The Kevin White Sex Trial: Day 3, Alyssa Ogden’s sister details more sexual come-ons
August 20, 2009 at 6:19 am by George Niemann
By George Niemann
PoHo contributor and R-LAND and UCAN activist
Wednesday’s proceedings were like riding a roller coaster. Here’s the highlights:
• Alyssa Ogden’s mother cries as she tells about learning of the sexual harassment.
• White’s father badmouths the alibi-busters who didn’t corroborate White’s story.
• Alyssa’s sister tells about how White lusted after her, also.
• Whites lawyers file a motion to throw the case out of court.
• White goes back on the stand, and his testimony causes a firestorm of protest from Alyssa’s attorney, as well as the judge.
The details:
First to testify was Alyssa Ogden’s mother, Diane Kaulave. Alyssa’s mother heard about the sexual advances from the guy who had arranged for White to interview Ogden for the job originally, Gerry Bowles. When she got the call from Bowles, she was on her way to bankruptcy court, where the family had just filed for protection from creditors. Bowles is a friend of both the Ogden and White families. Kaulauve said she was supportive of her daughter filing the sexual harassment complaint, even though she never personally witnessed the harassment. She was very tearful while on the witness stand. As the lawyers argued points of law in one of the sidebars that occurred, she looked intently at her daughter as if to say, I’m here for you.
Alyssa’s sister, Crystal Lauren Ogden takes the stand. She tells how she accompanied her sister to lunches with White and to some special events. She tells of one incident at the Bamboo Club Restaurant where she walked up to the table and White exclaimed, “WOW!!!” He then comments how her pants are so form-fitting and he asks her to turn around once more so he can see it from all angles. She claims she rebuffed him and did not turn around. At the next lunch at Jackson’s Bistro on Harbour Island, she said he gawked at her the whole time. He then started discussing their breasts sizes and asked Crystal if she was bigger than her sister and if she had a “C” or a “D” cup. At the next lunch at La Terrazza, she said White gave her a box of chocolates. He continued to tell her that he would like for her to work for him.
Crystal said she feared for her life and for her family. She had heard her sister talk of White’s boasting, on occasion, of being in the Black Mafia and having killed people when he was a police officer. Alyssa also told her sister of an instance when she was in White’s car and — during a cell phone conversation with someone about a deadbeat that owed him money — he said that if the person who owed him money didn’t pay that he’d kill him and they’d have to bail him out of jail.
Then between witnesses, the plaintiffs (White and Hillsborough County) filed a motion with the judge asking for a summary judgment to throw the case out of court. They claimed that Ogden didn’t dispute the fact that she couldn’t do the job, along with the fact that she hasn’t established sufficient evidence to show that the sexual harassment was to the level of being “severe and pervasive.”
Judge Lazarra called their claim preposterous. He said he would make a ruling later in the proceedings, though.
White’s wife, Jenny Navarro White, took the stand. She said she worked at St. Joseph’s Hospital as an RN and was always on call. When asked if she ever saw her husband make any advances toward Alyssa Ogden, she said, “My husband would never do that in front of me.” That made me wonder if they should have asked her if she thinks he might do it behind her back.
Next up was Gerald White, Kevin White’s father. Being a big man (6’2”-plus and probably close to 400 lbs.) he lumbered slowly to the stand. White’s father tried to refute statements made by Blythe Andrews that implicated his son. He said that Andrews wanted to avoid being implicated in this scandal, implying that Andrews lied in his video testimony. He also said that he saw Andrews hand wads of cash to Alyssa Ogden on three separate occasions, totaling approximately $700. He denied that his son ever told him that he loved Ogden and wanted to have a relationship with her.
Kevin White was put back on the stand by his attorneys. He gave some of his background to the jury – He was born out of wedlock in New York City but was raised in Tampa, mostly by his grandparents. His mother worked full time for Verizon. He knew who his father was but had little to do with him and rarely saw him.
He said he never looked at Alyssa in a sexual context. He claims he even took issue a few times with the fact that her attire was not appropriate for the office (low-cut blouse, skirts with slits up the thigh and 5″-6” spike heels). When asked why he seemed to do a lot of interviewing and personnel management while dining at restaurants he said, “when you look at the White family, you can tell that our lives evolve around food.”
As his testimony was coming to an end, all hell broke loose in the courtroom. Here’s why — his attorney was setting him up so that he could give a parting speech to the jury. The attorney asks him to tell the jury how he has been affected by this case. Well, White proceeds to give a long rambling statement about how his life, his family’s lives, the taxpayers, and his constituents have been irreparably harmed by this lawsuit. He adds that he has never broken any laws.
Following that long-winded dissertation, Ogden’s attorney jumps up and wants to cross-examine. He begins to question White’s admission of guilt in the now infamous Florida Elections Commission campaign finance case. In that case White admitted that he wrote checks in the name of a fictitious company (Robins Consulting) to hide the fact that he was illegally using campaign funds to buy personal items, such as custom-made suits. Objections are now flying around the room like a developer chasing a land-use approval. The judge rips into White’s attorneys for letting their client make broad sweeping claims that he never did anything wrong in his life. During his tirade the judge comments, “You should not have opened that door.” Now that White has made those grandiose statements, the plaintiff’s attorneys can dredge up his past in detail to show the jury that he’s not as pure as he says he is.
More to come tomorrow.
