Page 71 of The Right to Remain

“Yes.”

“According to the report, you told Detective Osborne that you were at your mother’s house in Fort Lauderdale when, at approximately seven p.m., you received a call on your cell phone from Owen. The report goes on to say: ‘Mrs. Pollard stated that her husband asked her to ‘please come home and talk things out.’” Jack put the report aside, then asked the witness, “Do you recall making that statement to Detective Osborne?”

“Yes, I do.”

“Was that a true statement when you made it?”

The witness didn’t answer, which threw Jack. It wasn’t a trick question. It was simply standard practice to ask if a statement to police was true when made. The judge looked down from the bench, his tone more stern than usual when addressing a witness.

“Mrs. Pollard, there is a question pending. Was your statement true when you made it?”

She glanced at the judge, then looked away. “Not really.”

The prosecutor rose, apparently even more surprised than Jack. “Your Honor, it would appear that the witness is confused.”

“It’s not confusion that I’m hearing,” the judge said, and then he addressed the witness directly.

“Mrs. Pollard, making a false statement to the police is a crime. If you believe you may have committed a crime, you have the right to remain silent,” he said, but before he could finish reading the witness her full Miranda rights, Patricia Dubrow rose and spoke from the gallery.

“Your Honor, I am Ms. Pollard’s attorney. I realize this is highly unorthodox, but I would request an opportunity to speak with my client.”

“Is there any objection?” asked the judge. Neither lawyer voiced one.

“This court is in recess for ten minutes,” he said, punctuating the courtroom confusion with the pistol-shot crack of his gavel.

Chapter 25

The ten-minute recess was over.

Jack had no window into the witness’s private conversation with her lawyer. He’d taken Elliott into an empty jury room, where it had taken all of thirty seconds for Jack to realize that his client was not about to break his silence, no matter how clear Jack made it that he was only hurting himself. Jack returned to the courtroom with no additional ammunition.

Helena resumed her seat in the witness chair. Patricia Dubrow addressed the court.

“Your Honor, my client does not wish to assert her Fifth Amendment right at this time.”

“Very well,” the judge said. “Mr. Swyteck, you may proceed with cross-examination.”

Dubrow returned to her seat in the gallery. Additional spectators had crammed into the public seating since the break, which was not surprising. It wasn’t every day that a judge read a witness her Miranda rights. Jack followed up appropriately.

“Ms. Pollard, before we broke for recess, I asked if the statement you gave to Detective Osborne on the night of your husband’s death was accurate, and you answered, ‘not really.’ Do you wish to explain your answer?”

Helena swallowed hard. “I didn’t commit a crime. My statement wasn’tfalse. My words were just sugarcoated.”

Jack’s immediate impression was that Patricia Dubrow had done her job well over the break. But he tried not to sound skeptical. “Which part of your statement to Detective Osborne was ‘sugarcoated’?”

“The part about what Owen said to me,” she said. “He didn’t ask me to come home and try to work things out. I was too embarrassed to tell the detective what he said verbatim.”

In a normal cross-examination, Jack would never ask a question to which he didn’t already know the answer. But having a client who wouldn’t talk to him was not “normal.”

“What did your husband really say to you?” asked Jack. “No sugarcoating, please.”

Helena drew a breath, then answered. “He told me Austen was crying for his mommy like... like a sissy. He said, ‘Get over here and make him stop.’”

It was a gift from the state’s star witness—and from her lawyer. Jack had to use it wisely. And carefully.

“Thank you, Ms. Pollard. I’d like to get a little more clarity on your state of mind when you received the call from your husband. Let’s back up a bit, starting with that morning. You told Ms. Weller that you were frightened when you ran from the house that morning, correct?”

“Yes. Very.”