Crash Into Me_ A Survivor's Search for Justice - Liz Seccuro [56]
ME: Correct.
QUAGLIANA: Was Mr. Beebe one of those people?
ME: No, he was not.
QUAGLIANA: And, in fact, he was not any part of the process by which you received this sort of mystery drink, correct?
ME: Was he tending bar? No.
QUAGLIANA: Well, he wasn’t—he didn’t have any role in giving you the drink?
ME: No, he did not.
QUAGLIANA: Mix it or serve it or anything, correct?
ME: No, he did not.
She asked again what happened to Jim, to Cricket, to Hud—how I had been left alone. Then we were back to clothing.
QUAGLIANA: Do you recall what Mr. Beebe was wearing that night?
ME: I have a general idea. I have an impression twenty-two years later.
THE COURT: Don’t tell us unless you know.
QUAGLIANA: Do you know?
ME: I do know he was wearing a plaid shirt.
QUAGLIANA: Okay, but you recall—you certainly recall what you were wearing, correct?
ME: Yes, I do.
QUAGLIANA: And you even recall what your friend, Jim, was wearing, isn’t that true?
ME: Yes.
QUAGLIANA: I mean, you told the police right down to the fact that he was wearing a belt, is that correct?
CHAPMAN: I object to any use of any other statement unless it’s for the purpose of impeachment, and the witness has said yes in response to “Do you remember?” So, she has a recollection and she can testify and it doesn’t matter what she said to the Police. There’s no impeachment at this time. [“Impeachment” means challenging a witness’s credibility.]
QUAGLIANA: Do you recall telling the Police that your friend—
CHAPMAN: OBJECTION.
QUAGLIANA: I’m sorry.
CHAPMAN: The same premise.
THE COURT: Miss Quagliana.
QUAGLIANA: Yes, thank you, Your Honor. Do you recall that Mr. Long was wearing a belt?
ME: Yes.
I knew because Jim had asked my opinion on his clothing that night.
QUAGLIANA: Okay. And—but your memory about what Mr. Beebe was wearing is just limited to the shirt, is that correct?
ME: I don’t want to answer to exactly what he was wearing unless—I may have the shirt color wrong and I don’t want to do that.
QUAGLIANA: And you remember specifically that he was reading to you from a book bound in green fabric?
ME: Correct.
QUAGLIANA: You testified that during the time that you would describe as the rape that you remember a door opening and people milling around. What do you recall about that?
ME: Just that. I remember—I recall—I recall being aware of the presence of others in the room.
QUAGLIANA: So when you testify that you had lost consciousness, were you conscious or unconscious during the course of these events?
ME: At the course of which events?
QUAGLIANA: Well, I mean after—after a certain point you testified that you lost consciousness, but you also say that you remember something about people being there[,] coming in the room, so I’m trying to get an idea of the level of your awareness.
ME: I lost consciousness because the horror of what was happening to me caused me to “check out.” I then became conscious again upon hearing the door, hearing voices and seeing light in the room. I then became unconscious again, I assume.
Quagliana flipped through her documents to a new sheet of paper, a newspaper article. She had dug up two articles from student newspapers from my undergrad days. I had mentioned one of these articles to Beebe in an e-mail, which might be how his attorneys found them. Dean Todd had encouraged me to speak about my experience, and I had, under the condition of anonymity, with names and some details changed. Quagliana tried to press me on quotes I’d made back then—to see, I suppose, if my story had changed over time. But neither Chapman nor the judge had seen these articles. I hadn’t seen them myself in two decades. The judge became frustrated, and finally Quagliana took a different tack.
QUAGLIANA: You testified in the beginning that you knew the date of this incident because you kept it in a journal, is that correct?
ME: I wrote it down when it happened, yes.
QUAGLIANA: And do you have that journal?
ME: From twenty-two years ago?
QUAGLIANA: Yes, ma’am.
ME: No.
QUAGLIANA: Okay. Did you