I also have questions about the altercation at Smallwood, and I wish it had been handled differently too.
But, I see no obvious reason to doubt the story that has been reported. There are witnesses (in the plural) who have reported Corey's behavior and their concern about what was going with Lauren, and there is video of the altercation. The PI's have given a pretty clear account of what happened, down to the words that were exchanged.
Plus, just a few minutes later, after leaving Smallwood, another unrelated witness (the bar manager) stopped, expressing the same kind of concern for Lauren. Did she call an ambulance or the police? No. Presumably because CR told her things were under control.
Another tragic missed opportunity to help, but there's nothing at all to suggest that this makes her -- or ZO and friends -- a liar.
yes there is. ZO was facing a probable aggravated assault charge, and trespassing--as we determined
a long time ago, the victim does not need to press charges. He, and his friends who were his "witnesses" definitely, beyond a doubt, had motive to lie about the altercation.
Also, the bar manager has been discredited as seeing her a few minutes later. You can't have it both ways. The bar manager insists that it was 3:38,
because she saw the big clock. Qualters has said she could have seen Lauren at a different time than the video evidence shows for that particular siting.
Please don't go over the quote again as if I am missing the point. Qualters definitely said that the bar manager could have seen her at
a different time. He didn't say, "we have video evidence showing Lauren at the steps of 10th
and C and so the bartender couldn't have seen Lauren", he said very clearly that she didn't see Lauren
during the time she and CR were trying to get in ZC's apt, but that she
could have seen Lauren at
another time, i.e. that would be the 3:38 siting, IMO
.
The mystery of all this is trying to figure out these discrepancies when we don't have the whole story, or even half of it.
CR is a jerk who was trying to get Lauren drunk, no doubt about that.
But saying he wasn't taking Lauren to her room is a huge stretch. He was on the fifth floor, her floor, not in the downstairs lobby, so he didn't just drop her off at the door. She may have been rebuffing him, that is true, and he might have been trying to talk his way into her apt. But after he was beaten up, she went with him. Even in her state, if she didn't want to go, she could have just sat, or fell, on the ground. People would have scooped her up and taken her to her room.
She went with him for a reason. There are those who say she couldn't have made that decision. But, she not only made that decision, but as the PIs have stated, "
They made their way up the alley and knocked on ZC's door" So, was
CR trying to reach Zoe or was Lauren? At that point, Lauren was making a decision to contact Zoe. She was not comatose.
So what reason would make Lauren leave the relative safety of her apt building, at 3 a.m.? I don't really believe she intended to sleep with CR
at that point, and I think he probably knew that by then. Was he angry about that? Maybe. But then he takes her over to ZC's. Why? They were drunk. They were high. To me, looking for more drugs would not be an option.
Why must we assume that at that point CR was trying to make Lauren Zoe's "problem"? He could have just left her at SW if that were the case. Just as easy to assume that Lauren had a "problem" with Zoe or someone at Zoe's.
No one ever asks if Lauren tried to call JW during all of this. He says he was sleeping. What if Lauren tried to reach him on CR's phone, and he didn't answer? Just because Lauren didn't have her phone doesn't mean CR didn't have his, and it would be naive to think he didn't have his phone.
I hope we're beginning to realize why phone records are the key. Who called whom and when. Maybe Lauren thought JW was at 10th and C at Zoe's,
which would give her motive to leave CR's while MB was upstairs and go back down there.
All this riding on whether or not Lauren could function. A very neat package indeed, if we say she couldn't do anything, wasn't capable of walking, talking, or using a phone. Then, it only leaves one way she left, dead. When really, that option is the only piece of "evidence" LE gives us, when they are only
using 4 out of 10 POIs, out of the 10 POIs that we made up from MSM.
The simplest answer is almost always not the answer, not the other way around, as much as we want it to be the simplest.
.