Clark asked why Reed had not corrected the report during the months before trial. Reed admitted that he had been ashamed, frightened, and increasingly committed to a lie he had helped create. He had not become truthful because of sudden courage or because someone had promised his career would survive. He finally decided to admit what he knew after watching the recorded stop again, seeing Beatrice testify, and understanding that his own silence had become another act against her.
"Does that make you brave now?" Clark asked. Reed shook his head and said that bravery would have meant stopping the force or telling the truth the first time. He had done neither. The prosecutor thanked him and told the judge he had no more questions.
William Bradley approached for cross-examination with a folder full of the contradictions in Reed's earlier statements. He began by establishing that Reed had lied repeatedly under official circumstances and had approved a report he now admitted was false. He asked whether the witness stood to benefit from cooperation, and Reed acknowledged that prosecutors had agreed to inform the sentencing judge of his assistance. Bradley stressed that the man sitting before the jury had a personal interest in shifting responsibility toward his former partner.
"You had every reason to save yourself," Bradley said. Reed answered yes. "You are the officer who actually fastened the handcuffs, aren't you?" Again Reed answered yes, explaining that Stanton directed the restraint but that he had carried it out. Bradley asked whether Reed was now blaming Stanton for decisions he had made with his own hands, and Reed said he was responsible for those decisions regardless of who gave the order.
The defense attorney returned to the sudden timing of the plea. He asked whether Reed had spoken with Jackson Hayes in the courthouse restroom, and Reed confirmed the encounter. Bradley wanted to know whether Jackson had threatened him, displayed a weapon, or promised retaliation. Reed answered no to all three, adding that Jackson had explicitly said the facts belonged in the courtroom.
"But you knew what kind of soldier he was by then, didn't you?" Bradley asked. Reed admitted that the testimony about Jackson's assignment had frightened him. Bradley suggested that the fear had caused him to abandon his partner and invent a story to satisfy the family. Reed took a breath before saying that the false report existed months before he knew who Jackson was, and that his own conscience had been troubling him long before the courtroom revelation.
Bradley pressed harder. He asked whether Reed had ever told Claire, his own lawyer, or any supervisor that the report was false before that day. Reed said he had told Claire he had failed to do the right thing, but he admitted he had not given investigators a truthful account until he decided to cooperate. The defense attorney asked whether the jury should trust a man who had lied for months and changed his story when his liberty was at stake. Reed answered that the jury should compare his words with the recordings, the medical records, and everything else rather than trusting him simply because he was now telling a different story.
The response did not erase the damage Bradley had done to Reed's credibility, but it shifted the question back to evidence the jury could examine. Bradley asked one final time whether Reed had been a coward on August 14. Reed looked toward Stanton, then back at the lawyer. "Yes," he answered.