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The cutting edge
A mother’s sacrifice
by Edwin Black
Just as 17-year-old David Port's
car turned into the quiet upper
middle class Houston neighbor
hood, someone yelled “There he
is!" Police scrambled into their
cars and gave chase until David’s
maroon Chevy crashed in a park
ing lot. After police pulled him
from the vehicle David blurted out
that yes he had killed 23-year-old
Debora Schatz, a mail carrier who
disappeared the day before while
delivering mail to the Ports’ home.
That was in June of 1984 and
ever since, attention has focused
not on David’s crime, but on his
father Bernard and stepmother
the mountains. “1 began to see it all
again,” she recalls. “I was sur
prised, stunned and confused a-
bout my obligations to the state
and to my family.”
A decision had to be made. Cit
ing Jewish law, Odette declared “A
parent should not be forced to tes
tify against their child... (espe
cially) when without their testim
ony the state could not obtain the
death penalty." She asserted, “A
mother’s instinct is to protect. 1
would feel unnatural doingiust the
opposite.”
Bernard Port, 49, a financial
consultant, also rejected testifying
and emotionally declared, “1 just
couldn’t."
‘I went into jail to protect the
integrity of my family.
...Sometimes the price is high.’
Odette Port
Odette Port who steadfastly re
fused to answer questions that
might have produced a death sen
tence for their son.
Almost immediately, prosecu
tors knew they had recovered e-
nough evidence to convict David
for the grisly execution-style mur
der. Bloodhounds had led search
ers to the Port home, weapons and
bloody evidence were recovered
from both home and car. Com
bined with David’s statements it
was enough to indict him for what
Texas law calls “ordinary murder.”
The penalty is life imprisonment.
But prosecutors wanted more
than life, they wanted death. “Un
der Texas law, ‘capita! murder’ is
a homicide committed during any
of several other serious felonies
such as rape, robbery or kidnap
ping,” explains Randy Schaffer,
the Ports’ attorney. An autopsy
confirmed that Debora Schatz was
not raped. Police found her wallet
and other valuables on her body.
Rape and robbery were therefore
out. However, if it could be shown
that David forced Debora at gun
point into either the Port home or
David’s car, technical kidnapping
could be charged. The homicide
would elevate to capital murder.
The punishment: death.
No hard evidence existed to
show David kidnapped the girl —
unless perhaps he admitted it to
someone he could trust. Prosecu
tors then turned to Bernard and
Odette Port to reveal to the grand
jury what their son had told them
about the crime. Quickly it was
understood that the information
was not needed to convict, only to
execute. “In other words,” says
attorney Schaffer, “they needed his
mother to help kill him.”
As the state’s intentions became
clear, 48-year-old Odette Port
could not help but think back to
her own mother during the Holo
caust in Athens. Nazis occupying
Greece hunted Jews for deporta
tion to death camps. Parents were
often tortured to force them to
reveal the whereabouts of their
children. Odette’s family held
themselves together by hiding in
Houston went wild. Media play
and prosecutors led many to be
lieve that Jews would not allow
David to be tried for murder. As
pressure mounted for the parents
to answer grand jury questions, the
fact that David had already been
indicted for murder seemed ob
scure. Relatives of the deceased
were reported to be considering
vigilante justice, “if we thought we
could have gotten away with it.”
The Post Office refused to con
tinue mail deliveries, since the
murdered woman was on duty when
she was killed. When the Ports
appeared at the postal station to
collect their mail, hostile postal
employees jeered them with shouts
of “Murderer! Murderer!”
Messages started appearing on
their answering machine. From
one man: “Collect call for David
Port from Debora Sue Schatz.”
And from a woman: “Give me
back my daughter. Give me back
my daughter.” Anti-Semitic letters
were addressed to “David Port,
murderer.”
Anonymous promises to shoot
David on sight should he be re
leased were conveyed to defense
counsel Jack Zimmermann. Bomb
threats were issued against the pro
secutor. One of the judges in the
case found his home vandalized.
The issue was emotional and
Houston’s Jewish community wanted
nothing to do with the entire affair.
Rabbinical opinions solicited or
not—carefully conceded the basic
Jewish right of a parent to not tes
tify against a son, but studiously
asserted that such Jewish law was
intended for rabbinical not crimi
nal courts.
Houston Jewry “was twisting in
the wind,” accuses Schaffer. “They
felt the issue would summon up
anti-Semitism, they were embar
rassed. ... (so) the Jews were
cowards.”
Bernard Port admits that of all
the hurts he endured, abandon
ment by the Jewish community
was the most severe. But Odette
herself concedes that the issue was
never so much Jewish law as Jew
ish values It was more "to protect
the integrity of my family, and to
do what 1 expected of myself as a
wife and mother.”
In September 1984, the Ports
were jailed for contempt of court
even as their son David was re
leased on $20,000 bond. Placed in
separate isolation cells on separate
floors, Bernard and Odette were
not allowed to see or communicate
with each other. In the 7x11 cell
on the ninth floor, Bernard wore a
jumpsuit emblazoned “COUNTY
JAIL.” Of the ordeal, he remem
bers, “Put yourself in a room with
no one to talk to. ...Forget about
the clock in the outside world.
...You live from moment to mo
ment.”
Odette’s second floor isolation
cell existence offered little more.
Dressed in a blue prison smock,
with nothing to do, Odette
mopped the floor—continuously
and daily. Her confinement
drained her of life. Her hair grew
long, and there was little else to
hang onto but her determination.
Schaffer filed petitions and mo
tions all over the court system seek
ing their release. They were denied
at every turn. Spouses enjoyed a
privilege, but parents did not. “The
relationship that flows between
parents and their children is the
most sacred,” argued Schaffer.
“Even God didn’t force Abraham
to sacrifice his son.”
In early November 1984, the
Ports agreed to again face the
grand jury. Bernard was able to
answer all questions truthfully
without compromising David. But
of the 200 questions put to Odette,
she stalwartly refused to answer
six. Therefore, Bernard was re
leased. Odette returned to jail.
Odette could only be imprisoned
as long as the grand jury was
impaneled. Their authority ex
pired on Jan. 31, 1985. But one day
earlier, a judge unexpectedly
signed Odette’s release. On a day
that struck Odette as bright and
beautiful even as others remem
bered it as bitterly cold, Odette was
led to the rear entrance of the
county jail. As she walked onto the
short steps under the makeshift
receiving area roof, a gaggle of
reporters was waiting, and she
issued this short statement:
“I went into jail to protect the
integrity of my family. ...Some
times the price is high. Sometimes
it takes sacrifice. I saw my parents
sacrifice for each other and for me,
especially during World War II. 1
could do no less for my family. I
was faced with a choice, a choice
between the law of the land and the
law of my conscience. It was a very
difficult choice and I paid the
price."
David Port was convicted of
ordinary murder and sentenced to
75 years in prison. His case is now
on appeal. If a new trial is won,
Odette promises, she will still
refuse to testify.
This column is adapted from a
forthcoming article in Woman's
World.
Congregation
Beth Tefillah
invites the Jewish community
to participate in a Shabbat service
in our new home, at
5065 High Point Road
Sandy Springs
Shabbat
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9:30 a.m.
Kiddush will follow service
Call 843-2464
for directions and information
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PAGE 9 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE March 28, 1986