Part 44

1 Crown Bible College. Where is Crown College? Knoxville,

2 Tennessee. He drove from Knoxville, Tennessee to here

3 yesterday when Jordan identified him as a witness. Why did

4 he drive all the way across the state of Tennessee in to

5 Missouri? Well, one time he was a defendant in this case but

6 not in the battery part. But he came from bible college here

7 so that the eight of you would know the truth, so that the

8 eight of you would know what happened.

9 So what did happen? Jordan comes in handcuffs just

10 like we told you. The handcuffs were removed. Jordan and

11 Matt Elmore -- Drew and Matt Elmore then take Jordan into the

12 dorm and downstairs and sit him on the couch. Matt Elmore,

13 former student. You've heard from former students. Where is

14 Matt Elmore? If this was true, if Matt Elmore witnessed

15 this, don't you think that they would have Matt Elmore

16 sitting out there and you would have heard from Matt Elmore?

17 Don't know. You didn't.

18 So they take him downstairs. They sit him on the

19 couch. Talk to him, start explaining things to him. Bo

20 comes in. That's part of his job. He comes in. He talks to

21 them. And what happens at that point in time? The boy is

22 like every other young man who comes, given soap and a towel

23 and told to go take a shower. That's the way you start.

24 Object No. 1, take a shower. That's the first step.

25 And Mr. Stilley and Mr. Blair between the two of

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1 them, they can't even get straight what their story is.

2 You'll recall, I wrote it down. Mr. Stilley told you in

3 opening statement that Bo slammed him. Jordan wasn't willing

4 to go quite that far, so Jordan had him shoved. Mr. Stilley

5 wants to make it a slam again this morning. Pejorative

6 adjectives, attack words. Attack words like indoctrination.

7 So what happened? Bo -- did Bo -- did Bo push and

8 shove him, offensively touch him? You notice the instruction

9 they submitted says offensive touching. It did not happen.

10 And why do I know it did not happen? It did not happen

11 because Bo said it didn't happen. And Drew Parrish drove

12 here from bible college to tell you that it didn't happen.

13 And what did Drew Parrish tell you, if he saw it, he would

14 have reported it. Why? Because they believe.

15 Know the truth and the truth will set you free.

16 They believe. This is a fundamental independent Baptist

17 institution. They believe. They operate to save children

18 based on this belief. And they don't need to make things up.

19 If Bo makes a mistake, Drew would have corrected him by

20 reporting it. It didn't happen.

21 The judge has told you in Instruction No. 3 that

22 you're the sole judge of the credibility of the witnesses.

23 And you need to ask yourself or you will ask yourself why

24 would this young man and his attorney if they can get their

25 stories straight about what happened, why did they say, why

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1 did they do? Well, let's just look at motives. What's the

2 root of all evil. Money is the root of all evil. The love

3 of money is the root of all evil. Money is an obvious

4 objective. Why would you say something to get money? Is

5 that the real reason? I sort of doubt it. I sort of doubt

6 it. What kind of person has a lawyer that stands up in

7 opening statement and starts out by saying this is not a case

8 about religion, I'm a Baptist, Bo -- Jordan is a Baptist, and

9 he's a born again Christian, and then has his client get on

10 the stand and say he's nondenominational, and having said

11 that he's nondenominational calls church indoctrination.

12 Think about that for a minute. Church in this courtroom is

13 indoctrination. It's important.

14 But why do you have a slick political correctness

15 type of attack where teaching religion and exposing a child

16 to the wishes of their parents becomes indoctrination? When

17 you have those kind of things, you have those kind of things

18 when you want to get, even when you want to retaliate against

19 somebody. Why would you want to retaliate? Well, let's

20 think about this for a minute. Jordan's parents put him

21 there. He didn't want to be there. They put him from

22 whatever troubled environment he was in into a rigid

23 environment, a strict environment. Rule No. 1, get up; Rule

24 No. 2, brush your teeth; Rule No. 3, clean yourself; Rule

25 No. 4, make your bed; Rule No. 5, clean up after yourself.

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1 All the things that all of us that have children wish our own

2 kids did.

3 But from a troubled structure to a rigid, one, two,

4 three, four, five, a rigid structure. He doesn't want to be

5 there. He resents his parents. He resents the situation.

6 He resents the discipline. He resents the structure. Why

7 does he pick on Bo? Why does he pick on Bo? Well, I want to

8 suggest why he picks on Bo. Because Bo didn't touch him. Bo

9 didn't slam him. Bo didn't shove him. Bo didn't push him.

10 What did Bo do that leads to this lawsuit? What Bo did was

11 administer the diagnostic test.

12 You remember Brother Sam explained that and Bo

13 explained and Brother O'Brient explained that when you have

14 your academics, that what you do is they give you a

15 diagnostic test to see where your level is, and then they

16 start you at that level. Well, according to Bo after his

17 diagnostic test he had to start out at the fifth grade level.

18 When he got around to writing his parents, it was the 11th

19 grade and repeat his junior year.

20 But ladies and gentlemen, you know what stuck in

21 this young man's crawl, what stuck in this young man's crawl

22 and why we're really here today besides all these collateral

23 motivations, the money, the structure, the rebellion, the

24 handcuffs, besides all those things, you know why we're here

25 today? Because he had to do remedial work as a result of the

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1 test that Bo Gerhardt administered.

2 And that's eating at this guy. It's in his letters.

3 Twenty-eight letters. I can't graduate this year. I'm not

4 going to be able to go to graduation. I have to repeat the

5 11th grade. Fifth grade remedial work. He took the test, he

6 didn't do well. Bo administered the test. It's the only

7 explanation that I can think of.

8 THE COURT: Two minutes, Counsel.

9 MR. OLIVER: Thank you, Your Honor.

10 Ladies and gentlemen, you and you alone are the

11 judge of credibility of these witnesses. Bo and Drew

12 Parrish, the two witnesses that were identified by the

13 plaintiff have told you the truth so help them God, the truth

14 that they live and believe every day. They live their lives

15 based on that truth. They did not, Bo Gerhardt did not push,

16 shove, or offensively touch Jordan Blair on the 24th day of

17 October 2001. This boy came a troubled boy in handcuffs. A

18 troubled boy who had to have remedial education. A troubled

19 boy who blames Bo Gerhardt for what his problems were.

20 When you go back into to the privacy of your jury

21 room and deliberate, please, when you fill the verdict out,

22 know the truth, and the truth is that your verdict must be

23 for Bo Gerhardt because this battery did not happen. It

24 didn't happen. They can't even describe it the same way.

25 There is no indoctrination. There's no push. There's no

III - 19

1 shove. There's only right truth and truth. And the truth

2 is, the truth is like Drew Parrish told you and more

3 importantly like Bo told you, this did not happen.

4 And we trust your judgment. We trust the oath that

5 you took. And we know that after your deliberation you will

6 do the right thing and return a verdict for Bo Gerhardt.

7 Thank you.

8 MR. STILLEY: Ladies and gentlemen, let me say this:

9 Even not saying anything about Jordan Blair, if any person

10 goes to jail, they are entitled to a copy of the rules. They

11 are entitled to know what gets you in trouble and what

12 doesn't. Even if you go to jail, you're still entitled to

13 the sanctity of your person. A jailer can't shove you or

14 push or however they want to say it or hit you without cause.

15 That is a violation of civil rights. It's not tolerated in

16 our society.

17 And there's a suggestion that, well, Drew Parrish

18 was just identified here recently, so we had to call him from

19 outside to come here. Well, he was identified as a

20 defendant. There were depositions done in which the

21 witnesses to this incident were identified. Surely they

22 can't realistically say this came as a surprise to them.

23 They knew about it.

24 There's a suggestion that this -- it's just about

25 greed, this is about money. No, this is not about greed,

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1 this is not about money. If Mr. Blair doesn't get $2 for

2 Tylenol or $200,000, he was wronged. He doesn't like that.

3 He doesn't think that's supposed to happen in our society,

4 and he wants some accountability. He wants a judgment that

5 that is wrong, that that is offensive contact. It's not

6 tolerated in our society. And the amount of damages,

7 whatever it is, that you find justly and reasonably

8 compensates him for that wrong that he's suffered.

9 I don't recall saying that he was Baptist. I recall

10 saying that he was a person of faith. And let me show you.

11 You've got a number of letters here, and I'm sure you all

12 know that when a person writes a number of letters or a great

13 deal of handwriting of any sort, they reveal a little bit

14 about themselves in more ways than one. And you can take a

15 look at these. But if you need to take a look, those will

16 tell you a lot about the story. You can learn about this if

17 you come to a situation where you need to find things out

18 because they're admitted into evidence, they are evidence in

19 this case.

20 Exhibit 20 is an example of why the plaintiff would

21 say that he was indoctrinated rather than provided the

22 religious training that he expected. What did he say? He

23 said, here are a few things I've learned, speaking in tongues

24 is false doctrine. The Christian music I listen to is

25 wicked. Our church is wicked. The music you sing is wicked.

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1 Instruments they use are wicked. Drums, electric guitar is

2 wicked, and the way they sing is wrong.

3 Now, does that sound like somebody that is just

4 satisfied? Okay. I'm a Baptist, and I'm just going to do

5 things -- well, just making a complaint lately, Johnnie come

6 lately complaint about what's going on. Of course not. He

7 complained to his parents. He told them what they were

8 saying. And you can see on the back side of the letter that

9 Bo Gerhardt says, "Call and I can help you respond." So the

10 defendants can't say they didn't know about this. They did

11 know about this. And when you look at the bottom, they want

12 to make out that this person is not a Christian, is an

13 unbeliever or something like that. Let's look what he asked

14 for along with work boots. I need a pocket bible.

15 THE COURT: One minute, Counsel.

16 MR. STILLEY: Thank you, Judge. A person who was

17 had no belief in Christian religion would not be asking for a

18 bible. And as to the idea about this, the educational parts,

19 you know, there's some things that are out of this case, but

20 once again if you need to see what he said about his

21 educational requirements, look in the letter or you can

22 recall what he said from the stand about having completed the

23 requirements of graduation.

24 Thank you very much for your attention.

25 THE COURT: Michelle, will you take the jury to a

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1 safe and secure place so they may commence their

2 deliberations. Here are the last instructions and the

3 verdict form.

4 (Jury sent to deliberate at 9:43 a.m.)

5 (The following proceedings were held at 11 a.m.)

6 THE COURT: Good morning again, ladies and gentlemen

7 of the jury. I understand you all have reached a verdict.

8 Is that correct?

9 JUROR SWINEY: Yes.

10 THE COURT: Clerk, publish the verdict, please.

11 THE CLERK: On Plaintiff Jordan Blair's claims

12 against Defendant Bo Gerhardt as submitted in Instruction

13 No. 5, we find in favor of Jordan Blair. We find the

14 Plaintiff Jordan Blair's damages to be $20,000. Signed by

15 the foreperson this 14th day of April 2004.

16 Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is the verdict I

17 have just read your true and correct verdict?

18 THE JURORS: Yes.

19 THE COURT: Does either party wish to have the jury

20 further polled or individually polled?

21 MR. OLIVER: No, sir.

22 MR. STILLEY: No, Your Honor.

23 THE COURT: Very well. Ladies and gentlemen of the

24 jury, I want to thank you for your time, attention, and

25 service. It's not an easy job being a juror. The admonition

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1 is lifted. You can discuss this case as fully and freely

2 with anyone you choose.

3 We do have a rule within this federal court system,

4 the lawyers cannot inquire of you. If you want to talk to

5 them, that's up to you. You can talk to anyone you choose

6 about this case.

7 So thank you so much for your service. You're

8 excused.

9 (Jury dismissed.)

10 THE COURT: Anything else?

11 MR. STILLEY: No, Your Honor.

12 THE COURT: Thank you all so much.

13 (Court in recess at 11:03 a.m.)

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1 C E R T I F I C A T E

2 I, Susan R. Moran, Registered Merit Reporter, in

3 and for the United States District Court for the Eastern

4 District of Missouri, do hereby certify that I was present

5 at and reported in machine shorthand the proceedings in the

6 above-mentioned court; and that the foregoing transcript is

7 a true, correct, and complete transcript of my stenographic

8 notes.

9 I further certify that I am not attorney for, nor

10 employed by, nor related to any of the parties or attorneys

11 in this action, nor financially interested in the action.

12 I further certify that this transcript contains

13 pages 1 - 24 and that this reporter takes no responsibility

14 for missing or damaged pages of this transcript when same

15 transcript is copied by any party other than this reporter.

16 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand

17 at St. Louis, Missouri, this _________ day of

18 __________________, 2004.

20 ______________________________

/s/ Susan R. Moran

21 Registered Merit Reporter