asked if he had any court business, and

asked if he had any court business, and Konick repeated his obscene statement. Davis then hung up the phone. Konick’s version of the conversation differs. He testified that while he had intentionally used sexual innuendo in his phone conversation, it had not involved obscene language and had been intended in a joking rather than offensive manner. Konick also maintains that this kind of innuendo was not out of character for his relationship with Davis, while she testified that there had never been a sexual context in their banter. Davis has testified in the past that playful insults about her Italian ancestry and Konick’s Jewish ethnicity were common between them.

Reputation

Because of the unverifiable conflicting testimony of the only people actually involved in the phone call, both Struckmann and prosecuting attorney John T. Hennessy relied heavily on the testimony of character witnesses to convince the jury of their respective clients’ reputation for truth. Because both Davis and Konick are so heavily involved in the legal community, many of the witnesses called were prominent figures in local government. Witnesses for Konick included Rappahannock Commissioner of Revenue Beverly Atkins, Deputy Commissioner Betsy Murray, and retired Washington Postmaster Carolyn Miller. Prosecutor Hennessy called retired Judge Raynor Snead,Rappahannock County Circuit Clerk Diane Bruce, and Rappahannock County Commonwealth’s Attorney Peter Luke. For the most part, the testimony of the witnesses was confined to positive statements about the reputation for honesty of whichever side had called them, defense witnesses speaking about Konick’s reputation for telling the truth and prosecution witnesses affirming Davis’ reputation. However, there were exceptions. After testifying to David Konick’s good reputation for telling the truth, Postmaster Miller said that Davis’ reputation for truth “is not a good one”. The defense’s own witness, Beverly Atkins, testified

See ATTORNEY, Page A3