Jill Ekman testified that when she had Larry King in her seventh grade English class, she attempted to help him stop calling attention to himself, the Ventura Country Star reporting that the next year, when King came into her class before school to say hello wearing eyeliner and mascara, she told him to wash it off. "He wasn't supposed to be drawing attention to himself and wearing makeup as a boy is definitely drawing attention to himself," Ekman said Wednesday in the Brandon McInerney murder trial. So when King came back to Ekman's class the next day wearing even more makeup and King told her assistant vice-principal Joy Epstein said he could, she went to the office herself. Epstein told her it was within his constitutional rights to do so and Ekman let it go, she said. An e-mail also went out the school telling teachers that King's attire was allowed and that they should try to teach the kids tolerance. Ekman incorporated the message of tolerance into her Anne Frank lessons, but the problems of King disrupting other students continued, she said. "They were very frustrated with the situation," Ekman said of boys who were having problems with King who was pestering them. "They did not like that they were being associated with Larry and they were being called gay and I told them to stay away from Larry but that wasn't working," Then, she said, boys complained to her that King was chasing them into the bathroom. Ekman talked King about it, she said. "I explained to him that what he was doing was inappropriate and he laughed and said that he could go into the boy’s bathroom and he liked to see them squirm," she said. Ekman said she went to Epstein to complain about King's behaviour four days before the shooting. When she started to tell Epstein about what was going on, Epstein said there was nothing to do about it and tried to close her office door, Ekman said. Ekman shoved her foot in the door and finished what she had to say, she said. The next day she tried to file a grievance against Epstein but was later told that it didn't meet the grievance guidelines. King was killed the next day. Under cross-examination by Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox, Ekman said she never personally saw any of the incidences the boys were talking about. Fox told her the boys who had complained actually had already testified and they said no such incident ever happened. "That does not surprise me," Ekman said. "They were embarrassed by it; they came to me in confidence." Fox asked her why she never mentioned the fight with Epstein when an investigator asked her about it shortly after the shooting. She said she was caught off guard when the investigator showed up in her house and she was not asked about it.
Earlier Wednesday, after detailing the physical abuse that went on during Brandon McInerney's childhood on Tuesday, his half brother James Bing testified about the sexual abuse he said his younger brother endured as well. Shortly after the February 2008 shooting of Larry King, Bing said he and Brandon's dad, Billy McInerney, were sitting around a campfire when Billy McInerney started fuming about how one of Brandon's cousins sexually abused Brandon when he was a child. Bing, 24, said that it happened years earlier and that his family had kept it from him. Billy McInerney said he thought Brandon shot King because of the abuse, Bing testified. Billy McInerney said the sexual abuse was something that scarred Brandon. As he did on Wednesday, Bing became emotional as he went over the abuse the boys endured. Twice during his testimony, he mouthed "I love you" to his brother. Ventura County Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox brought up how Billy McInerney made contradictory statements about the sexual abuse. When he was interviewed by investigators, he said the abuse was not as severe as he had previously stated. Fox asked Bing why nobody ever called the police or authorities over the incident. "He's still family," Bing said. McInerney's lawyer, Scott Wippert, said Billy McInerney gave the conflicting statement when he was in jail. Bing said that Billy McInerney would lie just to save himself. Billy McInerney died in 2009.
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