Pink Triangle Anarchists

Kat’s Kolor Kommentary

Brandon McInerney Preliminary Hearing

July 20, 2009

The morning began quietly with onlookers barely awake as the cases were called and counsel asked if they were ready. I sat there staring in shock and disbelief as Defense Counsel for accused murderer Brandon McInerney petulantly replied “as ready as we’ll ever be”. At last, after endless continuances and a no show from the defendant’s lead counsel, the preliminary hearing would take place.

Scott Wippert, lead defense attorney looked completely out of his element in the courtroom. His attitude and demeanor were something more rightly expected of his teenaged client. His co-counsel, a mousy woman shabbily dressed and having the worst hair day in the history of bad hair days also displayed a certain tantrumy petulance. She spent most of the morning entertaining the defendant with whispered one liners causing him to smirk inappropriately during testimony.

Appearances were not deceiving. As the proceedings went on defense counsel reached a Barney Fife level of incompetency; committing blunder after blunder, forgetting who was on the stand and what they had testified to. Repetitive redundancy would best describe the defense’s cross examination style. At certain points I felt like raising my hand because I wanted to tell Mr. Wippert that he was asking witnesses to testify about conversations in which they had not been present at the interview because he forgot who he was talking to.

The bailiffs all looked to be about 12 years old themselves. One had this scary serial killer look with his buzz cut and horn rimmed glasses to offset his physique and uniform. Despite the presence of three uniforms, the judge had to threaten to kick the spectators out due to comments from the Peanut Gallery during the proceeding.

The spectators, comprised of McInerney’s family and members of the press had a look all of their own. The McInerney males all had this hair sticking out from the back of their heads not unlike Dennis the Menace in that comic strip. It occurred to me that this could be one of the reasons that Brandon shaved his head. His grandfather was allowed to stay and watch although he would be called as a witness when trial begins. If you’ve ever read Stephen King’s Bag of Bones you’ll understand what I mean when I say that I was entirely dismayed to find Max Devore sitting beside me.

Brandon’s mother looked tired, angry, confused and not at all unlike Aileen Wournous. There was also a man who looked suspiciously like Joe the Plumber set up in the back row of the spectator seats with broadcast/audio recording equipment. It was amusing to see the reporter from the Ventucky Star scribbling down notes as if he were going to actually report something instead of regurgitating the same two paragraphs that have been offered as coverage these past months.

Some of the highlights for me were the testimony of officers who collected statements from witnesses and friends of the defendant and the victim’s friends. Try as he might, Mr. Wippert failed to get any one of those officers to relay that witnesses had heard or seen Larry King engage in sexual harassment of the defendant. Not that it would constitute any sort of defense if they had, but it was refreshing to see that the Prosecutor and the Judge weren’t having any of it based on the number of sustained objections and the defense’s inability to tender sufficient offer of proof to go down that sordid road.

I’ll sign off saying that while I take my laughs where I can get them, murder is no laughing matter. I walked away from that first day of the preliminary hearing relieved that the matter is in Maeve Fox’s more than capable hands. She is small, she is quiet and she is entirely effective. You don’t see her coming. I feel quite confident that she will ensure justice is done in this matter.