UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT oR, ct OF FLORIDA a jaintife, caso xo: Tallahassee, Florida ED 2016 Tell 2m. befendant. TRANSCRIPT OF TELEPHONIC CONFERENCE BEFORE THE HONORABLE ROBERT L. HINKLE, APPEARANCES: For the Plaintirt 7h. = For the Defendant:2 IN CHAMBERS 2 THE COURT: Good afternoon. This is Judge Hinkle: 3 | tet me start by seeing who represents the plaintiff 4 NS. [IJ)x00r stonor, 11m going t0 put you on 5 | speaker phone 6 THE COURT: Okay. 7 Ms. MM: your Honor, this ic JMNM cor a | plainesse, 11m an attorney with J 12 | closer to the microphone is is Actorney 15 | behale of the witness and on behalf of the desendant, 7 THE COURT: All right. And who ie dt that filed ~ 19 | is Fiting this oral motion? 19 us. x an 20 THE COURT: A1l right. Tell me what the problem is. 21 MS. MM) Your Honor, 1 have asked the 22 | estimate the time, and the attorney for the defendant has 23 | interrupted the testimony in a way that he has been coaching he witness continuously and prevented me from getting the 25 | vestimony to that estimate, and this testimony is important tomy case, because it is potentially information ebout awareness of sexual harassment by the defendant. The attorney for the defendant is continuously interfering with -~ on the deposition and stating that it is speculating for the witness to say an approximate time. T have a transcript that I have asked the court reporter to have ready to read to you, but -- and that is going to show that continuously the attorney keeps interrupting the deposition instructing the client not to speculate, saying that the client is not going to speculate and THE COURT: AL1 right. Look, Ms. MMMM). 1 heard that the first, second, and third times. Let me tell you, 1'm in a jury trial, I'm on a break for lunch, but I'm also ruling on deposition objections. So I don't have time to hear the same thing thzes times. You need to get right to the point, Te there anything more than what you have told me already? Ms. [BB 80, sir. ‘THE COURT: Is there a transcript that's going to be read quickly? DEPOSITION COURT REPORTER: I can read back my shorthand notes, Judge. THE COURT: All right. If you can do that for me, thank you. And tell me your name, please. DEPOSITION COURT REPORTER: My name is J7 18 19 20 al 2 23 24 ‘THE couRr: Thank you. DEPOSITION COURT REPORTER: The question by vs. “question: iow long before Kim quit vas that necting? “answer: I don’t know. 1 mean, 1 can blurt out sonething, but I don't know if it's the rignt time or what. question: Well, it doesn't have to be the exact tine. vue. IIIB 11, 1 going to object to the form of the question and instruct the witness not to speculate ws. IN: 20 you instructing the witness not to me. v0. 'm instructing nim not to speculate. You are asking him to speculate. ws. BBB 80, 1 an not." THE COURT: ‘That's enough, Thank you. Mr. BIBI cic you say what was just read to mo? THE COURT: Do you know that's against the rules? 1 dia. me. BBB: 80, 1 don't know that that's against tne rules, Your Honor. THE COURT: That's against the rules. If you need to object --as 16 a7 22 23 24 25 ’ WR. BIS then 1 epoogize. my understanding was is that the witness is not to speculate. I suppose I could have objected and said calle for speculation. THE COURT: You could have, but that goes too far, too. You could've just said object to the form of the question, Frankly, there was nothing at all wrong with the question we. I) ven. ~~ THE COURT: But if you want to preserve an objection, you can say objection to the form, and you don't need to say a single other word. Do you have anything else you want to tell me before wything y 1 rule on this? MR. BBM: ony chat, Your Honor, we went on for in which Ms. [MY continued to ask the same question and the witnes che next 15 minutes continued to answer "I don't know." And even when she asked him to estimate the time frame, he continued to answer "I don't know." So at that point, in spite of whether my objection vas inappropriate or not, counsel was able to continue to ask the questions she wanted to ask and the witness continued to say, "I don't know. THE COURT: Well -~ S. BM: ana ne THE COURT: Just stop. Here's my experience. Many45 16 a 18 19 20 a 2 23 2 25 times once a witness is told not to anewer the question, 4 effect, a witness who is susceptible to coaching continues to say, "I don't know. So, Me. IMM. tis was not okay Now, us. if the witness answers it, then the witness has answered 4 you get to ask a question once, and Sometimes the right answer ie “I don't know." And when you ask the question and the witness eays, "I don't know," then that's the answer. M5. IF: Your Honor, 1 ~ THE COURT: -- let me just go on to the next point: Folks, the rules are pretty clear about this stuse We've amended these rules again and again. One anendnent was designed to keep exactly this from happening T'm going to grant the motion. Mr. JM, you are ordered not to say another word at the deposition other than to object to the form of the question, with no further explanation, unless Ms. [IMM asks you to explain the th re is a claim of privilege, then you can, of course, instruct the witness not to answers but, otherwise, you are to follow the rules MR. JBI ves, Your toner. THE COURT: The motion is granted. Attorney's fees are assessed against the defense in the amount of $250.Anybody that doesn't agree that that's a reasonable amount under the circumstances can file a motion, and ve can have further proceedings, and whoever loses that motion will pay attorney's fees as well. What else do you need out of me today? us. II: sic, is 1 nay, tne witness started to answer the question and then he was interrupted, and he has never answered the question. $0 I'm trying to make sure that I got an answer other than an “I don't know" when I ask the question. TRE COURT: well, there's no away to assure that, because if the answer is "I don't know," the answer is "I don't knox," and sonetines people don't know. So the motion to compel the witness to give an answer other than "I don't know" is denied. The witness can give a eruthful answer. Folks, get along with each other. When you go hone tonight look in the mirror and decide whether you behaved at the highest level of the profession, which you are both capable of doing, or whether you got down to squabbling with each other as happens way too often. The witnesses say what they say. So, Ms. I when you ask @ question, and the witness says "x don't know," that's the anawer. And, tie. BJ © vou'ze cefending a case but can'te rely on your witness to answer the question, if you've got to tell the witness the answer, you might want to rethink your defense. When we come to trial and that question got asked, you wouldn't stand up and say that kind of thing in front of the jury. and and, os. witness and he says, "I don't know, you did, you wouldn't do it more than once. Af you cone to the trial and ask the " you keep asking, you won't do that more than once, and the jury isn't going to Like ie You might want to consider, I may read this transcript. You'll come out better if you've behaved absolutely professionally. So everybody take a deop breath, ‘take two steps back and do it the right way. What else? be. [BB somning, your toner. mank you: us. J) thank you, sir THE COURT: All right. Thank you both. (he proceedings concluded at 1:21 p.m.) I certify that the foregoing is a correct transcript from th record of proceadings in the above-entitled matter. | Any redaction of personal data identifiers pursuant to the Judicial conference Policy on Privacy are noted within the transcript