"I taught history for thirty-seven years," she told the jury. "I have spent a lot of time explaining why primary sources matter. That morning I was frightened and I was angry, but the recording is not a feeling. You can see what happened."
The jury watched the relevant portion without commentary. On the screen, Perkins approached Grace in front of the memorial wall. His voice was audible over the rustle of trees and conversations from nearby volunteers. When he pulled the first shoulder board free, several jurors shifted in their chairs. Grace kept her gaze on the witness stand rather than the screen, listening to the sound of fabric tearing as though it belonged to a scene she had studied in somebody else's file.
Walter Sykes testified next. He explained his background, his familiarity with military insignia, and what he had said when he tried to stop the deputy. The defense asked whether his status as a veteran had made him emotionally invested in the confrontation. Walter agreed that it had. He also said his emotional reaction did not create the ID card, put Grace's name in the program, or cause Perkins to ignore people offering to verify her identity.
"I didn't need him to salute her," Walter said. "I needed him to listen. I would have wanted the same thing if she had been a private, or a civilian volunteer, or somebody's grandmother waiting for coffee."
Fielding's testimony was the hardest for several people in the room. He described recognizing the possibility that Grace was the legitimate keynote speaker and remembering his own hesitation. He did not claim to know every thought Perkins had, but he repeated the reasons Perkins gave and admitted that they did not amount to the verification a reasonable officer should have sought. When the prosecutor asked why he had not intervened, Fielding stared at the jury before answering.
"Because I was afraid of what it would cost me," he said. "I put my job ahead of doing the job correctly."
Defense counsel challenged him about the consequences he faced and whether his cooperation gave him a reason to blame Perkins. Fielding acknowledged that he hoped to rebuild some professional credibility by telling the truth, but he had already lost his job and received a sanction. He could not escape what the recording showed about his own behavior. That made his admission more damaging than an attempt to portray himself as an innocent bystander.
Captain Greene testified about the response after the radio call. She explained that the military liaison had verified Grace's identity, that the county retained authority over its own deputies, and that the decision to separate and disarm them was made through the sheriff's chain of command. She rejected the idea that military rank had forced the county to surrender control of a local incident. "We were responsible for responding to misconduct by our personnel," she said. "We should have been prepared to do that no matter who the victim was."