Criminal cases are often depressing. You often see people at their worst. And, obviously, there are often horrific acts at issue.
This opinion involves a serious crime: assault with a semiautomatic firearm. But what struck me as most depressing was the reaction of the victim, "Jane Doe".
Jane was dating "John" (another pseudonym) but had previously dated the defendant, Riggs. Jane and John were riding together on a quad when Riggs came to the house looking for Jane. Stuff then happens:
"Father and Jane’s two brothers were at home. Riggs was angry and “talking shit” about Jane to her brother. Riggs left the house toward the street.
Riggs then saw John and Jane riding the motor bike together. Father, still in his home, heard gunshots outside. At some point, John fled on foot.
Father next heard Riggs and Jane screaming as they approached the house. Both came inside, and Father saw Jane had blood on her face. Riggs grabbed Jane’s hair and hit her multiple times. Riggs pointed the gun at Father and Brother and threatened to shoot them.
Brother ran out of the room to hide and called Mother to ask her to call the police. Mother called 911, and the 911 operator called Brother. During the call, Brother sounded scared. Brother reported Riggs was in the house with a gun, breaking things and hitting his sister. Earlier, he heard shots fired outside the house toward the street.
Riggs called the family “snitches” for calling the police. He then grabbed Jane and pulled her outside the house into the backyard.
When Jane and Riggs were outside, a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department helicopter arrived in response to a 911 call reporting a man with a gun. The helicopter’s video camera captured Riggs hitting Jane in the abdomen with his hand and then with the handle of a shovel. Sheriff’s deputies soon arrived. When they did, Riggs appeared to be lifting the shovel to hit Jane again, but he dropped the shovel on the deputies’ orders. Deputies took Riggs into custody. He had a bag of methamphetamine in his shoe.
After the incident, Jane’s face was covered in blood and swollen, and she had bruising on her face, scalp, neck, and arm. She was bleeding from her nose and mouth, and she was upset and crying. At the scene, Jane told police her ex-boyfriend, Riggs, hit her with his fist multiple times. She accepted some medical treatment but refused to go to the hospital.
Sheriff’s deputies examined the scene. Inside Jane’s residence, there was blood on the floor and the furniture. In the backyard, investigators found a semiautomatic firearm in a metal shed near where they contacted Riggs. The firearm was wrapped in a towel that had blood on it. The magazine was empty, and the slide of the gun was locked to the rear of the empty chamber, which indicated all bullets had been fired from the firearm. The firearm was capable of firing only 9-millimeter bullets.
Just north of the front of Jane’s home, law enforcement found four spent 9-millimeter cartridge cases. Further north, 75 to 100 yards from the home, they found the motor bike and three additional spent 9-millimeter cartridge cases nearby. The motor bike’s engine had been hit by two bullets, leaving one bullet hole and one strike mark.
Riggs had gunshot residue on both hands. His DNA was on the trigger, trigger guard, and slide of the gun found in the metal shed."
That's a serious offense, right? And poor Jane. She's the victim of a serious crime. You rightly feel incredibly bad for her. She has to deal with all this stuff, and God knows what she's had to deal with in the past.
What is perhaps most depressing, however, is how she elects to live her live after this whole ordeal:
"Two days later, Jane went to the hospital for her injuries. She was with John. She reported that she was injured falling off a bicycle. Medical professionals found the injuries inconsistent with her story and called law enforcement. When a Sheriff’s investigator came to the hospital, Jane was defensive and did not want to talk to him. She refused to let him take pictures of her injuries.
At the time of trial, Riggs was Jane’s boyfriend again. Although Jane testified at trial, she was an uncooperative witness for the prosecution and denied her earlier statements to the deputies. She testified that John “tried to . . . hit [Riggs] off the road” with the motor bike and she “flew off the bike” as it “wrecked”. She stated the scrapes and bruises on her face came from falling off the motor bike face-first onto dirt and pavement."
Jeeze.
Fortunately, the jury understands what's going on here, and convicts Riggs, who's sentenced to over 25 years in prison. So his personal relationship with Jane has, for all practical purposes, essentially ended. Thankfully.
Still. After all this, going back to Riggs and testifying on his behalf. A classic reaction, I know. But nonetheless profoundly distressing.
I'm a tiny reminded of the classic film noir ending: "Forget it, Jake. It's Chinatown."
Here, it's Riverside.
