Summary from June 2nd

Unfortunately, none of our usual bloggers were in the courtroom today to keep us up-to-date, so we don't yet have anything to report.

EDIT: 10:00 PM:
We managed to gather some details and impressions relayed from several of the people present in the court today:

Tuesday, June 2, 2009.

Redwood City Courthouse. Room 2L.

8:59 am:
Although the judge granted Weinberg's request that Ayres be excused from further motions hearings this week, Ayres and Solveig were there in the courtroom. Ayres sat with his walker in front of him. The walker made him look boxed in, as if he were already behind bars. In his hand he was reading some legal papers in a black binder.

Solveig sat on the aisle opposite from him and was reading the New Yorker. She wore the same outfit as yesterday - matching peacock blue shirt and jacket; same white pants, white slip on shoes and white stockings. Same red lipstick and gold hoop earrings. There was an expression on her face that was both a smile and a frown. The smile may be a nervous tic, or a defense mechanism.

Melissa McKowan in a tight blue sweater and Weinberg came in and started having a fairly heated conversation about some points. Gone was the chummy-chummy camaraderie between the two from yesterday, when there were more observers and a reporter in the courtroom.

Solveig pulled out a reporter's notebook and started to take notes. The notebook looked to be about halfway filled with her large handwriting, with lots of space between entries.

Melissa told Weinberg that she was going to file a motion to have the court admit photographs of the victims at the age when they were molested. Ayres pretended not to hear that and glumly looked down and pretended to bury himself in the documents he was reading in a black folder.
Melissa and Weinberg argued only for a couple of minutes inside the courtroom before heading back to the judge's chambers.

Ayres had a copy of the New York Times, and for almost twenty minutes he sat staring at the same article on the op-ed page called "Foreclosures - No End in Sight" He briefly glanced at an op-ed called "Murder in Kansas" abortion doctor George Tiller - he did not spend much time on it. One wonders if that was because it was about the murder of a doctor.

Solveig read "The Talk of the Town " section of the New Yorker and actually seemed to be able to focus better on her reading. She and her husband did not make any kind of eye contact or acknowledge each other's presence in any way during those twenty minutes.

Neither of them turned around to look at the small group of observers in the back row.

Finally when the lawyers came out, shortly before 10 AM to say that they were done for the day, Ayres wordlessly reached across the aisle and handed Solveig his black folder.

McKowan told some parents of the victims that the next motion hearing would be on Thursday June 4, at which time the judge would make a decision about whether to include the older victims' testimony - the ones out of statute.

Overall, our courtroom observers would say that ayres' demeanor was glum and bleak. We wonder if he is on anti-depressants.