Pathologist Jonathan Arden testified in Gerhardt Konig’s attempted murder trial today that Arielle Konig’s injuries aren’t consistent with being bashed in the head with a lava rock at full force 10 times.

Deputy Prosecutor Joel Garner tried to refute the testimony by cross-examining Arden today (Wednesday, April 1) about his analysis, including an email Konig wrote to her primary care physician asking to add “traumatic brain injury” to her records. It didn’t work well, and I think this was one of Garner’s tougher exams. He’s a young prosecutor and Arden has testified in court hundreds of times.

02:50 “If you misrepresented hypothetically parts of Arielle’s statement, your conclusions become unreliable. Isn’t that right?” “Again, not a guarantee, but that’s a good possibility.”

03:03 “Dr Arden, one of your major conclusions that you testified to and you put in your report was that you do not believe that aerial was struck in the head with 10 blows. Is that right?” “Correct.” “Dr Arden, isn’t it true that Arielle Konig never said she got hit 10 times in the head, right?” “She said, up to or about 10 times.”

04:23 “Alright, Dr. Arden, let’s move on to a little bit later in your opinion, where you state that you would expect to see skull fractures if the defendant was swinging the rock with full force. Is that right?” “Yes, sir.”

05:10 “Have you ever held the rock, Dr. Arden.” “I have not.” “Can I hand it to you?” “It’s up to you, yes.”

07:46 “well, Dr. Arden, I’ll ask it this way. It’s much, much easier to hit a stationary object, right?” “I think that’s a fair generalization.”

08:12 “On the other side, it’s much, much harder to hit that person’s head if they’re moving around and squirming. Is that right?” “I’m not going to be able to answer question with too much is in it. … If the person is moving, it likely introduces an element where it is at least somewhat harder to hit the head, because the head is moving. In some circumstances, there could be so much movement that it is much, much more difficult to hit. In some circumstances, the movement could be to a lesser degree and striking it could be pretty easy.”

08:59 “If a person fights back, it introduces an element that will make it more difficult to hit the person. How much more difficult depends upon how much fighting, what the circumstances are, what the person, what each person is doing.”

10:27 “you don’t know how hard the defendant swung that rock, do you, Dr. Arden?” “I do not.”

13:30 “Now you wrote in your report that you believed Ms. Konig’s concussion symptoms were, quote, entirely self reported. Is that right?” “Yes, sir.” “And that means you were essentially saying you didn’t see any physical evidence to corroborate what you said about concussion. Is that right?” “Well, not sure if it’s just physical evidence. There was no medical evidence of any condition that indicated a concussion other than what she self reported.”

14:46 “Isn’t it true that the Queen’s medical reports list that Arielle Konig vomited three times in the ambulance on the way to Queen’s?” “Yes, sir.” “Vomiting and nausea go together, correct?” “Commonly, not necessarily so.”

17:18 “that is the only time you mentioned any thumb injury in your report, correct?” “Correct.” “Dr Arden, it’s not in your report at all that this was actually a fracture, correct?” “Correct.” “It’s not in your report that this is a distal phalanx fracture, correct?” “Correct.” “You didn’t think that was pertinent, right?” “It wasn’t pertinent to the opinions that I was offering, which were largely centered on her head injuries.”

19:07 “you never use the word crush injury in your report, is that right?” “:That’s correct. I did not use the word.” “Crush injury is actually used throughout this Kaiser document. Is that right?” “I haven’t noted how many times it’s it’s used throughout or otherwise, but yes, it clearly does describe it as a crush injury.”

19:34 “And you thought this crush injury was not related to aerial Konig’s head injury. Is that right?” “It is not her head injury. It’s a different injury.”

20:41 “I deemed it separate from her head injury. She has a thumb injury. She has head injuries. The thrust of my opinions were assessing her head injury. I didn’t ignore the thumb injury. I didn’t omit it from the report, but I didn’t discuss it or opine on it.”

21:15 “So, Dr Arden, you don’t think it’s relevant that Arielle Konig held up her hand to block her head and suffered a crush injury on her thumb?” “I didn’t say that.”

24:24 “Dr Arden, isn’t it true that the fact that Arielle Konig held up her hand to block that rock is highly relevant to the level injury she sustained?” “No.”

25:39 “No, it is not an intervening force.”