Jane Doe 5 testified Thursday in the sexual misconduct trial of former NFL tight end Kellen Winslow. She detailed two incidents in which the defendant performed lewd acts at her. First, he stroked himself in front of her while she was using an exercise machine at a gym, and second, there was an incident weeks later when he was masturbating at the jacuzzi, she said. During cross-examination, defense lawyer Marc Carlos pressed her on whether she saw what she claimed.
Prosecutors say Winslow raped three women in incidents dating back years, and also preformed lewd acts involving two others.
There’s been a bit of theme among analysts appearing on the Law&Crime Network so far. They’ve often touched on whether prosecutors packaging the five cases together helps or hurts each individual case. On one hand, the collection of alleged wrongdoing seems to indicate a pattern. The alleged victims tend to be older. Doe 5 is 77. Only Jane Doe 4, who was 17 when she was allegedly raped in 2003, is below the age of 50. On the other hand, perceived weaknesses in a case might, at the very least, fail to buttress the allegations in another. For example, Jane Doe 1 misidentified Winslow in a preliminary hearing last year. During the trial, the defense tried to call her memory in question.
Defense lawyer Ecleynne Mercy construed the cross-examination as a boon for Winslow’s legal team.
“He was able to really stump her on really fundamental parts of her testimony to prove that, hey, what she thought saw, she probably just thought she saw it, and it wasn’t what really actually happened,” she said.
Mercy said she didn’t know why prosecutors even put this case in the trial.
“Personally, I think they should’ve kept it to just Jane Doe number 4,” she said. “But I think what they thought she [5] would add to the case, actually took away from the case. It brought more question marks. It brought more doubt.”
Jane Doe 4 testified Wednesday.
[Screengrab via Law&Crime Network]