Page 40

1 A. I don't know the exact time.

2 Q. Well, how many other times were you on wood cut

3 carrying detail?

4 A. I was on it five times. I was --

5 Q. Well, was it about a month each time or so?

6 A. I was on it for three days one time and I was on it for

7 three weeks sometimes. I didn't know the exact.

8 Q. Did you ever volunteer to do this wood carrying?

9 A. No, sir, I was forced to do it.

10 MR. STILLEY: Your Honor, can I have just a moment

11 with my client?

12 Q. How much weight did you lose while you were at Mountain

13 Park?

14 THE COURT: Sustained. I keep warning you. I'm

15 going to talk to you in a minute. Maybe I'm going to have to

16 try some other measures with you.

17 MR. STILLEY: Your Honor, I'm very sorry.

18 THE COURT: No, this is not about that. You are

19 begging and you're asking for sympathy. That's what you're

20 doing. This is not about that, okay. You need to quit it.

21 I'm tired of warning you, okay. You are an officer of this

22 court, and you have to understand that. I heard you over

23 there telling your client, I'm going to ask this question.

24 You know, you keep stepping over the line. You are an

25 officer of this court first and foremost. I understand you

II - 201

1 have a duty to represent your client, but I've talked to you

2 enough.

3 MR. STILLEY: I did not --

4 THE COURT: Sit down.

5 MR. STILLEY: I did not intentionally --

6 THE COURT: Sit down. Cross-examination.

7 MR. OLIVER: May it please the Court.

8 CROSS-EXAMINATION

9 BY MR. OLIVER:

10 Q. Mr. Palmer, you arrived -- first of all, you were never

11 at Palm Lane, correct?

12 A. Yes, sir, I was never there.

13 Q. Second, you arrived at Mountain Park on December the

14 2nd -- I'm sorry, December the 7th, 2002, correct?

15 A. Yes, sir.

16 Q. So Mr. Jordan Blair was long gone before you arrived

17 there, correct?

18 A. Yes, sir.

19 Q. You don't know him, never met him; isn't that right?

20 A. Yes, sir.

21 Q. You said that you came up from Texas, from high school.

22 Isn't the truth you came up from the special education

23 department of your high school, son?

24 A. Yes, sir.

25 Q. You were in special ed, weren't you?

II - 202

1 A. Yes, sir.

2 Q. You were sent to Mountain Park by your grandfather?

3 A. Yes, sir.

4 Q. While you were there you received multiple letters from

5 your grandfather, in each case encouraging you to behave.

6 You see on the screen where he wrote you and said, doesn't it

7 feel good not having to stack wood, I know you could do it.

8 Didn't he say that?

9 A. Yes, sir.

10 Q. Didn't he also tell you Pastor Gerhardt and his staff

11 have the knowledge to make a man out of you, please listen to

12 them?

13 A. Yes, sir, but that --

14 Q. That was the advice that your grandfather who had legal

15 custody of you gave you, didn't he?

16 A. Yes, sir, but that was before he even knew what they

17 did.

18 MR. OLIVER: Thank you. Nothing else, Your Honor.

19 THE COURT: Anything else?

20 MR. STILLEY: Not at this point in time.

21 THE COURT: Very well. You may step down. You're

22 excused.

23 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, why don't we

24 take -- maybe we'll get out of here by 5:30. Does that

25 create a problem for anyone, 5:30? Okay. Let's try. Why

II - 203

1 don't we take a brief recess. Why don't you all be prepared

2 to return at five minutes to five, okay. Recall the

3 admonition.

4 (The following proceedings were held outside the

5 hearing of the jury:)

6 THE COURT: Mr. Stilley, you are an officer of this

7 court. There are rules. If you don't like them then take

8 them someplace else, not here.

9 Now, you keep going, you know, there's a marshal

10 here, we got a jail here. And maybe if you don't get the

11 message, I'm going to get in your pocket and lock you up,

12 okay. I'm tired of talking to you, you know. This is

13 failure to communicate here. And maybe there's another way.

14 You don't seem to get it. I can understand you being fervent

15 about your client, but don't you see, you are doing the same

16 thing that you want to think that these people are doing in

17 terms of going to extremes and being fervent. You are doing

18 this. So you need to step above this. And you are an

19 officer of this court. You see, you want to think that

20 somebody else is doing something fervently because of their

21 beliefs, but you then go in the other direction and you're an

22 officer of this court and you know better. There are rules

23 in here, and I keep telling you about them. If you don't

24 want to abide by them, then I will be in your pocket and you

25 will be locked up. You got it?

II - 204

1 MR. STILLEY: Yes, Your Honor.

2 THE COURT: You better figure it out. I'm getting

3 tired of this.

4 (Court in recess from 4:39 p.m. until 4:53 p.m.)

5 THE COURT: I indicated that I would revisit this

6 motion for directed verdict on this Fair Labor Standards Act

7 claim, and that's why I wanted to get to this so we could

8 move ahead. And the Court having heard further evidence on

9 it, the Court is going to grant that motion.

10 MR. STILLEY: Judge, I'm not through presenting my

11 case. I've got two more witnesses.

12 THE COURT: No, you didn't tell -- what other

13 witness you got on Fair Labor Standards Act?

14 MR. STILLEY: Angela Collier and Melissa Smith.

15 THE COURT: What do they have to say?

16 MR. STILLEY: They took PE, and they can testify to

17 what PE is. And they will testify that PE did not consist of

18 anything about conventional PE just like in a public school.

19 MR. BRIGGS: Your Honor, as the testimony has

20 consistently been in this case, both from Mr. Blair and from

21 our clients, the girls and the boys maintained separate

22 schedules and do not do things together. Therefore, these

23 two women will not have testimony that will be relevant to

24 Mr. Blair's Fair Labor Standards Act claim.

25 MR. STILLEY: They didn't make any distinction

II - 205

1 between girls and boys, they just said PE consists of a lot

2 of other things besides things like running, games,

3 basketball, et cetera.

4 THE COURT: There's been no showing that the

5 activities were the same between the girl -- between the

6 girls and the boys. I mean, the testimony was exactly the

7 opposite. They didn't -- the witnesses who had been on so

8 far have shown that they were completely separate, separate

9 dorms, separate activities, that they were separate. All

10 activities were separate.

11 MR. STILLEY: Well, am I going to be prohibited then

12 to testify about that?

13 THE COURT: How is it relevant if they are separate?

14 MR. STILLEY: I'm just asking for a ruling.

15 THE COURT: You've heard my ruling. I mean, you

16 understand English. I'm saying how is it relevant? I'm

17 asking you how is it relevant if they are separate?

18 MR. STILLEY: Well, on one of these -- let me make

19 my best shot at showing that it's relevant. On one of these

20 girls, she would testify that they tried to do some other

21 activities, I believe it was another sport, and was not

22 allowed to do that even though it was what would be

23 considered typically physical education type deal. But it's

24 in the Court's judgment that the matters concerning the girls

25 does not have any bearing on matters concerning the boys then

II - 206

1 I don't have anything except these two young ladies.

2 THE COURT: Fine. Well, I'm going to exclude their

3 testimony relative to the physical education portion of it.

4 There's been no evidence that the activities were the same.

5 The evidence is that they were completely separate and

6 different and apart. And assuming even if they were the same

7 as your client testified to, the Court is still going to find

8 that these activities were part of the educational program of

9 this institution for the benefit of the students and not to

10 the benefit of the defendants. So that claim is gone. The

11 Court is granting that directed verdict there.

12 So here we are now, we're going to continue on on

13 this battery claim.

14 MR. STILLEY: Judge, I had a motion -- I mean, I had

15 a response that I wanted to make to the Court. Would the

16 Court prefer I make this in writing?

17 THE COURT: Relative to what?

18 MR. STILLEY: Reference to the Fair Labor Standards

19 Act. I wanted to preserve the record and show the argument

20 that I would make that that case should be submitted to the

21 jury. Can I present that now or do you want me to just file

22 that through the ECF system? I mean, I'm asking that I be

23 able to make my arguments now because that might persuade the

24 Court to change its mind. But I certainly have not --

25 THE COURT: You had asked to brief this whole issue.

II - 207

1 I have all the briefs I need, okay. I made my ruling.

2 That's that. We're moving on.

3 The defendants ready to continue with this battery

4 portion of the case?

5 MR. OLIVER: Yes, we are, Your Honor.

6 THE COURT: Go ahead. Call -- we'll bring the jury

7 in and we'll call the next witness.

8 MR. BRIGGS: Your Honor, we would like to offer one

9 exhibit that we already used in the case into evidence. I

10 neglected to do that.

11 THE COURT: What is that?

12 MR. BRIGGS: Defendants' Exhibit A, Your Honor.

13 THE COURT: Any objection to A?

14 MR. STILLEY: No objection. Does that make A, C,

15 and D in?

16 THE COURT: Fine, they will be received then A, C,

17 and D.

18 (The following proceedings continued within the

19 hearing of the jury:)

20 MR. BRIGGS: Your Honor, defendants call Drew

21 Parrish to the stand.

22 DREW PARRISH,

23 Having been first duly sworn, was examined and testified as

24 follows:

25 DIRECT EXAMINATION

II - 208

1 BY MR. BRIGGS:

2 Q. Sir, would you please state your full name for the

3 record.

4 A. Drew Parrish.

5 Q. And, Mr. Parrish, why don't you spell the last name

6 too.

7 A. P-a-r-r-i-s-h.

8 Q. Very good. Thank you, sir. Mr. Parrish, were you

9 employed by Mountain Park Baptist Church and Boarding Academy

10 at one point in time?

11 A. Yes, I was.

12 Q. Okay. Can you define the span that you were employed

13 at Mountain Park, those dates?

14 A. It was after I graduated in 2001. So maybe 2001 until

15 August of 2003.

16 Q. Okay. And during that time were you employed as a

17 staff member?

18 A. Yes.

19 Q. Since leaving Mountain Park, what have you done? What

20 are you doing now?

21 A. I'm currently enrolled in Crown College of the Bible in

22 Powell, Tennessee.

23 Q. And you've come from Tennessee to testify in this case?

24 A. Yes, I have.

25 Q. When you were a staff member at Mountain Park, was one

II - 209

1 of your responsibilities to greet new students who arrived on

2 campus?

3 A. Yes, it was.

4 Q. And that was specifically male students?

5 A. Yes.

6 Q. Did you have -- in your responsibility as greeting new

7 male students, do you recall meeting Jordan Blair?

8 A. Yes, I do.

9 Q. Okay. Is there a particular reason why you recall

10 meeting Mr. Blair?

11 A. I remember meeting him because he came in and he was

12 escorted by an Arkansas police officer and he was in

13 handcuffs.

14 MR. STILLEY: Objection, move to strike.

15 THE COURT: The jury will disregard that.

16 Q. Continue from there.

17 A. And what else was the question?

18 Q. What other part -- well, what other part of the meeting

19 do you recollect that you haven't said already?

20 A. I remember taking him down to the dorm and getting him

21 in the shower and waiting with him for dinner.

22 Q. Okay, very good. And, Mr. Parrish, do you recall

23 meeting him, that when you met him that he was in handcuffs?

24 MR. STILLEY: Objection.

25 THE COURT: Overruled.

II - 210

1 A. Yes, I do.

2 Q. And did Mountain Park put the handcuffs on him?

3 A. No, they did not.

4 Q. Okay. After the handcuffs were removed, you said that

5 you took him down to the dorm. Were you alone when you met

6 him?

7 A. No, I was not.

8 Q. Who was with you at the time?

9 A. Matt Elmore.

10 Q. So then you and Mr. Elmore walked with Mr. Blair down

11 to the dorm?

12 A. Yes.

13 Q. And then you say that you took him into the dorm area

14 to take a shower?

15 A. Yes.

16 Q. Okay. And during that time frame did Mr. Bo Gerhardt

17 come on the scene and meet Mr. Blair?

18 A. Yes, he did.

19 Q. Mr. Parrish, do you recall during that meeting around

20 the shower area or in the bathroom area, do you recall seeing

21 whether Mr. Gerhardt ever pushed or shoved Mr. Blair into a

22 bathroom sink or wall?

23 A. No, I do not.

24 Q. You never saw that happen?

25 A. No.