Ms. Higgins sometimes struggles to recall specific details from 2019. She prefaced the fact that she did not remember certain aspects of the evening in question, when she spoke she was extremely drunk. dull.
Mr Whybrow, the defense attorney, admitted in his opening statement, when he said: “The complainants’ allegations should be taken seriously and they should be provided with a mechanism and procedure to bring them to. evidence in a safe environment. “
However, he added, “if we take that too seriously and assume that because someone has made an allegation that must be true, then we no longer assume innocence.” So when it came time to cross-examine, he didn’t punch, criticizing Ms. Higgins for inconsistencies in the accounts she provided to the police, the media and in court.
But her attorney argued that minor inconsistencies, such as different accounts of the color of a vehicle, should not break the case.
Some of the differences are not just aesthetic, but are instead “fundamental and essential” to the case, Mr Whybrow said in his opening remarks, giving an example of whether Ms Higgins wearing her dress that hugs her waist, as she said, or. naked, as one security guard said. They “bring different inferences,” Mr. Whybrow said.
He still hasn’t taken care of that during the cross-examination. But so far, he has resolved contradictions including: that Ms Higgins testified about keeping the dress she wore under her bed for six months, when photos revealed she had actually worn it. less than two months later; that she told journalists that Linda Reynolds’ chief of staff had seen CCTV footage from the night in question, when in fact she may have only been related to existing CCTV footage; and she told journalists she had to wait two months to get an appointment with a psychologist using the congressional staff assistance program, but was actually given an appointment in within a month.
By the end of the first week of the trial, two paintings were painted.
The story given by Ms. Higgins is of a young woman struggling to cope with the aftermath of a severe trauma, her actions a reflection of her being scared and taking a considerable amount of time. to face what had happened to them, and their memories were blurred because everything was so overwhelming.
