Kevin White Trial, Day 2: His buddies throw him under the bus
August 18, 2009 at 10:50 pm by George Niemann
By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
The second day of Commissioner Kevin White’s sexual harassment trial covered a lot of ground.
Two very important things happened today. White himself testified. In addition, the video depositions of his uncle, Andre Moses White, and his longtime family friend C. Blythe Andrews were entered into evidence and viewed by the jury.
The bottom line on White’s testimony: His testimony was far from plausible.
The bottom line on the Andre White and Blythe Andrews testimony: They blew away White’s alibi.
Before all this happened, Alyssa Ogden’s psychiatrist testified. Dr. Walter Afield, MD took the stand in the morning. He said he started seeing the 23-year-old Ogden in September of 2007. Dr. Afield diagnosed her as having suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, following her ordeal working for Commissioner White. She had suffered trauma before, he said; her father molested her when she was between 8 and 9 years old. The molestation involved inappropriate touching, but not intercourse. According to Dr. Afield she shoved these horrible feelings “under the rug” for many years. Then when White, using his position of power, tried to manipulate her, it brought back all those feelings of guilt and depression. He said she was profoundly depressed and confused. She had thoughts of suicide but he didn’t think it was profound enough to hospitalize her.
She also feared that White might kill her or members of her family if she exposed him. She told the psychiatrist that one day she went into White’s desk to retrieve a work item and saw that he had a gun in his desk. That heightened her fears.
Then White himself got on the stand. Ogden’s attorney asked him why he told Alyssa not to tell anyone, not even her mother, that they were going to Atlanta. White said that he didn’t want to give the wrong impression to anyone. He said that Alyssa told him that she was going to Atlanta to be with his friend, C. Blythe Andrews. He inferred that she had made separate arrangements with his friend to have a rendezvous in Atlanta. When asked why he went to Atlanta that weekend, he replied that, “It was a boy’s weekend.” So his claim is that Ogden went to Atlanta not because he asked her to, but because she was going to have a relationship with a 75-year-old man with terminal cancer that she previously arranged on her own. He then asked White why cell phone records showed that he called her three times between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. that night, if he had nothing to do with her and she just happened to be traveling to the same city at the same time as he was. He responded by saying that even though she was on her own in Atlanta, he still wanted to make sure she was safe. He had told her to call him to let him know how she was doing and when he didn’t get a call from her, he had to make sure she was safe so he called her on her cell. Yeah, but three calls, and at 2:30 a.m.???
Nothing he said made sense. He said he paid for her ticket but got reimbursed by Andrews. When asked about a record of reimbursement he said he was paid in cash by Andrews, so of course there was no record.
Then came C. Blythe Andrews’ testimony, recorded on January 28, 2008. Andrews looked to be very sick on the video. His voice was barely audible at times. Andrews testified that he had no interest in Ogden whatsoever. He said that White brought Ogden to Atlanta to be with him. At one point he questioned the logic of what a 75-year-old man with terminal cancer would do with a 22-year-old girl anyway. He seemed disappointed over the fact that White was trying to implicate him in some kind of sex affair. He said he never paid for anyone’s airfare but that White paid for his own and Ogden’s. Commenting about the whole affair he said, “I had no interest in that girl…nobody can put it off on me because of my high status…my wife is hardly talking to me over all of this nonsense…I never even touched her hand.” His testimony blew White’s alibi out of the water, for sure.
Then came the video testimony of White’s uncle, Andre Moses White. If you recall, White claimed that he never went to Alyssa’s room at the Airport Marriott in Atlanta. He claimed that he spent the night at his uncle’s home in Stone Mountain, Ga., so he couldn’t have been with Ogden. Well, Andre White blew that alibi out of the water. There was a discrepancy over a statement he had signed earlier saying that Kevin White stayed with him, but he fully recanted that previous testimony. He said that his nephew never stayed with him that night. Here’s another interesting comment he made. He said that Kevin White referred to Ogden as a “lady of the night.”
So far, it appears to me that White’s version of what happened in Atlanta is a bit of a stretch (no corroborating witnesses).
What’s on tap for tomorrow?
More video testimony from White’s uncle; some video testimony of White, and two new witnesses: Alyssa’s mother and sister.
Stay tuned…
