The Story:
TROTS: Why did you have testimony from a sperm bank coordinator?
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Assistant state’s attorney Kevin Byrne: Well, on the initial tape, which was August the 4th of 1998, there was a mention of the sperm bank on the tape. And what April was basically saying to the undercover officer was, once her husband was killed there was a sperm bank that she could go to, have Albert’s children, and Edith Appleton, who’s Albert’s mother, would of course want grandchildren because Albert was the sole heir to her fortune. So once Albert was killed, we theorized, April Goodman could go to his elderly mother–she was weak, fragile–and tell her, listen, it’s tragic that Albert is dead, but guess what, his sperm is on file in a sperm bank. Try to convince her that it would be worth her while to turn her fortune over to April because April could have his heirs, his children. Now, whether the sperm was viable or not, we don’t know. Apparently, according to the testimony, she deposited it after vaginal intercourse with him, and whether she got it in in time for it to be viable we don’t know. But her intent was there as evidenced on the tape.
BYRNE: Yeah, it was after vaginal intercourse, and according to the person who got it from her, she basically said that she scraped it off her leg. That’s what everybody was puzzled about, you know, how could she do this without his knowledge–but after an act of coitus she was able to collect it. Now, again, the viability, we don’t know. We don’t know exactly how viable it was, but she told the person–’cause he was wondering, well, how was this collected?–and she told him it was after vaginal intercourse.
