break for lunch, Wed. Sept. 7

what incredible testimony from Cindy Williams this morning...she calmly and matter of factly narrated over an hour of video that she took at Muddy Paws on the day that it was revealed as a death camp.

she was very strong....Cindy is an animal control office with Lake County. I can imagine she's seen some horrible things but this must top them all.

i took off my glasses so that I could not see the video...I just couldn't bear to watch, but her narration described it fully for me. I'll write more about it later, but the thing that horrified me the most was that she identified jugs of water and cans of unopened dog food on a shelf above the kennels where the dogs died a horrible death by starvation in their kennels. There were also pictures and video of unopened sacks of dog food stacked in the kitchen.

this makes it so much worse for me....there was food and water there, and they died looking at what they needed. THAT is torture.

after court recessed for lunch, Diane remained at the defense table. Her lawyer was talking to the court reporter. I asked Michael Mermel, the prosecutor, if I was allowed to speak to Diane. He said that he could not advise me one way or another, just that as a member of the public I had the right to speak to whomever I wished.

so, I stood behind Diane, behind the low wooden half-wall barrier between the court and the spectator area, and said "Diane?" She was still seated and she turned to look at me. I asked her, "Do you remember me?" and she said' "Yes, I do."

I then asked her, "How did Lucha die? I need to know." and she immediately called her lawyer's first name, whatever it is, and he came over and told me to leave his client alone.

I told him, "I just want to ask Diane one question, that's all I want. I just want to know how Lucha died, I want to know that she did not suffer."

He told me to get out of the courtroom, that he would speak to me in the hall. I told him' "You're not the person I want to talk to. I want to talk to Diane."

He is an extremely rude and insensitive man....he started asking me about if I was Friend2Animals on the Daily Herald website, and I said that yes, I was. He told me how uncaring and uncompassionate I was about
Diane.His tone was extremely snotty, rude, and dismissive.

I told him on the contrary, I am an extremely caring and compassionate person, that I care about all living things.

He got angry and said, "Do you realize that if convicted, Diane could go to prison and not be able to see her son?"
I replied, "Yes, I know that. "
he then asked, "So why would you want her to not be able to see her son? that's not very compassionate." in a strident tone.

I said, "I'm a mother of 3, Mr. Curnyn' and I've made sure that I didn't do anything that would cause me to be taken away from my children and put in prison."


He stomped off at that point, ridiculing me to others whom I suppose are Diane's friends and/or family.

the trial resumes at 1:30. I'm going to try and eat something and get some fresh air.