Cash says that testimony will shatter claims by the Orellana family that Sandy didn't like Salazar. "I think the thing that Robert is looking forward to -- and that's probably not the right term to use -- but Robert wants the chance at least to have 12 people look at [the evidence] and, frankly, reach the same thing the L.A. prosecutors apparently reached: that there is nothing there to blame this guy for.
"There are plenty of guys out there who shudder at the thought of something bad that could have happened to them. A traffic accident if they're with the wrong person or any of a number of things. Well, Robert's nightmare came true."
Sandra Orellana (left) with former roommate Dey Gonzalez-Lopez.
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So did Sandra Orellana's.
In the early days of the investigation, homicide detectives in Los Angeles spent as much time retrieving messages and returning phone calls as they did gathering evidence. "After the incident, it would not be unusual for me to come to work and have in excess of 50 phone messages, from all over," says Ray Rodriguez.
Most of those calls were from reporters. But the LASD also received numerous tips that the Orellana family believes reflect the true nature of Sandy's relationship with Salazar. Christy Khyle, a close friend and sorority sister of Orellana's at Loyola, reported that Sandy wanted to file a sexual-harassment complaint against her boss, but didn't want to jeopardize a possible promotion.
Orellana's aunt, Olga Delgado, called the LASD to report that her niece "was not promiscuous" and had been so affected by her parents' divorce that she took her "exclusive relationship" very seriously. According to Delgado, Orellana had mentioned that Salazar was upset she was going to Hong Kong to see her boyfriend.
Charles Black, another college friend of Orellana's, told detectives he was "shocked" by the media's portrayal of Sandy. Black said that having sex with a married man, especially her boss on a hotel balcony, "seemed out of character" for Orellana.
Cash argues that such statements are transparently biased. What's more telling is that throughout the civil case's discovery process, he has seen no evidence to suggest his client was ever a threat to Orellana. "We've asked, we've waited," Cash says. "There has not been a single person who has testified, there's not a single record at any of his employers, where anybody has made any type of written or oral complaint. There's not a shred of evidence that he has ever sexually harassed anybody, ever."
Cash is liable to get some help on that issue from Skillmaster employees. Mark Ryman, the company's vice president of operations, says he "absolutely disagrees" with the Orellana family's allegations. "Sandy was always real sweet, kind, very friendly," Ryman says. "But nobody who was there at the time believed there was anything going on between her and Robert. I wonder to this day what went on out there, but I'm not sure we'll ever know."
While Ryman might not have a bias as strong as the Orellana family's, it's a bias nonetheless: He's got the job Salazar was about to be promoted to when he was arrested. Likewise, other Skillmaster employees are unlikely to dish up anything that might jeopardize their jobs.
That leaves the physical evidence, which is easily the dullest of all the elements in this ignoble tale. To be sure, it can't compare with the occasional request still taken at the front desk at the Industry Hills Sheraton for a night in room 813. However, every complex physics principle, every mind-numbing calculation involving drag forces and free-fall duration, will carry greater significance than all the speculation from both sides combined -- and in more ways than one, they will be much more revealing: Even if their lawyer means to destroy Salazar's story, Violeta and Hugo Orellana will be forced to watch repeated re-creations of it.
So will a jury. Unfortunately this has always been the story of the woman who died while having sex on a hotel balcony, and it may be expecting too much from any 12 people to ignore the question, Did she or didn't she? For Salazar, the answer could mean vindication or a future criminal prosecution. For the Orellana family, it could finally put to rest the Sandy they know or start them on the road to understanding who she might have been.
For homicide detectives in Los Angeles, the civil case may be nothing more than another long haul toward some version of the truth. Not in the case of lead investigator Ray Rodriguez, who, in the four years since Sandra Orellana's death, has spent thousands of man-hours figuring out where Robert Salazar went wrong. In the end, the answer wasn't all in the evidence.
"To me, from what I know of this case," says Ray Rodriguez, "consensual sex would be out of the question. There is just no way."by brian wallstinJoe Forkan
