Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell (45 page)
Read Doc: The Rape of the Town of Lovell Online
Authors: Jack Olsen,Ron Franscell
Tags: #Biographies & Memoirs, #True Crime, #Health; Fitness & Dieting, #Psychology & Counseling, #Pathologies, #Medical Books, #Psychology, #Mental Illness
Rand Flory, a young obstetrician and gynecologist from the Yellowstone gateway town of Cody, took the stand and immediately brought Aarestad to his feet. At a bench conference, the blond defense lawyer renewed his motion to ban any testimony to the effect that Dr. Story's Ritter table "is one that is not found generally in a physician's office" and any testimony about Dr. Flory's personal preferences concerning nurses in the examining room. The judge denied the motion.
After Flory testified that he'd examined the medical records of the complainants, Tharp elicited a description of standard pelvic exam techniques. Metal speculums, the young gynecologist said, should be warmed because "women jump if they are not heated." The drape should be pushed down between the knees "so she can see me while I am working." The speculum portion of the exam should take two or three minutes. The bimanual exam, involving the use of the fingers, should be equally brief: "Find the cervix, find the uterus, go off to one side, go off to the other side and find both of the ovaries, and then it is over." The whole procedure, he said, should take about five minutes. The examiner's probing fingers, once inserted, should be left in place, not pushed in and out. There Was no need to stand so close that trousers or coat
brushed
against the patient. And pelvic exams normally should not be given for ailments unrelated to the genital regions.
The county attorney pointed to the state's largest exhibit, sitting off to one side and topped by a mysteriously shrouded shape. "Have you ever seen a table like that before, Doctor?" he asked.
"Yes, sir," Dr. Flory answered. "We have one like this in our emergency room, or one very similar to it."
"Have you ever seen a table like that in a doctor's office?"
"I have not seen one in a doctor's office, but I haven't visited that many offices."
Tharp asked him to remove the sheet atop the table. The audience tittered as a skeleton came into view. "Now we didn't choose this to be funny," the prosecutor said brusquely. "There is a reason for it."
He asked Flory to place the skeleton in a "lithotomy position" and demonstrate some of the points he'd mentioned. The bones clicked in their wire armature as the young gynecologist moved the exhibit around.
Back on the witness stand, Flory testified that the only medical instrument that resembled a penis was a "vaginal dilater," for women who were too narrowly built for normal intercourse. The condition was called vaginismus, he said, and he'd noticed no references to it on the medical charts of the complaining witnesses.
He was asked if a woman could be sexually assaulted while lying on a Ritter table.
"Definitely," he answered.
In cross-examination, Wayne Aarestad underlined that the young doctor had graduated from medical school only eight years before, and asked, "Are you here today testifying that you have never conducted a pelvic exam without a third person in the examining room?"
"That's correct," Flory answered.
Q Do you believe that whether or not a third person is in the examination room should be the option of the patient as well as the physician?
A I personally do not believe that, no. The third person in there is there as much for my protection as they are for the patient's protection. . . .
69
ALETHA DURTSCHE
As she entered the courtroom at 9:30 Thursday morning, the second day of testimony, the blond mail carrier felt an invisible barrier in place. The florist Beverly Moody and other Story supporters sat on the right side. On the left were a few friends and relatives of the victims.
Aletha was shaky but determined. Just a few days before, a girl friend had told her how Story had given her a pelvic and made her bleed when she was ten years old. My word, Aletha thought, he was deflowering little kids! She tried to keep that conversation in mind as she took the witness stand.
She recited her name and address in the same clear voice she used to direct the choir. Just when she was beginning to feel relaxed, she looked down at the table and saw Dr. Story taking notes on a long yellow pad. She thought, All those years I trusted you and we were friends, and now you won't even look at me.
The prosecutor said, "Calling your attention to the twelfth day of February, 1983, do you recall that day?"
She'd never been able to talk about her rape without crying. She still couldn't believe that it happened on her birthday. She opened her mouth to answer but couldn't talk. The courtroom swam out of focus through her designer glasses. She turned to the judge and saw a black blob. The next thing she knew, the lawyers were huddled around the judge, talking low. The one named Aarestad was saying something about prejudicing the jury. When they returned to their places, Tharp asked, "Are you able to go on, Mrs. Durtsche?"
She looked down at Judi Cashel, smiling from her seat directly in line with the witness stand. All the victims had been told to look to the red-headed cop for support. "Y-yes," Aletha said.
The judge leaned over and said, "Any time that you feel you would like a recess to regain your composure, just let me know." His voice was gentle, compassionate. She felt protected by his robes.
"Okay," she said.
A few questions later, she remembered something Dave Wilcock had told her a few days before.
They'll try to break you, Aletha. You'll be the first victim to testify, and they've got to make a quick impression. Don't let 'em use you that way. . . .
She thought. My lands, the bad guys haven't even started questioning me and I'm bawling. Well, it won't happen again.
She tried to tell her story calmly. Aarestad kept making objections, and she told herself to sit quietly until the judge ruled on each one. Tharp asked why she hadn't jumped up from the examining table after Story had abused her. "I didn't know what to do,' she said, and the tears came again.
"Can you go on," the prosecutor asked, "or would you like recess, Mrs. Durtsche?"
She sniffed and said, "I can go on."
She described what happened after she felt Story's hips shoving against her bare bottom. "I looked down at his face and he jus stood there looking at me, and I knew he knew what I knew."
She felt herself slipping away again. Aarestad jumped up an< said, "Your Honor, I am going to ask that we take a break at this point."
Tharp said, "Can you go on, Mrs. Durtsche?"
"Yes, I can."
The judge said, "Let's see if we can finish."
They were into the worst of it now. She testified in gasps and gulps as she stared at Judi Cashel through tears.
"Mrs. Durtsche," Tharp asked, "why, if you knew this was his penis being inserted in you, why didn't you kick him?"
Her answer was barely louder than a whisper. "I—I didn't know what to do. I was . . . afraid."
Aarestad jumped up again, his forehead pink under a wisp of blond hair. "Your Honor," he said, "I can't even understand the testimony of the witness. I object to continuing under these circumstances."
The judge declared a five-minute recess.
Judi held Aletha's hand in the hall and told her the worst was over. When court reconvened, the lawyers surrounded the judge again, and she heard both Aarestad and Tharp use the word "mistrial." She thought, Story will go free and it'll be my fault. . . .
Tharp resumed his questioning. She told about having to take her children back to Story because no other doctor was available, and telling Mike about the rape, and being interviewed by Chief Wilcock and Judi. Aarestad kept objecting and the judge kept overruling him.
There was another long conference" at the bench as the defense lawyer accused Terry Tharp of trying to end her testimony "on a high emotional note." Once again Judge Hartman uttered the word "overruled."
Aletha said a silent prayer that she would hold up under cross-examination and not cause a mistrial. It was astonishing how quickly Story's lawyer came to the hardest question of all:
Q How old are you today, Mrs. Durtsche?
A Thirty-two.
Q So it would have been your thirtieth birthday February 12,
1983?
A Yes.
She thought, If I can get through that, I can get through the rest. But a few minutes later he began asking her about Mike's infidelity and the time she swallowed the aspirins. Tharp objected and there was another bench conference, with Aarestad doing most of the talking. She heard the judge say that he could ask about her relationship with Dr. Story, but not about any suicide attempts.
She kept her composure while she told about the incident in 1971 when she thought Story might have abused her and how she'd continued seeing him until her final visit on her birthday in 1983. She admitted that she'd baked him a loaf of bread and painted a picture for his office. Aarestad bore down:
Q Now has Dr. Story at any time ever restrained you in any fashion on an examination table?
A No.
Q Never tied your feet to the stirrups or anything?
A No.
Q ... Did he have a weapon, a knife or any type of a device that caused you to be concerned about danger to your life?
A I don't know.
Q What did you think he was going to do to you? Kill you?
A I thought he might.
Q Did he say he was going to?
A No.
Q On what do you base your belief that he was going to kill you?
A If I came up off that table and asked him what he thought he was doing, I was afraid that if caught in a situation and knowing that he was caught, he might do that.
Q So you were just speculating at that time as to what might happen?
A Yes.
The lawyer ran her through minute details of the birthday assault-He showed her a diagram and asked her to point out where everything happened. The questions came like slaps and she didn't always think before she answered.
Q When did you hear this zipper?
A After he took his penis out.
Q You never saw his penis though, did you?
A No.
Q So did you ever hear the zipper prior to having this alleged penis inserted in you?
A No. He had the water running.
Heavy construction equipment banged and chugged outside the courtroom window, and the noise added to her distraction. No detail seemed to escape Aarestad's interest.
Q Now when Dr. Story comes back from the sink after leaving the speculum in it, what position between your legs is he in before he turns around?
A He is right—he is probably, oh, he is not real close when he turns around.
Q Would it be generally between the area of your knees and your ankles or in closer than between your knees and your thighs?
A More between my knees and my ankles.
Q So he would still be a foot or so away from your vagina?
A Yes.
Q And now he is facing you?
A Yes.
Q As he stands there.
A Yes. . . .
Q Was your buttocks pretty close to the edge of the table?
A When he set the table that day he had it—
Q Yes or no?
A Yes.
Q Are your suspicions aroused yet that something improper is occurring?
A Yes.
Q Were you having any conversation with him?
A No.
Q Were you watching him over the top of the drape?
A No.
Q You were looking at the ceiling?
A Yes.
Q Do you remember what you were thinking about?
A "I hope this is over quick."
Q ... Did you feel any poking sensation around your thighs?
A No.
Q Any type of hard object?
A No.
Q Was he looking down at you?
A I didn't notice.
Q Don't know what he was doing?
A I didn't look at his face then.
Q Okay. Then you feel something entering your vagina?
A Yes.
Q Describe that object to me.
A It felt like a penis.
Q And that conclusion is based upon your prior sexual experience, is it not?
Q Basically I assume that you are saying that it felt like your husband's penis?
Q Was it a sudden entry, a slow entry?
A Very slow.
Q ... You just remember it going in?
Q Slowly?
Q And coming out slowly?
Q You didn't ask him what he thought he was doing?
Q You just lay there?
Q Weren't you in a sense of outrage to think that someone would have the audacity to violate your person like that?
A I was hurt.