by Antoinnette Borbon
The state’s case against Kevin McCarty slowly took a different turn Thursday afternoon as three of the defendants took the stand to tell their account of what happened on the night of May 18, 2012.
First to take the stand this afternoon was Sgt. Ilya Bezloglov of the Davis Police Department. He testified to being called out to the downtown bar, Tres Hermanas, because of an altercation.
Sgt. Bezloglov testified that upon arrival, he saw Officer Sean Bellamy trying to put cuffs on the defendant but saw the two sort of wrestling to the ground. He stated he went to assist Officer Bellamy because he saw he was having difficulty gaining control.
After a bit of a struggle, the two were able to cuff the defendant and gain control of the situation, as Sgt. Bezloglov stated he has been trained to do. But what he did not explain was how the three other witnesses saw the two cops pick up the defendant, slamming him onto the hood of a car so hard he was knocked out.
Sgt. Bezloglov could not honestly remember certain details, as he stated, because there was another altercation going on just down the street and he was distracted.
Judge Rosenberg then stated to jurors that, although it is not usual procedure to take witnesses out of order, today the court needed to do so, for the jury to be able to hear testimony from the defense’s witnesses and keep the trial running on time.
The defense called Ms. Jung to the stand, a friend of the defendant’s. In her testimony, she told the court that as they worked their way down to the bar, Tres Hermanos, and walked in, they saw Mr. Singh.
She testified that he reached out to shake the defendant’s hand but the defendant, not being a friend of his, refused to do so.
Shortly after this exchange, she said she saw the two engage in a typical bar room fight. But she said she saw only Mr. Singh, the alleged victim, hit the defendant about six times in the head while her friend/defendant did not hit back. She was asked by both defense and prosecution if she heard any racial comments coming from the defendant’s mouth.
She testified, “I never heard Kevin say anything racist.” She said that she only heard the vehement Mr. Singh calling Mr. McCarty a bad name.
In cross-examination by the prosecution, she was asked if she had talked about the incident with the defendant prior to testifying, and she answered, “yes, a few times.”
The prosecution asked her what she saw the cops do when they arrived. She told the court that they put the defendant in cuffs on the curb and he tried to run but got no more than two feet and they tackled him, picking him up and slamming him so hard it made a loud noise.
She said you could visibly see the defendant was out cold because he was not moving anymore and then the ambulance was called. She was asked where the alleged victim was at the time the cops first arrived and began questioning the defendant.
She said Mr. Singh was standing near her and her the other two friends, angrily telling them to tell the truth. It was as if he were heckling them – until the police had to ask Mr. Singh to go away. Ms. Jung also told jurors that in the short time they had known Mr. Singh, he and the defendant had never really gotten along but it was never over his race.
Another witness for the defense was also a close friend of the defendant’s. He was asked similar questions about what he witnessed that night.
He stated almost exactly the same events taking place. He asserted, along with Ms. Jung, that the defendant had never uttered a racial comment, not that night or ever since they all had met and lived in the dorms together.
He testified also to seeing the defendant refuse to shake Mr. Singh’s hand and then saw the defendant swing a punch that knocked the turban off of Mr. Singh, but it was not intentional and just happened from the punch.
He then corroborated the same account Ms. Jung gave in her statement, about the defendant being slammed so hard he was knocked out cold.
He said he was concerned for his friend when he saw him stop moving after being knocked out. But the ambulance arrived shortly. He too, testified about the amount of alcohol the defendant had consumed.
He and Ms. Jung both testified that the defendant had had enough drinks to cause him to black out, not remembering what happened that night. He also stated how Mr. Singh was yelling at him not to take the defendant’s side while being interviewed by police, once again corroborating the story told about the police having to tell Mr. Singh to go away.
During the testimonies, Judge Rosenberg had to repeatedly ask the prosecutor to slow his questions down and give the witness a chance to answer.
The last and third witness for the defense was another of the defendant’s friends. His account of the events he witnessed that night were in corroboration with the testimony of the witnesses who took the stand before him.
But he provided a bit more information about the demeanor of the alleged victim. He told the court in the time they all knew each other from the dorms, Mr. Singh had done some vandalism, destroying fire extinguishers at the property.
He stated that Mr. McCarty and Mr. Singh had never liked each other and had argued before. But he stated, “I never heard him call Singh a racist name, never, not once.”
All three witnesses for the defense gave very similar accounts of what they saw happen that night. In fact, the only differences in testimony were just about perception of distance and time frames, but still within a reasonable amount.
All testified as to the defendant’s character and about his never uttering a racial slur to Mr. Singh or any other person they knew of in their longtime friendship.
The session ended with Judge Rosenberg letting the court know of only one witness to take the stand in the morning, Ms. Bly from the public defender’s office. Ms. Bly works as an investigator for the attorneys at the public defender’s office. There may also be a rebuttal witness.
Trial was presumed to wrap up, and to send jurors out to deliberate the verdict in this case by this afternoon.
Judge Rosenberg told the court the trial had been going according to schedule and he would be giving jurors instructions shortly after the last testimony.
Court will reconvene this morning at 8:30 am in Department 4.
Knocking a turban off someone’s head sounds hateful to me, but I’m not in the courtroom so better let the jury do their job.
I don’t know if Mr. Singh is a member of the Sikh community; but my understanding is that among the Sikh’s, it is quite improper to touch another man’s turban. I would guess knocking it off the head is one of the worst insults that can be done to a Sikh.
I support and respect the Sikh community–they have a strong spiritual tradition of personal honor and respect for others–how quaint; but I personally would like to see more of a return to notions of personal honor in the USA; perhaps to balance the virtues of money-grubbing that we are all taught to hold high?
Yes, it is an insult to their person and religion but I believe there is a lot more to think about in this case. But that being said, yes, I will leave it to the jurors. I was not able to be there today but sure one of the other interns covered the conclusion and will write a follow up.
Kindly, Antoinnette