WASHINGTON – TV and film actress Patricia Arquette, who played an FBI criminologist on “CSI: Cyber” and a crime-solver on “Medium,” was in a real-life courtroom Tuesday in Washington, where she took the witness stand in D.C. Superior Court.
Arquette was a witness for her friend Natalie White, a New Yorker who was arrested in July for spray-painting “ERA NOW” (seemingly referring to the Equal Rights Amendment) in red letters on the sidewalk on the Lower West Terrace of the U.S. Capitol Building. White, 30, is charged with defacing public property, a misdemeanor.
Arquette testified for about 30 minutes about her friendship with White and whether the two ever spoke about the alleged incident.
“We’re friends and colleagues,” said Arquette, who added that she has known White for about nine months and knew her as an artist and a women’s rights activist. Arquette testified that she knew White was scheduled to be in Washington in July as part of a march “to bring awareness to the lack of equal rights of women in the United States.”
When attorneys asked the Oscar winner her profession, Arquette said she was an activist and worked in Nicaragua, Kenya and India. She then said she was also an actress who had worked on various TV shows and movies.
Arquette also reminded attorneys about her acceptance speech for best supporting actress for the movie “Boyhood” at the 2015 Oscars. Arquette said she used the win to speak out about “women rights and civil rights.”
Prosecutors asked Arquette if White told her about the spray-painting. “I remember her telling me she was getting arrested,” she said. “I don’t remember her telling me about her spray-painting, but I do know I was concerned she would be arrested.”
Arquette then added, “This is a country where for 250 years, women did not have equal rights. Where rape kits go untested. Where men stole tea bags and dumped the tea into the water to make a statement.”
White, who is representing herself, watched as Arquette spoke. Attorneys allowed Arquette to testify first in the case because she had a plane to catch.
(c) 2017, The Washington Post ยท Keith L. Alexander
