In this post, we will review the prosecutor rebuttal to the defense’s closing statements.
The prosecutor brought up the fact that the victim had no motive at this point to fly out and lie. She gave up money and time at her two jobs just to testify against Ben Trane. It makes no sense to do that if she was simply mad about a visit 2 years prior.
If all she wanted was to get him in trouble; if all she wanted was to get out of the school; she got it. What incentive does she have to still be here? Why wouldn’t she have just walked away and said, see ya’; I’m going to xxxx; I’m done; not dealing with this?
She works two jobs to get by, and she had to come here this week –I shouldn’t say had–she came because we asked, and gave up that money from her jobs and be here and go through this situation. She didn’t have to do it. If she made it up, she would have walked away. If she got what she wanted, there was no reason for her to be here.
And what is the motive? Has that ever made sense to you? Did that ever play out with [sexual abuse victim], that she was angry and so upset and just enraged about this whole thing? The Defendant said that. They brought in Kxxxxx to say, well, she was upset during this time. She was angrier than she normally is.
Do you really believe that she has the ability, that she is that conniving and manipulative, and has the forethought to think about what she was going to say, and had the forethought to see how it would all play out later on, to make up this story?
She also calls out that the defense claimed all the prosecutor’s witnesses were disgruntle employees and angry ex-students but the one student they brought out was the daughter of Devon Dade who had a completely different experience at Midwest Academy and never went to OSS.
Oh, and with Kxxxxx, why did they put her on? Now, they say they put her on to talk about Kxxxxxx Sxxxx, that she was upset. But isn’t it interesting, they called witnesses just like we called witnesses, and the comment was that the only people we called were kids that hated MWA, disgruntled employees. The one kid, prior student, that they put on was Kxxxxx Sxxxx whose father was Devon Dade, the director of the academy, the friend of the Defendant, the girl who never once went into OSS, and had just a great experience there and has always supported the Defendant, always. That’s the one kid that they put up for you.
Ben takes responsibility for nothing.
I said this earlier, he wants to walk in here and say what he w ants and expect you to just take it as is, believe everything and be done. Don’t listen to the other evidence. Ignore everything else that’s in front of you. He says it, so it’s true. Don’t do that.
On the second count, is it reasonable to believe that he just made these bad choices, when we’re looking at this pattern, practice, scheme of conduct, when we’re talking about the sexual questionnaires, the Victoria’s Secret. You know, he sat up here and said, oh, I know it looks really bad, you know, and I made some bad choices.
We know what happened to kids at Midwest Academy when they made bad choices. He makes bad choices and he just wants to give you an explanation and have you all say, oh, no problem, okay.
He told you it was annoying to tak e the girls to Victoria’s Secret; that he didn’t want to. It was disturbing to read the sexual questionnaires. He said it was the girls who asked for the mirror therapy or classes.
He said he wouldn’t be around females anymore on December 4, 2015. He said that. But what do his actions say? That’s what he said to you. But what were his actions, what did he do?
He built this school that was based on discipline, punishment, deprivation of wants. Food is a privilege; mattresses
are a privilege; a mirror is a privilege; parting your hair is a privilege. Everything was controlled there. He and staff are in charge at all times.
And then he sits up on the stand and he says, well, I just took them there because they wanted to. It was their choice. And he kind of acted like he just–there was nothing he can do about that. Do you find that credible? Do you find that reasonable?
He said the school is financially strapped, but then you hear that he’s buying bras and underwear for teenage girls at Victoria’s Secret. All he had to do was say no, not going to Victoria’s Secret. I’ll take you over to Walmart, and you can buy the cheap cotton bras and underwear; right?
So once again he’s sitting there not taking responsibility, placing it on the kids. It was the girls that wanted it; their choice, not mine, and wanting you to blame somebody else for his behavior.
He said it was disturbi ng to read the questionnaires yet they’re still sitting in his office. Because when Mike Davis talked to him on the phone after all of this happened, and Mike Davis was like, what is this sexual questionnaire stuff? And the Defendant gives him the explanation and, oh, I shredded them when I was done with them. But they were in his office. They weren’t shredded . And then by the end of his testimony yesterday, it was just something about the staff found them in the garbage or something. And then today it turned into some conspiracy theory where somebody planted it a day before the search. Do you find that reasonable? Do you find that credible? Or do you find it to be someone who is filling in the blanks, who is displacing the responsibility and pointing the finger at others?
He said the data was used in those questionnaires to teach the kids about how unplanned pregnancies affect the
generations in the family. What do questions about how many times do you masturbate have to do with that? Read the questionnaires.
He said he gave the survey to staff to hand out. The kids all dispute that. And guess what staff doesn’t know about them? You know, he said he talked about he wanted to help the kids. He was doing this to help the families. He just wanted to collect it for data. Well, nobody compiled the data, and he never once told the counselors about it . Mike Davis, Jane Riter, Gary Lachapelle, they had no clue about this. Do you find it credible that this survey was to help the kids?
When it came to the uniform room, again, he had this story he told of a girl crying in the hall and he just wanted to help her and they were being mean, and he wanted to make her better. So he printed off these papers, and the next thing you knew all the girls wanted it. What was he supposed to do?
Could another female staff have taken the girls to Victoria’s Secret if it was so important to go there? Could another female staff take care of those sexual surveys with the girls if that was so important? Could another female staff take care of this body image where you’re having girls go into a room and undress and look at themselves? He says things to you, but his actions don’t play out. His actions show what his intentions are.
So again, he’s blaming the kids. He’s blaming the girls. They wanted to do it. I couldn’t say no; which, again, goes against everything you know about that school. He said he only did it a few times over a two -month period. So he tried to really restrict it down, didn’t he? He tried to make it seem like it was minimal. You know that’s not true
Is it reasonable, ladies and gentlemen, to believe that the kids are to blame for all of this? He wants you to believe that a 12 -year-old boy made the rational choice to remain in a cell for half a year. He wants you to believe that he didn’t notice any problems with Dxxx or Bxxxxxx.
Full Prosecutor Rebuttal
