Read Online Rape by Joyce Carol Oates - Free Book Online Page B

the young men’s similar haircuts and clothing. Their lawyers had instructed them to look as much like one another as possible. Haaber had had a small mustache at the time of the rape, his hair had been much longer. Teena seemed to realize her mistake, there was an immediate buzz of indignation from the spectators, but she could not stammer out the words to rectify it.
    The daughter, Bethel, spoke more clearly. But she was visibly trembling. Staring at Diebenkorn as if terrified oflooking elsewhere. From time to time Schpiro interrupted to ask Bethel to speak louder, but the judge was not sarcastic with her. He would not wish to appear unsympathetic with a child victim of a violent sexual attack, at least at the preliminary hearing.
    Kirkpatrick addressed Judge Schpiro.
    The defense’s rebuttal of the charges against the defendants was a simple one: there had been no rape.
    No rape! None.
    Admittedly there had been sex. Multiple acts of sex. But the sex had been entirely consensual. Martine Maguire had known each of the defendants and was “well known” by them. The sex had been for money and the deal had gone wrong (Maguire had wanted more money than she’d been promised, or the young men had less to give her, this part of the disagreement was unclear), and the alleged victim, who had been drinking at the time, became verbally and then physically aggressive against her young clients. The young men, admittedly under the influence of alcohol and controlled substances, had fought back when she attacked them, but had not hurt her seriously; they had left the boathouse, and other, unidentified young men had entered, drawn by the commotion. The severe beating and instances of rape must have happened at that time.
    â€œThose assailants, the NFPD has yet to identify and arrest.” As for Maguire’s daughter who had allegedly hidden in a corner of the boathouse at the time of her mother’s sexualencounters—“My clients and their companions were entirely unaware of her presence. They certainly had no knowledge of a twelve-year-old girl! Apparently the girl hurt herself crawling in the storage area. In her testimony she admits that she did not ‘actively see’ any acts of rape, only just heard them, or believed that she heard them. This was a confused, frightened child whose mother was so derelict as a parent she’d brought the child to a wild, drunken orgy of a Fourth of July party, and afterward led her into Rocky Point Park at midnight, to meet up with young men from the neighborhood whom she knew well, and whom she boldly propositioned for sex. The girl is a victim, yes: a victim of her mother’s outrageous negligence. She was confused at the time of the alleged rape and may have been purposefully misled by Maguire at a later time. Her testimony, like her mother’s, is entirely fabricated and misleading. As the evidence and my clients’ testimonies will show—”
    There was an air of shock in the courtroom. Delayed shock, as in the aftermath of a sonic boom.
    Then, from the rows of spectators, exclamations and scattered applause. Schpiro was as much taken by surprise as anyone and did not strike his gavel for several seconds, when it appeared that things might swerve out of control. “Quiet! Or I will clear the courtroom!”
    Teena Maguire was protesting, incredulous. Diebenkorn tried to quiet her. There were raised voices from the spectators in the first several rows. Some of these were sympathetic with Teena Maguire, and furious on her account; others were hostile to her, and gloating. Individuals were on their feet.Diebenkorn and another deputy prosecutor were helping Teena Maguire as if she’d begun to fall, or to struggle. Bailiffs and guards charged forward. Schpiro was obliged to clear his courtroom after all: flush-faced, indignant, striking his gavel even as his words—“Enough! Enough!”—went unheard. On the evening news it