Lopez walked Fenninger through his background before he started to get
hostile. Fenninger was another New York transplant. He'd worked in
NYPD's infamous street crimes unit before joining PPB a few years ago.
Considering where he got his training and the fact that his dad was
reportedly a hard-line Irish detective from the throw-down school of
the NYPD, Fenninger was a pretty good cop.
I suspected he'd moved west to escape the pressures of being an old
school cop and sincerely wanted to do the right thing on his beat.
Unfortunately, I think he still bought into Giuliani's propaganda that
a 'zero tolerance' approach to street crime was for the good not only
of the community but also of the suspect. It can be true in some
instances, but Fenninger had gone too far with Kendra.
Once Lopez had gone through Fenninger's background and current duties
with PPB, she turned to Kendra's Christmas arrest.
'In your role as a patrol officer in Old Town, did you have the
opportunity to encounter Kendra Martin on Christmas of last year,
Officer Fenninger?' Lisa asked.
'Yes, ma'am, I did.'
Like most cops, Fenninger probably figured that using 'ma'am' and 'sir'
in his testimony might counter the stereotypes some people have of
police. They forget that anyone who's been stopped for speeding has
heard the same polite tone and still wound up with a whopper of a
ticket.
'And how did she come to your attention that day?'
'I was patrolling in my vehicle and noticed a girl on the corner of
Fourth and Burnside. She came to my attention because, quite honestly,
just about anyone walking around close to midnight in Old Town on
Christmas is probably up to no good, but she looked like she was only
fourteen years old or so. I figured she was probably a street kid out
working.'
'And what do you mean by 'working,' Officer Fenninger?' 'Prostituting
herself. Exchanging sex for money.' 'So what did you do about your
suspicions?' Lisa asked. 'I first saw her when I was headed west on
Burnside, so when I got to Fifth, I took a right turn, headed north to
Couch, turned right again, then headed south on Fourth so I could watch
her from my patrol vehicle.' 'What did you observe?'
'I saw the girl wave to a few cars that drove by on Burnside. A couple
of cars stopped, and she talked to them through the passenger window.
All the cars that she had any interaction with were driven by what
appeared to be men who were alone.'
'Did you draw any conclusions from that?' 'Yes. Given the time of
day, the fact that it was Christmas, the neighborhood, and the activity
that I observed, I believed that the girl was loitering to solicit
prostitution.' Fenninger testified that he arrested Kendra for the
ordinance offense and then searched her and her purse, in what's called
a 'search incident to an arrest.'
Lisa held up a plastic bag with Kendra's purse in it, which I had
marked as evidence during my case. After looking at his police report
to refresh his memory, Fenninger confirmed that it appeared to be the
same type of purse Kendra had been carrying last Christmas. He found
heroin residue in the purse and added a charge for drug possession.
Instead of booking Kendra as a prisoner, he wrote the charges on a
ticket and took her to juvenile hall to have her processed as a
runaway. It was a nice thing for him to have done for her.
Lisa asked him whether he seized the purse as evidence. Fenninger said
he should have, but that Kendra started crying, saying it was a
Christmas gift from her mother. So he shook the residue into a baggie
instead and let her keep her purse. Jesus, no wonder the juvie DA had
dumped the case. Even the arresting officer seemed to think it was
chippy.
I didn't have much for Fenninger on cross. 'Officer, do you know who
assaulted Kendra Martin last February, two months after the arrest
you've testified about? .. . Do you know anything about where Frank
Derringer was when Kendra was attacked? ... In fact, have you ever
even seen the defendant before today?' No, no, and no. I thought the
jury would see that Lopez had no legitimate reason for calling
Fenninger.
Next was Kerry Richardson, the so-called loss prevention officer at
Dress You Up, who was called to testify about Andrea Martin's trespass
arrest at the mall. The testimony was completely irrelevant and
inadmissible, but I didn't mind letting Lopez waste time with evidence
that wasn't going to hurt me. Andrea hadn't been an important part of
my case anyway. She only testified about the extent and duration of
Kendra's injuries, facts that were established by other evidence too.
Richardson testified that he was sure he saw Andrea conceal something
inside of a shopping bag back in November before she left the store. He
told the store manager, Geral-dine Maher, and the two of them
confronted Andrea in the mall. However, they didn't find any stolen
goods on Andrea,
and Richardson hadn't actually seen Andrea steal anything. So instead
of trying to prosecute Andrea for shoplifting, he had asked Maher to
