gunsmith
November 30, 2007, 02:46 AM
looks like she didn't listen to the cop
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/29/BA98TLC8P.DTL
When Hans and Nina Reiser met at the Oakland Police Department to exchange their children, their interactions were so hostile that one officer recommended she get a gun to protect herself, according to courtroom testimony today.
Retired Oakland police Officer Ben Denson testified that the enmity between the two was apparent when they used the downtown police headquarters to pick up and drop off their children in 2005.
"It was almost an ever-present thing," Denson testified in Alameda County Superior Court. "They rarely talked for any length of time, but when they did engage in face-to-face conversation, it was my impression - this is what I observed - the defendant displayed hostility toward Nina, and I would call it barely restrained aggression."
During one particularly acrimonious visit, Denson said he gave Nina Reiser some chilling advice: "I told her, 'You need to get yourself a gun.' "
Nina Reiser was 31 when she disappeared in September 2006 after dropping off her son and daughter at the Oakland hills home of her estranged husband. Hans Reiser, 43, is on trial for allegedly murdering his wife, whose body has never been found. The defense has said that Nina Reiser might be living in her native Russia and could be avoiding her children until the end of the trial.
In court today, Denson said although he never witnessed any physical fights between the two at the Police Department, he was concerned to the point that he went outside the building to check on them during one exchange.
"He never put his hands on her but, you know, I could tell by the way he was looking at her, there was menace in his eyes," Denson said. "It was very hostile."
Denson said the defendant would nevertheless play with his children for about 15 minutes during the exchanges, taking time to "toss them up in the air, swing them around." As for Nina Reiser, "My impression was that she was a caring, loving mother," said Denson, who retired in 2005 after 27 years with the Oakland police.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney William Du Bois, Denson confirmed that he never had to restrain Hans Reiser. But he told Du Bois that his client "used to loom over her. He used to glare at her. The hostility was palpable."
People embroiled in domestic situations "don't care if the police are there or not," Denson said. "That doesn't enter people's minds because they're so wound up. They're so emotional."
Also today, Sandra Starr Rudd, an employee of the now-shuttered Barnes and Noble bookstore in downtown Berkeley, testified that she sold two books about murder and homicides to a man whose image was caught on a store videotape.
Prosecutor Paul Hora flashed a store receipt for jurors on a screen and played store surveillance videos showing the defendant paying $28.25 in cash for the books on Sept. 8, 2006, five days after his wife went missing.
The books were "Masterpieces of Murder" by Jonathan Goodman, about true notorious murder cases, and "Homicide," a book by David Simon about the Baltimore police homicide squad, Rudd said.
Rudd said she didn't independently remember the transaction and would not be able to identify the purchaser.
Also today, U-Sef Barnes, who answered the child-abuse hotline run by Alameda County's Department of Children and Family Services, testified that he received a phone call from Hans Reiser in September 2005. Reiser said he believed his wife had Munchhausen by Proxy Syndrome, in which parents exaggerate or make up medical problems for their children to get attention or sympathy for themselves.
Helen Campbell, the principal at Grand Lake Montessori that the Reiser children attended, testified that the defendant believed teachers there were "attacking his child as not being normal and that there was something seriously wrong about his son, and he was saying that was adamantly not the case."
Reiser also complained that his wife believed that their son had something wrong with his grip, affecting his ability to learn how to write.
Teachers had concerns over pictures that the boy drew involving "violent images of persons or robots" and complained that Reiser directed his son during a classroom visit instead of simply observing, Campbell testified. The defendant told her of his belief that his wife was "connected to the KGB and was a good liar," Campbell said.
The trial resumes Monday
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/11/29/BA98TLC8P.DTL
When Hans and Nina Reiser met at the Oakland Police Department to exchange their children, their interactions were so hostile that one officer recommended she get a gun to protect herself, according to courtroom testimony today.
Retired Oakland police Officer Ben Denson testified that the enmity between the two was apparent when they used the downtown police headquarters to pick up and drop off their children in 2005.
"It was almost an ever-present thing," Denson testified in Alameda County Superior Court. "They rarely talked for any length of time, but when they did engage in face-to-face conversation, it was my impression - this is what I observed - the defendant displayed hostility toward Nina, and I would call it barely restrained aggression."
During one particularly acrimonious visit, Denson said he gave Nina Reiser some chilling advice: "I told her, 'You need to get yourself a gun.' "
Nina Reiser was 31 when she disappeared in September 2006 after dropping off her son and daughter at the Oakland hills home of her estranged husband. Hans Reiser, 43, is on trial for allegedly murdering his wife, whose body has never been found. The defense has said that Nina Reiser might be living in her native Russia and could be avoiding her children until the end of the trial.
In court today, Denson said although he never witnessed any physical fights between the two at the Police Department, he was concerned to the point that he went outside the building to check on them during one exchange.
"He never put his hands on her but, you know, I could tell by the way he was looking at her, there was menace in his eyes," Denson said. "It was very hostile."
Denson said the defendant would nevertheless play with his children for about 15 minutes during the exchanges, taking time to "toss them up in the air, swing them around." As for Nina Reiser, "My impression was that she was a caring, loving mother," said Denson, who retired in 2005 after 27 years with the Oakland police.
Under cross-examination by defense attorney William Du Bois, Denson confirmed that he never had to restrain Hans Reiser. But he told Du Bois that his client "used to loom over her. He used to glare at her. The hostility was palpable."
People embroiled in domestic situations "don't care if the police are there or not," Denson said. "That doesn't enter people's minds because they're so wound up. They're so emotional."
Also today, Sandra Starr Rudd, an employee of the now-shuttered Barnes and Noble bookstore in downtown Berkeley, testified that she sold two books about murder and homicides to a man whose image was caught on a store videotape.
Prosecutor Paul Hora flashed a store receipt for jurors on a screen and played store surveillance videos showing the defendant paying $28.25 in cash for the books on Sept. 8, 2006, five days after his wife went missing.
The books were "Masterpieces of Murder" by Jonathan Goodman, about true notorious murder cases, and "Homicide," a book by David Simon about the Baltimore police homicide squad, Rudd said.
Rudd said she didn't independently remember the transaction and would not be able to identify the purchaser.
Also today, U-Sef Barnes, who answered the child-abuse hotline run by Alameda County's Department of Children and Family Services, testified that he received a phone call from Hans Reiser in September 2005. Reiser said he believed his wife had Munchhausen by Proxy Syndrome, in which parents exaggerate or make up medical problems for their children to get attention or sympathy for themselves.
Helen Campbell, the principal at Grand Lake Montessori that the Reiser children attended, testified that the defendant believed teachers there were "attacking his child as not being normal and that there was something seriously wrong about his son, and he was saying that was adamantly not the case."
Reiser also complained that his wife believed that their son had something wrong with his grip, affecting his ability to learn how to write.
Teachers had concerns over pictures that the boy drew involving "violent images of persons or robots" and complained that Reiser directed his son during a classroom visit instead of simply observing, Campbell testified. The defendant told her of his belief that his wife was "connected to the KGB and was a good liar," Campbell said.
The trial resumes Monday
