direct
Q: Good Morning, could you please state your name, and spell your last for the court
A: My name is Jackie Pepin, last name spelled P-E-P-I-N
Q: What do you do for work?
A: I’m a writer for the food blog, Connecticut’s Culinary Scene and I also am an Adjunct Instructor in the Culinary Arts program at Rocky 4 Neck Vocational Tech
Q: What is your educational background
A: I attended the world-renowned Nolan School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University where I became entranced with the restaurant business.
Q: And what did you do after college?
A: I went into the Navy for a bit and then I decided to open up my restaurant
Q: What led to you becoming a food blogger?
A: once my restaurant had to be closed down, I realized I didn't want to be tied down to one location and decided to begin reviewing restaurants
Q: What is your connection to today’s case?
A: I’m here today because of my articles about the RIVALRY between ancient apizza and devils hopyard. I had gone to review both of their restaurants and I noticed the impact the feud had on their businesses
Q: What stance did you maintain in this field?
A: I stayed neutral throughout my review. I gave negative and positive reviews for both restaurants. One time, Hopyard tried bribing me to write a favorable article, but I did not perpetuate any bias towards him because of this matter.
Q: Was there any other competition for these two restaurants?
A: Yes Sam Talcott was there, but he didn’t directly compete. I always considered his pizza style to be completely different from the other two.
Your honor at this time I would like to introduce exhibit 12
Can you identify this?
A: Yes these are images of pizza from all three restaurants
Is it a fair and accurate copy?
A: yes
Q: What type of pizza does Devil’s Hopyard serve?
A: sicilian style of pizza which has a fluffy, spongy bread base
Q: What type of pizza does Sam Talcott serve?
A: He serves a much different style of pizza than devil’s hopyard; Detroit style pizza with a deeper dish, and their common topping is pepperoni,
Q: What impact did you notice about their feud?
A: They were both so fixated on their problems with each other and so much to the point of obsession. They took it to very drastic levels which brought harm to both businesses
Q: In what ways did their feud harm their businesses?
A: the public sniping and trash-talk became the main focus, not the quality of pizza
Q: Did you ever see it get worse?
A: things truly began to escalate in early April of 2023, when Dillon Hopyard won the lottery
Q: What did he do with the money?
A: Ohe bought the building where his restaurant and Ancient Apizza were located and leased it.
Moving on,
Q: you mentioned things escalated, did anything else ever happen?
A: On May 17th I was eating at Carley’s Coffee shop when Emerson Harkness walked into the shop and glanced around before sitting with an unknown man.
Q: Who was this man that he sat with?
A: I couldn’t see very well, but it looked and sounded like Willie Waramaug, an infamous local degenerate.
Q: What do you mean by degenerate?
A: Well everybody in the town knows that Willie Waramaug is the guy who killed another boy over a girl.
Q: So Emerson Harkness was meeting with a person known for murder?
A: Yes ..
Q: What did you see during their meeting?
A: Harkness slid a whole stack of cash across the counter to Willie
If they object to speculation, I can use rule 701(a) because even though it is an opinion, it is rationally based on Pepin’s perception.
Q: What did you hear?
A: Harkness did say “That dirtbag Hopyard’s going to get what’s coming…!
To prove anything that Willie says we can use rule 804(a)(5)
Moving On,
Q: What, if anything, happened prior to Savor the Square on May 18th?
A: Hopyard had proposed that he be the only seller for Sleeping Giant or else devils hopyard would cut their contract with Sleeping Giant after Savor
Q: What was the result of this offer
A: Sleeping giant took the deal and pulled their product from Ancient Apizza, putting Harkness in a tough situation
Q: And What happened after that?
A: Harkness had a public outburst of rage directed towards Hopyard. He said “I’m going to kill you! I’m going to kill you!” and then broke down into tears and then disappeared for the rest of the weekend.
This is not objectionable because it was an excited utterance which is stated by rule 803(2). Party opposed could also apply.
Q: After Hopyard’s death, did anybody contact you?
A: i was asked by sawyer sherlock to help identify someone brought in by the police
Q: And were you able to fulfill his request?
A: I can in full confidence say that the guy I saw with harkness was the one in custody with the officers. I was certain it was willie waramaug.
no further questions your honor