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M » > -i, - •. • fc V »J .!■ IIIf IHO—WWWBWMWM—miW it «lt» i Ktt At! 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. 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