Clarke Testifies: I’m Not Lying, This Time

It was a rough day for the defense team of Richard Clarke as the Bend murder suspect finished up his testimony under oath Friday.

Clarke is charged with murder in the baseball-bat beating of his roommate Matthew Fitzhenry in October 2010.

Prosecutors say Clarke was jealous of a friendship between Clarke’s ex-girlfriend and Fitzhenry.

But on this second and last day of his testimony, he admitted he’s repeatedly lied to police so he wouldn’t get in trouble — but insisted that he was telling the truth on the witness stand.

Prosecutor Van McIver got his chance to cross-examine Clarke, who offered up a demonstration, trying to show how he got covered in blood while his other roommate killed 36-year-old Matthew Fitzhenry by hitting him in the head with a baseball bat.

McIver: “So I’m coming in like this?” (as McIver held the bat aloft).

Clarke: “Yeah, a little over the head.”

Prosecutor:”Over the head?!”

Clarke:”Yeah, he was coming down at him, then I froze and turned away and took off.”

Clarke’s last day of testimony may have backfired on him, though.

He testified that he was drunk and in shock after seeing the beating, and doesn’t remember his nighttime walk, caught on a downtown Bend surveillance camera.

To which prosecutors questioned: How he could be in shock, but look totally relaxed in a police video — sucking on a lollipop, humming tunes at the police station an hour later.

Clarke testified Friday he repeatedly lied to officers the night of the murder, saying he didn’t know anything about the beating — even though now in court, he says he witnessed it first-hand.

Prosecutor McIver: “Were you worried about getting in trouble?”

Clarke: “Yes.”

Prosecutor: “So is it safe to say, you are fully willing to lie to authority to keep yourself out of trouble?”

Clarke: “Yeah.”

McIver then looked directly at the jury seeming, to solidify the point.

Clarke later told jurors he lies to police, but wouldn’t lie on the witness stand.

Prosecutors are continuing to build the motive for murder, reading aloud his journals in which Clarke writes that he hated Fitzhenry, wanted him evicted and called him a “backstabber” for befriending an ex-girlfriend.

But it doesn’t help your defense case if you label yourself as a killer, as Clarke did on a recorded jail visit this past January with the ex-girlfriend who was caught in the middle.

Regarding the videotaped visit, McIver said, “You’re complaining about how much time you get out in the yard to her, and you state something to the effect of, ‘All the other murderers’ get 2-3 hours. Why do you refer to yourself as a murderer? Why not call yourself ‘an accused murderer’?”

On the witness stand, Clarke responded, “Because you have paperwork in jail, and that’s what you’re there for, it’s simple.”

Clarke maintained Friday he is being falsely accused of murder, and usually would never give any information to police to get anyone else in trouble.

Prosecutors plan to call a few more witnesses as the trial picks back up on Tuesday,