| Monday, September 25, 2006 - 12:26 p.m.
The witness was identified as a friend of the victim's ex-girlfriend. She was interviewed by telephone by members of the Yoknapatawpha County Sheriff's Department. The interview was recorded on a portable audio tape recorder with the witness's knowledge and consent.
- TA = Detective T. Armstrong
- SM = Detective S. Murphy
- TP = Tina Page
SM: Thank you for talking to us. Can you hear us okay?
TP: Yes, I can hear you fine.
SM: Could you please state your name and address, please?
TP: I am Tina Page. I live at 19 Maple Street in Lakeville, Connecticut.
SM: Is it correct that you attended the University of Mississippi?
TP: Yes, I graduated in 2004.
TA: What do you do now?
TP: I'm a gym teacher and I coach both soccer and field hockey at the Hotchkiss School.
SM: What kind of institution is that?
TP: We're a small, private school. Right now, we have about 550 students, prep through seniors in high school.
SM: When you were at Ole Miss, did you know Jamie Washington?
TP: Yes, I knew him.
TA: How did you meet him?
TP: I was on the fencing team at Ole Miss. Jamie dated one of my teammates, Yvonne Bremer.
SM: And what did you think of Jamie?
TP: I didn't particularly care for him.
TA: Why not?
TP: He was kind of arrogant. Plus, I resented all the perks that he got as a football player. I was pretty radical at the time in my view of athletics and how men and women are treated differently. Part of being young, I suppose.
SM: What kind of perks?
TP: Oh, you know. Football players got tutors, free rent, free medical, you name it.
SM: And you didn't think they deserved it?
TP: Absolutely not.
TA: But surely, Ms. Page, you understand the argument that football brings in the money that pays for club sports like fencing. Every weekend in football season, there are 45,000 people in the stadium. How many turned out for your fencing matches?
TP: Oh, I realize that all right. And I didn't have any problem with the stars getting whatever they want. The name players, the All-Americans, they bring people into the stands. They get attention for the school. As far as I'm concerned, they should get cars, money, whatever they want. But it's the benchwarmers who have the privileged attitude. That's what I couldn't stand. After Jamie's injury, he was an outcast on the football team. They hated his guts and he never got to play. But yet, he still got all the special treatment. He was still flaunting all his money, buying Yvonne's stuff, bragging around us.
SM: Like what?
TP: He would complain about how the whirlpool was broken and he couldn't relax after practice. Or he would gripe about how flight to Gainesville had been bumpy. Meanwhile, we would be crammed seven or eight people in a car driving that same trip. He just had no conception of how other athletes struggled.
SM: I have to admit, this is one of the first times we've heard anything about Jamie's arrogance. Are you sure that you weren't being overly sensitive?
TP: No, I wasn't. But, even if I was, it was all true anyway.
SM: You mentioned Jamie and his injury. How much did you know about his involvement with the football team?
TP: Not much. It was common knowledge. Everyone knew that he was an outcast and that he was Coach Tunney's whipping boy. That was no secret on campus. But beyond that, I didn't know very much.
SM: Did you know anything about Jamie and money?
TP: No.
TA: You never heard anything about him having money problems?
TP: No, although it wouldn't have surprised me with the way he showered Yvonne with gifts.
SM: When did Yvonne and Jamie break up?
TP: I don't remember exactly. I think it was early spring. Around February or March or so.
SM: Do you know why they broke up?
TP: I think Yvonne just got tired of him. Plus, she and Hugh were talking again. So Jamie just fell by the wayside.
TA: Did you know Hugh Faber?
TP: Sure. How could I not? He practically followed Yvonne everywhere she went.
TA: What was their relationship like?
TP: To me it seemed weird. He was extremely possessive and didn't take well at all to them breaking up. When they got back together, it was as though Yvonne had done something wrong by going out with another guy. He held that against her. I can't understand why she married him.
TA: Did you ever see Hugh being violent in any way?
TP: Not violent, no.
SM: But you had concerns?
TP: Yes, I suppose I did. I still do. He keeps Yvonne on a tight leash. If she wasn't home 15 minutes after practice ended, he would be there at the gym to see what the holdup was. It's like he wanted to control her every interaction. I didn't like it at the time and I still don't.
TA: This behavior has continued?
TP: Sure. In fact I've kind of lost touch with Yvonne because of it. Whenever I call, she always sounds rushed. And then the one time I visited it was too unpleasant for me. It's a shame.
TA: Tell us about the fencing team. How did it operate?
TP: Officially, the fencing team was a club at Ole Miss. At the start of each season, we got a couple of thousand dollars from the school. We also paid dues of $50 at the start of each season. Obviously, there wasn't enough money to pay a coach so usually we elected a captain, a senior for the most part, to run things for that season. We had matches on the weekends and competed all over the south.
SM: How involved were you with the fencing team?
TP: Extremely involved. At one point, I had Olympic aspirations, especially when they added the epee to the women's competition in 2000. But I never had enough time to devote to the sport. Since I didn't get everything handed to me like the football players, I had to wait tables at Pizza Hut and do things like that.
SM: How involved was Yvonne Bremer?
TP: Sort of in the middle. She took the sport seriously, but not too seriously. She worked hard at it, but didn't seem to think of it as anything more than a hobby.
TA: Did Jamie ever attend any of the matches?
TP: Once or twice. Said it was too boring for him and he quit coming.
SM: We're told that you got into a bit of a fight with Jamie one night at a bar and threw your drink at him. Tell us about that.
TP: About what?
TA: What started the fight?
TP: Jamie was just moaning and complaining. He was griping about how hard practice was and how coach wouldn't get off his case. He had also been talking about how he had taken the money he got for books and spent it on something else. So now he was having to try and find a way to buy books. I told him that it must be a nice problem to have... for the school to just hand everyone on the team a couple of hundred dollars. Anyway, it just ballooned from there. He was such a damned crybaby about it. I was in a foul mood because the fencing team had to drop out of a tournament because we were coming up short financially. We couldn't afford the entry fee. Meanwhile, Jamie's sitting there complaining about everything under the sun. I had heard enough.
SM: So then what happened?
TP: I started cussing him out. I told him that he was a loser and that he represented everything that was unjust about sports. I told him that we had girls on our team who were the best in the country but who couldn't compete because they didn't have the money while pansies like him got everything handed to him. It would be different if he were an all-star or something. It just kept escalating and finally, I threw my drink at him and walked out.
SM: What happened after that?
TP: I talked to Yvonne. I told her that I shouldn't have thrown my drink like that but that I wasn't going to apologize to Jamie. I also said that I just wouldn't hang around them when he was there.
TA: Did you remain mad at Jamie?
TP: No, not really. Like I said, I just decided not to spend time with them.
SM: When was the last time you saw Jamie?
TP: I don't recall exactly. It was shortly after that fight. Like I said, I made a conscious decision to avoid him.
SM: Do you know anyone who might have wanted to hurt Jamie?
TP: No, not at all. As I said, I thought he was an ass, but I don't see why anyone would want to do anything to him.
SM: What do you remember about the Red-Blue game and the Double Decker Festival of 2002?
TP: Not that much. It was a good time. We partied a lot and saw some good bands. I remember Jamie making that catch. But that's about it.
SM: You didn't have anything to do with him that weekend?
TP: No.
SM: Do you know if Yvonne saw him at all that weekend?
TP: No, I don't know if she did.
SM: Okay, thanks for your help.
Interview ends 1:30 p.m.
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