1994
Archives - April/Heather Stevens Special Report
The Battered Beauty
September 7, 2007
by Brent Kellogg
June 1994 -
When April Stevens saw that her daughter was being called to the witness
stand she started bawling and screamed, "I'll plead guilty!"
Instead of calling for a recess, the judge sent the jury out then went
into a rage of his own. "Are you sure you want to plead guilty?" After
April repeated herself at length, said again she was guilty, the judge
denied her request to plead guilty.
Two other things went wrong in what was this reporter's first exposure to
the Genoa City kangaroo court system. Women from April's support group had
promised her, they had sworn to appear in the courtroom wearing T-shirts
with the words 'Stop Battering Women Now' on the front of them, but showed
up without the shirts.
In her opening statement, the prosecutor told the jury that Robert Lynch
was Heather Steven's biological father and there was not a single
objection considering that the prosecution's police detective investigator
had said he'd done an extensive background check on the family and the
defense should have known as to what the detective would testify to on the
stand. But then it wouldn't have given defense lawyer Christine 'Bug'
Blair the opportunity to finally squeal for a sidebar during which she
told the judge that in fact Heather was the bi-product of Paul 'Clueless'
Williams, not Lynch.
Not that it mattered, the judge said it was all very interesting
information, but April was on trial, not Heather. Who Heather's father was
had no relevance to the case even though April's motive for killing Lynch
was that he had threatened to take Heather away from her.
As the trial dragged on, the dialog got worse. Heather testified, and
after explaining that Robert was her step-daddy, the prosecution continued
referring to Robert as Heather's "dad". When questioning by the
prosecution began getting out of hand, leading the witness and such, the
judge called a halt to the proceeding long enough to ask, "Is there a
motion to strike?" There was none.
Before the defense presented its case, a recess was called during which
April paced the floor. "How are you holding up?" Clueless asked, a
question that in those days was asked of people every five minutes. Saying
that she was doing "as well as could be expected", Clueless asked April,
"Want to talk about it?" All April wanted was to bawl and whine. What
would become of her? What would become of Heather?
Thinking the case was hopeless, Clueless had a brain fart and flew to New
York to track down the Lynch's cleaning lady as a worried Heather asked
her mother, "Do you think prayers are answered?" April replied, "I don't
know much about prayer" and then said, "I pray that everything will be
okay."
Clueless never found the cleaning lady. Not that it would have done him
any good, the cleaning lady was not present when April killed Robert and
at most could have only testified that she may have seen April battered
and bruised.
Before leaving for New York, Clueless went to the office to fetch his
aluminum briefcase. His secretary/office manager, Lynne 'Yes-Boss' Bassett
could tell he was disturbed. "You're worried, aren't you boss?" she said.
"Something serious is going on with you isn't it?" she continued when she
knew all along what was going on. This exchange was noteworthy because it
gave those of us in disbelief a reason to break out the cane and give
Yes-Boss a few whacks with it.
It didn't end there. Having kissed and made up, Heather asked April, "Can
you ever forgive me?" Of course she could, and to prove it April asked
Clueless if Heather could move in with them. Keep in mind, Heather was
staying with Mary Williams at the Williams home, and April with Clueless
at his pad. Clueless rejected the notion of having Heather in the same
room with him and April. His pad was small and he really had no interest
in Heather having told April when he found out she was pregnant, "get rid"
of the baby.
Meantime, all-purpose lawyer John Silva had discovered a tape recording
Robert had made, and playing it for the Bug, she squeaked, "That's it?
That's our defense?" When they played the tape for April, April said it
wasn't the same tape she had known about, except that it was. It was then
Silva told Heather that she'd have to testify for the prosecution. "I
really don't know anything!" Heather screamed, and bawled as bad as her
mother only this time it was true; Heather was never aware that April was
being battered.
And still the trial dragged out. Late one evening, returning to the
office, Clueless found Yes-Boss still there. "Did the trial recess for the
day?" she actually asked, as if she expected night court to be in session.
Another interesting side note, except for when the verdict was read, Mary
Williams only showed her ugly face in court one other time.
On the witness stand, Mary said that April was, "A woman in turmoil" and a
flurry of objections rang out. At one point Silva demanded the judge make
a ruling, but the judge didn't and allowed Mary to add, "It looked like
the woman had been beaten," conjecture that the prosecution didn't object
to.
In our next report: More on how April came to have a baby, and the verdict
is handed down.
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