An interview with Michelle Theer: 'About the gun'
Q. People have described you as arrogant, superior, manipulative, self-possessed. How do you see yourself?
A. I don't feel like that at all. . . I used to tell my patients, a lot of times they'd say, what should I call you, should I call you Dr. Theer, should I call you Michelle. . . ? And I would tell them, you should call me whatever you feel comfortable with. . . my role is to make them feel comfortable with me, not for me to lord it over them. . . .
Q. Why do you think there is this widespread perception that you manipulate men?
A. It's hard once you get labeled as something like that; it's hard to work that label off. You know, it seems like society loves to tear down a successful woman, you know, and really not even just a successful woman. People are like piranhas. They see something–they see a chance, they see something bad, or dirty, and they just love to tear it up. . . any kind of gossip, oh, look at this, look at this, and, believe me, I see it every day in here. You cannot show a moment of weakness. You show a moment of weakeness, they'll eat you alive. . . .
[Michelle begins to explain the trip that she and Diamond took to Florida on Feb. 8, 2001, returning February 12. She dropped him off at her sister Deborah Dvorak's home in Florida, and she visited her friends. She and Diamond returned to her home in Fayetteville on February 12. That same day, Army Sgt. Peyton Donald, who had loaned his 9-mm Smith & Wesson handgun to Diamond, called Diamond, in the presence of authorities, and asked him to return it.]
Q. Did you hear Diamond's conversation with Sergeant Donald?
A. No.
Q. Do you know anything about it?
A. No, when we got to the house, he [Diamond] actually said, I need to take a shower, can I go take a shower? I said, yes–use the guest bathroom. He went back and took a shower. . . I wasn't aware that he received any phone calls. I don't remember any conversations, but he came back out and said–
Q. After his shower.
A. Yeah, he came back [and said]. . . Let's go get something to eat. . . I remember telling him I really didn't want to go out because it was getting dark, [but]. . . I said, OK, I figured I could stop and get gas and get milk. So, as we are leaving, we get in the car, er, he gets in his car, I get in my car, as we are leaving. . . that's when he told me. . . I forgot, I need to sign into the barracks [at Fort Bragg] before 5 o'clock; otherwise. I would be considered AWOL, whatever. All this time that I've known him, I thought he lived in the barracks. He told me he lived in the barracks. I didn't find out until after he was convicted. . . that he was supposedly living with his wife all this time. But, so he said meet me at the Kentucky Fried Chicken, and I said, OK, so he leaves, I stop, I get gas, because he's got to go to the barracks, that will take a few minutes. I didn't go to the grocery store–I just figured that wouldn't be enough time. I go to the Kentucky Fried Chicken, I go inside, I am sitting there waiting for him, I'm waiting, I'm waiting. I don't have my cellphone. . . It's been like 15 minutes by now that I have been sitting there waiting. . . . I don't know where he is. . . . So, I go and drive by the barracks. . . he comes out of the barracks and he flags me down, and I asked him, where's your car? And he says, I parked it across the street [in the Gavin Hall parking lot]. . . let's go get something to eat. So we go back to Kentucky Fried Chicken, we get something to eat. I bring him back to his car. We pull up to his car, and the window is broken. And he says, oh, no, my window's broken. I didn't say anything. So, he gets out, he walks around, he looks, he says, drive me back to the barracks. I take him back to the barracks, he goes inside, and. . . he calls the military police. I take him back over there [to his car], we wait for the police. . . . At some point, he tells me that, I think it's after the military police arrived, that his military weapon has been stolen out of the car. And I'm thinking of his bayonet because. . . several times I've seen the bayonet that goes on the end of the, I don't know if it's the M-16 or whatever, has been in the trunk of the car. And several times when I've seen it, he said, 'Oh, I can get in trouble for having this in my car. I really need to take this out.' And, so the police end up arresting him and taking him away [for having had an unregistered handgun in his car]. . . .
Part 8: Sex, manipulation, and "swing clubs"
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