"I regret that she was hurt," Stanton said. "But officers have to make decisions with the information available at the moment." Bradley asked whether a person could conceal a weapon regardless of age, and Stanton agreed. He added that police work did not permit officers to assume someone was harmless simply because the person looked elderly.
Beatrice sat between Patricia and Ada and listened without interrupting. She recognized some of the words from the incident report she had read in the attorney's office, but hearing Stanton say them in person was different. He described her as a subject, a driver, a possible threat, and finally a suspect, rarely calling her by name. She wondered whether he had ever imagined who might be waiting for her at home that night, or whether he had cared.
Bradley asked Stanton to explain the restraint. Stanton said Beatrice had twisted beneath him and that he had used body weight to prevent what he believed might be an attempt to reach an unknown object. He could not identify such an object when asked, but he said the possibility was enough to justify controlling her movements. He described the injury as an unfortunate outcome of a rapidly evolving encounter and claimed that Reed had helped place the handcuffs only after the immediate danger had passed.
He then said that he had arranged medical assistance as soon as the injury was apparent. Bradley had been told the dispatch records would complicate that answer, but Stanton delivered it with the same confidence as the rest. The defense attorney asked no further questions, choosing to end with the language of professionalism rather than risk another contradiction. When he returned to his seat, he thought he had regained control of the room.
Robert Clark rose without carrying a notebook. He began by asking Stanton about his training in traffic stops, particularly the importance of giving a driver clear instructions that did not conflict with one another. Stanton agreed that clarity was important. Clark asked whether Stanton had requested the registration and then ordered the driver not to move, and Stanton acknowledged that both commands were captured on the recording.
"How was she supposed to show you the registration without moving?" Clark asked. Stanton replied that drivers should wait until officers give them permission to reach. Clark asked whether he had clearly given or withheld that permission after Beatrice explained the compartment's location, and Stanton said the audio was difficult to hear. The prosecutor reminded him that difficulty hearing the recording was not proof that the driver had heard a clear instruction.
Clark then asked about the alleged centerline violation. He showed Stanton the available patrol-car video, which began only shortly before the emergency lights were activated and did not provide a reliable view of the earlier driving he described. Stanton admitted the claimed violation was not independently confirmed by that recording. Clark did not insist the stop was therefore automatically unlawful; instead, he asked the jury to consider which parts of Stanton's account could be corroborated and which depended entirely on his assertion.
The prosecutor returned to the glove compartment. He presented a still image from the body camera and asked Stanton to identify the yellow object near Beatrice's hand. Stanton agreed that it appeared to be an envelope. Clark asked whether a yellow registration envelope resembled a handgun in that image, and Stanton answered that people could conceal weapons behind ordinary items.