1 IN THE CIRCUIT COURT
OF THE TWENTIETH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT
IN AND FOR LEE COUNTY, FLORIDA CIVIL ACTION
2
BONNIE ANN HARPER, )
3 )
Petitioner, )
4 )
vs. ) CASE NO. 01-1090
5 )
JEFFERY GEORGE, )
6 )
Respondent. )
7 )
8
9
10 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
11
12 Before the Honorable JAMES R. THOMPSON,
13 Circuit Judge, at the hearing in the
14 above-styled action held in the Lee
15 County Justice Center, Fort Myers,
16 Florida, on the 19th day of March, 2001.
17
18
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20
21
22
FORT MYERS COURT REPORTING, INC.
23 2231 First Street
Fort Myers, Florida 33901
24 (941) 334-1411
FAX (941) 334-1476
25
2
1 A P P E A R A N C E S:
2 On behalf of Defendant:
3 DANIEL J. HANUKA, Esquire
LAW OFFICE OF LEE
HOLLANDER, P.A.
4 1415 Dean Street, Suite 101
Fort Myers, Florida
33901
5
ALSO PRESENT:
6
Amber, Representative of ACT
7
8 I N D E X
9 - none -
10
11
12 E X H I B I T S
13 - none -
14
15
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18
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21
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24
25
3
1 THE COURT: Who's Ms. Harper? And you're
2 with the advocacy. And this is Mr. George.
3 MR. HANUKA: Yes, sir.
4 THE COURT: And you're Mr. --
5 MR. HANUKA: Hanuka.
6 THE COURT: Is there anybody else who's
7 going to be a witness?
8 MR. HANUKA: I don't think so.
9 THE COURT: We're going to proceed somewhat
10 informally, and I'm going to place Ms. Harper
11 under oath and I'm going to ask her to tell me a
12 little bit about these incidences and perhaps
13 some of the involvement. This seems to be a
14 second case involving the two people.
15 Ms. Harper, would you raise your right
16 hand, please.
17 (Whereupon, Bonnie Harper was sworn in.)
18 THE COURT: Could you turn the microphone
19 on.
20 Can you start off and just tell me -- give
21 me a little background, what has been your past
22 involvement with Mr. George leading up to the
23 situation.
24 MS. HARPER: Well, I suppose -- he
25 supposedly met me when I was sixteen, it says so
4
1 in this article he published, when I was working
2 at Ruby Tuesday's restaurant in the mall. I
3 didn't actually know who he was until I was
4 eighteen working at Barnes and Noble and he --
5 he was a regular and I knew what he ordered.
6 So he came up to the counter and I went and
7 got him his order and put it on the counter, and
8 he was looking rather frazzled and he said he
9 needed to talk to me. He said my name, and I
10 had a name tag on so I didn't think anything of
11 it. I was just like, okay.
12 So I went outside and we talked, we spoke.
13 And he told me a lot of things. Among those is
14 that he kind of had a crush on me, or something
15 like that, from when I was sixteen working at
16 Ruby Tuesday's and he asked me to go out. And
17 at that point, I had a boyfriend and I wasn't
18 interested and I went back in to go back to
19 work.
20 And then for about two weeks or two and a
21 half weeks or something, I don't really know, it
22 was a while ago, he was leaving flowers and
23 stuff on my car every night, and so I left a
24 note on my car, a rather nasty note, basically
25 saying go away. And then I didn't hear from him
5
1 for a while.
2 And then when I was working at Barney's at
3 the Edison Mall --
4 THE COURT: Now, these incidents, were they
5 the ones back in '98, '97?
6 MS. HARPER: Yeah.
7 THE COURT: Okay. Go ahead.
8 MS. HARPER: I got off work one night and I
9 was walking out to my car, and he was leaning up
10 against my car. I didn't see his car anywhere
11 in sight and I was just kind of like, well, I
12 tried, you know, screw you, go away. So I
13 figured I'd try and talk to him to figure out
14 what this attachment thing was about and solve
15 it that way.
16 So we spoke at -- for a while. My intent
17 was, you know, like I said, to figure out what
18 this attachment thing was about and get him to
19 see there was no substance, you know, and that
20 would be it. I thought I achieved that and I
21 got in my car.
22 During that conversation, right near the
23 end, he had told me about an incident where he
24 was tripping on LSD and walked to my house in
25 the middle of the night and sat outside my house
6
1 without knocking on the door, and that was
2 pretty much at the end of the conversation. I
3 didn't know what to say. I was like, okay, bye,
4 got in my car and left and then --
5 THE COURT: This -- this particular
6 incident, when -- roughly when was that?
7 MS. HARPER: It was in '97, I'm guessing,
8 maybe '98. It was around that time. It wasn't
9 too long before the first injunction was filed.
10 THE COURT: Okay.
11 MS. HARPER: Then one night I was home
12 alone and he showed up at my door again. I
13 suppose to prove that he would walk to my house
14 and knock on my door sober. You know, I don't
15 know what it was. And I told him to leave and
16 then I called my boyfriend, at the time, to come
17 over and then that's when the injunction was
18 filed.
19 THE COURT: That was the first one?
20 MS. HARPER: Yeah. And after the first one
21 was filed, I didn't hear for him for quite a
22 while, until like maybe two months before the
23 injunction was to be lifted or something like
24 that. And he showed up at my work and tried to
25 speak to me again and everything, and I said,
7
1 you know, I don't want anything to do with you.
2 So I had -- I notified the Court and we
3 were going to have another hearing. And when he
4 got the summonds, he got pretty angry and I
5 guess went looking for me and found me on the
6 road, followed me into a gas station and
7 proceeded to, like, yell and be pretty irate,
8 threw his court papers at me, screaming what is
9 this. And I got in my car and left as quickly
10 as possible.
11 THE COURT: That was back also in --
12 MS. HARPER: Right.
13 THE COURT: When?
14 MS. HARPER: At that point --
15 THE COURT: About when? I'm sorry.
16 MS. HARPER: Oh, about '99.
17 THE COURT: Okay.
18 MS. HARPER: I guess.
19 And then we showed up in court, and in
20 court the judge moved to make the injunction
21 permanent, and he was sentenced to six months in
22 jail, I believe. And then after three months of
23 jail, he got out and appealed the injunction and
24 I, taken for granted he's a half rationale human
25 being, figured that that was enough.
8
1 I mean, he would know that I didn't want
2 him around me anymore. You know, and so I
3 didn't show up. I didn't really want to deal
4 with it anymore. I just figured that was
5 enough, and so I didn't show up and it was
6 dissolved. And then it was dissolved like May
7 8th.
8 THE COURT: Of 2000.
9 MS. HARPER: 2000, yes.
10 And -- and then he sent me -- May 30th, he
11 wrote me a letter and sent me a rough copy of
12 this book, which is -- I don't know, it's kind
13 of -- it's dedicated to me and it's somewhat of
14 an account of what has happened. That was May
15 30th, which was not too long after the
16 injunction was dissolved.
17 THE COURT: Is that what you've attached
18 here, says, for Bonnie, wherever you find
19 yourself?
20 MS. HARPER: Yes.
21 THE COURT: Okay.
22 MS. HARPER: And I didn't respond or
23 anything like that, you know.
24 And then February 6th or 5th, I think, he
25 showed up at my house again with a printed
9
1 version of the book and this article where he
2 spoke on the book, and at this point, I was just
3 completely -- I don't know. I didn't really
4 know what to do or how to -- I figured I would
5 never see him again and I just --
6 I went outside and I'm -- a lot of things
7 were running through my head and then nothing at
8 all, I just kind of sat there and listened to
9 him talk for quite a while and -- for about
10 thirty minutes at the most.
11 And at the end of the conversation, I said
12 I didn't want him around me anymore, and I went
13 to shake his hand to finalize it basically, you
14 know, and then he grabbed me and hugged me.
15 THE COURT: That was February 6th?
16 MS. HARPER: Yeah. And then he left. And
17 after he left, I had a huge flood of emotions.
18 I mean, all -- the reality of the situation
19 completely hit me, and I realized I must be a
20 real idiot if I think he's going to abide by
21 that. If he's going to break injunctions, what
22 good is his word, you know. So I was just like,
23 use my better judgment and I decided to have
24 it -- you know, go for an injunction again.
25 And there were like -- there was a court
10
1 date, he hadn't been given the summonds yet, he
2 hadn't been served yet. And then there was
3 another one, he showed up the day before the
4 second court date for this injunction. He still
5 didn't know that he had been served yet.
6 So I slammed the door in his face and
7 called the cops and they came out to my house
8 and they called him up and he was served and
9 here we are.
10 THE COURT: Okay. This -- these things you
11 attached to this -- it looks like this is a book
12 and --
13 MS. HARPER: Yeah.
14 THE COURT: How long is the book?
15 MS. HARPER: It's like four hundred and --
16 almost four hundred and fifty pages.
17 THE COURT: I didn't follow you. Are you
18 saying that's something he wrote or something
19 that he thought related to y'all's situation?
20 MS. HARPER: I'm sorry?
21 THE COURT: Is that something he wrote or
22 something that you think he -- the book, is that
23 something he wrote?
24 MS. HARPER: Yes.
25 THE COURT: Or something that --
11
1 MS. HARPER: Yeah.
2 THE COURT: Is that the book?
3 MS. HARPER: This is the book.
4 THE COURT: Let me see it. Y'all have
5 never had a dating relationship --
6 MS. HARPER: No.
7 THE COURT: -- or anything approaching
8 that?
9 MS. HARPER: No, nothing like that. I have
10 never saw him out once.
11 There was also a poem that you might want
12 to read. It's on page four hundred
13 thirty-seven.
14 THE COURT: When you saw him on the -- on
15 February 6th, that incident, --
16 MS. HARPER: Yes.
17 THE COURT: -- how long had it been since
18 you had any contact before then?
19 MS. HARPER: Since I had seen him?
20 THE COURT: Yeah.
21 MS. HARPER: I guess the -- the time at the
22 gas station.
23 THE COURT: That was back in -- according
24 to this, back in May of 2000?
25 MS. HARPER: No, that's when he sent the
12
1 book and the letter. The last time would be
2 before the court hearing where the injunction
3 was made permanent.
4 THE COURT: Okay. That was in '98
5 according to this.
6 MS. HARPER: Was it '98? I think it was
7 '99. I'm not sure.
8 THE COURT: 1998.
9 MS. HARPER: The second one was dissolved
10 when he got out of jail so --
11 THE COURT: Okay. And he just showed up at
12 your house?
13 MS. HARPER: Pretty much. You know, I've
14 never told him where I lived. I don't know how
15 he knows where I live. I don't know. I
16 mean, --
17 THE COURT: Okay. Can you think of
18 anything else you think I ought to know about?
19 MS. HARPER: Well, basically, -- I mean, --
20 I don't know. I know this person as well as you
21 do, and I, obviously, am not a real person to
22 him. You know, I, obviously, am nothing more
23 than an object.
24 It's kind of ironic -- I mean, in that
25 book, supposedly the major character is the
13
1 dragon, representing fear, and supposedly I am
2 slave to this fear. The only fear that I'm
3 really experiencing is the fear that he is
4 putting in my life and posing on me.
5 And what's ironic about the whole situation
6 is that, I mean, he's basically slave to fear.
7 I mean, that's the only explanation. I mean, so
8 much so that he has projected all of this on me,
9 someone he doesn't even know. I mean, which
10 makes me simply an object, you know.
11 And, I mean, people think, you know, twice
12 about hurting a living breathing human being,
13 but they don't think anything about picking up a
14 vase and dropping it and breaking it on the
15 floor, you know.
16 I have one simple request, to just leave me
17 alone.
18 THE COURT: Okay. Would you like to ask
19 her some questions?
20 MR. HANUKA: Yes.
21 THE COURT: If you would answer his
22 questions.
23 MR. HANUKA: I guess I will start with the
24 February 2001. You said he came to your
25 complex?
14
1 MS. HARPER: Yes.
2 MR. HANUKA: Okay. Knocked on your door?
3 MS. HARPER: (Nodding head.)
4 MR. HANUKA: You answered?
5 MS. HARPER: Yes.
6 MR. HANUKA: Okay. And I guess he asked
7 you to come outside and talk to him?
8 MS. HARPER: Yes.
9 MR. HANUKA: And you did that?
10 MS. HARPER: I did.
11 MR. HANUKA: Did he force you to come
12 outside?
13 MS. HARPER: No.
14 MR. HANUKA: Okay. You weren't afraid to
15 talk to him?
16 MS. HARPER: My reaction was -- when I
17 first saw him, I had like a rush of fear and
18 then I was just pretty much completely in
19 disbelief and pretty much emotionally paralyzed,
20 so, yeah.
21 MR. HANUKA: Okay. But you ended up
22 talking to him for about thirty minutes?
23 MS. HARPER: Yes. Actually, he spoke, I
24 listened.
25 MR. HANUKA: Okay. You said nothing to him
15
1 the entire thirty minutes?
2 MS. HARPER: I said -- I did, I said a few
3 things, yes.
4 MR. HANUKA: Okay. And he never threatened
5 you during this time or made any threats against
6 you?
7 MS. HARPER: No.
8 MR. HANUKA: He didn't hurt you at all
9 during this time?
10 MS. HARPER: No.
11 MR. HANUKA: Okay. And you testified that
12 you had received a book and letter from him?
13 MS. HARPER: Yes.
14 MR. HANUKA: In May of 2000?
15 MS. HARPER: Yes.
16 MR. HANUKA: You obviously read the book?
17 MS. HARPER: Yes.
18 MR. HANUKA: There weren't any threats in
19 that book towards you; is that correct?
20 MS. HARPER: That's correct.
21 MR. HANUKA: Also in the letter, no threats
22 of harm in the letter?
23 MS. HARPER: Nope.
24 MR. HANUKA: Okay. I believe you also
25 testified about a meeting at a gas station in
16
1 '98.
2 MS. HARPER: Yes.
3 MR. HANUKA: He came up to you, you were at
4 your car?
5 MS. HARPER: Yeah.
6 MR. HANUKA: Were you in the car?
7 MS. HARPER: No.
8 MR. HANUKA: He questioned you about some
9 court papers?
10 MS. HARPER: I'm sorry?
11 MR. HANUKA: He questioned you about some
12 court papers; is that correct?
13 MS. HARPER: If you can call it
14 questioning.
15 MR. HANUKA: He asked you what is this; is
16 that correct?
17 MS. HARPER: Correct.
18 MR. HANUKA: And at that time, did he
19 threaten you or harm you at that time in any
20 way?
21 MS. HARPER: He was yelling and screaming
22 and he threw the papers at me.
23 MR. HANUKA: You said he threw the papers
24 at you, threw them in the air?
25 MS. HARPER: He threw them like down and at
17
1 me. They landed in my car and I was leaning
2 against my car, the window was open. So, you
3 know, he threw them at me.
4 MR. HANUKA: Okay. Would it be safe to say
5 that he makes you feel uncomfortable?
6 MS. HARPER: Incredibly.
7 MR. HANUKA: But over these three years,
8 he's never threatened or harmed you at all?
9 MS. HARPER: No.
10 MR. HANUKA: Okay. That's all, Your Honor.
11 THE COURT: All right. Anything you want
12 to say about all this? There's no other
13 witnesses, correct?
14 MR. HANUKA: Yes, Your Honor. I do believe
15 he wants to talk to the Court.
16 THE COURT: Raise your right hand.
17 (Whereupon, Jeffery George was sworn in.)
18 THE COURT: Okay.
19 MR. GEORGE: Well, first of all, let me say
20 that I think this whole thing has been an
21 incredible miscommunication. I admit that I've
22 certainly made mistakes, particularly in the
23 beginning. I was somewhat insensitive to her
24 situation.
25 Pretty much what she described, everything
18
1 up and to when the first injunction was filed,
2 is essentially correct. Just for the record, I
3 wasn't tripping on LSD when I went to her
4 house. I had been drinking. There were no
5 illegal drugs in my system.
6 What happened is I had misunderstood her
7 position. She had been fairly friendly towards
8 me. The incident where we talked when she was
9 working at the -- at the -- at the book store,
10 we actually prearranged that a couple days in
11 advance.
12 MS. HARPER: What? I'm sorry.
13 MR. GEORGE: I went over there one day,
14 like she said, I said I had gotten myself in an
15 awkward situation and I was uncomfortable. I
16 asked her if we could talk and she told me she
17 had a dinner break, that could be the next day
18 or a couple days later and that's when we met.
19 During this time or during that
20 conversation, I did explain to her that -- that
21 I've sort of been aware of her for a couple of
22 years. It was basically I'd just seen her
23 around.
24 THE COURT: This was back when, '97?
25 MR. GEORGE: This would have been '97,
19
1 yes.
2 And, you know, the reason I was
3 uncomfortable because of all this time had
4 passed. I tried to talk to her a couple times
5 before, and every time it was interrupted or we
6 didn't get the opportunity and that's why I felt
7 uncomfortable and that's why I asked her to talk
8 to me.
9 At the end of that conversation, she did
10 say that she had a boyfriend. And I was under
11 the understanding that we were on a friendly
12 basis. I had no idea that she was afraid of
13 me. I did leave the notes. I did leave roses
14 for her at one point. She left me the note, she
15 asked me to stop and I did.
16 About six months later, the whole situation
17 had been going through my mind -- see, we had
18 some mutual friends and she had apparently told
19 the guy that she was going out with at the time
20 that she thought I was a stalker, and this was
21 really devastating to me because I knew I was
22 uncomfortable around her, but I never threatened
23 her or said anything harsh to her, and I was
24 just -- I was really upset about it.
25 And a few months after she left me the
20
1 note, I did stop.
2 She started working at the Edison Mall,
3 which is a place I frequent quite a bit. I
4 realized that I still had some unresolved
5 feelings about the situation. That I really
6 wanted to clarify it and make sure that she
7 understood that there was no reason to be afraid
8 of me, but I realized it would be stupid to try
9 and talk to her at work.
10 So I left that night and -- and during this
11 week, a couple things had happened. I had been
12 involved in a relationship that fell apart and a
13 very good friend of mine, who was twenty-two,
14 died of a heart attack unexpectedly. I think a
15 day or two before. So I was a little upset.
16 And the day that -- the day that we
17 spoke -- actually, the reason I decided to wait
18 for her in the parking lot is because that night
19 her car was covered with balloons. And, like
20 she said, I had been leaving notes on her car.
21 And when I saw that, I got upset and I realized
22 that I had to resolve this, that I had to make
23 it clear that I wasn't a threat to her and I was
24 concerned about how she would react with me
25 waiting out there.
21
1 I wasn't actually leaning against her car.
2 I don't recall where I was. I think I was out
3 by the door.
4 She got out to her car and she got the
5 balloons off her car, and that's when I
6 approached her and I talked to her. And, like
7 she said, she was, I guess, trying different
8 tactics with me, trying to discuss it, and we
9 talked about a half hour or so.
10 At the end of that, she made it clear that
11 she didn't want to date me. At this point, I
12 misunderstood. I thought we were still on
13 friendly terms, and I did tell her about the
14 incident where I walked to her house. Like I
15 said, the situation had been bothering me.
16 Well, I was under the impression that we
17 were on friendly terms and so I did walk to her
18 house. Again, that night I got there, I had no
19 idea she was home alone. I live probably about
20 eight, nine miles away and by the time I got
21 there, it was fairly late and --
22 THE COURT: When was this incident?
23 MR. GEORGE: I guess this would have been
24 in '97 also. This is before the first
25 injunction was filed.
22
1 She -- we basically didn't say much of
2 anything. I went up there, she said that she
3 couldn't talk and she was busy or something
4 along those lines, and so I left.
5 About a week or so later, I got a call
6 from -- from a -- a mutual friend of a friend, I
7 guess, who is -- had been her boyfriend
8 previously. And he told me that she was really
9 terrified by the whole situation. And up until
10 that point, I really hadn't understood exactly
11 how she was feeling about this.
12 The guy's name is Ed Rogers. When Ed
13 called me, I realized how upset she was so I
14 made it absolutely clear to Ed. I said, okay, I
15 didn't understand this, please tell her that I
16 won't contact her, bother her or anything else
17 again.
18 And at the end of that conversation, he
19 told me that, you know, he felt that this whole
20 thing was a misunderstanding and he was going to
21 talk to her. The next day I was served with the
22 injunction.
23 Now, when that initial temporary injunction
24 was filed at the court hearing, I never got an
25 opportunity to present my case in court. What
23
1 had happened, I believe it was Judge Rosman. It
2 was Judge Rosman's court. The domestic violence
3 counselor, her name is Francine, I went and I
4 spoke with her and she -- she basically told me
5 it was no big deal. I told her I needed time to
6 think about it, if I wanted to agree or not.
7 When the case was called, I was standing
8 outside in the hallway, the bailiff came to get
9 me and during that time, Francine told the judge
10 that I had agreed to the injunction. When I
11 walked in, Ms. Harper was standing there,
12 Francine was at the side and Judge Rosman said
13 tell him what he missed. So I had no
14 opportunity for that.
15 Again, this was something that was really
16 upsetting because I don't really understand
17 this -- this world of -- of, you know, going to
18 court if you have a problem with somebody and
19 the kind of paranoia that, you know, leads to a
20 lot of these cases.
21 I felt that, you know, I had been honest
22 and sincere with her and that she had
23 misconstrued that and it was really upsetting to
24 me, you know. I probably -- I haven't dated in
25 the last five years because of all of this, you
24
1 know.
2 So about -- I think it was about a month or
3 two months before that injunction was over, I
4 was living in Naples at the time and I happened
5 to be in Fort Myers, and I saw her pulling into
6 a car wash and I thought, okay, this will be a
7 good situation to get this resolved.
8 I was aware at this time -- yes, I knew it
9 was illegal for me to talk to her, but I felt
10 that if I went up there and I talked to her that
11 she would hopefully understand that the reason
12 that I had been staying away from her was not
13 because it was illegal, but because I was trying
14 to be respectful of her feelings.
15 During that day, we talked for -- for not
16 long, maybe about fifteen minutes. Again, she
17 was friendly when she greeted me. I
18 apologized. I told her that I had been
19 insensitive. I -- she introduced me to her
20 boyfriend. I asked if we can still be friends,
21 she said under the circumstances no. I agreed
22 to that.
23 At the end of that conversation, everybody
24 wished each other well, I shook her boyfriend's
25 hand and I felt, okay, we had finally made
25
1 peace.
2 Several weeks later was when I got the
3 injunction, when I got notification of the
4 injunction and I was really just -- I was
5 really, really devastated. I didn't show up for
6 work for a couple days. Fortunately, I had some
7 very understanding people that I worked for.
8 But the bottom line is that I still didn't
9 understand what her respective was and I was
10 incredibly distraught and very upset. I wasn't
11 angry, I was just hurt and frustrated.
12 And I went back to the car wash where she
13 worked and she wasn't there, and as I was
14 driving back, I saw her at the gas station. And
15 I can understand where she would feel that I was
16 angry and that I was yelling and screaming at
17 her.
18 THE COURT: This was back in '98?
19 MR. GEORGE: This was in '98, yes, sir.
20 THE COURT: Okay.
21 MR. GEORGE: But that wasn't really -- I
22 had no hostile intent to her at the time. I was
23 just -- again, I was just incredibly hurt. I
24 didn't understand the situation. I asked her
25 what is this and she basically told me, no
26
1 contact means no contact and she drove away.
2 MR. HANUKA: Just to clarify, Your Honor.
3 I think what he's talking about when there was
4 an injunction, she filed a violation, that's
5 what he was asking, what is this.
6 THE COURT: I understood. Thank you.
7 MR. GEORGE: When the hearing came around,
8 I knew that -- that I had willfully violated the
9 law twice. My friends and my coworkers
10 suggested that I get an attorney, and I decided
11 that the best way for me to prove to her that I
12 wasn't a threat was to go there without an
13 attorney, just confess what had happened and be
14 honest about the situation and take whatever --
15 you know, whatever the Court decided.
16 I think that -- what -- the way that
17 hearing proceeded is -- I think there were maybe
18 ten words said in front of the judge and the
19 judge asked me if I would speak to Mr. Gregory
20 from the domestic violence office. I went back
21 there and I spoke to him, and from what he said
22 to me, he kind of completely misrepresented
23 everything I said. The way he repeated it back
24 to me.
25 I don't know what he told Judge Rosman
27
1 because it was done -- it wasn't done in the
2 courtroom. The bottom line was I was sentenced
3 to sixty days. I went to jail, and I got an
4 attorney and after seventeen days, I was
5 released. I think --
6 THE COURT: Do you know why you were
7 released after seventeen days?
8 MR. HANUKA: He was represented by Mr.
9 Faett at that time.
10 THE COURT: Pardon?
11 MR. HANUKA: He was represented by Mr.
12 Faett, out of Naples, at that time.
13 THE COURT: Okay. Go ahead. I'm sorry.
14 MR. GEORGE: It was my understanding from
15 Mr. Faett that the reason I was released is
16 because he got the domestic violence office to
17 take a look at the case, and it was my
18 understanding that they felt that there really
19 wasn't sufficient grounds for the punishment I
20 received. So with their assistance -- I'm not
21 exactly sure what the process was, but I know
22 they did --
23 THE COURT: But in any event, --
24 MR. HANUKA: It was it stipulated.
25 THE COURT: -- you got out of jail?
28
1 MR. GEORGE: Yes, I did.
2 And then it was about -- it was over a year
3 before I filed to get the permanent injunction
4 removed. The reason that I did so was number
5 one -- again, I admit that I had made mistakes
6 and I had been insensitive. I didn't feel this
7 was a situation where I should have to give up
8 my two Constitutional Rights for, and also, I
9 wanted to resolve the situation, make one last
10 effort to resolve things with her.
11 THE COURT: Excuse me. Just a second. Go
12 ahead. I'm sorry.
13 MR. GEORGE: So the injunction was
14 dissolved. She didn't go to the hearing. I had
15 hoped that the hearing would be an opportunity
16 for us to go before a judge and be able to speak
17 freely.
18 Because from my point of view, what's been
19 happening, every time we've spoken, it's been --
20 initially it was always awkward, but I never got
21 the impression from her that she was so afraid
22 of me. She made it clear she wasn't interested
23 in dating me. I accepted that. But then every
24 time she filed a -- you know, filed something
25 against me, there was just this -- this
29
1 incongruity there that I didn't understand.
2 And after the hearing, the reason I wrote
3 her the letter, if you look in the letter, was I
4 finished the book and I decided I was going to
5 publish it and I offered her full ownership and
6 copyright of the book. And the reason I did
7 this was because I didn't want her to feel like
8 I was exploiting the situation that developed
9 between us for my own profit, for my own gain.
10 So I, in effect, said in the letter that --
11 that if she wanted the book, if she wanted the
12 copyright to the book, she could have it. And
13 as far as I'm concerned, it's -- that's a
14 permanent offer. If she feels that I'm taking
15 advantage of her from this book, then --
16 THE COURT: What is it, does the book
17 involve y'all's relationship or -- I'm not sure
18 exactly what her relationship is to the book.
19 Is the book about her or your inspiration?
20 MR. GEORGE: The book was inspired by
21 everything that had happened.
22 Kind of an interesting thing, she says that
23 she doesn't know how I -- how I found out what
24 her address was. She had mentioned to me when
25 she was working at Barnes and Noble that she
30
1 lived in East Fort Myers.
2 And one day I was on the internet and I
3 happened to look up her name, and even though
4 her first name isn't listed in the phone book,
5 her last name was. And it turns out that she
6 lives on Princess Street, and I was like, that's
7 it, that's her, and I called up a map and it was
8 in East Fort Myers. When I actually found out
9 that she really did live there -- the first time
10 that I walked there, I wasn't sure.
11 THE COURT: That was back in '98?
12 MR. GEORGE: '97, I believe.
13 THE COURT: '97. So she's still living in
14 the same place?
15 MR. GEORGE: Yes, as far as I know.
16 The book was kind of inspired by that whole
17 thing. The book is called A Story Book and it's
18 kind of simulated fairy tale. It's -- it sort
19 of follows very loosely how the situation went
20 with her.
21 And, you know, it's interesting that she
22 was talking about me seeing her as an object.
23 Kind of the whole point of the book is that
24 initially that was the case, and I think on
25 page, like, six or seven, somewhere very early
31
1 in the book, you know, the main character says
2 that he realizes that he had made a mistake when
3 he reviewed her as an object of a quest. And
4 the rest of that is sort of a story of a man
5 discovering his humanity by learning to
6 appreciate the princess, the character that was
7 inspired by her.
8 THE COURT: What -- what happened on
9 February 6th and why?
10 MR. GEORGE: On February 6th she hadn't
11 responded. Again, it had been over a year. I
12 figured after the --
13 I had given a speech to friends of a
14 library at Fort Myers Beach, and I explained
15 what the inspiration was of the book and the
16 question came up, well, what ever happened to
17 the princess and I didn't have an answer for
18 that. And I knew that was going to come up
19 every time I did something for promoting this
20 book.
21 So I decided to go over there. When I went
22 over there, I could tell she was surprised to
23 see me. I asked her if we could speak and she
24 agreed, and she invited me to sit in her
25 neighbor's chair.
32
1 The general tone of the conversation, at
2 least my perspective, was very warm, very
3 friendly, we joked. It wasn't me all talking.
4 And for the first time, I can say this with a
5 hundred percent certainly, you know, from the
6 bat, she told me that she was finishing up her
7 AA and what her future plans were. She said
8 that she had always admired me for having --
9 THE COURT: I'm sorry, my mind is wandering
10 on something else. Why did you go over there
11 again? Tell me that.
12 MR. GEORGE: The reason I went over there
&