"What happened when Officer Callahan reached your window?"
She repeated his first demand and her attempt to explain where the registration was located. Then she described the contradictory commands, the accusation that her car was beyond her means, and the order to step out. She did not say he had read her mind or that she knew exactly why he chose to stop her. Instead, she described what she saw and heard, including his words about people like her needing a lesson.
James asked what it felt like to be restrained. She answered more slowly. "The restraints were painful, but the worst part was knowing I couldn't protect myself if I lost my balance. My hands were behind me. He controlled whether I could stand. I had no way to end the situation safely except by waiting for him to decide it was over."
"Did you try to escape?"
"No."
"Did you threaten him?"
"No."
"Why didn't you protest more forcefully?"
Maya looked at him for a moment, then toward the jury. "Because I wanted to go home to my daughter. I wanted to be alive when she asked me about my day. I understood that raising my voice wouldn't make the officer feel less challenged."
Her voice remained controlled, but the public gallery grew very quiet. Beatrice Washington pressed a handkerchief between her hands. Denise Torres stared at the floor, remembering another young woman who had been too frightened to move. Maya continued without looking at them.
"I remember a little boy asking why I was on the ground," she said. "I remember his mother pulling him away. I remember a man walking a dog and looking in my direction before turning the corner. I don't blame strangers for being afraid, but I remember feeling invisible while everybody could see me."
James asked about the physical injuries and her recovery. She described the medical examination, the pain in her knees, the tingling in her fingers, and the difficulty of doing routine things during the first week. She also described flinching when police vehicles passed and choosing different routes without consciously deciding to do so. She had been surprised by those reactions, she admitted, because knowing how trauma could affect the body did not make her immune to it.
"What were you thinking while you were kneeling?" James asked.
"At first I was thinking about getting through the next minute. Then I thought about Zoe. After a while, I started paying attention to details because it was the one thing I could still control."
She recalled the badge number, the timing of the detention, Rodriguez's expression when she arrived, and the sound of Callahan laughing during his telephone conversation. She explained that remembering those details did not mean she had been unafraid. In fact, fear had made her concentrate harder, because she understood that any later account would depend on what could be established rather than what she felt.