The Reversal

route to the Landy house on Windsor so we could get there first. When we arrived back at the house I took Sarah upstairs to her bedroom, which was located at the front and was overlooking the front yard and street. I closed the blinds and had her look through just a crack so she would not be visibly exposed to the tow truck drivers.’ ”
    “ ‘What happened next?’ ”
    “ ‘My partner had stayed out front. When the patrol cruisers arrived, I had him take the three men out of the cars and have them stand together on the sidewalk. I asked Sarah if she recognized any of them.’ ”
    “ ‘Did she?’ ”
    “ ‘Not at first. But one of the men—Jessup—was wearing a baseball hat and he was looking down, using the brim to guard his face.’ ”
    Bosch flipped over two pages of the testimony at this point. The pages had been X-ed out. They contained several questions about Jessup’s demeanor and attempt to use his hat to hide his face. These questions were objected to by Jessup’s then-defense counsel, sustained by the trial judge, then resculpted and reasked, and objected to again. In the pretrial hearing, Breitman had agreed with Royce’s contention that the current jury should not even hear them. It was one of the only points Royce had won.
    Haller picked up the reading at the point the skirmish had ended.
    “ ‘Okay, Detective, why don’t you tell the jury what happened next?’ ”
    “ ‘Sarah asked me if I could ask the man with the hat to remove it. I radioed my partner and he told Jessup to take off the hat. Almost immediately, Sarah said it was him.’ ”
    “ ‘The man who abducted her sister?’ ”
    “ ‘Yes.’ ”
    “ ‘Wait a minute. You said Derek Wilbern was your suspect.’ ”
    “ ‘Yes, based on his having a record of a prior arrest for a sex crime, I thought he was the most likely suspect.’ ”
    “ ‘Was Sarah sure of her identification?’ ”
    “ ‘I asked her several times to confirm the identification. She did.’ ”
    “ ‘What did you do next?’ ”
    “ ‘I left Sarah in her room and went back downstairs. When I got outside I placed Jason Jessup under arrest, handcuffed him and put him in the back of a patrol car. I told other officers to put Wilbern and Clinton in another car and take them down to Wilshire Division for questioning.’ ”
    “ ‘Did you question Jason Jessup at this point?’ ”
    “ ‘Yes, I did. Again, time was of the essence. I didn’t feel that I had the time to take him to Wilshire Division and set up a formal interview. Instead, I got in the car with him, read him the Miranda warning and asked if he would talk to me. He said yes.’ ”
    “ ‘Did you record this?’ ”
    “ ‘No, I did not. Frankly, I forgot. Things were moving so quickly and all I could think about was finding that little girl. I had a recorder in my pocket but I forgot to record this conversation.’ ”
    “ ‘Okay, so you questioned Jessup anyway?’ ”
    “ ‘I asked questions but he gave very few answers. He denied any involvement in the abduction. He acknowledged that he had been on tow patrol in the neighborhood that morning and could have driven by the Landy house but that he did not remember specifically driving on Windsor. I asked him if he remembered seeing the Hollywood sign, because if you are on Windsor you have a straight view of it up the street and on top of the hill. He said he didn’t remember seeing the Hollywood sign.’ ”
    “ ‘How long did this questioning go on?’ ”
    “ ‘Not long. Maybe five minutes. We were interrupted.’ ”
    “ ‘By what, Detective?’ ”
    “ ‘My partner knocked on the car’s window and I could tell by his face that whatever he had was important. I got out of the car and that’s when he told me. They had found her. A girl’s body had been found in a Dumpster down on Wilshire.’ ”
    “ ‘That changed everything?’ ”
    “ ‘Yes, everything. I had Jessup transported downtown and booked while I proceeded to the location of the body.’ ”
    “ ‘What did you discover when you got there?’ ”
    “ ‘There was a body of a girl approximately twelve or thirteen years old discarded in the Dumpster. She was unidentified at that time but she appeared to be Melissa Landy. I had her photograph. I was pretty sure it was her.’ ”
    “ ‘And you moved the focus of your investigation to this location?’ ”
    “ ‘Absolutely. My partner and I started conducting interviews while the crime