Christmas tree lot, and that the police department would provide the gifts from its Toys-for-Tots program.
Cross-examination exposed numerous holes in Ellisor's testimony, only several of which we shall recount here. First, Ellisor's description of the target audience of the Christmas show was inconsistent with his own testimony and that of other witnesses. Ellisor insisted that he told Knips: "If he would decorate the hall, that we would allow him to sell retail and he would have the exclusive of the thousands of families, the richest families in Miami from the private schools."[10]
Second, Ellisor offered a bevy of conflicting explanations for why he never called the schools to notify them of the show's cancellation or postponement. His first explanation was that he intended the students and teachers to showup on the day of the show, bearing an additional $20,000 in checks. With that money, he would purchase gifts for the students; and with the leverage of the media, he would be able to pressure the convention center *1266 to let the students inside. The students would then help set up the show. The second explanation was that Ellisor told Hines to call the schools on December 2, and that Ellisor would follow up with telephone calls over the next few days. The third explanation was that Ellisor was going to call the teachers on December 2, but he could not because he did not have their home telephone numbers. When forced to admit that he did have them, Ellisor shifted gears to a fourth explanation 