COP WHO SHOT COP TAKES STAND — BOTH SIDES REST; HAWAII DOCTOR'S WIFE TESTIFIES ON HER BIRTHDAY

0:03 Kalaroga Shark Media. Good morning. I'm Garrett Fisher. Friday, March twenty seventh, twenty twenty six. We have two cases today and I'm going to be honest with you about both of them. The first one doesn't give me a clean villain. It gives me a woman who may have tried to kill herself and an officer who says she pointed the gun at him, and both of them testified under oath this week, and the trial is over and a judge is now going to decide which one is telling the truth. The Kelsey Fitzsimmons cop on cop shooting trial three days, both sides rested. We'll walk through all of it. The second one gives me a very clear picture. Gerhard Koenig is an anesthesiologist. He knows exactly what syringes do. He packed them in a bag before taking his wife on a birthday hike to a cliff side lookout in Hawaii, and this week, one year to the day after that hike, his wife sat in a Honolulu courtroom and told a jury what happened up there on that trail. Let's get into it. Case one state versus Kelsey Fitzsimmons, North Andover, Massachusetts.

1:16 Some of you have been with this show since season one. You know this case. Reid covered it multiple times, the backstory, the bail nightmare, the judge drama. If you need the foundation, check those episodes. Here's the short version for everyone else. June thirtieth, twenty twenty five, North Andover, Massachusetts. Kelsey Fitzsimmons, twenty nine years old, former North Andover police officer, new mother, four month old infant at home. Three of her colleagues show up to serve a restraining order obtained by her fiance, Justin Eilion. The order requires her to surrender her firearms and hand over the baby. What happened next is the entire trial. Prosecution says fitz Simmons raised a gun and pointed it at Officer Patrick Noonan, pulled the trigger. The only reason he's alive is that the chamber was empty.

2:09 Noonan then shot her in the chest. Defense says fitz Simmons raised the gun to her own head. She was in postpartum crisis. She wanted to end her life, not anyone else's. She survived. She was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon. She's been fighting this case ever since. Reid covered the bail situation extensively. She spent more than one hundred days in jail because she couldn't blow into a breathalyzer tube hard enough. She'd been shot in the chest. The lung damage made it physically impossible. The judge told her to comply or stay jailed. She stayed jailed. That whole chapter is in the archive if you want it. Here's what's new the trial, and I mean the whole trial, because it happened in three days Monday through Wednesday of this week, and by Wednesday afternoon, both sides had rested.

2:57 We're already at verdict pending before we get into testimony. There's a decision that was made a week before trial started. Kelsey Fitzsimmons waived her right to a jury trial. She asked for a bench trial. One judge, no jury. Judge Jeffrey Karp will be the sole person who decides this case. That's a significant strategic call. Defense attorneys choose bench trials when they think a judge will be more rational than a jury, when the facts are complex, when there's emotion in the case that might push a jury towards sympathy. For the wrong side, or when the legal standard is the point and a judge is better equipped to apply it cleanly. It's not a sign of weakness, but it is a tell Fitzsimmons' team thinks they have the law on their side, and they want a lawyer making the decision, not twelve people who might have complicated feelings about police and guns and postpartum depression and domestic situations all at once.

3:53 Let me walk you through the three days, day one, Monday, March twenty third. Opening statements execution came out straightforward. Fitzsimmons had a service weapon and two other guns in the home. When confronted with the restraining order, her demeanor changed. She lunged behind a doorframe. She reappeared with a gun. She pointed it at Noonan. She pulled the trigger. The only reason Officer Noonan went home to his family that night is that there was no round in the chamber. Defense attorney Tim Braddle countered her fiance had obtained a restraining order full of untested allegations. Three officers showed up to her home in front of her colleagues and friends to take her child. Her life was over. In her mind.

4:36 She raised the gun to her own head. The other officers were not in the room at the time, and Noonan, the defense argues, had to create a story to save himself. Read that last sentence again. The defense is saying Officer Patrick Noonan fabricated his account of events because he needed a justification for having shot his colleague. That's the theory. Then the witnesses, Justin Aleyan, Fitzsimmons' ex fiance, testified about what led to the restraining order. He'd seen disturbing messages from fitz Simmons. He said he thought his son's life was in danger. He'd gone to pick up his firearms the day before, he said, out of concern that detail the father removing his own guns from the home because he feared the mother is going to stick with the judge.

5:25 Then Officer Patrick Noonan took the stand. Noonan gave his version of events. He was there to serve the order and help retrieve the child. Fitz Simmons was told about the restraining order. She went upstairs to pack a bag for the baby. She was visibly upset, starting to shake. She went to one knee, was gathering clothes, and then he said she lunged behind the doorframe, reappeared with a gun pointed at him, pulled the trigger, no rounding chamber. He screamed her name, drew his weapon, shot her twice as she was back pedaling. Also on day one, Sean day in North Anna officer who was in the lobby at the time. He heard someone say Kelsey, don't do it.

6:06 He ran upstairs, he heard shots. He found fit Simmons on the ground. She was saying, and this is what he reported, I'm sorry and I want to die. I want to die. The defense will tell you those are the words of a woman in suicidal crisis. The prosecution will tell you those are the words of a woman who thought she was going to die because she'd just been shot. Both readings are possible. That's why we have a trial. Day two and Tuesday, March twenty fourth, Noonan returned to the stand for cross examination. And here's where it gets interesting. Noonan was asked whether he had called Kelsey Fitzsimmons a whack job after the shooting. His answer, and I want you to notice exactly how he answered this.

6:52 He said he may have, may have not, No, not, I would never say that about a colleigue legue may have. That is the answer of a man who remembers saying it but is hoping may have does enough work to keep him credible. Other officers testified. Officer Timothy Houston, who was also in the home, said he was downstairs. Alayan was there. Fitz Simmons didn't want him in the house. Houston went to ask him to leave. He was heading downstairs when he heard the gun shots. He didn't see the moment of the shooting. Michelle Mitchell, a corrections officer and one of fitz Simmons's close friends. She was supposed to be a bridesmaid at the wedding, testified that she had spoken to fitz Simmons on June thirtieth before everything happened.

7:39 Fitz Simmons was crying, the baby was crying, and fitz Simmons told her she needed justin. A woman in crisis calling for the man who just had a restraining order filed against her. That's either the profile of a domestic situation that had become untenable, or the profile of a woman who was desperate and not thinking clearly, or both those are not mutually exclusive. Day three, Wednesday, March twenty fifth, the state rested its case in chief. Then the defense began presenting witnesses. First up, Maureen Teresi, Noonan's neighbor. She testified that at some point after the shooting she had a conversation with Patrick Noonan. She'd asked him what was going on at the police department, and Noonan, according to her testimony, told her he was the shooter, said he had no choice, and then she told the court this he called Kelsey Fitzsimmons a whack job. So now we have a second source on the whack job comment. Noonan's own neighbor. Noonan may have said it when asked his neighbors said, says he said it to her directly. I'm going to be honest with you. The value of that testimony depends entirely on how you weigh the word of a man who says may have versus a neighbor who

9:11 says he actually said it. But the pattern it suggests an officer who, after shooting his colleague was immediately casting her as unstable in himself as having no choice, is at minimum worth noting the defense is noting it. Then, Lauren Page, Fitzsimmons's mother, she was at the home that day. She testified about the plan for the afternoon. Kelsey was supposed to do CPR training at work, then meet Aleyan at the North Andover Commons at two thirty Aileayan didn't come. Kelsey was upset. Then three officers showed up and the mother who had been there with her daughter left the house three minutes before the officers arrived. Three minutes then Kelsey Fitzsimmons herself took the stand. She talked about the career path that brought her to North Andover. She talked about a lion. He hadn't been home for days, wasn't responding to her, didn't show up at the Commons like he said he would. Then the restraining order. She said she was confused, wasn't given any of the details, was asked to pack a bag for a two week separation from her infant. And then her account of the gun.

10:21 She decided to take her life. That's what she testified. She was losing everything. At the same time, she pointed the gun toward herself, pulled the trigger, it was unloaded, and then Noonan shot her in the chest. She never intended to hurt anyone else. She denied pointing the gun at Noonan, her exact words reported by Court TV. I had just lost everything. The defense rested. Both sides are done. Judge Carp will decide. Here's where I land on this, and I mean it plainly. There are two completely opposite accounts of what happened in that upstairs room, and nobody else was there except Nonan and Fitzsimmons. The other officers were not in the room at the moment of the shooting.

11:06 It comes down to one person's word against another's. Noonan says she pointed the gun at him. Fitzsimmons says she pointed it at herself. One of them is not telling the truth. The judge has to decide which one. What I will say, the system that sent a woman four months out of childbirth to jail for more than one hundred days because a bullet wound stopped her from blowing into a tube, that system failed her before this trial ever started. Whether or not she's guilty of assault with a dangerous weapon, she deserved better than those one hundred days. That's not in dispute. That's just the record. We'll follow this to verdict, Judge Carp. The floor is yours. We'll be right back. Gerhardt Koenig is an anesthesiologist who brought syringes on his wife's birthday hike, and this week, one year later, she told a jury exactly what he said to her while he was using them. Case two State versus.

12:11 Gerhart Koenig, Honolulu, Hawaii. We've been covering this since it opened on March nineteenth. Quick context for anyone just joining. Gerhart Koenig is a forty eight year old anesthesiologist from Maui. On March twenty fourth, twenty twenty five, he and his wife, Ariel traveled to Oahu to celebrate her birthday. She had never been on the highkey planned on a narrow trail above the Nuanu poly Lookout. Prosecutors say he tried to murder her. He is charged with second degree attempted murder. He has pleaded not guilty. The thing about this case that I keep coming back to, that I've been coming back to since March twentieth is the syringes. He is an anesthesiologist. He knows exactly what those syringes do. He knows the chemistry, he knows the effect. He packed them before a birthday hike to a cliff side lookout. That's not something you accidentally have in a trail bag. That's not your insulin or your EpiPen. That is a specific tool that a person who knew exactly what it could do, deliberately brought to a location where another person would be isolated above a sheer drop. That's not a mistake. That's a choice, and I want that to sit in the air for a moment before we get into the testimony.

13:30 On Wednesday, this show gave you days one and two, the hikers who ran toward the screaming, the crime scene evidence, the photographs of his face bruising cuts that the defense will use to argue this was a mutual fight. All of that is in Wednesday's episode Go Find It Today. Day three, Tuesday, March twenty fourth, twenty twenty six. Ariel Koenig took the stand on her birthday, exactly one year to the day after her husband allegedly tried to kill on that trail. Let me walk you through it the marriage context from the stand. Ariel Koenig is a nuclear engineer. She described what had been happening in the marriage in the months leading up to the trip. She had what she characterized as an emotional affair with a married coworker in Washington State. They never met in person. It was flirtatious WhatsApp messages. They had a code word h E L e U to let her know when Gerhart was nearby and she should be careful. Gearhart found out in December twenty twenty four. She described the period after that as strained. They went to couples therapy, they went to individual therapy, and she told the jury that as they boarded the flight to Oahu, she genuinely believed this birthday trip was a turning point. I felt hopeful that this was going to be a nice trip that kind of started the next chapter for us, she testified. The morning of my March twenty fourth, they woke up at their hotel,

15:02 had breakfast. Gearhart gave Ariel a birthday gift, a necklace and a card. The defense asked her to read the card out loud to the jury. She became emotional. The card referred to her as angel Face. He called her angel face that morning. Then, according to the prosecution, he packed syringes and walked her toward a cliff. The hike. Ariel testified that she grew uncomfortable on the trail. The path was narrow, there were cliff faces. I wasn't enjoying myself, she told the jury. I told Gerhart, I'm not having fun. I don't want to keep going. I'm going to stop here.

15:43 They turned around, and then she said Gearhart proposed taking a selfie. She was standing approximately ten feet from the cliff's edge. She said she noticed his behavior was odd, and then he grabbed me really forcefully my upper arms, and he said, I'm so so sick of this. Get back over there, and he starts pushing me back toward the cliff. She said, it felt almost like he was kidding. At first, I was like, what are you doing? She wasn't kidding back. She threw herself onto the ground. They wrestled. He got on top of her. She testified that he had a syringe in his hand. She batted it away, and then he told her, shut up. Nobody's going to hear you out here. Nobody's coming to save you. Nobody's coming to save you. The man who gave her a birthday card that morning told her nobody was coming to save her. She pleaded with him, you can't do it, she said, you know our kids will be orphans. You'll go to jail, and I'll be dead. He appeared to calm for a moment. She testified she thought for a second that she had a window to get out. I was like, Okay, this is the break. I can get it out. He picked up a rock. He just starts hitting my face and my head with a rock. I just started screaming because in my mind he's trying to knock me unconscious to drag me over the edge. So I'm just screaming as much as I could. She estimated

17:15 she was hit approximately ten times. Two nurses hiking together heard the screaming. They ran toward it, and that's why Ariel Koenig is alive. Cross examination, the defense did what it had to do. On cross They went after the inconsistencies and the financial decisions. Ariel conceded that she suffered no facial or skull fractures during the attack. The treating physician described her injuries as severe lacerations requiring stitches, crushed tissue down to the skull, and small pieces of rock embedded in her skin. The court also heard that the physician couldn't definitively say how many times she was struck, but no fractures. The defense also got her to acknowledge with drawing one hundred and twenty three thousand from the couple's joint bank account, which she said she used to pay bills, tuition, household expenses, debt. And there's a detail about timing that the defense made sure the jury heard Ariel moved money from a joint account to an account in only her name four days before she asked her personal physician to add traumatic brain injury to the list of injuries she had sustained. The defense is planting a flag there the implication she was managing the money before she was managing the medical record. I'm not going to draw a conclusion from that, but I'm also not going to pretend the defense didn't put it in front of the jury intentionally. There was also the scuffle exchange, which is going to stick with me for a while. Defense counsel described the incident as a scuffle. Ariel Koenig pushed back,

18:49 I consider scuffle to be like a back and forth, like a wrestling thing. I would call it an attack versus a scuffle. When asked what she was fighting for during the altar, she said, my life and the ability to see my kids again. The trial continues Wednesday and Friday of next week. Ariel Konig is expected to still be on the stand. Her cross examination may continue. The defense has signaled Gerhart Koenig might testify, it is still not confirmed. Here's what I keep coming back to, and I'll be direct about it. Gerhart Koenig had an eighteen month window to get ahead of this. After December when he found out about the WhatsApp messages. He could have filed for divorce. He could have walked away. He could have done anything that a person who is hurt and angry and betrayed does that does not involve syringes and a cliff side. Instead, he researched the hike, he planned the trip, he presented his wife with a necklace and a card that called her Angel Face, and then he walked her to the edge of a cliff. The defense says this was a spontaneous fight that escalated, that there were no syringes, that Ariel started it, that he reacted as any human being would react. I'm going to say what I've thought since the beginning of this coverage. Spontaneous fights don't require a packed bag reflex doesn't require preparation.

20:13 If the defense theory is true, somebody explained to me what's in the bag. We'll be back on this next week. That's Daily Crime Injustice, Friday, March twenty seventh, twenty twenty sixth Kelsey Fitzsimmons. Both sides have rested in the bench trial. Judge Jeffrey Karp will decide whether she pointed that gun at a colleague or at herself. A hundred days in jail on the way to this verdict, we'll bring you the decision. Ariel Koenig took the stand on her birthday, one year to the day, and told a Honolulu jury that her husband told her nobody was coming to save her. Somebody came. Two nurses on a hike. The trial continues. Ariel Koenig, remember her, do better. F