Analyst casts doubt on witness assertion that she heard "the sound of wet grass"

[adric mutelovic]

I thought I was the only one wondering how in the world Rachel Jean heard a headpiece fall on "wet grass" during a phone call. Bob Somerby (progressive media critic) points out that the claim has been typed over and over without curiousity as to how this may happen.


" None of the cable analysts, not one, seemed willing to speak to this matter. As a standard fallback position, they praised her for being “authentic.” Somerby said. http://dailyhowler.blogspot.com/2013/06/diogenes-seeks-cable-analyst.html

I know most people here will find a way to make it perfectly sensible for the sound of a headpiece on wet grass being heard by someone on the other side of phone, and many will claim to have thought of the acoustic differences between dry vs. wet grass.

But I'll ask anyway. What's your opinion?

Additionally, the fact that this assertion came from the worst witness in the trial so far makes discussing her claims fair game.

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Funny, but the second witness yesterday said the same thing.

“I just heard whoever was out there scuffling around... it sounded like sneakers on pavement and grass," said Lauer. "Like someone was running on the pavement and on the grass -- it sounded like that."

http://www.hlntv.com/article/2013/06/27/will-rachel-jeantels-testimony-determine-george-zimmerman-trial-day-4-fate

[adric mutelovic]

2. A headpiece falling on wet grass vs. 4 sneakers stomping on grass, witness not on the phone

Is it a bit different?

I must add the the sneakers had people in them weighing over 150 lbs each. How much does a headpiece weigh?

Should I also add that the sneakers in a fight make several noises, and a headpiece only falls once?

[Igel]

3. I think you misconstrue.

The link says she heard a bump and *then* the sound of wet grass.

I presume the headpiece was the kid's headset that he was using with his phone. It would make a kind of bump as it hit the grass (probably different from hitting concrete). I don't think she was describing that.

I think she was then saying that she heard "the sound of wet grass"--but like the sound of a bell, it presupposes a clapper. I'd say she thought she heard the sound of feet on wet grass. I personally don't think there's much of a difference between the sound feet make in short dry and wet grass and would mentally delete "wet" as unimportant. If there is a difference, I assume that the water would damp the higher frequencies of the grass' vibration and reduce the sound of shoes rubbing against the silica particles that many grasses have, but that would require that the sound originate very, very close to the phone's mic. Seems silly--sounds like she's "hearing" back into her memories what she knows or thinks was the case.

Human memory is horrible. Once had a dispute with some friends. I was told that I'd said something particularly nasty. I tracked down the person I had said the conversation with. We talked and she said she wasn't entirely sure *what* I said. But then two other witnesses came up--the woman's sister and brother. They said they were there and heard me. They disagreed with their sister on the exact words. Then things went wobbly when they said they were there in the living room as we were finishing dinner. The sister I'd been speaking to turned to her sister and said that was wrong. She was in the bathroom; the conversation was in the hall during a break in card-playing while we were waiting for her to come out, not in the living room and an hour after dinner. The brother insisted that it *was* in the living room over food, until his wife came up and asked when this was. Told the day--it was the Sunday before Memorial Day--she said it was impossible, he wasn't there. She got her planner--she and her husband had to set up for her older brother's anniversary party at his house while he took his wife someplace.

They'd heard the one sister's recounting of the conversation. Then the sister and brother had talked about what it had to mean. They'd discussed it several times. They got the words wrong. They filled in where it happened. And both wound up going on the record as having been in the room. I walked away as they squabbled. Every time you remember something there's the chance to edit a memory--fill in details. Then when you go back and remember, the original memory's corrupted, partly overwritten (so to speak) with the more recent version that played in your head.

Jeantel heard a muffled thump as the headset hit the ground. Then she heard something. Perhaps sneakers on grass, wet or otherwise. Perhaps the headset settled in the grass. Perhaps a scuffle. Perhaps there was wind. At the time she probably wouldn't have known what was going on. After the fact, she reanalyzed what she'd heard as she put it together into a coherent picture or story. That she remembers, and that remembrance interferes with a simple recounting of what her ear actually transmitted to the brain.