Trial is over. Jo is in the air, flying home. It makes me so happy knowing she'll be home soon, with her husband and kids.

I'm beyond exhausted. Also, I've had some wine upon returning home. It only made me slightly more tired, so either today's review will be out within two hours, or not until the morning.

ARRIVAL

Unfortunately, this morning due to traffic and sleeping in, I was approximately 10-15 minutes late for court. Today there were less people, so my tardiness didn’t make much of a difference. I believe I entered the court room shortly after Mr. Vander Ark was sworn in.

Before going on, I had written down a couple of things from yesterday’s trial that I had forgotten to address in yesterday’s blog. First, I would like it to be known that David Hammer, lawyer of the defendant, had said something so extremely rude to Ms. Rowling that I wanted to leap over the benches and the bar and rip his head off. Okay, maybe not to that extreme, but it made me physically ill.

Mr. Hammer asked Ms. Rowling a question that required elaboration. I wish I could remember the exact question, but alas, I cannot. Jo answered to the best of her ability, and was replied to with, “Jesus, Ms. Rowling, yes or no?” Nice, Hammer.

Second, another witty remark made by Ms. Rowling caught my attention as a memorable quote. Although I cannot remember the exact quote, Jo was asked if she regrets giving The Harry Potter Lexicon a fansite award that she had given him on her own website. Her answer was one word: “Bitterly.”

Keep in mind that, while Ms. Rowling made witty comments and refuted many allegations, she was never outright rude or snarky. She was simply stating fact and her honest opinion. To be honest, she was borderline polite.

Finally, Melissa Anelli, John Noe, and friend were all seen once again for today’s trial. Melissa sported a black and white sundress, and John wore a tie comparable to that of a Slytherin. Green and silver? Really, John?

On the topic of attire, Jo Rowling once again looked flawless in a chic suit with a large waist belt, beautiful shoes, and I believe I spotted her charm bracelet that she spoke of while she was shifting papers or something. Sparkly.

THE TRIAL

Best moment of my day? Hearing my assumptions confirmed while Steve Vander Ark was on the stand. One of the first questions was regarding his awareness of him not being allowed in the courtroom while JK Rowling testified. I thought maybe he was able to watch the trial unfold in the overflow courtroom and the reason was just because of Jo’s wishes. However, as I learned in Mr. Vander Ark’s questioning, he was unaware of the happenings inside the courtroom.

Even more amusing was his answer to the inquiry regarding his knowledge of the previous day’s trial. He was asked if he had heard any of the news reports or read newspaper articles or was told what happened by a present party. He claimed to have only seen a headline in the paper on his way to the courtroom, but nothing more. Having been present for yesterday’s trial and keeping my eyes open, I saw that the woman who escorted Mr. Vander Ark (who, might I add, was dressed in slightly more appropriate court attire today) into the courtroom took extremely involved notes throughout the entire session. It’s hardly believable that she did not fill in SVR with every bit of information.

The beginning of the alleged testimony of Mr. Vander Ark’s questioning mostly revolved around the history of the Lexicon and his involvement with the Harry Potter community, or better known as the “fandom” to those within this community. He stated that he began creating lists of characters and spells and other such things midway through reading Book 2, immediately following its release in 1999. The site opened not too long after. Those familiar with the Lexicon know that it’s a very thorough source of Harry Potter knowledge and includes hundreds of pages.

And so the sob story began. Hammerhead asked Steve, “Do you consider yourself part of the Harry Potter” fandom?” SVA answered, “I did.” When asked to clarify whether he still feels a part of this community, the silence was followed by a croak, and something that resembled, “I do.” Like Jo was asked yesterday, Vander Ark was asked what Harry Potter means to him. Again, the tears. I felt uncomfortable just watching. I could hardly feel sorry for him. Any self-respecting Potter fan would have immediately respected Ms. Rowling’s wishes to cease production of a book she intended to write herself. For charity.

From my seat in the back, I had a partial view of the back of Ms. Rowling’s head. Every now and then I watched to see if she was watching Mr. Vander Ark. Her head remained down over her notepad, up to the judge’s seat, or toward the projector screen where evidence was displayed. Obviously, I am not able to be certain that she would not look him in the eye, but from what I could see, she spent most of her time looking elsewhere.

A completely irritating aspect of Mr. Vander Ark’s time on the stand was that he never gave a simple “yes” or “no.” It was always “not to my knowledge.” “Not that I know of.” “Not that I can recall.” Is this his way of beating around a lie?

Because SVA was not in the courtroom to hear the testimonies yesterday, he was notified today that the Lexicon manuscript contains many mistakes. Most noted is the mistake of Alohamora. Stated in the Lexicon manuscript, Alohamora is derived from the Hawaiian “Aloha,” meaning goodbye. An open disgrace to the language and prose of Ms. Rowling. He was told that it is, in fact, derived from a Western African language, and Vander Ark began saying things like, “This is very exciting for me.” It was an exciting fact to learn, but I cannot believe he was being completely honest with his enthusiasm. Though I do not support Vander Ark, nor do I care for the lawyers defending RDR, the entire courtroom couldn’t help but laugh when Vander Ark said, “this is exciting,” regarding Alohamora’s origin. The lawyer, obviously beyond unenthused, said, “I’m thrilled myself.” 

Steve Vander Ark continued to play the part of an excited fan. He played it off as though he is the victim in a long, harsh road of this lawsuit as if he didn’t bring it upon himself. SVA had the audacity to express his excitement to read Ms. Rowling’s encyclopedia that she has previously stated to be released in a few years. What Mr. Vander Ark did not hear from yesterday’s trial is that Jo stated that after all this, she does not know if she could go through with publishing her own elaborate Harry Potter encyclopedia in the unlikely case that RDR wins this case. The pack of outraged fans from all over the world would be after Vander Ark like Jacob Black and Edward Cullen on Victoria (…Twilight reference?).

During a brief five-minute break, I left to use the restroom. On my way out, I spotted Melissa, John, and their friend casually standing by the elevators, and I saw Vander Ark walk over and stand with them. John and friend’s backs were towards me, but Melissa did not look thrilled. I looked away for a moment after one of the alarmingly cute lawyers walked by, and when I turned again, Vander Ark was gone. Damn hormones. I can only guess what Melissa must have said to make Vander Ark leave so abruptly. Death stare strikes again? Had she graduated to death words? A few seconds later the group was gone. I didn’t see them near each other the rest of the day.

Another fun fact regarding Vander Ark’s background was the fact that he was asked to leave his job in October (but was looking for a job in London in July? Okay). He is currently unemployed and trying to make it as a writer living in London. As of now, he has a book being published (not by RDR, interestingly enough). When asked if he would not be working RDR following the Lexicon book because he felt he was being misled, he adamantly denied such an allegation. Rowling’s lawyer then brought in a new piece of evidence. She distributed to the judge, Vander Ark, and RDR’s lawyers, a copy of an email sent by Mr. Vander Ark to Melissa Anelli. He stated in the email that he felt RDR had lied to and misled him and that they ruined his standing with fans and JKR and that was why he wouldn’t work with them anymore. The still silence following this piece of evidence leaves me with the conclusion that it’s very possible that RDR did not know that Vander Ark was saying such things behind their back.

As part of evidence, a video clip from a Harry Potter conference that took place in Toronto in August of 2007 was shown. It was about 15 seconds long and showed a bit of Vander Ark’s presentation. From his speech, we heard him say, “Jo quit. We’re taking over now.” First off, what kind of statement is this? Jo quit? Quit what? The books are done. What are we taking over, wizard rock? Aside from that, the judge was not happy to learn that this brief clip and short excerpt of his speech was the only part of the video brought into evidence. Vander Ark, who should have kept his mouth shut, joked that most of the rest of his presentation could be found on YouTube. Additionally, Vander Ark was asked why he would suggest to the Potter fans at this conference to ignore the entire epilogue of the final Harry Potter book. He said he made those remarks in a ‘greater’ context but didn’t explain that context. He also said the people at the conference had TOLD him to say the part about Jo quitting because they wanted to assure fans that the Harry Potter fandom wasn’t going to die. Go ahead, blame everyone else. True Harry Potter fan, through and through.

There were two other witnesses, questioned by Nailbanger and another lawyer of Rowling’s, who performed far better at questioning than any of the previous lawyers from the JKR side, who were slow and stuttering and roundabout, which all seemed to annoy the judge. He was on top of his game and was able to act on his feet, unlike the previous lawyers.

Another person testified from Scholastic and it had something to do with getting to market first, but it was boring and my mind wandered.

Another day of trial finished. Jo was still beautiful. Vander Ark is still a cocky manipulator.

To be concluded.

Another day in court + grocery shopping = hungry.

Day two report to come shortly, full of Vander-tears, an SVA/Anelli confrontation, and disappointing lawyers.

April 14, 2008

 

 

ARRIVAL

 

I arrived at the courthouse at around 7:15 this morning, fully expecting a mob of crazed Potter fans and media representatives. To my surprise, I was the first person there. As media made their way up to the courtroom, a security official came out to announce that no one would be let in prior to 9:00. They proceeded downstairs to the eighth floor to the courthouse’s cafeteria, but I remained upstairs by the door to wait.

This, as it turns out, was a lucky decision on my part. Jo Rowling was being escorted upstairs to the room. As always, her shoes were fabulous. She was about 15 feet away from me, and while she took my breath away, I did not have an itching urge to maul her as if I were at the Order of the Phoenix premiere in Hollywood. And, for the record, I totally was.

Because this was not a Potter event at which fans would be expected to approach Ms. Rowling and ask for autographs and the like, I just felt a wave of sadness that this entire case is even in existence. I politely smiled, and then kept my head down until she was through the courtroom door.

The media made their way back upstairs to wait to be let in, and following were The Leaky Cauldron’s Melissa Anelli and John Noe, along with someone else. Shortly after, Steve Vander Ark was seen arriving. On his arm was a less-than-classy redhead (and by “red,” I mean brightly dyed resembling that of a tasteless teenager). Fully clad in ankle-high red heeled boots and a colorful skirt, this woman was clearly dressed for a party.

On an interesting note, from across the room I could see Mr. Vander Ark initially move towards Melissa and John as if to extend a friendly greeting, but was met with Ms. Anelli’s, for lack of a better word, death stare. He immediately retreated to the other end of the hall.

At about five of nine, they began letting in press to be seated in the courtroom. Being merely a civilian viewing the trial, I was last to be seated. The courtroom was much smaller than expected, but grand nonetheless. Although I was in the back of the room, I was able to see everything that was going on. More importantly, I was able to admire Jo Rowling. At a little after nine, opening arguments had commenced.

 

THE TRIAL

 

As this was my first experience at a trial, or even in a courtroom, all I could expect was the stereotypical courtroom I’ve seen in movies and on television. Overall, it was pretty accurate. We all stood when the judge walked in, we were seated, and the lawyers of both the plaintiff (JK Rowling) and the defendant (RDR Books) made their opening arguments.

First was Dale Cendali, making her opening argument on behalf of Ms. Rowling. Although I am a full supporter of Jo, this opening was too long. Nearly every point, if not all of them, was slowly addressed. The argument, in total, took about 45 minutes. Anthony Falzone, opening for RDR Books, made a brief 15 minute argument, although he was severely lacking. It could hardly be considered an argument, but more like repeating the same point.

JK Rowling was the first to testify. Before she was called to the stand, I saw Steve Vander Ark escorted out of the courtroom. My only assumption is that someone didn’t want him around while she was testifying, which would be understandable.

Ms. Cendali began her questioning with simple background questions. Having arrived home about a half hour following the end of today’s trial, I’ve already read comments and news articles calling this portion of the questioning as a “sob story” and a cheap attempt for Jo to gain sympathy. This made me utterly sick. Oh, she had to “decide between food and a typewriter ribbon”? Gosh. What a lame attempt to fabricate stories so that people will feel sorry for her.

Following the brief bit of background questions, they dove right in to matters regarding the purpose of the trial. It was immediately clear that Jo is extremely passionate about this case, from a writer’s perspective. She explained that she wanted to fly to the States to testify because she wanted to protect what she holds very important to her and to protect other writers’ from this very situation.

The cross-examination, led by David Hammer, was appalling. Mr. Hammer promptly approached Jo with guns raised. He asked questions that were ludicrous and had clearly been previously addressed, and more than half of Jo’s responses were interrupted with another round of speedy questions. Jo kept her cool, though, and completely shut him down on numerous occasions. At one point, Jo set him straight on one of his questions, leaving him to abruptly end his questioning.

Once Jo was free to step down, questioning began for Roger Rappoport, owner of RDR Books, the publishing company that signed the deal to publish Vander Ark’s Lexicon. This man, simply said, is not made for the hot seat. He continually avoided answering many question and claimed he “didn’t remember” a majority of the details that were addressed. A more bold assumption from his time on the witness stand, though, is that he was flat out lying. There were many letters and emails brought into evidence that he had written and received, clearly contradicting what he had been saying. It was all very curious, to say the least.

At around 5:00, court adjourned for the day. I walked out of the building and around to the side entrance, where Jo gave a statement to the media. Her statement was as follows:

“It gives me no pleasure to take legal action, but I am here today because I feel very strongly about an important issue that affects everyone and not just me. If books that plagiarize other works are permitted, authors, fans, and readers stand to lose. There are lots of books in many languages that comment on or criticize Harry Potter, and that’s fine. But the book in this case is different. It provides no analysis and virtually no commentary. It takes far too much and it offers precious little in return. I would just like to add that I am extremely grateful for the incredible support of Harry Potter fans everywhere.”

 

Until tomorrow, when Steve Vander Ark takes the stand…