Media Today

[Rick Plant]

Patriot Front arrests in Idaho unmask a new generation of hate groups



Members of the white separatist organization Patriot Front spent hours in online chat rooms, meticulously planning how to avoid arrest when they carried out nighttime vandalism raids or tried to disrupt progressive events.

It held plans so tightly that members weren’t told of destinations until virtually the time of departure, and they shrouded their true identities even from each other, hiding behind pseudonyms.

But Patriot Front was unprepared for a casual onlooker to notice last Saturday as its members suspiciously toted tactical shields from a Toyota Camry to a U-Haul truck outside a hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. Suspicious, the witness called police.

Thirty-one of the group’s members were unmasked when Coeur d’Alene police arrested them, allegedly on the way to disrupt an LGBTQ+ pride celebration at a nearby park.

The Pacific Northwest has long been fertile ground for separatist groups determined to carve out a whites-only homeland here. Patriot Front, formed less than five years ago and populated with mostly members in their 20s, represents a new generation of hate groups, with propaganda calculated to be welcoming to a broader swath of potential recruits.

Their highly visible surfacing in Idaho surprised some of the men’s relatives, who were unaware of their activities.

Patriot Front is known to have orchestrated flash demonstrations to counter progressive events in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, Houston and Austin, Texas, without facing arrest. But the wholesale roundup in Coeur d’Alene was different.

Six Washington men were among the Patriot Front members arrested for misdemeanor conspiracy to riot: Colton Michael Brown, 23, of Ravensdale; Justin Michael O’Leary, 27, of Des Moines; James Julius Johnson, 36, of Concrete; Spencer Thomas Simpson, 20, of Ellensburg; Mishael Joshua Buster, 22, of Spokane, and his brother Josiah Daniel Buster, 24, of Watauga, Texas, whom public records link to the same Spokane address. They have not been charged, and were released on $300 bail each.

The Seattle Times does not typically name suspects before they are charged, but is doing so in this story because of the high-profile nature of their arrests.

For a group protective of its plans, it is noteworthy that the social justice nonprofit Unicorn Riot in January released months of secretly recorded conversations of Patriot Front members on the voice chat platform Mumble.

The leak, which identified some Patriot Front members’ true identities, provided a rare glimpse behind the curtain of the secretive world of white supremacy — at times dystopian and at others mundane.

Chats included hate speech that demeaned Jewish, Black and LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants. They planned vandalism with graffiti or to post propaganda at colleges and culturally significant locations throughout Washington, and sometimes carried it out, often at night to avoid detection.

The leak also revealed tension between Patriot Front and other white supremacists, who viewed it as unserious and pandering to mainstream culture for its relatively subdued tactics. Even some Patriot Front members questioned its reluctance to use more inflammatory language in its propaganda and asked whether that undermined its relevance in the ecosystem of hate groups.

The group’s manifesto calls for “a hard reset on the nation we see today,” as it “faces complete annihilation as our culture and heritage are attacked from all sides.” It sometimes hoists a 20-foot-wide banner at demonstrations that reads, “Strong families make strong nations,” even as membership has fractured relationships in their households.

Jon Lewis, a research fellow with the Program on Extremism at George Washington University, said Patriot Front, with its emphasis on vandalism and posting of racist stickers, is not in the same category as more overtly violent domestic terrorist neo-Nazi groups such as Atomwaffen, which has reportedly had a significant Pacific Northwest chapter.

But he said their ideology represents a serious threat, particularly if more of its members press for increased aggression.

“Look at these guys who just got pulled out of this van, unmasked ‘Scooby-Doo’ style, and they’re sitting on the grass looking like idiots,” Lewis said, referring to images of the Idaho arrests. “It’s easy to think, ‘Hey these guys are clowns.’ But they had some sort of plan to violently riot against people showing up for a pride rally.”

“It’s less about Patriot Front being the totality of the threat and more about this group being a symptom of this broader disease, broader threat.”

Despite having members nationwide and a relatively high profile, its total membership was merely 300 as recently as last fall, according to the chats. Based on the latest available numbers, more than 10% of Patriot Front was hauled in by the Coeur d’Alene cops.

“They’ve never been correct”

The arrests came as a shock to Ellensburg resident Bruce Simpson, the father of Spencer Simpson. He said he heard his 20-year-old son come home at night after returning from jail in Idaho last week.

He waited until morning and then told him, “Well, I didn’t expect to read about you in The New York Times.”

Spencer replied, “Don’t worry, I am moving out. I can bunk with some guys in Texas or wherever,” according to Simpson.

But as of Thursday his son had not moved out, and Simpson said he worries forcing him to leave might only make matters worse. “If I thought that kicking him out would work, I would. But I really feel like he would be more vulnerable if we did that,” he said.

Bruce Simpson serves in the Air National Guard and works at Central Washington University, which his son attends, studying history. Describing himself as politically center-left, pro-LGBTQ+ rights and extremely anti-Donald Trump, he said he doesn’t know why his son embraced the Patriot Front ideology and has tried to convince him that worldview is wrong.

“I told him the problem with the far right is they’ve never been correct,” he said, pointing to the history of advances in civil rights.

Born in Ellensburg, Spencer Simpson led an “idyllic” life growing up, his father said, becoming an Eagle Scout and getting involved with the Civil Air Patrol. He described Spencer as an introvert who finished high school amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and had just completed his college finals before traveling to Idaho.

Simpson said his son described the group’s plans in Idaho as nonviolent and that the group just wanted “to draw attention because we want our views to be heard.”

Other Washington-linked Patriot Front members and their families could not be reached for comment and in some instances did not respond to messages seeking interviews.

“Fun and accessible”

O’Leary, of Des Moines, was an aspiring member of the group on Aug. 13, 2021, when he was interviewed by a longtime Patriot Front member, according to one of the transcripts leaked by Unicorn Riot.

Until then, the extent of his right-wing activism was defying indoor mask requirements at his local Fred Meyer store, he said in the chat. He’d read the manifesto.

But O’Leary’s true desire, he told his interviewer, was to execute direct action. “I just wanted to do something, basically,” he told the screener. “And you guys just seemed like the most fun and accessible.”

He described himself as a “white-pilled” glass-half-full fascist and hopeful that racial separatism would eventually be the norm in the United States. Maybe not in his lifetime, O’Leary said, but “I think it’ll all work out in the end.”

"Nice,” his interviewer responded, welcoming O’Leary to Patriot Front. “Let’s go throw up some stickers.” Within a month, O’Leary would summit a mountain on what the group called a “hate hike” with his new comrades, including Brown.

The group’s frequent “hikes” or “camping trips” served as planning sessions and helped deflect suspicion from spouses and employers — in one case, as a private security company guard.

Bruce Simpson was surprised to learn that some of his son’s weekend “camping trips” had actually been Patriot Front activities in other states. For example, he said, he recently learned Spencer had traveled with the group last July to Philadelphia, where news accounts reported the white supremacists had marched and chanted slogans before being run off by local residents.

Brown can be heard on a leaked chat advising a teenage member, still in high school, to deceive parents and other family members about their plans. “That’s what we tell all of our parents, all of our loved ones and family members and friends that ask us where we go and do this mysterious stuff, where we just disappear for a weekend at a time.”

Hate speech vandalism

In September 2021, Brown, who lives near Maple Valley, gained more authority when Patriot Front leaders designated his Washington crew its own network, splitting off members in Oregon and Idaho and enabling Brown to more tightly control the group’s activities, according to the chat transcripts.

Brown could not be reached for comment and his father hung up when a reporter called this week.

Brown presided over a conversation where Patriot Front members planned to mar a George Floyd mural in Seattle and post propaganda at Western Washington University and The Evergreen State College, near Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum and at construction sites, where they hoped workers would sympathize with their views.

If the group could stage a flash demonstration in Philadelphia last year, he said, it could certainly accomplish that in Seattle.

Patriot Front members in Washington, Oregon and Idaho were among the most prevalent and active in the leaked chat. It is one of 19 organizations in Washington designated as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, two fewer than were active five years ago.

Historically, they have included the now-bankrupt Aryan Nations in North Idaho, and the white nationalists who gather annually on Whidbey Island to commemorate the 1984 death of a neo-Nazi killed in a federal siege.

The planned Patriot Front action in Coeur d’Alene was part of a pattern of targeting LGBTQ+ people. The group in October 2021 defaced a pride mural in Olympia, created in response to hate crimes in the city, by spray painting over it with white paint and stenciling “Patriot Front” and “Reclaim America” messages.

Anna Schlecht, the former chair of Capital City Pride, recalls swiftly organizing volunteers to remove the Patriot Front messaging. “They clearly targeted something of immense value to the LGBTQ community,” Schlecht said. No arrests or charges were made after the defacement, although an anti-fascist group later posted photos of Patriot Front members, including Brown, carrying out the vandalism.

“It is important to stand up to fascism; that’s what this is,” Schlecht said. “They are trying to terrify a group of people to go back in the closet after decades of fighting for equality. We are going to be darn careful, but we are not going to go back into the closet.”

Dissent within

Patriot Front’s propaganda avoids racial epithets, although they’re plentiful in the leaked calls, where members call themselves fascists and Nazis, advocate racial segregation, dream of an all-white territory in America and compliment each other with superlatives like “Hitler-level.”

Thomas Ryan Rousseau, a 24-year-old from Dallas who is reported to be Patriot Front’s national leader, said in the chats that the absence of racial slurs on the group’s propaganda materials is intentional. He was among those arrested in Idaho.

But that has led to other white supremacist groups and even some Patriot Front members to grumble in the chats that the group is akin to alt-right talking heads “with better graphic design,” and is seen as “reactionary and moderate,” leading to calls for more direct action.

Day to day, members talked about making posters, designing banners and patches and cutting paint stencils. Direct confrontation like police suspect Patriot Front had planned in Coeur d’Alene isn’t how the group normally spends its time.

Some members, however, also belong to other white supremacist groups and claim in chats to have been present for high-profile moments in contemporary white supremacy, including the deadly 2017 Unite the Right demonstration in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A wedge developed between some white supremacist groups after that rally. That’s when Patriot Front formed as an offshoot of the organization Vanguard America.

Bruce Simpson said even after his arrest, his son is insisting he’ll remain a part of Patriot Front. “There is no remorse. He has said to both my wife and I, ‘no matter what I am not leaving the group.’”

Simpson said he has encouraged his son to apply for a job weighing bales of hay for a local exporter. It would be a graveyard shift. “Work nights. Sleep all day. Stay out of trouble,” he said.

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/times-watchdog/extremist-group-tried-to-operate-in-the-shadows-then-31-were-arrested-in-idaho/

[Rick Plant]

No, Texas can’t legally secede from the United States, despite popular myth



In June 2022, the Texas State Republican Convention adopted a resolution urging the Legislature to put a referendum before the people of Texas in November 2023 “to determine whether or not the State of Texas should reassert its status as an independent nation.”

Secession and independence have been perennial themes throughout the history of Texas, which broke away from Mexico in 1836 and was an independent republic before it was annexed by the United States in 1845. As the United States was torn apart by divisions over whether slavery could expand into the nation’s western territories, Texas in 1861 voted to secede from the Union. In the ensuing Civil War, up to 750,000 people — more than 2 percent of all Americans — died. Following the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, Texas was formally readmitted to the Union in 1870, during the Reconstruction Era.

Despite perennial talk of another secession, the law is clear that Texas may not leave the union.

The idea is most often raised by conservatives in the state who are angry over some kind of policy coming from the federal government — and the calls seem to become more frequent when a Democrat is occupying the White House. State Rep. Kyle Biedermann, R-Fredericksburg, filed a bill in 2021 to create a referendum election on whether Texans should create a joint legislative committee “to develop a plan for achieving Texas independence.”

“It is now time that the People of Texas are allowed the right to decide their own future,” he said in a statement announcing the legislation.

Even if the Legislature were to act on the new Republican Party proposal to put an independence referendum on the general election, it would not be legally valid.

“The legality of seceding is problematic,” Eric McDaniel, associate professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin, told The Texas Tribune in 2016. “The Civil War played a very big role in establishing the power of the federal government and cementing that the federal government has the final say in these issues.”

Many historians believe that when the Confederacy surrendered at Appomattox in 1865, the idea of secession was forever defeated, McDaniel said. The Union’s victory set a precedent that states could not legally secede.

Even before Texas formally rejoined the nation, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that secession had never been legal, and that, even during the rebellion, Texas continued to be a state.

In the 1869 case Texas v. White, the court held that individual states could not unilaterally secede from the Union and that the acts of the insurgent Texas Legislature — even if ratified by a majority of Texans — were “absolutely null.”

When Texas entered the Union, “she entered into an indissoluble relation,” Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase wrote for the court. “All the obligations of perpetual union, and all the guaranties of republican government in the Union, attached at once to the State. The act which consummated her admission into the Union was something more than a compact; it was the incorporation of a new member into the political body. And it was final. The union between Texas and the other States was as complete, as perpetual, and as indissoluble as the union between the original States. There was no place for reconsideration, or revocation, except through revolution, or through consent of the States.”

Chase added: “The ordinance of secession, adopted by the convention and ratified by a majority of the citizens of Texas, and all the acts of her legislature intended to give effect to that ordinance, were absolutely null. They were utterly without operation in law.”

Another source of confusion and misinformation over the years has been language in the 1845 annexation resolution that Texas could, in the future, choose to divide itself into “New States of convenient size not exceeding four in number, in addition to said State of Texas.” But the language of the resolution says merely Texas could be split into five new states. It says nothing of splitting apart from the United States. Only Congress has the power to admit new states to the Union, which last occurred in 1959 with the admission of Alaska and Hawaii.

If there were any doubt remaining after this matter, the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia set it to rest when he asked by a screenwriter in 2006 whether there was a legal basis for secession. In his response, he wrote: “The answer is clear,” Scalia wrote. “If there was any constitutional issue resolved by the Civil War, it is that there is no right to secede. (Hence, in the Pledge of Allegiance, ‘one Nation, indivisible.’)”

https://www.rawstory.com/no-texas-cant-legally-secede-from-the-u-s-despite-popular-myth/

[Rick Plant]

At last, COVID-19 shots for little kids – 5 essential reads
https://theconversation.com/at-last-covid-19-shots-for-little-kids-5-essential-reads-185007

[Rick Plant]

Jan. 6 Hearing Will Highlight Trump’s Pressure Campaign on State Officials

The House committee investigating the Capitol attack will also underscore the vitriol and suffering that election workers endured because of President Donald J. Trump’s lies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/20/us/politics/jan-6-committee-hearing-trump.html

[Rick Plant]

The moon will cozy up to Jupiter early Tuesday morning as it continues its planetary tour

The pair will be visible to the naked eye or through binoculars this summer solstice.

Look to the east-southeastern sky in the early hours of Tuesday morning (June 21) to spot the waning crescent moon approaching Jupiter as it continues its monthly tour of the planets.

The satellite will sit just a palm's width to the lower right (or 5 degrees to the celestial southwest) of the gas giant, making for an interesting skywatching target. You'll have plenty of time to spot the duo as they will remain visible throughout the morning.

"Jupiter will remain visible to the unaided eye from the time it rises after 1 a.m. local time until almost sunrise," writes Chris Vaughan, amateur astronomer with SkySafari Software who oversees Space.com's Night Sky calendar.

The exact time of the event varies depending on your specific location, so you'll want to check out a skywatching app like SkySafari or software like Starry Night to confirm the local time to look up. Our picks for the best stargazing apps may help you with your planning.

As the moon will remain visible in the morning daytime sky, it is possible to use the satellite as a guide to spot Jupiter in daylight through binoculars, according to Vaughan. To find the gas giant, position the moon towards the bottom of your field of view.

Summer also kicks off in the Northern Hemisphere on Tuesday (June 21), as the summer solstice marks the longest day of the year.

Jupiter is the solar system's largest planet and hosts a whopping 79 moons. The planet contains more than twice the mass of all the other solar system planets combined as well as an infamous storm that is twice the width of Earth — the Great Red Spot.

Hoping to capture a good photo of the moon as it approaches Jupiter? Our guide on how to photograph the moon has some helpful tips. If you're looking for a camera, here's our overview of the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography. As always, our guides for the best telescopes and best binoculars can help you prepare for the next great skywatching event.

The moon cozying up to Jupiter isn't the only skywatching event to look out for this month. Throughout June, a rare "planet parade" will be visible in the predawn sky as all five naked-eye planets line up in their orbital order from the sun. From left to right in the southeastern sky, you'll be able to spot Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all in a row. (Mercury, which is usually obscured by the sun's glare will become easier to spot as the month matures.)

The best opportunity to see this spectacle may come on June 24, as Mercury should rise about an hour before the sun, according to a press release(opens in new tab) from Sky&Telescope.

Throughout June, the moon will continue to journey past the morning planets, embarking on a planetary "meet and greet." After Jupiter, the next stop on the tour is Mars on June 22, Venus on June 26 then finally Mercury on June 27.

https://www.space.com/moon-approaches-jupiter-june-2022

[Rick Plant]

Uvalde community comes together at school board meeting to call for ousting of the police chief

Members of the Uvalde, Texas community are calling for the resignation of the police chief after it was revealed that the police department and Texas officials are resisting the release of information about the shooting at Robb Elementary School on May 24, 2022, ABC News reported.

While the school board doesn't have any governing power over Police Chief Pete Arredondo, what findings there are about the attack showed the police were armed with large rifles and shields but still didn't go into the classroom to take down the mass shooter.

"Having Pete still employed, knowing he is incapable of decision-making that saves lives is terrifying," said an angry Brett Cross, the uncle of slain student Uziyah Garcia. "Innocence doesn't hide, innocence doesn't change its story, but innocence did die on May 24."

There were 19 police officers who stood outside of the classroom where children were calling 911 begging for help before they were killed. At no point did the officers even check to see if the door was unlocked. It took 77 minutes before someone went inside.

"At one point or another you're going to have to draw a line in the sand to decide if you hold one of your own accountable," said Jesus Rizo Jr. "Pete, Mr. Arredondo, is also my friend. I'm sure we all got along with him. At one point or another, we're going to have to decide if we hold them accountable. And I pray that you make the right decision."

Some of those who attended held up signs saying "Fire Pete Arredondo."

The hashtag #UvaldeCoverUp has been popular in Texas, but gained national traction on Monday after the photos were published of the officers having the necessary equipment to protect themselves if they went into the classroom. Americans who don't even live in Texas are demanding to see the body camera videos of the 19 officers who refused to act.

The Texas Tribune and ProPublica have been pursuing Freedom of Information Act requests from local agencies to document what happened around the shooting that left 21 people dead, including 19 children. The Tribune noted that they don't expect to get it for months, "if at all."
"In the past week, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has joined the growing list of state and local officials fighting the release of records that could help bring clarity to how the emergency response unfolded during last month’s deadly shooting in Uvalde," the Tribune reported.

Uvalde City Council meetings are on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, their website says. June 28th will be the next meeting for the community members demanding action.

BREAKING: Multiple officers were inside Robb Elementary School with rifles and at least one ballistic shield at 11:52 a.m. the day of the shooting, new video and other evidence shows. They didn’t enter the classroom for another 58 minutes. More soon via @statesman and @KVUE. 1/2

https://twitter.com/tplohetski/status/1539005390108622849

[Rick Plant]

Trauma experts say how Amber Heard emoted on the stand doesn't indicate she was lying about abuse

Ajuror said in an interview that Amber Heard wasn't believable on the stand.

Trauma experts said that how a survivor emotes on the stand doesn't indicate that they're lying.

How trauma survivors present while recounting their experience can vary greatly, they said.



At the end of every trial, jurors are tasked with weighing the credibility of each witness based on their testimony and other evidence in the case.

After the verdict was announced in the defamation case between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard — which captivated the nation for more than six weeks — one juror revealed that Heard lost the case because of her demeanor on the stand and that her "crocodile tears" when making allegations of domestic violence weren't "believable."

But experts in trauma warn against relying solely on how a witness may emote during testimony when assessing their credibility. Victims of sexual or domestic abuse may not present as expected when recounting their trauma, they said.

Some survivors may react to recounting their experience and appear frightened, agitated, or distressed, but then quickly "flip" as their body tries to calm the agitation, Kate Porterfield, a clinical psychologist at the Bellevue Hospital Program for Survivors of Torture in New York City, told Insider.

"Thus, the person can then appear flat, detached, and disconnected," said Porterfield, who works with the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma at Columbia University. "All of this is difficult for juries to understand because it seems counterintuitive that a person could look flat or maybe even bored, or that a person would have difficulty remembering details of something horrific that she suffered."

Understanding trauma and being capable of empathy

Depp filed a defamation suit against Heard in response to an op-ed she wrote for The Washington Post that detailed her experience with domestic violence. Depp's name wasn't mentioned, but the article was widely interpreted as being about him. According to Depp's $50 million lawsuit, Heard fabricated an incident where she accused Depp of beating her and had, in fact, verbally and physically assaulted him on numerous occasions.

Heard denied the claims and countersued for $100 million, arguing that Depp defamed her through statements made by his lawyer, Adam Waldman, who called Heard's claims of abuse by Depp a "hoax." She also testified that Depp physically beat her during their relationship, which Depp denied.

The jury's ruling, after nearly three days of deliberations, found both parties were liable, with Depp being awarded more than $10 million in damages and Heard $2 million. Depp is considered to have won the case as he owed less in damages.

When an unnamed male juror spoke out on "Good Morning America" days after the verdict was handed down, he said that Depp seemed more genuine on the stand.

"A lot of the jury felt what he was saying, at the end of the day, was more believable," the juror said in the interview. "He just seemed a little more real in terms of how he was responding to questions. His emotional state was very stable throughout."

Context is important

Jim Hopper, a clinical psychologist and nationally recognized expert on psychological trauma, said that it's only natural to make judgments about someone based on how they're expressing their emotions.

"You're only human, so you can't help it," Hopper, a teaching associate at Harvard Medical School, said. "The question is, what knowledge base do you have? If they were someone who was traumatized, then are you capable of empathizing with someone who might express that trauma in a variety of different ways?"

Hopper hosts trainings on trauma processing to police groups on best practices when interacting with victims of sexual violence.

To help officers better relate to these survivors, Hopper said he draws parallels between assault survivors and soldiers.

"When police officers and soldiers talk about their military experiences, they're not always expressing lots of emotion and they may not even want to talk about them to people who haven't been there and don't understand," he said. "People can experience and express all kinds of different emotions, and that can be very unique to the individual, and it can be unique to the context."

In this case, for example, the trial was taking place in a courtroom filled with Johnny Depp supporters, Hopper said.

"The courtroom was packed with Johnny Depp fans who were constantly directing massive hostility at Amber Heard and all of her witnesses," Hopper said. "So it's not just was a person really traumatized, and what would that look like? But, also, what is it like to remember your trauma in public with a bunch of hostile people staring you down and giving you dirty looks the whole time?"

Real-world impact

The case between Depp and Heard is unusual in that it was a highly publicized defamation trial in which millions were watching — and both parties are professional actors.

But survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, and other forms of trauma are witnesses in criminal and civil cases every day, and psychology experts believe it is important to educate the public and jurors on how the brain functions under attack to avoid harmful misconceptions.

"I had a couple of my clients who were pretty triggered, who were pretty upset by the way they witnessed Amber Heard being treated," Porter said. "A bunch of my therapist colleagues said their clients were really having a tough time based on what they were seeing if they were watching, and then what they were reading and hearing secondarily in the media and on social media."

During one day of testimony, Heard sobbed uncontrollably on the stand while recounting, in graphic detail, how Depp penetrated her with an alcohol bottle during a fight in Australia in March 2015. Across social media, Depp fans picked apart her demeanor on the stand — turning her crying face into a meme.

Heard testified, through tears, that she had received hundreds of death threats, if not thousands, every day throughout the trial. She said the proceedings and related humiliation made her relive the trauma caused by Depp.

Her lawyers in the case said in closing arguments that the jury should view a guilty verdict against Heard as a message to "every victim of domestic abuse everywhere."

"Ruling against Amber here sends a message that no matter what you do as an abuse victim, you always have to do more," her attorney Benjamin Rottenborn said. Depp's lawyers asked the comments to be stricken from the record.

Julie Rendelman, a former Brooklyn homicide prosecutor and current criminal-defense attorney and legal analyst, told Insider when working as a prosecutor it was always "daunting" to ask a victim to testify.

"They're put through quite a lot, especially on cross-examination. If they're prepared and understand how important it is to tell the truth, then you hope the jury makes the right decision," Rendelman said. "It's always a difficult decision because of the recognition that you are going to be questioned about your credibility — as you should be, because that is what a jury trial's all about."

Taking in all of the evidence

Rendelman agreed that everyone reacts differently when testifying, and judging credibility solely on how a witness emotes may not be helpful, but said it shouldn't be brushed off completely.

The jury didn't do anything wrong by forming a reaction to Heard's behavior in court, and it is their job to assess her credibility, she said.

"When I tell someone bad news, I actually giggle a little bit, right? Because I get nervous," Rendelman said. "Everyone has a different reaction, and so it's always nerve-racking at the thought that a jury would decide something based solely on how I emote, or somebody else, but it should be at least a factor for them to consider when they're deciding someone's credibility."

In this trial, jurors had more to judge Heard on than just her behavior on the stand, Rendelman said.

The unnamed juror said in his interview that the jury was also unsettled by Heard's apparent lie about donating her $7 million divorce settlement to the American Civil Liberties Union and Children's Hospital Los Angeles, for example.

Despite Heard saying previously that she donated the settlement, she testified that she didn't complete her donations.

"It wasn't just that she had what they viewed as 'crocodile tears,'" Rendelman said. "It was that she had that emotion, or lack thereof, coupled with serious questions about her credibility when she testified."

https://news.yahoo.com/trauma-experts-amber-heard-emoted-021512028.html