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For the next few days I divided my time between Kate and Sophie and preparing for the trial. That meant meeting with my lawyer and with the prosecutor to go over my testimony.
The day of my testimony at the trial arrived. Late that morning, I spent an hour sitting in on the trial, tucked away at the back of the room, in a seat close to the door so I could leave quickly in case anyone recognized me. I didn’t want to be the subject of gawking. At one point, someone recognized me and turned, taking out their cell to videotape me. A murmur went through the courtroom and so I got up and left, determined not to give anyone any gossip material.
Earlier that morning, I spent some time with the assistant prosecutor going over my testimony to nail down the main points we would make. I did my best to keep a calm level head while I sat in the hallway outside the courtroom, waiting to be called.
When I was called and went inside, I felt the eyes of all those in the courtroom on me as I walked to the witness box and was sworn in. On my way to the stand, I passed Lisa, who sat next to her attorney. She glared at me, her eyes narrow. She was dressed in a very prim women's pin-striped suit and white blouse, no makeup on her face and her hair pulled back into a bun.
She looked nothing like a crazed delusional murderer, out to kill anyone who got in her way, and certainly not like anyone in love with me. I felt like she would have killed me then and there if she could have reached me.
After being sworn in, I sat in the witness box and the prosecutor went through the questions we had prepared. As I answered, I glanced out and saw Lara sitting in the rear of the courtroom dressed impeccably in her blue suit, her platinum blonde hair pulled back into a bun, her dark glasses making her look very brainy.
She smiled at me and gave me a slow nod.
Strangely, she left abruptly. I imagined that she got a message and had to leave to attend to business.
I felt I answered calmly, clearly and without any defensiveness. I admitted that while I had a few sexual encounters with Lisa Monroe before meeting Kate, I had never seen her again privately or in public until I learned she was a student in the surgical residency program at NYU. I denied any romantic or sexual relationship with Lisa while she was a student in the program or any time after we first met and had several encounters at parties at Derek Richardson's mansion in Yonkers. I described how once she became a student at NYU, she made suggestions about us being 'friends' or more, had tried to encourage me to be alone with her, and had made a physical pass, but that I told her I was currently happily married with a pregnant wife and wasn't interested.
I recounted how I had gone to my supervisor in the pediatric neurosurgery program to withdraw because of Lisa's ongoing inappropriate behavior but had been encouraged to stay. Ultimately, because Lisa had continued to show interest and wouldn't accept no for an answer, I had gone to withdraw but had been told that Lisa would be asked to withdraw instead, because she was deemed to be not working out as a candidate in the residency program.
I also went over how I had no idea it had been Lisa who attacked Kate until I was called by my supervisor, who apologized and expressed fear that it had been Lisa who struck Kate.
My voice broke when I described being informed about Kate being hit by a car in a crosswalk while she was out walking and how I watched the surgery to save her life and that of Sophia, our unborn and seven-week premature baby. After a moment, I recovered and finished my testimony.
All that was left was the cross examination.
I was glad I spent time with my lawyer going over my testimony so that I was prepared for the kinds of questions the defense would ask. However, it was worse than I expected.
Lisa's lawyer was a stern-looking woman with dark hair and dark-rimmed glasses. She kept asking leading questions, suggesting that I had maintained a relationship with Lisa from the time we met at Derek Richardson's until Lisa had attended NYU as a surgical resident. She suggested that I had been encouraging Lisa, wanting her to "take care of Kate for me" according to Lisa's claims. She repeatedly had her questions objected to and finally, the judge cautioned her when she asked a question that had no evidence to support the accusation.
"Isn't it true that you were at the same public events as Ms. Monroe and that you secretly met with her and engaged in sexual activity while your then-fiancée was present?"
"Objection!" the prosecutor called out, losing his patience. "Your Honor, there is absolutely no evidence presented that Ms. Monroe was at the concert in question. There was no record of any ticket being purchased by Ms. Monroe or receipt presented as evidence of Ms. Monroe's attendance. This is hearsay."
The Judge, looking tired, agreed. "Sustained."
Lisa's lawyer persisted. "Your honor, it is the Defense's contention that Ms. Monroe was encouraged to believe that if Mrs. Morgan was no longer in the picture that she would have a relationship with Dr. Morgan and would be married to him."
The prosecutor stood up to protest. "Your Honor, the defense has produced no evidence that Dr. Morgan and Ms. Monroe were ever at the same event. There is no evidence in writing or on tape that Dr. Morgan ever made any promises to Ms. Monroe."
The Judge responded wearily. "Dr. Morgan is not on trial and has not been charged with any offense. Move on from this line of questioning, Ms. Mackenzie."
The defense tried their one tactic of suggesting that I had coached Lisa and promised that if she killed Kate, we would be together. It wasn’t meant to get her off. It was meant to make her look like a victim, and that I was the evil maste
rmind for when she was convicted and it was time for sentencing. That was its sole purpose.
One claim they didn't bring up, that the prosecutor demolished during his presentation of the case, was the emails that were purportedly from me, which detailed our relationship and spoke in derogatory terms about Kate and glowingly about Lisa.
Of course, police had already determined that those emails were written and sent from the IP associated with Derek Richardson's cabin where Lisa and her boyfriend were staying. From what I understood, those emails were subject to no cross examination by the defense. They gave up on those emails because they could not put me in the cabin at any time the emails were written, the way Lisa suggested. In fact, the only person who could have written them was either Lisa or her boyfriend.
I was amazed at her mind and how she had concocted an entire fantasy of me conspiring with her to kill Kate and for us to be together. I still couldn't believe she thought that might happen, but apparently, she did. She thought that once Kate was out of the way, I would be free to be her lover. She'd throw over her boyfriend and together, she and I would work in a private practice as two neurosurgeons.
How someone as bright and with such promise could be so mentally delusional, I would never understand. Perhaps it was her past that made her vulnerable to erotomania. According to evidence presented by the defense, she had been neglected by her parents as a child, and had been in foster care for some period of her childhood before being taken back after her mother remarried.
The roots of her delusion about me and about men were laid down due to her history of sexual abuse in foster care – a sad story too often told. I had no doubt they were connected. Of course, that meant that she should have received psychological counseling to help her overcome her issues.
That she didn't get counseling pointed to the inadequacy of our mental health programs in the US health care system.
I suspected that she might plead not guilty due to insanity but she didn’t, which suggests that she had a bad lawyer despite her family connections. She also thought she was too smart and could direct her defense herself. She wasn't insane. She was definitely mentally ill. But she was sane enough to plan a murder and cover-up, even if she didn’t do it well enough to escape detection and imprisonment.
