Esa Belle DX (Defense):

I am the managing director of PFL (Parents of Future Lawyers) and my role is equivalent to a CEO of a corporation

My main job at PFL is managing our endowment fund. We use the fund to pay for LSAT lessons, private and group tutors, full and partial scholarships, and so much more. I’m also chairperson for the PFL board.

I am absolutely appalled with this accusation against the Dean. I have never, ever even stopped to consider whether he did this horrible action or not. I believe that Dean Woodward is a kind and loving man, with no evil intentions

Now, I want to move on and talk about JK Woodward, are you aware of who JK Woodward is?

I became aware of these two when TLS skyrocketed in rankings in January of 2023 after a perfect performance on the bar exam. Then, I started looking into the Dean’s Scholarship

July of 2023 when I called him to wish TLS luck on that month’s bar exam. I also asked him to join PFL in a conference in Malta in November (add personality about easing up to him)

Yes, he agreed to attend, so I sent over all of the documents and information needed. 8 other law school deans also attended. He was the star of the conference. All of the attendees talked about him and fought to sit next to him for the two dinners we were there for.

In a private conversation in Malta, I recall asking Woodward if they knew that Justice Wise was quite ill. He told me he wasn’t aware, so I mentioned to him that he would be an excellent replacement on the bench, but we didn't go further in the conversation about campaigns or anything like that.
- Objection: hearsay
- Response: party opponent rule, JK Woodward is the defendant in this case, therefore, what Mrs. Esa Belle witnessed in her conversations regarding Woodward go for the truth of the matter in the case.

It came out March 2024, and I saw it super early in the morning, sent to me by my PFL friend. I don’t think I’ve ever been so outraged. Thank goodness TLS opened up an investigation on Woodward and found that nothing, absolutely nothing was wrong with the PFL trip.

They contacted us on March 12 to look for information related to the Malta trip as a part of their apparent investigation into Woodward based on the Shaw article. As the managing director of PFL, I provided them all of the information that I believed was relevant for their investigation. To my knowledge, there was nothing improper by Woodward.

Moving on to after the TLS investigation, when did you next interact with Woodward?

I called Woodward on April 19th, 2024 to tell him about how Justice Wise was terminally ill and raised the idea of him campaigning for his seat, to which he said he needed some time to consider this.

And after he said he’d think about this proposal, when did you try talking to him about this idea again?

Before I went to Cali for my son’s Stanford visit,I went to Woodward’s condo late on May 5, 2024. I arrived at around 10:15 pm, but before I knocked on the door, I heard two voices so I just went back to my car where I saw Charlie Harrelson walk to his car shortly after.

While you were outside of the condo, when did you hear Woodward say anything about killing Shaw?

Oh, no, absolutely, not. I did not hear anything about Woodward killing Shaw. He didn't even reference Shaw’s name from what I’ve heard.

Based on your rationally based perception, do you think Charlie was lying about being hired to kill Shaw?

Now let’s move on to the events after the Stanford trip with your son.

I sorta demanded Woodward to attend a dinner party on May 18 with a few close friends. We were at the restaurant from 7:30pm until well past 10:30pm (we overstayed our welcome). For all I know, it could’ve been 11pm, but what I do know about that night is that I never saw Charlie Harrelson, nor did I see Woodward on their phone during the dinner.

He called me the next morning where he was very excited about running for Supreme Court–a decision he made overnight.

We spoke about setting up an entity to accept campaign donations; Woodward already set one up. I was a little disappointed because I wanted to run the campaign, but I did call him again on May 26 to talk about funds.

Well, first we talked about the passing of Justice Wise, and then for the first time, he asked whether PFL would be interested in donating $300,000 to their campaign. Of course, the request to the board got approved in a few hours to JusticeJW. I also helped raise a million dollars in two days.

Oh, it impressed Woodward so much that I was put in charge of managing the finances for JusticeJW on May 29. This way, Woodward had absolutely no access to those funds.

On June 4, we followed up at his condo for a celebration party about his running for the Supreme Court seat. It went from 2-8pm and Harrelson was not one of them. But at the end of June, all of that came crashing down when I saw Woodward’s arrest report.

How did you try to clear the baseless allegations that the PFL bribed Dean Woodward for anything related to the TLS Dean’s Scholarship?

I reviewed the PFL financial records and saw that there were no payments to Woodward for any time prior to May 26, 2024 when the PFL donated to his campaign. The only payment PFL made to TLS was November 20, 2023 for $500,000. It was a gesture of goodwill for the Malta trip and Shaw’s teaser article. I also never made payments to him except my tie and skills for the campaign.Now, I want to move on and talk about JK Woodward