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Julie Galloway
Witness for the Defendant: Penalty Phase December 6, 2004
Direct Examination by Mark Geragos GERAGOS: Good afternoon, Miss Galloway. GALLOWAY: Good afternoon. GERAGOS: You met Scott in 1992, is that correct? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: And at the time you were a hostess at the Pacific Cafe, the jury heard, place called Abbas? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: What do you do now? GALLOWAY: I'm a partner with my brother in a company called Central Coast Coffee in the San Luis Obispo area. GERAGOS: You are married now? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: When you met Scott you were single, I take it? Single. Not married? GALLOWAY: Correct. Yes. GERAGOS: And when you met him, was it at the cafe itself? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: And was that, you had been working there for, when I talked to you, for a number of years before that? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: Do you remember meeting Scott for the first time? GALLOWAY: Yes. I was working, and he come there. He had come there for his first shift for that night. And I was hostess. And I had been working there are for many, many years before Scott had come in. And I remember him coming in in his, you know, crisp white shirt and his tie, and his, he walked in, and very eager, and very willing to work. GERAGOS: What was his job? You say first shift. Was that as waiter? GALLOWAY: A waiter. Attired as a waiter. GERAGOS: So the jury understands, how big of a place is this Pacific Cafe? GALLOWAY: Maybe 500 square feet, 600 square feet. GERAGOS: Seats how many people? GALLOWAY: 28. GERAGOS: And the, I guess the number of employees that you would have are not a whole bunch, right? GALLOWAY: No. We had, we had two waiters on duty and a hostess on duty. GERAGOS: And is it fair to say that you two work in a pretty, kind of close environment, become either friendly or not so friendly pretty quick? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: I take it you wouldn't be here today unless you became friendly? GALLOWAY: Yes, that's correct. GERAGOS: Would you consider yourself a pretty close friend? GALLOWAY: Yeah. GERAGOS: Did you guys become close friends? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: Was that, you were not involved sexually, or intimately, or anything like that? GALLOWAY: Absolutely not. Absolutely not. GERAGOS: I have got a picture, I think, of what looks like Abbas. Is this there, GALLOWAY: Yes, that's the restaurant. GERAGOS: There is two. I have got actually three pictures, judge, that I'd like to mark. JUDGE: D9O-1, 2, and 3. GERAGOS: When you were working together there, you said you would be called friends. Could you describe that relationship? GALLOWAY: I would consider Scott at that time my best male friend that I had. GERAGOS: Okay. Would you confide in him? GALLOWAY: Yeah. I told Scott things that I probably would have told any female girlfriend. It's just so easy to tell Scott things. GERAGOS: Did he have, at least initially, a positive impact on you, in terms of a relationship that you were involved in then? GALLOWAY: Yes. I was dating somebody at the time to where I was just not absolutely not happy at all, and confided in Scott. And it was, you know, he was just talked with him through it, and he helped me make some proper decisions and better choices. GERAGOS: Did you learn things from him? GALLOWAY: A lot of things, especially seeing how his relationship was with Lee and Jackie, and see how he was, and how they interacted at the time, to where I met Scott at the Pacific Cafe, I was having a lot of troubles with my mother at the time. We weren't speaking. My mother and I didn't speak for a lot of years when I moved out on my own. To see him, how he interacted with his mom, and how they showed love for one another, helped me a lot. We talked about that a lot. And I got to know the Petersons very will. Just see how Scott, how much Scott loved Jackie. It's just absolutely amazing. GERAGOS: You and I talked about this. One of the things that inspired you to have a better relationship, or to kind of rehabilitate the relationship you had with your mother, GALLOWAY: 100%. Made me work through everything, all of my issues. GERAGOS: Also we talked about that relationship that you were in, that you did not feel, didn't feel was productive, I guess, or abusive, or whatever you wanted to characterize it as. He helped you to get out of that relationship, is that right? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: He also helped you get into a different relationship, didn't he? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: That's with a gentleman who is sitting in the courtroom who is your husband? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: Tell the jury about that. GALLOWAY: Yes. Scott, my current husband and Scott worked together at the Morro Bay Golf Course. And after I was, after I worked through my issues with my boyfriend, it was a year between the time that I finished my relationship with, Scott and I finished my relationship, and had some time to myself, worked through all my issues. Scott said, you know, I think I have somebody that could possibly I think be perfect for you. And Scott set up a date for us. GERAGOS: Would he do things to encourage you in that relationship? GALLOWAY: Yeah, he would. There used to be an flower lady that would come through the restaurant. She would go through every single restaurant on the Embarcadero in Morro Bay selling flowers to everybody. And Scott would say that the flowers were from my husband, or my boyfriend at the time, or future boyfriend at the time, to encourage me to go out on dates with him. GERAGOS: You also told me that he had a Jeep that he had. And I think I have got this marked D9O-2. Is this the Jeep that he had at the time? GALLOWAY: Yes. Scott bought a used Jeep. GERAGOS: And did you did you have an, either a need or a liking for this particular automobile? GALLOWAY: Yes. Scott gave me unlimited access to that, whenever I wanted. I have an absolute love for Jeeps. GERAGOS: Would that, I mean by doing that, would that cause him any problems? GALLOWAY: Yeah. It would leave him without a car. GERAGOS: Would he do that more than one occasion? GALLOWAY: Yes. Very much so. GERAGOS: How would you describe him in terms of whether or not he was giving or generous? Those were words you would use about him? GALLOWAY: I would use, he was the most generous. Yes, he was the most generous man I ever met, ever. GERAGOS: Do you have any examples of that that stick out in your mind as you sit here today? Told me a story about going to an art gallery with him one time. GALLOWAY: Scott and I used to go, when we would spend time together, we actually had time in between his three jobs and my three jobs, and us both going to college at the time. When we would make our little expeditions, Scott would, we used to love to go to art galleries just for fun, or do any little fun thing that we had time to do together. We would go to art galleries. We both loved one particular art gallery in Cambria. We would go there just look, for fun. I would say I loved something as little as a candle, and 13 somehow he snuck it, and bought it when I was turned around. And the next day it was on my doorstep with, you know, a note that says, thanks. Thanks for being my friend, or something. GERAGOS: Did he ever act inappropriate with you? GALLOWAY: No, never. GERAGOS: Come on to you sexually, or anything like that? GALLOWAY: No, never. GERAGOS: The friendship that you had with him, it extended also to the family at a certain point as you indicated, is that right? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: Did you observe how he and his father would get along and how they interacted? GALLOWAY: Yeah. It's wonderful how they interact, how they joke, and how they play with one another, and how they go camping and fishing. And they are not like father and son. I think they are more like brothers. GERAGOS: I put up on the screen there a picture. That's a picture of the restaurant, is that correct? GALLOWAY: Yes, that's correct. GERAGOS: That's marked as D9O-3. Was he a hard working waiter when he was there? I mean he would go out of his way? GALLOWAY: Yeah. Sometimes he had to cover the whole entire floor by himself. Again, that's 28 people at one time. And you have to spread yourself. That's pretty, that's a lot of people at one time wanting food. GERAGOS: How did he interact with the customers? GALLOWAY: He always greets, some people came in on his nights when they know he was working just to see him. They know that he was working on those nights. I don't think I had any people that came on nights that I was working. GERAGOS: Would that be something that, why would customers want to have him as their waiter? JUDGE: D9O-4. GALLOWAY: Just the way Scott interacted with those people, the way he cared about them as people. The way that he genuinely cared about them. Cared about their family, cared about their children. Cared about grandparents if they came in with elderly people. GERAGOS: D9O-4, do you recognize those two? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: Who are they? GALLOWAY: They are, this Mr. and Mrs. Warren. They are people that used to come in the restaurant all the time. GERAGOS: And specifically ask for Scott? GALLOWAY: Yes. 100%. GERAGOS: How long did you two work together at the restaurant? GALLOWAY: From 1992 to 1996. GERAGOS: Was he somebody who you could count on that would always be at work early? GALLOWAY: 100 percent. We weren't scheduled to work until4:30, but he showed up every single time of the shift when he was scheduled to work at 4:00 p.m. GERAGOS: And what was his demeanor like? GALLOWAY: Always walked in ready to work. Never walked in late. Never had an excuse. Showed up on time. Ready to go to work. GERAGOS: Were you, were you familiar with other jobs he was working at the time? GALLOWAY: I know he was working at the golf course early in the morning at the starter shack. And then also working with his father at the crate company in San Luis. GERAGOS: Also going to college at the same time, at the same time as you were? GALLOWAY: Correct. GERAGOS: Were you aware whether or not he was one who was working himself through school? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: How did you know that? GALLOWAY: Because that's one thing we both had in common. We wanted to, both of us, both of us wanted to make sure that we were putting, both of us putting ourselves through school. Both of us had parents willing to put us through school, but I guess we're kind of stubborn, and we wanted to do it ourselves. We could have had, we could have had them pay for everything, but we wanted to do it ourselves. We’re paying for our own rents, paying our own colleges, and paying it, everything that we needed to survive. We wanted to do it our ourselves. GERAGOS: Does the, did you ever see Scott violent in anyway? GALLOWAY: No, absolutely not. GERAGOS: Did you ever see him lose his temper and get into arguments? GALLOWAY: No, never. GERAGOS: You told me yesterday that when he would work on, I guess on sometimes you would, you considered yourself to have somewhat of a short fuse, is that right? GALLOWAY: Yes, very much so. GERAGOS: And I assume, having worked in a restaurant myself, if you tell people their table is going to be ready in twenty minutes, it's been forty minutes, people are, generally are not too happy with you? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: And you would have that experience on occasion? GALLOWAY: Yes, very much so. GERAGOS: And you were telling me what would happen some of those instances with Scott. Can you tell the jury that? GALLOWAY: Yes. Typical Friday, Saturday night we were very busy. We were a real hot restaurant where we were working there, in the early nineties. And we overbooked ourselves, like every other restaurant would. And the hostess, since it’s my responsibility to set people down at certain times, and a lot of times didn't happen. And people come at me, and where is my table? Start overreacting. And I didn’t handle it too well. When Scott, and Scott knew right away, he could see that I got to a certain point, was ready to, I guess, fight back, or bite back. He would, wherever he was in the restaurant, he would come right over and take right over and say, Julie, this table needs you. And he would come over and handle the situation and take the people outside. GERAGOS: Told me about another, told me about another continuing kind of issue with another waiter there name Shawn? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: He would try to mediate that, or gloss over that situation? GALLOWAY: Yes, 100%. GERAGOS: Were those things important to you? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: Did they, what did they tell you about, or show you about Scott? GALLOWAY: He was, that he was able to mediate and able to handle situations before they got out of control. GERAGOS: In the time you knew him, did you know him to be somebody who would wear his emotions on his sleeve, so to speak? GALLOWAY: Absolutely not. Never once. Never. GERAGOS: Did he appear to you, in the years that you knew him there, and you two, where you considered him your best friend? GALLOWAY: 100%, yes. GERAGOS: Okay. GALLOWAY: Very proudly I would say he was my best friend. GERAGOS: When you would be with him and do things with him, did you get the sense that he was caring about you, or caring about what you wanted, or your thoughts? GALLOWAY: That's always how it was. Very much so. I was not just anyone that he knew. Anyone he knew was always first. And it was never, it was never about Scott. Scott never, ever came up. It was never, it was never, ever about Scott. You know, it's, "Hi, how are you?" And that was the ends of the conversation about Scott. It went right to you, you know. He always, he was so caring and so about you, the other person. It was never about, turned around about him. GERAGOS: Now, you obviously know why we're here. I assume that you have followed the case and know that he's been convicted, and that this jury's task now is to decide whether to impose the death penalty, and kill him, or let him survive the rest of whatever years he's got in prison with no chance of parole. What is your opinion about that choice that this jury has to face? GALLOWAY: My opinion? GERAGOS: I assume, am I correct that you do not want him to be put to death? GALLOWAY: No, absolutely not. No. GERAGOS: Tell me why? GALLOWAY: Because, because, I absolutely, GERAGOS: I know when I talked to you yesterday that you were extremely emotional about this. And I'm not trying to pick at that or anything else. Is it a fair way to represent your feelings that you think that it would be a tremendous waste for him to be put to death? GALLOWAY: Yes. Scott has great things left to do. GERAGOS: Even locked in a cage somewhere for the rest of his life? GALLOWAY: Yes. GERAGOS: Thank you. I have no further questions. |