Case Histories, Anecdotes, and War Stories 177
During Papa Bob’s initial case in chief, he presented no real
“smoking guns” to fire at Nancy. Instead, Bob’s testimony was
the normal, vanilla-type, weekender-dad–style stuff. On cross-
examination, Bob was torn up one side and down the other. He
admitted to alcohol problems in the past and to having volun-
tarily acquiesced to Nancy’s relocation with Nadine to another
state. He even admitted to his initial consensual involvement in
the nearly completed adoption proceedings. At this point in the
trial, things were certainly not going well for Bob. It looked like
smooth sailing for Nancy and for the case in general.
During Mama Nancy’s responsive case in chief, things got
worse for Bob. Nancy described how Bob had been disinterested
in the past, had been abusive with both her and Nadine over
the phone, and had failed to exercise even the limited visita-
tion that the prior court orders had afforded him. Mother fur-
ther detailed how excited Nadine had been about the prospect of
being adopted by her new stepfather, only to be crushed when
Bob had pulled the plug on the adoption at the last minute.
Then came the bombshell. Bob’s attorney led Nancy down
a path of testimony describing how she had earlier stated that
she had never done anything to block Bob’s access to daughter
Nadine. Nancy denied cutting off phone calls or ever trying to
keep Bob away from Nadine. She further denied failing to inform
Bob when she and Nadine had moved from town to town. Nancy
also denied any alcohol use of her own.
Bob’s counsel, on rebuttal, then pulled out an audiotape of a
phone conversation between Nancy and Bob. Nancy’s counsel
strongly objected to the admission of the tape and argued evi-
dentiary statutes—but to no avail. Nancy’s attorney wanted to
strangle her for not having informed him in advance of the taped
conversation.
The tape was played. In the course of a one-minute conversa-
tion, Nancy was taped stating the lethal words: “as long as I live,
I will never allow you to be a part of our daughter’s life. I will
do whatever it takes to keep you away from her. You will never
see her again.” These dramatic statements were enhanced by the
fact that Nancy’s statement was obviously made in a drunken
slur. Clearly mom was “bombed” and took the opportunity to let