Until Proven Guilty

by Rachel Sinclair

  Mom was shaking. I had never seen her so scared.

  “Tell me again about reasonable doubt?” she asked me. I had gone over her testimony, and all my trial preparation, for hours on end. Most of the time, she was distracted, so I realized that a lot of what I said to her probably did not sink in.

  “Reasonable doubt is just that,” I said. “Any kind of doubt in a person’s mind that you did it. The jury doesn’t have to be convinced either way. It’s not up to me to have to prove something one hundred percent. In fact, the burden of proof is on the prosecutor, not me. The prosecutor is the one who has to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt. I don’t think that he can. So, please relax. I got this.”

  “If you got this, then why am I still going to trial? Why has this case not been thrown out like yesterday’s garbage? I don’t understand why I’m still going to trial in this.”

  I shook my head. There was no getting through to her. I could stand there and talk to her until I was blue in the face, and it wasn’t going to do a bit of good. I had tried to tell her, over and over, that I suspected corruption in the prosecutor’s office. Corruption that I was just going to have to show on the stand.

  “Mom, please, just trust me. For once in your life, can you just do that? Trust me? And trust Harper?”

  Mom looked skeptical. “I’ll trust Harper. I think she’s a good lawyer.”

  I wanted to slap her. Here I was, her son, and she was openly saying that she didn’t trust me, but that she trusted my partner.

  I should not have been offended, but I was.

  “Come on, Mom. Let’s go into the courtroom.”

  We went into the doors of the large Art Deco 1920s era courthouse. One thing about this courthouse, it was as grand as the art museum that was just off of The Country Club Plaza. Well, not quite as grand as that art museum, but I always liked the interior of the lobby of this courthouse. The ceilings were about 30 feet tall, the floor was marble, and the ceilings were pure art. It was an old-school courthouse, in every sense of the word, but, at least when it came to the lobby, that was a good thing.

  The actual courtrooms, they were another story. They were cramped, too hot in the wintertime and too cold in the summertime. They needed to be renovated, and I would not have been surprised to find out that they had not been updated since they were built in the 1920s.

  We made our way to the elevators, and into the courtroom. It was time to go in and do any kind of pretrial motions that we needed to do, pick a jury, and get the show on the road. I was kind of anxious to do all of that.

  The judge in this case was named Judge Watkins. He was a relatively new judge, having come out of the public defender’s office, so I was happy that I drew him. Because he was a public defender, prosecutors didn’t like him, because of the perception that he was a defendant’s judge. Personally, I didn’t think he was. I thought he was fair. But then again, maybe I was just biased.

  Kevin was already there, standing in front of the judge. The second chair was Tim Byrd. Both Kevin and Tim were known to be pretty top drawer prosecutors, and I knew that in this case that they were going to be going for the jugular. I was going to have to be on my toes, prepared for anything.

  “Hello, counselor,” Judge Watkins said in a friendly manner as I walked through the door. “I was just talking with Mr. Williams, and he says that he doesn’t really have any major pretrial motions to bring up, however he reserves the right to bring in motions in limines at any point in time in the case. I was wondering if you had any pretrial motions of your own?”

  “No, your honor,” I said.

  “Okay, then, let’s bring in the jury panel and get this show on the road,” he said. “Let the circus begin.”

  Let the circus begin was Judge Watkins trademark phrase. It always made me smile, as I thought of clowns and elephants and tigers dancing on platforms. Fire-breathers, and, back in the day, bearded ladies and giants and dwarfs and others who were deemed by society to be misfits and “freaks.”

  It was usually a fitting metaphor for a trial, really. Because they usually turned into some kind of a semblance of a three-ring circus, with feats of strength and sleights of hand dazzling the audience, AKA the jury.

  Four hours later, we had our jury.

  And the circus was truly going to begin.

  I just hoped that I didn’t fall off the high-wire.

  Chapter 27

  Opening statements were afoot, and Kevin came out with his.

  Kevin’s greatest strength, in my estimation, was his charm and his disarming smile. I knew that he had a way with the ladies, because he could talk an Eskimo into buying an electric fan for his igloo, and he just had a droll wit and effervescent way of talking, and he could really sell anything to a jury. Plus, he spoke on their level, never trying to talk above them. He really made a person feel that he was one of them, no matter if that person was homeless or a multi-millionaire. It was a rare talent, one that I admired.

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury,” Kevin said, his smile engaging and huge, “the facts of this case are really pretty simple. A man, Dr. Dunham, is dead. The reason why he is dead is because the defendant supplied him with drugs the night that he died, and he overdosed on these drugs. Now, I know when I went through voir dire that several of you were skeptical that the facts of this case would warrant a murder charge, but let me remind you of the concept of felony murder. This means that if a person dies during the commission of a felony, then the person who committed that felony can be found liable for that person’s death. And let me remind you that distribution of drugs is a felony in the State of Missouri. The statute is called Delivery of a Controlled Substance, and to be guilty of this felony, a person must knowingly deliver a controlled substance. That would mean that, when the defendant gave the deceased heroin, she was delivering a controlled substance, which, in turn, made her guilty of a Class C felony. The evidence will show that this is what happened the night of July 13 - Olivia Ward gave Dr. Tracy Dunham heroin. When Dr. Dunham died, therefore, he died during the commission of a felony. That would fulfill the elements of a felony murder case here in the State of Missouri.

  And that’s really all there is to it in this case. The defendant supplied the deceased with drugs, and the deceased died from ingesting these drugs. You will hear a toxicologist who will testify that Dr. Dunham died of an overdose of pure heroin. You will hear a chemist who works for the Kansas City Police Department testify that a vial of blood pressure medicine that was seized from the defendant’s home was tested and was found to be pure heroin, the same type of heroin that was found in the bloodstream of the deceased. Both the heroin found in the bloodstream of the deceased was diamorphine hydrochloride, the very purest form of the drug known to man. The street name for this particular strain of heroin is China White, and it is an often lethal strain that is responsible for many deaths across the country. This establishes that the defendant gave the deceased a pill that was pure heroin and the deceased died from the ingestion of this heroin pill. This deadly heroin pill.

  Now, I know that there were a few of you who were skeptical that a murder charge was the appropriate charge in this case, but, after you hear the evidence, you will agree with me that a murder charge is the only charge that is appropriate in this case. The defendant gave pure heroin to a man, and this man is dead. Pure heroin is lethal, much more lethal than other strains that are not pure, but are mixed with other substances. The defendant might as well have given the deceased poison that night. Think of it that way - think of the pure heroin as being a poison, because that’s the way it operates in the bodies of those who aren’t used to the drug. It’s poison.

  Thank you very much for your attention to this case. I know that all of you have responsibilities that don’t make coming to jury duty easy to do. It’s your civic responsibility, and I know that all of you will take that responsibility seriously. After hearing the evidence, I will respectfully ask for a verdict of guilty on all counts. Thank you a
gain.”

  Kevin sat down, and I stood up. He was good, very good. Succinct. Didn’t waste his words or beat around the bush. Just told them straight up what he was going to prove, and, I had to admit, if he actually could prove that the drug found in my mother’s medicine cabinet was the same strain of pure heroin that was found in Tracy’s bloodstream, I was going to have a hard time trying to convince the jury not to convict.

  I suddenly realized that my battle might be more uphill than I originally thought. But, I had faced long odds before, and I would face them again. I simply had to do the best I could with the facts that I had.

  I went over to the jury box and looked all of them in the eye.

  “Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’ll admit one thing. Mr. William was good in his opening statement. Very good. Hell, if the facts were as he said they were, I’d convict my client.”

  The jury laughed lightly at my little joke, which was encouraging. I was getting them to warm up to me, and that was important.

  “But, unfortunately for Mr. Williams, the facts aren’t as black and white as he says. First of all, I will present evidence that the drug that was taken out of my client’s medicine cabinet was blood pressure medicine. Nifedipine. Nothing more and nothing less. It was tested at the lab, and the results came back that it was diamorphine hydrochloride, otherwise known as China White, otherwise known as pure heroin. The purest form of heroin. But here’s the thing, ladies and gentlemen - I will show you just how easy it would be for a policeman on the scene to replace a normal prescription drug with a street drug. How easy it would be to frame somebody.

  Secondly, the state will show that my client was administered a urinalysis at her home that showed the presence of opiates in her system. However, you will hear evidence that my client was actually taking an antibiotic that night called Ciprofloxacin, commonly known as Cipro. You will hear testimony from an expert witness who will establish that this antibiotic is commonly the cause of urinalysis false positives, specifically that it tends to cause false positives for opioids. So, in other words, things are not as they seem.

  Here is what my evidence is going to show. My evidence will show that the heroin that was ingested by Dr. Dunham was accidentally ingested by him. Dr. Dunham thought that he was taking Oxycontin. Dr. Dunham was addicted to Oxycontin. Oxycontin was a drug of choice for him. However, there is no evidence that Dr. Dunham had ever taken heroin willingly. So, if you’re a user who is not used to heroin in any way, shape, or form, it stands to reason that if you are exposed to an extremely pure form of the drug, you probably will overdose. In fact, that’s a common reason why heroin addicts do overdose – they are exposed to a form of the drug that is more pure than what they’re used to, therefore they are apt to overdose on just a small amount.

  And how did he come to be exposed to heroin? How did he come to accidentally take it, thinking it was Oxycontin? That, ladies and gentlemen, is the result of a conspiracy. You see, Dr. Dunham was working on something that is extremely dangerous to the pharmaceutical industry. The pharmaceutical industry relies upon you getting sick. It relies on you getting hurt. Suffering is its raison d’être. And one thing that needs to be known is that the opioid business is an extremely lucrative one for all pharmaceutical companies. According to a pharmaceutical analysis firm, Informa Pharma Intelligence, annual opioid sales will hit $18.4 billion by 2020. That’s billion with a B. In other words, opioids are a cash cow for the pharmaceutical industry. Never mind the fact that opioids are a cause of so much misery in this country. The opioid epidemic has led to the heroin epidemic, as opioid users go on the black market to get their fix when they’re turned away from the medical establishment. This is after said medical establishment did all they could to get the people addicted in the first place.

  So what would happen if a doctor pioneered an effective alternative to opioids? What if a doctor not only pioneered this effective opioid alternative, but that doctor was getting national attention for his technique, had plans to nationalize it, and had the goal of making his technique the standard of care for doctors around the country? Could you imagine anything more disruptive to the pharmaceutical industry? If that came to pass, and a doctor truly came up with a technique that effectively ended pain without drugs, the pharmaceutical industry would lose billions of dollars in sales every year. Imagine all the shareholders in these pharmaceutical companies losing their investments. Imagine the stocks for these companies plummeting, as they could no longer effectively push their opioids down patients’ throats anymore. The country would benefit greatly if there could be a national technique that could resolve pain without drugs. The pharmaceutical industry, not so much. Remember, the raison d’être is your suffering. Without people suffering, they would not exist.

  You might be sitting there wondering where I’m going with this. Well, I will tell you where I’m going with this. My evidence will show that Dr. Dunham was a major threat to the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, he was a threat to Osiris Inc. Osiris Inc. is a relatively small pharmaceutical firm. It only does about $500 million in sales a year. That might seem like a lot, but when you understand that the big pharmaceutical companies do billions in sales a year, you understand that Osiris was a small player in the realm of the larger industry. And, Osiris was not a diversified firm. It’s main thrust was manufacturing opioids. It did $500 million in sales annually, and $400 million of those sales were opioids. Oxycodone, Hydrocodone, Fentanyl. Opioids.

  So when you think about a small pharmaceutical company where 80% of their sales come from opioids, you realize that this company is seriously at risk if anybody came along with the disruptive technique that would make their main product obsolete. Which is what Dr. Dunham did. That made him dangerous.

  And consider this. Dr. Dunham’s brother, Robert, was the main shareholder of Osiris. This is important, because the two brothers were estranged. The bad blood began when Dr. Dunham had an affair with his brother’s wife, Naomi, while Naomi was still married to Robert Dunham. This was the cause of Robert and Naomi’s divorce, which, in turn, caused Robert to become estranged from his five children with Naomi. Robert Dunham was an heir to the Dunham fortune, and he came into his $100 million inheritance when he was 21 years old. With that $100 million, he helped found Osiris pharmaceuticals. Like Osiris, he was not diversified. Most of his wealth was tied up in Osiris. So, Robert Dunham, a man so manipulative and vengeful that he prevented Dr. Dunham from getting his inheritance from the Dunham fortune, saw that his brother, his hated brother, was going to go big with a technique that threatened his bottom line. If Dr. Dunham’s procedure became nationalized, to the point where opioids eventually became obsolete, or, at the very least, sales dramatically lessened, then Robert Dunham stood to lose a fortune.

  So Robert Dunham came up with a plan to eliminate his brother. Robert Dunham knew that his brother was addicted to Oxycontin. He knew that Dr. Dunham saw a pharmaceutical rep by the name of Sharita Vance every week. Ms. Vance was involved in an agreement with Dr. Dunham to provide him with Oxycontin in exchange for money. Money under the table for her. Ms. Vance was a woman who had issues. Specifically, she had gambling debts. She saw a chance to make some money, and she took it. Specifically, her chance to make some money involved giving Dr. Dunham a pill that was pure heroin, not the usual Oxycontin that she delivered to Dr. Dunham. Robert Dunham was the mastermind of this particular nefarious plot, and Ms. Vance was the deliverer.

  Also, Osiris was in talks to merge with a larger pharmaceutical company. Sisto, a pharmaceutical company that does 20 billion annually, was in talks with Osiris, because they were interested in acquiring them. Osiris knew that if they lost their main source of income, namely opioids, they would not have a very good position in this merger. You will hear evidence that Sisto was concerned that Osiris was not diversified, and was concerned that Dr. Dunham was going to make opioids effectively obsolete. You will hear evidence that Robert Dunham reassured Sisto that he was taking care of the Dr.
Dunham issue.

  You may conclude that greed was behind this murder. And you would not be wrong. The fact of the matter is, Dr. Dunham was a big threat to Osiris, and to the pharmaceutical industry in general. He was a threat, and so he was eliminated. It’s as simple as that.

  My client had nothing to do with this person’s death. She was sitting at home, minding her own business, when Dr. Tracy Dunham came to her house. She was not doing drugs. In fact, she was sick with a urinary tract infection for which she took antibiotics. Remember, these are the antibiotics that caused a false-positive on the urinalysis that was given to her. She was minding her own business, she let him sleep on her couch, she woke up, and he was dead. She did not give him any drugs. She did not have any drugs on her premises, nor did she have drugs on her person. She was completely innocent in this situation. She let him sleep on her couch, because he’d been thrown out by his wife. And now she’s up for murder, proving the old axiom that no good deed goes unpunished.

  This, ladies and gentle man, is the real story on what happened here. It’s not as black-and-white, open and shut, as the prosecutor will lead you to believe. It’s much more complex. My evidence will point to the real story, and you will have no choice but to acquit my client on all charges. Thank you very much.”

  I sat down, and looked over at Kevin. He knew where I was going with this, what my case was going to hinge on. He was sitting there smiling, and shaking his head. I think he thought I was crazy. I thought the same thing about him.

  The judge nodded his head. “Okay, both counselors have given their opening statements. I would like to take a five minute break, and then the state will put on their side of the evidence.”