Upstairs, Downstairs and on the Stand
After the lunch break today, the fireworks erupted over statements. Again.
As mentioned in the updates post today, the government has decided to admit all defendants’ statements for the truth of the matter. Ward counsel Robert Spagnoletti was winding up with his best evidentiary and constitutional arguments (confrontation clause), before Judge Lynn Leibovitz tabled the discussion until Wednesday morning.
Defendant Joe Price's brother Michael seen leaving the Moultrie Courthouse last year following a status hearing in the Wone case
Expected on the stand first was downstairs tenant, Sarah Morgan, but another audible by the government brought up Paula Salvador in her place.
Salvador was the instructor of Michael Price’s phlebotomy course and she discussed both her credentials and the curriculum for the classes.
Students were book taught first, then went onto simulations with dummies then would draw blood on each other. It was a three month course from June 7 – August 23.
Salvador told us that Michael Price’s perfect attendance record was spoiled by missing his first 7:00pm-9:15pm class on the night of August 2, 2006. He would go on to be absent on the nights of August 9, 14 and 16 as well.
AUSA Kirschner’s direct took only 15 minutes and Price counsel Bernie Grimm’s cross only took 5, after he implored Miss Salvador “…not to stick him.” Ahem. Grimm got Salvador on record as saying the training was only for blood drawing, and not injections.
At 3:30pm, the much anticipated testimony of Sarah Morgan began.
Morgan, the soft-spoken, Trinity ’92 Art History major has known defendant Victor Zaborsky for sixteen years and described him as “a close friend.” She’s known Price for ten years and Dylan Ward for seven. Asked to describe the Price – Zaborsky relationship, she characterized them as partners. Managing the direct, Glenn Kirschner then asked her to describe the nature of the Price – Ward relationship, but he was interrupted by an objection shouted in unison by the defense team.
A bench conference followed with Miss Morgan excused from the witness stand to take a seat in the jury box. After the bench, Kirschner went at her again and asked her to detail Ward’s move to DC and into the house. He arrived to the city from Boston in August 2003. Kirschner produced two sets of grand jury testimony to refresh her memory, one from August 22, 2006 and a more recent one from December 22, 2008.
Again, Kirschner asked Morgan to describe the Price – Ward relationship. She said, “He (Ward) thought Joe was going to break up with Victor and he would beome Joe’s partner.”
Morgan said she made frequent visits to the defendants’ former home on Capitol Hill and said she had the opportunity to observe them all interact. Price “showed affection” with both Zaborsky and Ward, but did not recall if Zaborsky was affectionate with Ward. Although Ward used the word, “polyamarous,” in describing the relationship among the three, she said neither Price or Zaborsky used that term.
She moved into 1509 Swann Street in April 2005 and had use of the entire house, coming and going through the front door. Using the dollhouse model of 1509, Morgan gave the prosecutor a walking tour of the floors and rooms including the patio and parking area. The house was re-keyed shortly after her arrival and she went on to describe which keys opened which doors. The front door, patio door and rear gate used the same keys and that the key was needed to lock the heavy gate. The gate swung freely, opening inward.
Morgan described Price and Zaborsky as “caring and loving… they were definitely partners.” Price and Ward were “caring” as well and described those two as partners also. Zadborsky and Ward were, “..close, cohesive and caring to each other.” She had met Robert and Kathy Wone twice, once at Robert’s 30th birthday party at the Constitution Avenue home, but she did not mentioned the second time. We think it was at the Equality Virginia banquet. On more than one occasion this afternoon, Morgan would say, “Robert,” only to correct herself and then say, “Mr. Wone.”
Regarding the night in question, she said she recalled that Price said Robert was going to overnight, but that she didn’t know the exact date. She went to her friends Tom and John’s house at about 6:00pm to watch TV for the evening and they invited her to spend the evening. Tom and John live 5-6 blocks away and Sarah got there by Metrobus. No one was home at 1509 when she left and she called Price to tell him that she turned the house’s alarm on. Price said it was fine and Sarah told him to “not wait up.” She left by way of the front door, locked it and took her toothbrush along with her to Tom and John’s.
Sarah was tucked in and asleep when the phone rang at 5:50am. Price called her and said:
“Where are you? You still at Tom and John’s? I don’t have time to explain but I’m OK, Victor is OK and Dylan is OK. Don’t go back to the house!”
Price sounded “hurried and excited,” and she thought the house with its structural issues was having problems and went back to sleep. When she awoke she texted all three of her roommates but got no response. Kirchner asked her if she got another phone call and the defense table erupted once again with an objection. A very lengthy bench conference followed and while seated again in the jury box, it didn’t appear that Morgan once looked at the defendants, her former housemates, seated only fifteen feet away. She sat patiently while waiting for the legal wrangling in front of the bench to finish.
Kirschner asked if she got a call from Michael Price that morning. Yes she did, at around 7:00am. The younger Price asked her if she knew what was going on and told her someone broke into the house and had stabbed Robert. Michael Price then said that he needed to get a hold of John Nassikas, a then partner, now former at Arent-Fox. Morgan did not have Nassikas’ contact information and told Michael to look it up.
She received a second call from Michael Price saying that her roommates were at the VCB and that Robert had died. Another call from Joe Price came in and she told him, “I’m so sorry. I can’t believe this.” Price said it was, “…unbelievable… This is not my life.” Price went on to describe the now familiar timeline according the defendants: they sat around the kitchen, had water, retired for the evening and Robert took a shower.
That call was cut short by Price taking an incoming. Morgan got dressed, called Tom and John, her office, then drove a friend’s car to the VCB. She called Michael Price en route, and when she arrived there she was met by him, his partner at the time – Louis Hinton – and Lisa Goddard.
When she saw Joe Price, she said he was upset, that “the police were making anti-gay statements… and that they called Victor his ‘wife’.” At one point in the VCB’s parking lot, she saw MPD Detective Brian Waid approach Price to apologize for some of the things that were said. Morgan wondered if there was anything she could share with the detectives, but Joe Price said they had her contact information and that it wasn’t necessary. She did speak with Detectives Waid and Russell-Brown at the VCB on the following Monday.
The hour was late and Kirschner and said things, “were going slow.” He was right. Judge Leibovitz adjourned the trial until Wednesday morning at 9:50am.
And again, happy birthday Robert.
Scene during Sarah Morgan’s testimony: Sarah Morgan’s testimony has been one of the most anticipated events of the trial by case watchers. On everyone’s mind was whether she would tell everything she knows about the Swann Street household. On numerous occassions, friends have told us, “Sarah knows everything.”
So far, though, her testimony has gone according to script, or at least what is known that she said before. There were a few new nuggets about Dylan telling her that Joe would break up with Victor to be with him, and that Michael Price was calling about a Arent Fox partner. But no bombshell.
The scene in the courtroom, though, told a different story.
While it is common for Joe Price to appear to be agitated during court proceedings, this time it was Victor. His face was sullen when Sarah was called. The affable Victor was tense; he could not hide it. The color drained from his face as she approached the stand. So it seemed odd when Kirschner asked her to identify the defendants, Victor sprang to his feet and broke out that famous smile of his as if they were meeting for the first time. He grew stoic when Sarah discussed how Dylan told her that Joe was going to break up with him.
Sarah Morgan appeared equally as tense throughout her testimony. She knew what she was talking about; certainly didn’t offer anything beyond the question she was asked. When she sat in the jury box as the lawyers met with the judge, she appeared on the verge of crying, but worked to hold back any emotion. She is soft-spoken and appears to have lost weight since 2006. Also, her hair is blonder than in then. She seems a truly nice individual, and someone who the gentle Victor would befriend. Her testimony is far from over, but, for now, all is quiet on the western front. — David
No wonder Ward was worried she might return home.
What do you mean by that? (Sincere question, despite whatever opinion you seem to have formed about me.)
I love your posts! Maybe you have me confused with someone else. A few times during his interrogation Ward said he was worried (not sure if that is the correct word) that she might return and see all the police cars. I was saying that he was probably worried that she might return during the clean-up. If her testimony is true, then they didn’t know if she was coming back or not AND she was only 5-6 blocks away.
Wow, that’s boring testimony. Does not seem to shed more light on anything.
Agree that it’s boring, but I think they’re trying to get her comfortable on the stand. The defense seems to be objecting WAY too much on all the Michael Price stuff, and they seem to have been shot down twice at the “huddles”.
So nothing yet on what she knows of the defendants’ extracurricular activities – and maybe it won’t come in. But it doesn’t sound like that’s the reason for the sleepover at Tom & John’s.
Strange that with Victor being her best friend that Dylan would tell her that he thought Joe would break up with Victor for him. Nice.
You have to wonder what Joe said to Dylan to give Dylan that impression. Wonder if that was Joe’s way of reeling Dylan in.
victor, knows now.
Not really all that strange. I doubt he expected Sarah to keep the information to herself. I would guess that the whole point of telling her this was so that she would immediately tell Victor.
that’s what i thought too, just didn’t follow thru. silly me.
Unfortunately, that doesn’t surprise me. He tells Victor’s friend, hoping she’ll mention it to Victor and thereby sow discord and insecurity in the relationship between Joe and Victor.
those love triangles are something to be desire, cause one of them will be out. sorry i’m not the sharing type.
Indeed – Dylan was trying to stir up trouble. Total junior high school move, tell a ‘secret’ to the best friend of your rival in order to send him a message / wind him up.
I find this nugget very interesting as I’ve always believed that the tie that binds Joe and Victor was money. Joe’s super lifestyle would be half what it was if he had split with Victor and halved everything up. Dylan barely had an income.
Victor probably knew he held a key to the “golden handcuffs” (as they call them in the head-hunter field) even though Dylan held the key to the real ones.
I’m not sure I agree. It depends on whether or not Victor really would get half. How do domestic partnerships in DC work? I could see him getting half of what they’ve got right now, but I’m skeptical about whether he would get half of Joe’s future earnings. I doubt it, since he has a career of his own.
Oh, I didn’t mean future earnings. I meant what they invested in together prior to the murder. I would imagine, as must couples do, they bought the house 50/50. If they sold the Capitol Hill house when Joe first met Dylan (if the breaking up talk was true), he would have had to split the equity (if they were 50/50). Joe’s lifestyle would have been a lot different if Victor were not in the picture. Perhaps a nice two-bedroom condo, but certainly not a single family townhouse.
Joe had the best of both worlds. Why split with Victor when he’s got a new lover down the hall?
I have always wondered if Dylan was a trust fund baby. It would explain a lot. I cannot fathom a father consistently shelling out cash for whatever whim crossed the mind of his son.
His father is a cardiologist in Washington state. That would mean a an upper middle class upbringing. Could be a trust fund there too. (I had the same impression as he’s not a “boy” anymore)
Editors do you think she was telling the truth? With all that “were OK” stuff I would have wondered what wasn’t OK.
I think that’s a reasonable thing for Joe to have said to her. Had she gone by the house and seen all the police there, she would have immediately wondered if everyone was okay. And Joe had probably talked to other people by then, so he knew the questions would be, “Are you okay? Is Victor okay? Is Dylan okay?”
It’s not okay, one of Price’s best friends was murdered and stabbed 3 times and all he can say is we are all okay don’t go to the house? What about his dear friend who was murdered? Shouldn’t that be the first thing out of your mouth? I know if I was reporting to a family member or a friend and a dear friend of mine had been murdered in my home that’s what I would say, so and so has been murdered we don’t know who did it, but the rest of us are ok.
I think Morgan knows more I hope they get it out of her tomorrow. Who would sleep at a friends house when their own home is only 5 or 6 blocks away? Did she do this often? Can it be verified?
It was apparently a habit of Sarah’s to sleep over.
Initially, I felt the same as you do, that you wouldn’t tell someone okayokayokay and leave out the notokay, but if Joe were rushed, making call after call and his intent was to have her stay away from the house until he could get a chance to talk to her with few time constraints, I could perhaps see it.
That is exactly where I found odd. Why Joe would think he should talk to her BEFORE she found out what was going on? And he also turned her down at VCB when she was trying to talk to police.
He didn’t want her to go back to the house, see the police, and freak out.
And when he was on his way out of VCB, he was pissed off about what he perceived as anti-gay bias from the cops, and I think he just wanted to get everyone out of there.
One of his best friends for 15 years was just murdered in his house, and all he cared was his feeling got hurt?
And this still doesn’t explain why didn’t tell Sarah what was happened like Cecily suggested. It won’t take a lot more time.
I think that’s Joe Price in a nutshell. “How does this affect ME?” Or, in this case, “…unbelievable… This is not my life.”
And also, one of the cops just made the apologize. I’m not saying he should forgive them immediately, but come on, it was a murder case! You really think he’s reaction was reasonable?
“…And also, one of the cops just made the apologize.”
What does this sentence mean?
“At one point in the VCB’s parking lot, she saw MPD Detective Brian Waid approach Price to apologize for some of the things that were said. ”
Sorry for the typo.
Oh, sorry, I was getting confused.
Reasonable? Absolutely not. It was a really pissy thing to do. But I put it in the same category as Michael Price screaming obscenities at the police at Robert Wone’s funeral: It’s evidence that he’s an asshole. It’s not evidence that he’s guilty.
I’m not saying he’s guilty just because of this. I just feel it was odd since it seems rather plausible that he didn’t want Sarah to have direct contact with the police (or before he could’ve been able to talk to her first)
One would think he would want anyone who might shine some light on things to speak to the police. On the other hand, he might want Sarah’s memory to fade a bit before she had that chat.
As lawyer, surely Joe knows it’s the job of the police to get under people’s skin, put them off their game and get them to act out of anger or fear, not throw them tea parties. It’s odd that he can’t separate that when he’s the one in the hot seat.
From the background on Joe (no worries, I did a little homework before commenting!): Mr. Price joined Arent Fox in 1998, becoming a partner in 2006. While there he has worked in several areas, notably specializing in intellectual property litigation, trademark and copyright disputes.
Joe’s legal practice had nothing to do with cops and robbers. I’m a lawyer too, and most of what I know about the job of police is from watching Law & Order: SVU. I would imagine Joe never met a cop on any case he worked on. Criminal law is an entirely different field.
ML-I have to agree with Carolina,Lawyer Price was no innocent corporate type thrown off by the bewildering tactics of a standard police interrogation.In looking at Lawyer Price’s practice area only for your observation-you missed his likelywell informed personal history regarding the long ongoing criminal activities & arrests of Lawyer Price’s brother Michael.While your comment that many civil type lawyers have no exposure to what actually goes on in criminal cases is well taken as a generalization, Lawyer Price was very likely far more versed on a personal level than (can’t resist the pun here)the “Average Joe”.Easy to imagine him involved in criminal matters pertaining to Younger Brother Price.Is it possible that Lawyer Price felt affronted by the nerve of the policequestioning his veracity as if he was some yahoo off the street?He arrogantly expected deferrence, didn’t get it, reaction:how dare they treat me this way?As to what you learn ML regarding police procedures from watching “Law & Order”,you may have learned a lot.My 1st cousin is an award winning writer/producer for the series(200 episodes).In his prior life, he was a Public Defender in both Brooklyn & Manhattan.I imagine he has offered up many pointers not so much “Ripped from the Headlines” but more along the line of this is what happens, based on my experiences in the belly of the beast.FWIW
I too find it very odd that she would sleep at a home that is 5-6 blocks away. I mean you can walk that distance in under ten minutes with no effort. Even an elderly person would have no problem walking 5-6 blocks. Cabs and buses are extremely available in that area too in the event that it is late and she does not want to walk alone. So it’s not like she was out in the burbs somewhere that would require a cab to a metro station for a train ride then another cab to get home. Or one of the two guys could have walked her the few blocks and that would only have taken minutes.
It has been mentioned that she slept over somewhere frequently. I am wondering if just maybe all of her sleepovers occurred on weekends. I am also wondering if perhaps she was running out of there every friday night because there were drug fueled sex parties going on which kept her up and made her uncomfortable. I can definitely see how this could make a female uncomfortable. They owned the place so it’s not like she could tell them to calm it down. And it could be possible that she was paying below market rent rates since she was such good friends with one of the owners which influenced her to just deal with it as best as she could. It could also be possible that they asked her to leave at times so they could have privacy for their intimate activities.
The place that she was staying was the home of two guys so I am just assuming that maybe they were a gay couple so it is not like she was dating one of them. I can see walking 5 blocks to sleep with your boyfriend.
There is definitely something strange about this- no one sleeps at a friend’s home on an uncomfortable guest bed/sofa/futon when they could just walk five blocks and sleep in their own bed!
I find it interesting that many of us wonder, but some don’t, why she spent the night when she was 5-6 blocks from home YET there has been a continuous battle as to the reasons Robert spent the night at Swann despite his 30-45 minute drive and late night/early morning plans!
I suppose it only appeared odd because he was murdered that night – which is indeed a tragedy. And to me, not at all a coincidence.
I wonder where Tom and John live. If they live 5-6 blocks EAST of 1509, I wouldn’t blame her from crashing with them. I wouldn’t walk 5-6 blocks home from 9th or 10th Street. And the buses wouldn’t be running late. Frankly, I don’t walk about alone after dark anywhere in the city.
I totally agree – remember Kal Penn.
Why would some employed person in their mid-30s take a bus to sleep over approximately 5 or 6 blocks away for a whole night of TV watching? Inside-the-Beltway eccentricities, indeed!
Did the Tom & John household also catch Project Runway’s “Reap What You Sew”?
First, Ms. Morgan went to her friends’ house to hang out and watch tv. People do that. Sometimes when it gets late, people prefer to crash where they are rather than pick themselves up and trudge a few blocks.
Second, I’d say it’s more curious that Ms. Morgan took the bus the 5 blocks TO her friends’ house, at 6 p.m. (would not be dark in August). She suggested the trip — on the bus — took her 30 minutes, a long time for a 6 block trip. Given that she has a fairly serious weight problem (which was apparently worse 4 years ago), I’d guess that she wasn’t up to the walk on a hot August evening. By the same logic, coming home the 6 blocks may not have been as quick for her as it would be for you. Otherwise, again, why would she wait for and take a bus in the first place?
She may very well have mobility problems. As mentioned before, she’s a bit heavy, perhaps more so back in 2006. There might be related problems. It might have been worth the wait for the bus if it saved her several blocks of physical pain.
1500 block of Swann intersects with 16th Street – there are plenty of buses along 16th. If that was her route – if she could have taken any one of multiple buses – wait might have been quite short.
As for walking back, there are plenty of muggings along 16th street. And some people are more frightened than others. If she felt scared, she felt scared. Its subjective.
My thing is this – if she went over there to watch Project Runway, was this a weekly event? Did she always go over there to watch the show with them – making her schedule predictable to Joe et al?
Joe Price made it clear in his interview with the cops. At the time, Sarah was a person of heft. Getting around was probably a challenge, especially in the much discussed heat of the city.
Yet she came and went via the front door. It’s not as if they had a freight elevator to transport her to the basement.
It was hot. She didn’t want to walk and buses are cheap. Maybe she slept over because they enjoy a drink or two with their TV watching. I just don’t see this as odd.
Keep in mind that August 2, 2006 was a Wednesday – hardly a part night for most working people (Arent Fox partners excepted!_
The implication in court today, based on Sarah “jokingly” (her word) telling the guys not to wait up for her was that she hoped she might get an overnight invite/some action at her friends’ house.
That was my impression watching it in court today.
Also, she brought along only a toothbrush. People sometimes do that when they’re hoping they’ll be invited to stay overnight, but don’t want to appear presumptuous.
Actually, I think it’s been well established that Tom and John, the guys she was visiting, are a gay couple. I doubt she was hoping for some action.
Actually， I thought it should be more sound to tell her Robert was stabbed by an intruder， and has been sent to hospital. And we were taken to police interrogation, but we’ll be fine. I’m surprised that Price didn’t tell her what actually happened under such circumstance.
“She called Michael Price en route, and when she arrived there she was met by him, his partner at the time – Louis Hinton – and Lisa Goddard.”
Wait a minute – are Louis Hinton and Michael Price no longer together?
I believe that they broke up a while back.
Maybe this is why Louis’ statement isn’t being let in. As a now ex, he might be biased against Michael. “I know I said he was with me, but!” How true would that ring? You lied to give him an alibi for a murder, but now we should believe you after you’ve broken up?
Any attorneys out there have any idea why Louis is being excluded?
I think that the defense could reasonably bring all of that up on cross-examination. And the domestic violence charge. And the fact that he seems to have falsely accused Michael Price of stealing his car.
As to why anyone should believe him about lying about the alibi, I think that if he said he was lying previously, the judge would likely decide that he might be lying now or he might have been lying then, and she would make a decision based on the other evidence available.
Forgive me, BillO, I don’t recall if you said before, but are you an attorney? If so, can you explain why they disallowed Hinton’s statement?
Nope, I’m just speculating. The exclusion of Hinton made no sense to me at all–I assumed the defense would WANT him to testify, since he was Michael Price’s alibi.
Well drats, I was hoping you were speaking from experience in such things. I found it very odd, although I am still wondering if there is some backtracking on Hinton’s part that might create issues if admitted as truth.
I still don’t get the whole “for truth” and “not for truth” debate, but I’m not sure it applies here. I think that Hinton would be testifying as to what he himself saw and what he himself said at the time. I think the “for truth” issue only comes up when someone testifies about something someone else said, or when you’re playing recordings of past statements, since the other side doesn’t have an opportunity to cross-examine the witness.
I don’t know that he’s being excluded – just like we don’t know if the prosecution plans on calling Michael Price. But Louis’s comments about Michael’s whereabouts that night would not really be relevant to this trial against these defendants. The prosecution need not prove who the murderer was IN THIS CASE, only that it was someone close to the defendants (or one/more of the defendants themselves) who the defendants would go to the trouble to assist/obstruct/conspire/tamper.
Why Victor and Dylan would face 38 years for Michael Price is beyond me – which is why I suspect one/both of them have more involvement than just misleading the police that night.
“Why Victor and Dylan would face 38 years for Michael Price is beyond me – which is why I suspect one/both of them have more involvement than just misleading the police that night.”
Agree. I really don’t think that the “silent intruder” story is essentially true, except for the small detail that they all know that the intruder was Michael Price.
Exactly, Bea. I believe the judge said something along the lines of – if we bring Hinton to the stand to testify to Michael’s alibi, then we’d have to examine Hinton’s statement for veracity… so they’d be questioning Hinton on Michael, who hasn’t been charged with anything. I think she thought it was too far afield.
A basic conflict that seems to have emerged is that the prosecution feels, as you stated, that they do not need to prove who the murderer was in this case – they only have to prove obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct (Joe withholding info from police about Michael because they are brothers; Vic and Dyl also withholding info about Michael out of loyalty to Joe. The judge, however, IMO, wants prosecution to go to motive — more powerful motive than “he’s my brother.” I think she thinks that if the trouple really didn’t have anything to do with the murder, and Michael didn’t have anything to do with the murder – if the four of them really don’t know anything – then omitting info about Michael might have been a true oversight or, in any rate, a far less consequential omission. It would make the trouple’s omission about Michael more of a naive mistake than an attempt to prevent the police from finding justice. So, I believe, she really wants the prosecution to speak to a better motive for Joe, Dylan, and Victor to want to throw off the police – namely, that they obstructed justice because they and/or Michael were involved in the murder in some way.
That, I believe, is the difference between just getting a conviction on obstruction and putting one or more of them away for 38 years. A totally innocent person “forgetting” to tell the police about his totally innocent brother because brother is a junkie and he doesn’t want him to get busted – all of which is inconsequential to solving the crime – is one thing; intentionally throwing the police off the trail of the killer is another, if only by matter of degree.
Thank you, that’s very clear.
why didn’t he (joe) say something along the line ..”don’t go back to the house, something terrible happen there last night” we’re all “ok” though. that’s just me
I don’t understand all the second-guessing of Price’s obviously short and frantic phone call to Sarah. This guy either just murdered someone, or urgently worked to cover up a murder committed by someone else (or, third possibility)found someone murdered in his home. Price didn’t want Sarah to go back to the house, and didn’t have time to explain. (Explaining that Wone was dead and her good friends were being questioned by police is a big bomb to drop when you only have 60 seconds to talk.) Friends would generally react to such a frantic call and weird message (don’t go home) by worrying that something terrible happened to one of them. So Price assured her they were ok and asked her to stay away from the house.
I would hope none of us can imagine being in this situation, thus it’s really hard to judge what YOU would have said had you been Price, right?
agreed.
I agree
Agree
i say that because my family member (sister) was a victim, of a vicious crime. i would respond that way. pls note i knoiw people respond to things differently.
sorry for the typos: pls note i know that people
respond to things differently.
I would agree with people wondering about Joe’s a SERIES of frantic calls that early morning. Why would he keep calling her again and againg. I don’t know how many calls he made but 1-2 calls not enough to tell not to go home? Joe said he had no time to explain. He had plenty of time to call again and again. Wonder of he called Mrs. Wone first.
Hey glad to see the lack of that annoying phrase “after the jump”!
Sarah didn’t know the exact date, but even she knew Robert was expected to overnight. Wonder if Victor is always the last to know?
I would be curious to know when Sarah knew that Robert was expect to stay overnight. Strange she knew before Victor. I would also like to know how often and why she would go overnight with her toothbrush to Tom and John’s and what TV show they watched. Doesn’t seem there was a romantic relationship between Sarah and either one of the guys, right? And, who called Lisa and when? How did she get into the picture? It would appear as though the four housemates – Joe, Victor, Dylan and Sarah; the brother Michael and Lisa know the most and among them – they know the truth.
It sounds like she went to Tom and John’s fairly frequently. And if that’s the case, it’ll definitely come up on cross.
I don’t think Lisa knows anything more than the rest of us, for two reasons. First, she was a friend of Robert Wone’s as well as a friend of Joe Price’s. It’s unlikely that Joe would have called her up and said, “Hey, Lisa! I just stabbed Robert Wone to death, and I need someone to pick me up at the police station.” I’d guess that he told her the same story he told everyone else. Second, I knew Lisa Goddard in high school and college, and I can tell you that she’s both a loyal friend and one of the most ethical people that I’ve ever met. She’s the kind of person you’d call to come pick you up at the police station after the shittiest day of your life, and she’d believe whatever story you told her, no matter how ridiculous. But she would NOT help you cover up a crime. I would guess that Joe Price’s story to her has never wavered, and I would also guess that she will continue to stand by him unless it becomes absolutely certain he was guilty. I don’t think anything less than a confession from one of the defendants will break her loyalty to them.
Wouldn’t you love to know what she thinks of the evidence? Surely she can’t be ignorant of it, and even with Joe’s story, she must have doubts and questions.
Unfortunately – your comment solidifies the importance of Lisa as a witness – knowing both the victim and the ‘host’.
Who better to know who is telling the truth than her. You don’t have to hear the exact words “I killed Robert” to know the truth. A friend knows behavior; truth telling v. lying; ego driven actions; bravado v. fear; typical use of language and perspective and relationships between the entire group. Does the person take individual responsibility for their actions? Do they have a conscience? Ethics? Conspiracy is lack of ethics.
Who would they protect the most at all costs? Who would they not protect at any cost?
Is it possible that the household directed by Price was so oblivious to standard safety and not locking their door. In this neighborhood – locking the door is standard as theft is rather common. However, home invasions with people inside with murder is rather rare and murder with a knife … ever more rare (a gun, yes – a knife, no).
Were they self absorbed? Did they feel guilty a friend died in their own home? Did they try to solve the mystery of ‘who did it”; Were they frightened for their own safety?
Lisa may actually be more important than Sarah in revealing the truth of this household in relation to the victim. She can attest to what was ‘normal’ before and what changed after the murder.
I don’t think it would come out that way. I think a lot of people on here think that Joe Price has a neon sign over his head that flashes, “Creep! Creep! Creep!” It’s not that clear-cut. Robert Wone, after all, is typically described as a wonderful, intelligent man with a big heart, who was nevertheless quite street-smart. I don’t doubt that description. But even so, he considered Joe Price to be a very good friend of his. That leads you to one of three possible conclusions: (1) Joe Price has gotten a bad rap and isn’t nearly the creep that everyone makes him out to be, (2) Robert Wone is a lousy judge of character (as is Lisa Goddard), or (3) Joe Price is very, very good at convincing street-smart, intelligent people that he’s a good guy, even though he’s actually a creep. Regardless of which of the three possibilities is correct, she’s going to think the same thing: Joe Price is a great guy who is the victim of a horrible miscarriage of justice.
Point 3 reminds me a bit John Edwards in the 2004 election.
From what I’ve gathered, Lisa is still very much a big believer in Joe.
I went to W&M and was friends with Robert. I knew Joe and Lisa by reputation only. I remember clearly a conversation with a good friend describing Joe as (3). She said Lisa and Joe were like the odd couple, best friends though Lisa was so kind and sweet while Joe was intense and sometimes cruel to his inferiors in the Student Assembly. She seemed to think him capable of anything. My friend said Joe’s greatest talent was in his ability to attract wonderful people as his friend. I remember the conversation as it was a trusted friend whose description of someone gave me chills.
It must’ve been mindblowing when you heard that Robert was killed in Joe’s house, given this conversation you had about Joe in the past. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
4) Joe Price was a good guy when he became friends with Robert in college and morphed into a creep later on. His friends believe (hope) he is the same Joe from way back, when in fact, he’s changed…a lot!
At some point in life, one has to choose between right and wrong. This is one of those times.
Lisa has one sincerely nice friend from college dead in the home of another close friend from college (with a questionable reputation) who happens to be standing over the dead body.
No matter how blind one has been to truth … there will be a wake up call to challenge one’s original beliefs. She has the choice to either wake up or not and live with the consequences. Or – perhaps she has more in common with Joe than noted.
This is pure babbling ridiculousness. You have no idea what you’re talking about.
Perhaps you know nothing about loyalty. Or perhaps you’ve never had someone be that loyal to you.
There’s a personality type that could lead to a fourth possible conclusion about someone like Price–the person who compatmentalizes aspects of his character, and who treats friends as friends, good friends as good friends, and perfect assholes as perfect assholes.
If Price never treated Goddard as anything other than a very good friend, she may well have no basis whatsoever for doubting him. It’s utter nonsense for someone in the peanut gallery to demand that she just come to her senses and see the world the way you see it, or question her character for not doing so.
I do understand loyalty, and I empathize with Lisa and the pain she must have suffered, not only from the murder and fallout involving Joe and his partners, but also from people who have probably, and with good intentions, tried to get her to open her eyes.
That said, I think Agatha is also right. At some point, an intelligent person would weigh the facts, and in this case the facts are pretty one-sided.
That doesn’t mean Lisa cannot remain loyal to Joe and consider him someone who has never done anything to her that would sever their relationship. People do this all the time. Parents don’t stop loving their children because they make a wrong turn in life, and many friends feel the same way.
I wonder if Glenn Kirschner ever told Kathy Wone, “You can’t get blood out of a stone!” I consider it his fallback when he does not intend to pursue the next level.
She took the bus in order to travel a distance of 5-6 blocks (presumably near Dupont) at 6:00 P.M.?
Is she actually “very heavy,” as Culuket so nastily described her? (Not to be unkind, just curious why she would bother to wait for the bus to go only 5-6 blocks.) I suppose she could have been headed east…
This may have been covered in this great blog, but my understanding from good “friends”…i know one…is that Sarah abandoned them more or less sometime after this event…that she has nothing to do with them now. Does anyone know if that is true? It’s interesting people have mentioned her weight…and that she has lost weight. I wonder if the boys feel more comfortable around very large people? Sarah wasn’t the only largish one in their coterie.
The rumor is that she moved out very shortly after the murder, and she saw them only one more time, at Dylan’s birthday party several months later.
Her weight has been a topic here only because Joe Price brought it up to the police.
DC in August is hot, I would have taken the bus too.
Hmmm. That makes a lot of sense. I wonder if that had anything to do with why she stayed the night–the house on Swann St was supposedly quite hot, and maybe she just wanted a cool place to sleep.
Maybe, but basement apartments are typically cooler than the rest of the house. As for it being hot, the photo of the thermostat read 76, but it turns out that was after the house had been open for some time after the medical and police authorities responded and began to investigate.
Indeed, basements stay quite cool. I suspect this was more of a “let’s watch Project Runway together” kind of thing, and the heat and other factors made walking an unappealing prospect.
It makes more sense than the more complicated explanations.
I’m unhappily fat, and still I was taken aback today in court when Sarah came in. “Very heavy” is accurate and is likely relevant to why she took the bus (unless the issue is that she was headed into a neighborhood where she was not comfortable).
To be clear, I am not maligning her for her weight at all. I play for her team. I’m just pointing out that that description is valid.
It most certainly is.
The bus thing doesn’t really seem all that weird to me, especially in August DC heat. If she was going somewhere up 16th Street, it’s all uphill and the S buses come quite frequently at that time of day. Or, if she had a bus pass, she might have been walking and just decided to hop on a passing bus rather than walk the rest of the way in the heat. Plus, some people are just not walkers. I remember several of my coworkers at my previous job being shocked to learn that I walked the 8 blocks to work instead of Metroing or taking the bus.
In Joes conversation with the detectives (during a break) he is overheard talking to Michael and he asks Michael if Dylan has come out yet. I guess he means out of giving his statement. I find it curious that he asks about Dylan and not Victor. How he is getting Dylan’s attorney to come down there. We don’t know who called who but I am betting Joe called Michael. As far as the time it just says toward the end of the interview but not sure when that was.
Who is Lisa again?
I’m not really clear about the flurry of phone calls that night and the next morning. I think maybe the reason Joe didn’t ask about Victor is because he already knew that Victor was out of his interview by that point.
I’m not clear on who called Michael Price, or when he got involved, but Sarah is saying that it was around 7 AM, at the latest. He already seemed “up to speed” at that point, so I’m assuming someone talked to him earlier. He was supposedly had an early-morning class that morning when he got the call, and I would imagine that that would’ve been between 5 AM and 7 AM (which is roughly when phlebotomists would be doing the morning blood draws).
Lisa Goddard is a mutual friend of both Joe Price and Robert Wone. She graduated from W&M in 1994, so she was one year behind Price and two years ahead of Wone.
I think her tesitmony is interesting and refreshing. It give a reality check on the “polyamory” issue. From my observations living in the middle east, polygamy, especially with one man with two wives is usually not a comfortable situation for the women, but a better one for the man. This is because the husband is able to maintain control over both wives–a bit like Price and his two lovers. Interestingly, having more than two wives is not considered so ideal by most people in polygamous socieities. More than two wives tend to join together and gang up on their husband. I’m sure she knows a lot and can paint a clearer picture of the reality of life in this “family.” This could speak volumes about the atmosphere that existed and lead to this tragedy.
And where she says ”
Price sounded “hurried and excited,” and she thought the house with its structural issues was having problems and went back to sleep.
”
Like she knows these structural problems and may be asked to elaborate on them or what she thinks they are. Though that probably won’t be allowed as heresay or some such.
Well, Joe Price was obviously obsessed with the shower, to the point that they seem to have been cutting holes in the ceiling on the second floor. I’m guessing that he was probably bitching about it on a daily basis, and when she got the call, she just assuming he was over-dramatizing a leak or some plaster falling from the ceiling.
Bill, where did you get the information that the shower problem was ongoing and they had cut holes in the floor? I completely missed that.
I think it was in Joe’s statement. Could be mistaken, though. My (admittedly often faulty) recollection is that Joe talked about it in one of his interviews. I also think that either Victor or Dylan (or maybe both) said that there was a stepladder just outside Dylan’s door, where the hole in the ceiling was, and that the clutter outside Dylan’s door might have been why the “intruder” skipped Dylan’s room and went straight to the guest bedroom.
Got to go back re-read those statements for a refresher. Thanks.
Please let me know if I got it right. My memory certainly isn’t what it used to be.
You’re right, Bill. Also, I believe one of the MPD officers either testified or testified and pointed out a photo with hole cut in ceiling and hose or pipe of some kind coming out.
“Grimm got Salvador on record as saying the training was only for blood drawing, and not injections.”
Oh, please. If you’re taught how to draw blood using a syringe, the only difference between “blood drawing” and “injections” is that the first one requires you to pull the plunger on the syrine, and the second requires you to push it. It’s not rocket science.
I hope someone on the prosecution side made that point, but I bet they didn’t.
They really should have, but I don’t think it matters. It might have made a difference in a jury trial, but this judge is nobody’s fool, and she’s likely conclude (correctly) that if you’ve been trained to do the one thing, you can probably figure out how to do the other.
Too right.
Plus he was a junkie. Tell me he didn’t know how to inject things.
I don’t think the judge bought the withdraw/ inject distinction. She’s referred to “unidentified puncture marks” several times (if I remember correctly) – puncture marks can go either way.
pardon please, the image shown on today’s wrap of michael price: that is one unfortunate looking photo. first pic i’d seen of him. Mary! is he studying to be a mortician?
Besides, if Michael had been into drugs, he surely knew how to calculate doses and where to inject for the quickest body response. He was no stranger to injections.
He might not have been the only one to know dosage and injections.
Professor Salvador’s testimony begs the following questions: Did Michael pass the class? Why would he need this class to work at Go, Mama, Go? Why did he have those string of absences in August?
Who knew that Sarah was an Art History major at Trinity — I guess that may be part of the reason why she was still living alone in a rented basement apartment fourteen years after college graduation with three gay men living above her. It just made me think of that late Victorian classic novel by George Gissing — The Odd Women — for some bizarre reason.
I also wonder why, if she was such good friends with Victor, that Sarah apparently could not even look in his direction today at Moultrie. That’s really telling!
And, despite living on fashionable Swann Street, the pasttimes of this set were rather down-home. A night of TV watching? Exercising, plumbing, and grilling? Burning your dinner because you are finding out news about your child? It all sounds quite hum-drum, maybe a little too normal.
Michael Price and Lisa Goddard — that’s an odd couple that dire circumstances that morning put together!
Well, if Tipper and Al can separate, then there is hope for Joe and Victor and Dylan after all. Fingers still crossed!
“Who knew that Sarah was an Art History major at Trinity — I guess that may be part of the reason why she was still living alone in a rented basement apartment fourteen years after college graduation with three gay men living above her.”
WAY over the line, dear.
Perhaps, but absolutely true, and bemoaned by those of us who desperately wanted to be AH majors.
“WAY over the line, dear.”
*eyeroll*
Just saw the shaky cam video on Fox News. Who’s the girl?
I’m not sure I understand the implications of the inadmissability of Michael Price’s alibi for the night of the murder… Does this increase the possibility he will be compelled to testify in his defense? To account to the court for his whereabouts the night of Robert’s death? If he claims he was with his ex-lover (he of the “Dear-Diary-Tonight-Michael-Was-Right-Here-With-Me-So-He-Could-Not-Have-Been-Doing-Anything-Else” entry)- is there a chance his Ex (with his own spotty history) ends up on the stand?
Forgive me if I misunderstanding this development.
“Does this increase the possibility he will be compelled to testify in his defense?”
Michael Price hasn’t been charged. He can be called to the stand by either side (though why the defense would want to call him is totally beyond me). He will almost certainly plead the fifth, since by all accounts, he had a major drug “relapse” right after the murder.
How does his relapse tie into Michael pleading the fifth? I don’t think he could be arrested for being a (presumably) former addict, so what would be incriminating?
Q: Where were you doing on the night of August 2?
A: Buying crack cocaine from my new drug dealer.
Q: Is that your alibi?
A: No! I was at the hospital, no wait, I was home in bed watching TV. With Louis!
Maybe they were watching Project Runway, too.
If Michael had ANYTHING to do with what happened to Robert Wone, even as an accessory AFTER the fact, he’ll plead the 5th. If he genuinely wasn’t there and had nothing whatever to do with it, or if he’s just plain crazy and a liar, he may testify that he wasn’t there. If he’s asked questions which touch upon illegal activities (“isn’t it true that the day after the murder, you bought and consumed a considerable amount of illegal drugs”) he’ll plead the 5th.
If Michael was involved (i.e. removed bloody towels and knife from house on his way out) why in God’s name would Joe call Michael and have him come to the VCB the next morning? Joe knows how insane Michael is—wouldn’t he want to keep Michael as far away from the cops as possible? Far too risky—I’m doubting whether Michael was involved.
Second, what was Michael going to do with his phlebotomy training?? Who would hire a drug-addled HIV+ guy with anger issues to handle needles? And which of his classmates would trust him to practice drawing blood on them???
This is why the phone records are key. If Joe called Michael at 6 AM, then I agree with you that it seems less likely Michael was involved. (Although frankly, Michael does not seem like a logical person to call, regardless of whether or not they’re guilty.)
On the other hand, if Michael called Joe at 1 AM, I think that’s a BIG tell. Unless he routinely calls in the middle of the night, he’s just tipped the police off to the fact that he knows something’s going on, and the only way he’d know is if someone else told him (which would also show up in the phone records) or if he was there himself.
Great point, BillO
Agree with BillO about the 1 AM call, but otherwise I doubt Michael was involved. Joe’s statement revealed a not-pretty picture of Michael, including violence, which if he went to all that trouble to conceal, he wouldn’t have mentioned.
Regarding phone calls:
do we know yet if/when phone call records will be mentioned? I’m excited for the possibility of solid, striking evidence…
I agree that Joe’s mentions of Michael are curious, if Michael was indeed involved. The only reason I could think of for his doing that–and I admit, it’s a stretch–was to suggest in advance a distance between he and his brother so large that the police would not think of them doing something together. But if Michael wasn’t involved, it still leaves the question, if we suppose the murder was committed by Joe and Dylan, of how they got rid of the sheets, towels, knife, and whatever other evidence they apparently disposed of in such a short time. Hard to imagine one of them had time to make a run somewhere. And if not one of them, then who? Victor?–not likely, I think. We can’t eliminate the possibility of another unknown person, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Joe thought that he could sufficiently control Michael to involve him in what was originally planned as a crime but not murder.
Maybe Joe would have been OK if the police had DISCOVERED on their own that Michael was “the intruder” but he wasn’t going to turn him in. Perhaps he was mentioning his brother during the interrogation to lead the police in the direction of looking at Michael. He did state that he was upset that police had not pursued the intruder theory. Maybe he had counted on the police investigating Michael of their own accord.
I asked that exact same question about Michael’s viability as a phlebotomist, not even taking his HIV status into account, but also his long history of drug use. What hospital would hire him? I put this question to my partner who laughed and said there’s a sucker born every minute and at least one of them has to be in hospital HR, but in all likelihood it would be caught on the background check.
Not too reassuring, is it?
Wonder if Joe was the architect of that diary entry.
No matter who created the diary entry, I simply don’t believe it reflects the truth.
Did Morgan say she never would have moved in to 1509 if she’d known Michael Price had a key to the place?
I would like to know if she knows anything about Michael to make her wnat to know if he has access to the house.
I think that the rumor is that she’s going to say it, but I don’t know if she actually has testified to that fact yet. Eds?
Kirscher didn’t ask her that but he may go there Wednesday. He did tell the judge Sarah’s time on the stand would be ‘lengthy.’ btw – David updated the post with some color commentary.
Channel 9/WUSA reported this in the 2nd to last paragraph of story they posted a few years ago. Sloppy reporting.
posted a few hours ago, not years. Now that’s sloppy.
John Nassikas is a terrific criminal lawyer and a former prosecutor. If I were facing potential criminal charges of a serious nature, he would be on the short list of criminal lawyers I would call.
It was a little bit odd that the job of calling Mr. Nassikas was delegated to Michael Price, since I imagine finding the number and getting in touch with Mr. Nassikas before 7am would be a bit tricky for someone without some serious Arent Fox cred.
Perhaps Joe Price tried email/phone via blackberry and failed, and asked Michael to keep trying.
Or, it may have been tactical, since the police may have said something along the lines of “if you think you might be guilty, you should definitely get a lawyer.”
Thanks for the extra commentary in the post. I suspect that she’ll be on the stand a while tomorrow. Victor may be pissed that she’s testifying though I wonder if it’s under subpoena. In any event, Victor, get over yourself. She’s there to tell the truth – wish others would.
Any indication of how long she will be on the stand for?
I know Sarah (not well — but we have probably had 30 fairly lengthy conversations over the past dozen years). She is a lovely, kind person. She has a lot of friends who are gay men and is a very social woman who likes companionship. Knowing her, I do not find it unusual AT ALL that she would stay overnight at someone’s house 5-6 blocks away from her own home. As others have said, she is a large woman, and it was August … so I am not surprised she took the bus a short distance. I might add that almost every time I have run into her over the years, she has been with Victor. She was absolutely devoted to him, and he was a good friend to her. One more thing: Sarah is a “lady” — she is not bawdy or course or fast. Talk of unconventional sexual relationships and drugs are not conversations she would be part of. I am sure she has abandoned this friendship, is horrified by the circumstances, and I am sure that Robert’s death and the loss of her friendship with Victor are both very painful for her.
Thank you for your perspective on her. It’s never been clear to me how aware she was of the porta-dungeon in Dylan’s room, and based in your experiences with her, it sounds like she probably wasn’t aware of it at all.
Thanks for the insight, Peach. Possibly, Victor knows something that is going to come up in her questioning that he is unhappy about?
Thank you for speaking up for her.
I appreciate the tremendous effort the editors have put into this website. But sometimes the commentary doesn’t seem to ….. its on par with BP’s efforts to stem the oil flow in the Gulf. Today would have been Robert Wone’s 36th birthday. Here was this uniquely gifted individual who was deeply humanitarian….. this person was tortured and traumatized in ways that we can’t even understand. This very gentle person went to what he thought was a friend’s house to spend the night and came to bizarre ends. While I appreciate the legal babble…… I would also appreciate some respect for the very real human being that you are all discussing.
I always try to be respectful of Robert Wone (and Kathy Wone, and Sarah Morgan, and Lisa Goddard, for that matter), but I realize that I can be somewhat flippant at times. If I’ve caused any offense, I apologize.
amen to that.
Hmmm Phlebotomy course was a surprise even though it was not ‘meant’ for injections.
The introduction of Sarah Morgan is all starting to seem like an intense psychological thriller. Very odd that coincidentally Sarah had no idea as to when Mr. Wone would stay overnight, but even more bizarre that she stayed out overnight on that very same night that Mr. Wone did arrive. I think she knows more but has to be asked the right questions.