My take on Entwistle's hearing

I have a little surprise for everyone today: I attended Neil Entwistle's hearing. The purpose of the hearing was to argue Entwistle's motion to dismiss nearly all evidence in the case, as the bodies of his wife and baby were discovered during warrantless searches. I arrived at courtroom 10B in the Middlesex Superior Court in Cambridge at 7:30. While waiting outside the courtroom, I met a law student who worked for Entwistle's defense lawyer, Elliot Weinstein, as well as two camera-people from 7 News. At about 8:30, the guards started letting people in, and I got a seat in the front row near the left side of the room, as guards told everyone not to sit in the middle group of benches. I talked to a reporter from the MetroWest Daily News and watched as the room began to fill up with people. There seemed to be numerous reporters and law students, and there was a photographer in addition to the two individuals who were videotaping the proceeding. Three guards were there, and at about 8:50 a group of people who seemed to be Rachel's family members arrived. After that, Elliott Weinstein entered the courtroom, followed by his co-counsel Stephanie Page, and then prosecutor Michael Fabbri and an assistant.

At about 9:00, when the hearing was scheduled to start, all four lawyers were summoned through a door at the front of the room to speak with Judge Diane Kottmyer, and they remained there for a while, as the guards spoke on their phones, presumably to guards at the jail at the top of the building, telling them to bring Entwistle down. The lawyers emerged from their conference with the judge for a few minutes, and Fabbri instructed a few men who were sitting behind me to wait in the hall. Shortly afterward, the lawyers were called back again. During this time, the guards were milling around by a door at the front of the room to the right, where I knew Entwistle was going to enter. They kept opening and closing the door, and going in and out of the room through it, and I could see an elevator right behind the door. I caught a glimpse of Entwistle as he got out of the elevator, but before going through the door he was led off to the side where no one could see him, as the judge was not yet ready.

Finally, at about 9:30, the four lawyers and the judge emerged, the clerk instructed everyone to stand, and a guard led Entwistle into the room. He was wearing what looked like the dark gray suit he usually wears, but with a new white shirt and dark blue tie with a white design on it. Other than that, he looked much as he does in his photographs. He had a little smirk on his face as he walked in, and he looked at everyone in the audience. He wore handcuffs, as well as a chain at his ankles. After the clerk instructed everyone to be seated, Page helped Neil into his seat at the defense table and the guard removed his handcuffs.

The hearing was much like a mini-trial: Fabbri called four witnesses (the policemen and detectives who were involved with the January 21 and 22 searches of Entwistle's house) to the stand, and Weinstein cross-examined them. The first witness, a police dispatcher, described his conversations with the victims' family and friends, who were concerned about their disappearance and asked the police to check on them. On cross-examination, Weinstein used his laptop computer to play a recording of Priscilla Matterazzo's call to the police and got the dispatcher to admit that Rachel's mother did not sound hysterical when she called. The defense team seemed to have a little bit of trouble with the computer and called the prosecutors over for help, but finally got it to work.

The second witness was Sgt. Michael Sutton, one of the two offices who discovered the bodies. He described how he used detective Scott Van Raalten's Blockbuster membership card to open the door of the house, conducted a preliminary search, and discovered that a light was on in Neil's basement office, the radio was on in the baby's room, and there were water and baby toys in the upstairs bathtub. The next day, at further urging by friends and family members, Sutton and Van Raalten searched the house again, and discovered the bodies. Weinstein conducted a lengthy cross-examination, during which he grilled Sutton about his reasons for the searches. He suggested that Sutton had made up his fears that the Entwistles were in danger of carbon monixide poisoning to give himself an excuse to have searched the house. He aggressively asked Sutton how many people he had discussed the carbon monixide idea with, the names of all these people, and what exactly he said to each person and what their responses were. Fabbri objected, and his objection was sustained.

At 11:30, halfway through Weinstein's cross, the judge called for a 15-minute recess, during which a reporter approached me and asked, "Are you related to Neil?" I am not, so I explained that I was merely a spectator. I also spoke briefly to Jonathan Saltzman from the Globe. Fifteen minutes later, Entwistle re-entered the courtroom. A guard walked behind him, not even holding his arm (I guess they trust by now that he won't run away or try to kill anyone) and removed the handcuffs again once he got to his seat.

Weinstein finished his cross, grilling Sutton about his decisions to read a car payment bill and turn on a digital camera, even though he was only supposed to be looking for people in the house. He sarcastically asked something to the effect of "You didn't think there would be a person in the camera, did you?"

The third witness's testimony was very brief, and the fourth witness was Van Raalten, the detective who was working with Sutton when they discovered the bodies. I thought Van Raalten was the best witness; he was confident and spoke loudly and clearly. He described how he and Sutton lifted the white comforter in the master bedroom to reveal the bodies of the mother and baby. At this point in the testimony some reporters started whispering excitedly. Neil, however, swallowed a couple of times but otherwise showed no reaction. Weinstein's cross-examination of Van Raalten was surprisingly brief. After that, the prosecution rested, and the judge asked the defense if they wanted to respond. Weinstein, however, asked for the hearing to be continued another day, and they settled on May 9th.

Overall, Fabbri's demeanor was quiet and meticulous, while Weinstein was surprisingly aggressive and sarcastic. Judge Kottmyer seemed sympathetic to the prosecution, as she sustained nearly all of Fabbri's objections. Neil's other lawyer, Stephanie Page, didn't participate in any of the questioning, but took numerous notes and consulted quietly with Entwistle on several occasions, putting her arm around his shoulders and whispering to him. Neil himself was calm and stoic as usual, even while hearing the gruesome details about the victims' bodies. He didn't make any public statements to the court, but just nodded and agreed quietly when talking with his lawyers. I could actually hear his voice very slightly as he agreed with something Page said, and he does seem to have a British accent, as one would expect.

According to a rumor I heard some reporters discussing, Kottmyer is going to be the new judge in this case. I wonder what happened to Lauriat. Stay tuned for May 9th - I might just attend that one as well.