Chapter 10 - Deposition Day: Donna's Web Collapses
On Thursday morning at 09:00 AM, the central conference room of the Davidson County Chancery Court was packed to capacity.
Sitting across from Evelyn Vance and me were Donna Pierce and her newly appointed public defender—a weary, overworked attorney named Thomas Bradley who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else on earth. Luke sat in the corner of the room, slumped in a plastic chair, wearing a rumpled, cheap suit he had bought at a department store, unable to lift his eyes from his shoes.
Donna, however, was still clinging to her delusional arrogance. Despite the black electronic monitoring bracelet strapped around her ankle beneath her slacks, she sat upright, her chin tilted high, glaring at me with icy hatred.
The court reporter swore Donna in.
“Mrs. Pierce,” Evelyn Vance began, stepping toward the center of the room with a thick stack of exhibit binders. “Please state your full legal name for the record.”
“Donna Marie Pierce,” Donna replied in a clipped, haughty tone.
“Mrs. Pierce, I direct your attention to Exhibit A,” Vance said, projecting a high-resolution scan of the DOD Form 1840 Military Power of Attorney onto the large flat-screen television on the wall. “Do you recognize this document?”
Donna glanced at the screen, her lips curling into a sneer. “It’s a standard power of attorney my son Luke used to manage household affairs while Hannah was overseas.”
“Mrs. Pierce, did you personally present this document to notary public Sarah Jenkins on June 12, 2021, at the Montgomery County Clerk's Office?”
Donna paused, her eyes darting to her public defender. “I may have accompanied my son. I don't recall every minor errand from two years ago.”
Vance smiled thinly. “Let me refresh your memory, Mrs. Pierce. I direct your attention to Exhibit B.”
Vance clicked her remote. The screen shifted to an official sworn affidavit signed by Sarah Jenkins, accompanied by high-definition security still photos from the County Clerk’s office on June 12, 2021.
“In her sworn federal deposition taken yesterday afternoon,” Vance read aloud, “Sarah Jenkins testified under penalty of perjury that you, Donna Pierce, paid her $5,000 in cash to notarize this document outside the presence of Major Hannah Pierce. Jenkins further testified that you personally produced a forged Ohio driver's license bearing Major Pierce’s name with your niece’s photograph on it.”
Donna’s face turned from pale white to an alarming shade of crimson. Her hands began to tremble violently against the polished oak table.
“That’s... that’s an outrageous lie!” Donna stammered, her voice cracking into a high, shrill pitch. “Sarah Jenkins is an incompetent clerk trying to save herself from state licensing sanctions!”
“Mrs. Pierce,” Vance continued relentlessly, advancing the slide. “Exhibit C is a forensic ink and handwriting analysis conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Document Analysis Unit in Quantico, Virginia. The FBI concluded with 99.9% certainty that the signature ‘Hannah Pierce’ on this military authorization was written by your hand, Donna Pierce, matching handwriting samples taken from your personal greeting cards and check registers.”
Thomas Bradley, Donna’s public defender, leaned over and whispered urgently into her ear, putting his hand over her microphone. “Donna, shut up. Invoke the Fifth Amendment right now. Do not say another word.”
Donna shoved her attorney’s hand away in a fit of uncontrollable rage.
“I had to do it!” Donna suddenly shrieked, standing up from her chair and slamming both fists onto the conference table. “You don't understand anything! Bradley was going to be murdered by criminals! My son was going to die! What was I supposed to do?! Let my baby die while this selfish, arrogant girl sat on hundreds of thousands of dollars she earned playing soldier in the sand?!”
The entire deposition room went dead silent. The court reporter’s fingers flew across the stenotype machine, recording every single syllable of Donna’s hysterical confession.
“She wasn't even a real part of this family!” Donna screamed, pointing wildly at me, tears of unhinged fury streaking her heavy makeup. “She refused to give Luke children! She refused to quit the Army! She thought she was better than us because she wore a uniform! Everything she had belonged to my son! Everything Luke had belonged to me! I built this family with my bare hands, and I will not let a little nobody from Ohio destroy what is mine!”
Thomas Bradley buried his face in his hands, groaning in total despair. “May the record reflect that my client is invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and we are terminating this deposition immediately.”
Evelyn Vance calmly closed her exhibit binder, looking across the table at Donna with chilling satisfaction.
“Thank you, Mrs. Pierce,” Vance said softly. “You just provided the federal grand jury with everything they needed.”
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Donna stood there, gasping for air, the realization of what she had just done slowly crashing over her. She looked at Luke, expecting him to defend her, but Luke remained slumped in his chair, weeping silently into his hands.
Donna Pierce had finally spoken her absolute truth—and it was going to cost her twenty years in federal prison.
