In the court of public opinion, verdicts on Bethany Storro were rendered when Vancouver Police Chief Cliff Cook said Sept. 16 that Storro’s story of how a black woman threw a cup of acid in her face was a hoax.
Then there’s actual court, where Storro made her first appearance Wednesday morning.
What happened during the four-minute hearing at the Clark County Courthouse was unremarkable. Defense attorney Andrew Wheeler waived a formal reading of the charges and entered not-guilty pleas to three counts of second-degree theft on Storro’s behalf.
Wheeler told Superior Court Judge John Nichols that Storro, who is partially deaf, can read lips.
When Nichols asked Storro if she understood the charges, she said yes.
Nichols set a trial date for Dec. 20, with a pre-trial hearing on Oct. 19.
Storro will be on supervised release pending trial, and Nichols told her to maintain contact with her attorney.
Due process
Criminal defendants who are not in custody have the right to have a trial set within 90 days of their first court appearance.
Defendants also have a right to due process, which includes having a defense attorney review evidence, said Clark County Deputy Prosecutor Tony Golik, who spoke to reporters after the hearing.
One reporter asked Golik how Storro could plead not guilty when police have already said she confessed to lying about being attacked and admitted she put a caustic drain cleaner on her face.
Golik said the defense attorney still does not have all the police reports generated in the case.
While a judge has to set a trial date, it doesn’t mean the case will go to trial.
More than 95 percent of felony cases in Clark County are resolved with a guilty plea.
Golik said he’s approaching this case as he does his other cases, and will be open to plea negotiations.
Golik said he does not anticipate filing additional charges against Storro. He said the crime of filing a false police report, a gross misdemeanor, is essentially encompassed in the felony theft charges, which allege that she committed theft by deception.
Approximately $28,000 was donated to help her and her family, which includes her parents, Joe and Nancy Neuwelt.
Storro allegedly spent about $1,500 of the donated funds. She is accused of using the money to buy clothing, everyday items, dinner for her parents, and a train ticket for a sibling who lives in Seattle.
The theft charges carry a standard sentencing range of two to five months in jail, Golik said.
However, Golik filed an “aggravator” on each charge, based on the allegations that “the defendant committed the offense against a victim who was acting as a Good Samaritan,” according to court documents.
Aggravators give a judge the freedom to go outside of the standard sentencing range, either above or below, Golik said.
After the brief hearing, Storro went to the adjacent Clark County Jail and was booked and released.
Pending trial, she will live at a local residential mental health facility.
While the by-the-book hearing on Wednesday was unremarkable, Storro’s case has been anything but.
The 28-year-old deli clerk’s story of being approached by a stranger on Aug. 30 near Esther Short Park and getting acid splashed on her face made news worldwide.
Nichols, a Superior Court judge since 1997, has had his share of cases that have made local news.
There was the delusional teenager who had plans to take over the world and set his plan in motion by slaughtering his girlfriend’s father while he slept; a dad acquitted of killing his young daughter after she flew off a sled he was towing through the snow and hit a brick wall; a day care provider convicted in the death of a toddler; an Iraq War veteran who shot at a driver who cut him off in traffic; a mom convicted of stealing from her child’s school’s PTA.
But when Nichols showed up for work Wednesday, carrying his lunch in a brown paper bag, he agreed that Storro was the most notorious defendant to appear before him.
The story of the white deli clerk who claimed to be disfigured by a black woman has been recounted around the world, and reporters from national media outlets were waiting in Nichols’ courtroom along with local reporters and photographers.
Judge Roger Bennett, who greeted Nichols on the fourth-floor of the courthouse, joked that he was going to take the case.
“And your lunch,” he said, eyeing the bag.
While Storro’s parents sat alone in the front row, the majority of people in the otherwise-full courtroom were members of the media.
Before the hearing, Storro and her parents sat in Nichols’ jury deliberation room with Storro’s attorney so she didn’t come through the public door to the courtroom. She entered the courtroom with Wheeler, his associate Chad Sleight and Golik and Detective Wally Stefan. Nichols followed a few moments later.
After the hearing, Stefan escorted Storro to the jail to be fingerprinted and photographed. They used the back route reserved for transporting inmates, helping Storro avoid reporters.
But if Storro was given special consideration, so was the media.
Instead of allowing only one still photographer and one television camera, Nichols let photographers from The Columbian, The Oregonian and The Associated Press sit in the jury box in addition to one television cameraman, who shared footage with other stations.
When Storro walked into the courtroom, there was a flurry of clicking from the still photographers.
Dressed in a blue shirt and black pants, Storro did not attempt to conceal her face. It appeared to be scarred deeply red as a result of the drain cleaner she told police she spread on it and the surgical dermabrasion to treat the damaged tissue. Police say Storro said her acts were a suicide attempt, or at least an effort to “get a new face.”
