Free Perfect Victim by Carla Norton, Christine McGuire Page B

afternoon of Tuesday, November 27. The meeting was ostensibly to prepare Janice for the potentially unnerving experience of testifying at the preliminary hearing. But besides reviewing common-sense points such as speaking clearly and not guessing at answers, this preparatory interview allowed the prosecutor to get a feel for her witness — what type of character she was, how she might respond on the stand.
    At first meeting, Mcguire decided that as a principal witness Janice Hooker left a lot to be desired. Jan entered the coffee room at the Red Bluff Police Department (RBPD) wearing a rumpled sweatshirt and blue jeans that were too small for her stout figure. She peered out from beneath her long, frizzy hair with a wary expression, making it immediately clear that she was uncomfortable.
    Detective Shamblin greeted Janice and introduced Deputy DA Mcguire, who smiled and tried to put Janice at ease, but the two women seemed to have nothing in common and zero rapport.
    The atmosphere was strained until Mcguire asked the names of Janice’s daughters and told her about her own baby girl. Soon they were sharing photographs of their children, mother to mother.
    The interview got under way, Mcguire leaving most of the questioning to Shamblin. “Let’s start at the beginning,” he said, and Janice talked for the next five hours, starting with the events of May 19,
    1977.
     
    She was much more coherent than the first time Shamblin had interviewed her, but her answers often came slowly, after much consideration, and she frequently claimed memory lapses.
    She seemed evasive, as if she were still unconvinced that the immunity she’d been granted would protect her from prosecution.
    Once or twice, she asked that the tape recorder be turned off so she could discuss something without being recorded.
    She did better when asked to ID the evidence — the box, the head box, the whips, assorted photographs and magazines — but was visibly shaken to learn that they’d found the slavery contract.
    And when they asked Jan to ID slides of herself, projecting them against a screen in the back room, she was distressed by the thought of complete strangers viewing these in the courtroom.
    (The prospect was disturbing to Mcguire as well. The photographs were graphic depictions of Janice being hung, stretched, and bound in various ways, and she wondered what effect they might have on a jury. If the jury were offended, these photos could backfire, damaging Jan’s credibility as a witness and undermining her testimony.)
    During the interview, Mcguire watched Janice closely. She couldn’t help but notice that Jan had the worn and weathered hands of a much older woman and that, from behind her wirerim glasses, her eyes spoke of pain. This was a woman who had been through a lot. But Janice Hooker was also an accomplice, worried about protecting herself, and Mcguire’s legal instincts told her to be watchful for lies and contradictions.
    The interview finally ended, and once Janice had gone, Shamblin and Mcguire compared notes. Overall, Janice was doing well — her story was consistent, she wasn’t contradicting herself — but the prosecutor still had misgivings.
    “She seems a little shaky, doesn’t she? I hope she doesn’t balk at the last minute. If I have to do the prelim without her it’s going to seem like a vendetta-Colleen against Cameron.”
    And there was an even more fundamental reason for getting Janice to testify. If Mcguire could get her on the stand at the preliminary hearing, Mrs. Hooker would be waiving her marital privilege not to testify against her husband, a privilege that once waived is waived forever under California law.
    They’d learned from Janice that Cameron had planned to capture more slaves, that he had stalked women, taking photos of them with his telephoto lens. This was the impetus behind a search that proved pivotal to the case.
    Ed King had hastily obtained the first search warrant at the time of Hooker’s