“I asked why.” She paused.
“Then he grabbed me.”
Aaron asked what the cruiser felt like. Maya described the heat first.
Then the wrist pain. Then the panic of hearing Mercer say stop resisting while she could barely move.
“Were you trying to get away?” “No.”
“Were you trying to hit him?” “No.”
“Why did your head move against the window?” “It was burning me.”
Aaron asked why she mentioned her mother. Maya looked at Simone only once.
“Because my mom knows the law.” Then she shook her head.
“But mostly because she’s my mom. When something scary happens, that’s who I want.”
Several jurors glanced toward Simone. Simone did not move.
On cross-examination, Rhodes softened his voice. “You were frightened that afternoon?”
“Yes.” “Fear can make time feel longer, correct?”
“Probably.” “Fear can also make force feel stronger?”
Maya thought. “Maybe.”
Rhodes suggested Maya pulled her arm when Mercer grabbed her. “My arm moved because he pulled it.”
He displayed a still image of Maya’s hand near the pharmacy bag. “Officer Mercer could not know what was inside that bag, could he?”
Maya stared at the image. “He could have asked.”
Rhodes said that was not the question. Maya nodded.
“No. He didn’t know because he never asked.”
Rhodes ended shortly afterward.
When Maya stepped out of the courtroom, Simone met her in a private hallway. Trial rules meant they could not discuss testimony while proceedings remained active.
Simone simply opened her arms. Maya walked into them.
“Did I do okay?” she whispered. Simone kissed her forehead.
“You told the truth.” She held her tighter.
“That was your whole job.”
The defense called a retired police trainer who said control holds could be reasonable when an officer perceived active resistance. On cross-examination, Aaron asked him to identify one moment where Maya threatened Mercer.
The expert could not. Then Mercer chose to testify.
That decision changed the trial.
He told jurors Maya appeared likely to re-enter traffic, the pharmacy bag could have concealed a weapon, and her repeated questions felt increasingly noncompliant. He said the crowd prevented him from hearing her complaints of pain clearly.