in front of my jury.
That's not my intention, Your Honor.
What is your intention?
Establish Mr. Paulson's state of mind.
How does the child's death do that?
Mr. Paulson witnessed his son's death.
When Mr. Riggs drove that crowbar into the window,
spraying glass on Mr. Paulson's three-year-old daughter,
his experience shaped his perception of that act
as a threat to his daughter's life.
The details of Andrew Paulson's death are irrelevant.
Allowing Mr. Boscoe to garnish his defense with them would be improper,
a naked appeal for jury sympathy.
Brand v. State of Indiana.
A self-defense case where the court ruled admissible
testimony about prior events that formed the basis
of the defendant's fear.
In Brand, those events were things the defendant knew about the victim's past,
not events completely unconnected to the victim.
They were admitted to establish the defendant's perception.
That's all that matters here.
If Mr. Paulson is still taking the stand,
Mr. Boscoe, I agree with you,
but I will not allow the jury to hear
theoretical testimony without hearing about those experiences directly.
He still intends to testify, Your Honor.
Then I will allow the jury
to hear about his son's death, solely
as it relates to his state of mind at the time of the fight.
Lathrop bought that?
Guess he figures it's better than being reversed on appeal.
It's clearly a bid for jury sympathy.
The question is how to counter it.
I'm not sure we do.
Maybe we ignore it.
Let the jury see it for the cynical text that it is,
and hammer Paulson
with the fingerprints, the witnesses, the affair,
his own admissions and inconsistencies.
We have to go right at him.
I mean, who knows how he's going to twist the story to convince the jury?
Maureen, he's lied about everything else.
He's probably going to lie about that.
I've read the police report.????
I'm going to show it to Ed and Ray.
Have them go over to the Paulsons
and walk through the accident, talk to the witnesses.
I'm not letting Paulson use his son's death like this.
You sure?
Never forget it.
That poor little boy.
And Mr. Paulson?
I didn't see him.
He wasn't there?
Not then.
A few minutes later, out in the street,
we were all there.
Driver of the car was crying.
Everybody was calling 911.
We had to call an ambulance.
All right. Thanks, ma'am.
If she was standing there,
didn't see him on the front lawn,where was he?
Next-door neighbor also says
she didn't see him out in the yard.
It's not much, but it could be something.
Paulson told the patrol officer on the scene
he was on the front lawn.
Saw Andrew running into the street.
But neither of the witnesses saw Paulson on the lawn
and they both had a clear view of the accident.
You think he's lying?
Of course he's lying. Then where was he?
Well, let's assume that Paulson made a mistake
the day his son died and then lied to the police about it.
If he did, it's a good bet he couldn't tell his wife the truth.
So how do we prove it unless he told someone the truth?
Maybe he told Riggs at the hospital immediately after Andrew's death.
Would Riggs have told anyone?
His ex-wife, maybe?
Jesse Abrams, the grief counselor at St. Stevens.
But he didn't remember Paulson.
He didn't recognize his picture.
He wouldn't have to remember Paulson,
he just has to remember the story.
I can't reveal names.
But, uh, tell me what you know,
I'll see what I remember. Fair enough.
About a year ago, a man's playing hide-and-seek on his front lawn with his son.
Boy runs into the street,
father says he watched him get hit by the car.
Happened out in Shadyside, right?
Yeah. I remember Mark
telling me that story.
Do you remember the details?
Of the hide-and-seek story? No.
'Cause that wasn't the story.
What do you mean, "that wasn't the story"?
That was the lie the father told people.
He told Mark the truth, that's why Mark talked to me about it.
People lie to each other about a lot things when a child dies.
You grabbed the crowbar from Mark Riggs
I struck him.
How many times? Twice.
I hit him the first time, he kept coming.
I hit him again, he went down.
Why did Mark Riggs attack you that night?
He said he was in love with my wife.
So, he blocked the road and confronted you.
Yes. What did you think was happening?
I was scared.
I knew he was angry.
I thought he was stalking me.
You felt threatened.
Very. We argued.
He smashed the window of my car.
My daughter was inches away.
How did you react to that? She was terrified.
I needed to protect her.
I kept having an image of Andrew...
running into the street.
Right before he was...
struck by a car.
And how is Andrew relevant to what we're discussing today?
He was killed by a car last year
when he was three years old.
How did that happen?
We were playing hide-and-seek in the front yard.
His turn to hide.
I closed my eyes not ten seconds.
And then when I opened them,
he was running into the street.
And a car was coming right at him.
I saw it hit him.
I watched my son die.
Why did you think of this tragedy
when Mark Riggs smashed the window of your car?
Simple.
I thought I was about to lose another child.
Mr. Paulson,
you saw the car hit your son. Is that right?
Yes. Are you familiar with the police report?
I know there is one. I haven't seen it.
"We were playing hide-and-seek.
"I had my eyes closed when I heard
"the screech of the car's brakes.
I opened my eyes and saw the car hit Andrew."
He wrote it down. Guess I said it.
Where were you playing hide-and-seek?
The front lawn.
Is your front lawn visible from your neighbor's property?
Yes. Two of your neighbors
witnessed the accident that killed your son.
They both told the police
they didn't see you on your lawn that day.
I'm not sure I get your point.
Mr. Paulson, where were you when Andrew was hit?
On the front lawn. No, you weren't.
And Mark Riggs knew it. He knew your secret.
Isn't that why he confronted you that night?
Objection, Your Honor, facts not in evidence,
badgering the witness, I could go on and on.
No need, Mr. Boscoe, sustained.
Mr. Paulson, where were you
when your son was killed?
BOSCOE: Asked and answered.
LATHROP: Sustained.
You told Mark Riggs, you were on the phone.
I never told Riggs that. Jesse Abrams will testify that you did.
We went back and pulled your phone records from that day.
You were on the phone at the exact moment
your son was hit by that car.
I...
...I thought it might be Sarah,
so I ran inside to grab the phone.
I-I wasn't gone a minute.
Is that when you heard the screech of the brakes?
From inside your house?
Yes.
You couldn't tell your wife the truth, could you?
But Mark Riggs was going to.
Voluntary manslaughter, ten years.
Mitigation? That deal disappeared.
Paul, he does all ten.
Do you have kids?
One, daughter.
We have three.
You ever get distracted, maybe lose sight of her for a few seconds?
Of course.
What happened to him could happen to any of us.
Yeah.
But how he reacted to it...
that was a choice.
Yeah.
Riggs asked me to tell
Sarah the truth about Andrew's death.
He said he loved Sarah,
and she deserved to know,
so she could go forward with her life,
knowing the truth.
That's why he confronted me that night.
To give me an ultimatum.
Either I tell Sarah the truth
or he would.
I knew I couldn't.
I was afraid that she would never forgive me.
I was afraid that she would leave me for him.
I grabbed the crowbar from his truck and hit him.
I took Courtney out of the car
and broke the window
to make it look like he had attacked us.
I'm so sorry.
My reply to the Bishop brief.
You still want to read it?
That was our deal, right?
Every painful detail.
The gist of his appeal: he's claiming
the Breathalyzer hadn't be calibrated
in over six months, which violates the statute.
Do we know if that's true?
Police department's having a hard time tracking down
the certificate to prove otherwise.
If they can't find it, is Bishop's conviction automatically overturned?
Not automatic,but... likely.
Ed's still chasing the certificate.
You mind if I read this like a lawyer?
Just keep in mind I wrote it like one.
It may be hard to see
Jack's death reduced to legalese.
I'll try.
How'd the sentencing go?
Lathrop ignored our recommendation
and gave him six years instead of ten.
Lathrop doesn't do that. Sarah Paulson asked him to show mercy,
convinced him her husband was a good person before their son died.
You're unhappy with the sentencing.
Mark Riggs was a good person, too,
before his child died and when he was killed.
Like Jack.
It's hard for judges and juries.
They see the living defendant in front of them,
????
who's a good man, basically.
Wife, family...
They have a hard time remembering the victim
who's dead and buried.
I remember.
I know.
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