Receptionist believed dentists' marriage was 'open'
02/05/2003
HOUSTON - The receptionist whose affair with a Houston-area orthodontist may have sparked a deadly rage in July testified Tuesday at the spurned wife's murder trial that she believed their marriage was "open" to other romantic relationships.
Gail Bridges, who acknowledged having an affair with the orthodontist beginning in May, said she assumed that Clara Harris, a dentist who shared offices with her husband, knew she and David Harris were having a sexual relationship based on his statements to her.
"That's what I was told," Ms. Bridges said under questioning by defense attorney Emily Munoz.
Clara Harris, 45, is accused of murder after her car ran over and killed her husband July 24 in a suburban Houston hotel parking lot after she had a scuffle in the lobby with Ms. Bridges. The two women did not appear to look at each other during testimony Tuesday.
Ms. Bridges took jurors through the time she was hired at the victim's orthodontics practice in August 2001, to a blossoming romance in April and finally a sexual rendezvous at the Westin Oaks Galleria hotel in Houston on May 4.
At a party later that month that the Harrises and Ms. Bridges attended, Ms. Bridges said she didn't tell the defendant about the relationship.
"I don't understand why I would," Ms. Bridges said, because the marriage was supposed to be open. But then she acknowledged to Ms. Munoz that she "did feel guilty."
David Harris acknowledged the affair July 17, and Clara Harris fired Ms. Bridges that day. When the defendant confronted her about the affair, Ms. Bridges said she should take it up with her husband.
When Ms. Munoz asked Ms. Bridges whether she blamed Clara Harris for being angry, she said, "No ma'am, I do not."
A week later Clara Harris tracked down her husband and Ms. Bridges after the two spent time in a hotel room at the Nassau Bay Hilton after a romantic late lunch at a lake-view table, Ms. Bridges said.
Clara Harris and Ms. Bridges tussled in the lobby, then Ms. Bridges returned to her sport utility vehicle in the parking lot, she said.
She had just opened the driver's side door when she saw Clara Harris churning through the parking lot in her Mercedes-Benz, she said.
Ms. Bridges, fighting back tears but calmly fielding questions, said she did not see the victim being struck by his wife's car.
Defense attorney George Parnham has said it was an accident when his client hit and killed her 44-year-old husband with her Mercedes-Benz.
If she is convicted, her attorneys have indicated that they may lodge a "sudden passion" argument that could result in a sentence far lower than the life maximum under Texas law.
Prosecutor Mia Magness disagrees, saying that the defendant meant to kill her husband.
Earlier, the nanny who cares for the Harrises' twin sons testified that Clara Harris called her on the afternoon of July 24 with unusual orders: Pack a week's worth of David Harris' clothing in an old suitcase and throw away the rest of his wardrobe.
Maria Gonzalez, who smiled when she described the order, later denied smiling under cross-examination by Ms. Magness.
"I put them in the trash can," Ms. Gonzalez said through a Spanish translator, testifying that she followed orders without questioning her employer's reasoning.
She said she didn't detect anger in Clara Harris' mobile phone call, which came within an hour of David Harris' death.
Also Tuesday, pathologist Paul Radelat testified that his review of autopsy records and more than 50 photographs indicates that David Harris was run over once, not two or more times as concluded by Dr. Dwayne Wolf of the Harris County medical examiner's office.
However, Ms. Magness pressed Dr. Radelat on cross-examination, noting that his 40 years of expertise primarily was not in forensic pathology, the study of deaths by unnatural means.
Dr. Radelat then said that the number of times the victim was struck "was an area where reasonable minds can disagree."
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