Nuts

Aaron Levinsky: Mr. Kirk, you said that among the many fatherly duties that you assumed when Claudia entered your life was bathing her. Do you remember saying that?

Arthur Kirk: Uh-huh. -

[the court recorder asks for a verbal response]

Arthur Kirk: - Yes, I did say that.

Aaron Levinsky: How long did you practice this particular fatherly duty?

Francis MacMillan: Objection, Your Honor!

Judge Stanley Murdoch: Overruled. Answer the question, Mr. Kirk.

Arthur Kirk: I don't remember.

Aaron Levinsky: Did it stop when she was five? Did it go on a year and stop when she was six?

Arthur Kirk: What are you suggesting?

Aaron Levinsky: Did it go for two years and stop when she was seven? I remind you you're under oath.

Arthur Kirk: Well, I don't know. It didn't last long. Claudia liked me to do it.

Aaron Levinsky: Liked you to do what?

Arthur Kirk: To bathe her.

Aaron Levinsky: To bathe her?

[pausing, reflectively]

Aaron Levinsky: To bathe her.

Arthur Kirk: [angrily] It was nothing! And I object to your insinuations!

Aaron Levinsky: My daughter locked me out of the bathroom when she was four. Now, how old was Claudia?

Arthur Kirk: Claudia, please.

Aaron Levinsky: How old was she? Was she ten? Was she twelve? How old were you, Claudia? How old was she, Mr. Kirk? Was she thirteen years old when you stopped bathing your step-daughter?

[intensely]

Aaron Levinsky: Was she fourteen?

Arthur Kirk: She was a child. She couldn't have been...

Aaron Levinsky: [more intensely] How old? -

[Pandemonium breaks out in the courtroom]

Aaron Levinsky: -

[shouting]

Aaron Levinsky: How old?

Judge Stanley Murdoch: Order!

Francis MacMillan: He's harassing the witness.

Judge Stanley Murdoch: I'd like to hear an answer.

Aaron Levinsky: How old?

Arthur Kirk: [shouting, pleading] I don't remember.

Claudia Draper: [sobbing] I was sixteen.

Aaron Levinsky: Mrs. Draper, could you tell me your understanding of the legal concept of justifiable force?

Claudia Draper: That's when someone's beating your brains out the back of your head, you're allowed to stop them any way you can.

Aaron Levinsky: Thank you. Now, would you tell us your understanding of the provisions of the 730 process?

Claudia Draper: Yeah. If I lose today, they can commit me for a year. Sixty days before the year is up, the hospital can ask to retain me. If I lose again, I'm gone for another year. And from then on, it's two-thirds of the maximum sentence, which comes out to be 16 or 17 years, and that's without a trial.

Francis MacMillan: Now, Your Honor...

Judge Stanley Murdoch: Mr. MacMillan, you'll have ample time to cross-exam. Let her finish.

[pause]

Judge Stanley Murdoch: Mrs. Draper, what does all that mean to you?

Claudia Draper: Well, it means if they do it right, they can lock me up in a hospital for the criminally insane forever.