Brent's Take On The Hearing

Or rather, non-hearing. This an excerpt from his blog post from yesterday:

"...And then, lets not forget the Bryan Kocis murder case. Grant and I have navigated a living nightmare for more than a year now, doing everything we can to show the authorities and (indirectly) his family that we want to do what is right. Forget any press is good press. When the world and your industry insists on implicating you as a murder suspect, nothing good can come of that. Grant and I put everything on the line to voluntarily take part in a two day wire tap that ultimately provided the Pennsylvania authorities with evidence that will make their case against the murder suspects.

Sunday, July 6th Grant and I voluntarily traveled to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania to sit on the stand and declare we consented to the wire tap. Along with more than 10 other witnesses, we sat delayed for two days while the attorneys of the accused fumbled their way through the proceedings that ultimately rescheduled these pertinent pretrial hearings. Grant and I basically wasted 3 days in PA and then lost another to traveling cross-country. We endured a tampering and hostile witness (Madam) that went as far as to declare to the online world which hotel we were being discreetly and safely tucked away at. To top it all off, while waiting outside the court room Grant and I experienced harassment and name calling and hostility from the family of the deceased.

We had to hide from the media who had cameras trained on the holding rooms the authorities put us in (they moved us to a safer location to prevent from any more harrassment). I couldn’t even leave to use the restroom without them sticking cameras in my face. At one point, I was so frustrated with not even being allowed the luxury of relieving my bladder in peace that I flipped the cameras off. I forgot to explain to them that in my world that can be considered a gesture of endearment. Oops! I never watched to news to see if they aired it.

Thankfully Grant and I have each other. This murder case has strained our relationship exponentially to the point where what we once had together hardly even exists anymore. I love him. He’s the most important person in my life. We’re a team. We only have each other. Our relationship is truly one of a kind. Very sadly, things have been so strained that we cannot carry on a traditional relationship. There was a time where who we were to each other and how we felt about each other could be clearly defined. However, after navigating this case, building two companies from scratch, being screwed around and fucked over royally by Lee Bergeron- we aren’t what we used to be. We have both grown and become very different people, but our love and the fact that we only have each other has somehow managed to thrive and maintain itself. We will always be together in one way or another. My one wish is that Grant and I can work through things better so that some of this unwarranted stress and tension might relieve me...."

...

"...I’m not sad or depressed. I’m completely overwhelmed. The pretrial hit me hard and all of the momentum I had recovered before flying out to Pennsylvania has dissipated. I’m trying to figure out where to go from here. My self esteem appears to be suffering. I’m deflated and tired. As pathetic as it sounds . . . I haven’t had the energy or the time to work out in almost two months. That fact alone has ruined my sense of confidence (and probably severely affected my bodily chemistry). I had a respiratory infection that plagued me for two months. It has taken me this long to figure out it’s probably just really bad allergies I’ve developed as a result of growing older in a region I’m not originally from.

Why am I listing all this? Therapy I guess. Maybe I’m just trying to sort it all out through my fingertips. Some of my distance here may be a result of the fact that I have not felt like I could continue to be as honest about my life as I have in the past.

I wish I could find the energy and organization to move forward with everything that I should be using to springboard me into to what I’ve always wanted. The trouble now, it seems, is that I feel so deflated that I’m not so convinced I want all of what I was so originally determined to have."

Plus these comments added by Grant:

I LOVE YOU BABE! …and no matter what, “Just Keep on Truckin!”

>Grant

...

Comment by Grant — On July 11th, 2008 at 5:12 pm

and

Of course Woody, I was there! Lol… No Seriously, we were always no more than a phone call away from Pennsylvania’s finest, including senior detectives with the Luzerne County District Attorneys Office, Pennsylvania State Police and Dallas Township.

The Common Wealth of Pennsylvania have always been most professional, gracious and accommodating!

Comment by Grant — On July 11th, 2008 at 7:27 pm

Update: Renee responds with her own witness room recollections in these here comments. The Reader's Digest version (thus far):

1. Sean alledgedly made a heterophobic comment about women (?!) during a meeting of hearing witnesses, and was upset when told "you should try one before you knock it." Renee reported the alledged incident to the DAs;

2. Sean alledgedly complained of cold pizza;

3. Sean alledgedly said he was cold in the courthouse, and needed a sweater;

4. In Renee's view, Sean played to the cameras rather than avoided them; and

5. Grant and Sean were alledgedly seen "hanging out with" with fellow witness Andrew Shunk (aka Mason Banks, former Boybatter model and potential Confidential Informant #1) in a bookstore on the public square; Renee also felt compelled to report this alledged gathering of three people within earshot of each other to the DAs.

Update 2: Blogger NG weighs in, in back to back posts on his own blog. One amusing observation: "As of this post, out of 172 comments made on SOTC, more than half are from Renee."