“I was about to tell you. Patel initially said it was in his right hand, but then he said he wasn’t sure. Johnson apparently wasn’t asked about it by the detectives who interviewed him at the scene—at least there was nothing in his statement. It was a question Richard was going to ask when he got here from Colorado, but as you know, he didn’t get here in time.”
“And I suppose you’ve never heard of a telephone?”
Scott didn’t think that called for a response, but he realized Nick’s sarcasm was deserved. He could have and should have had all that information before the trial began.
“Is Harrison right or left handed?” Nick said it very slowly, emphasizing right and left.
“I don’t know, but I’ll find out.”
“You bet your ass you’ll find out if you want a part in this trial. Now where do you plan to start?”
“Right now I don’t know, but I will.” This is beginning to hurt, but Nick is right, thought Scott. And maybe I am a rank amateur.
“Well I know where you should start. You get someone to check with the guards here and at the state prison where he’s been for the past year. We will need a couple witnesses on standby with that information, just in case. Who knows what Gordon will do? He’s corrupt, but he’s also a sharp cross-examiner. He could get Patel or Johnson to say he was holding it in his right hand and then proceed to prove he’s left handed. Or vice-versa. I don’t believe there’s much of a chance for that, but still, we have to prepare for it.” Nick paused, then folded his arms across his chest and gazed silently at pictures on a far wall.
Then, as if to himself, he said, “There are only two witnesses, Patel and Johnson, who have any relevant evidence. Those forensic witnesses don’t add anything.” He paused again.
“You want to drop them?” Scott asked.
Nick turned to face Scott. His voice was calm now. “Of course not. The more the better. You had a good plan at the first trial.”
Scott was pleased to finally hear something positive. The “plan” had been developed by Scott’s former supervisor and mentor, Grady Wilder, who left the DA’s office for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Atlanta the week before the Harrison trial. Initially the Harrison case was Grady’s, with Scott, then still a clinic student, as second chair. During the preparation stage, Grady explained to Scott the need to include the forensic experts and detectives even though they had little or nothing to add to the state’s evidence in this case.
“All major criminal trials need forensic witnesses even if they have nothing relevant. Every legal TV program has them, so every jury expects them. They have to be convinced that the investigation was thorough,” he had advised Scott. But it was Scott who executed the plan, so he accepted Nick’s rare praise without comment.
“I’d like you or Richard to check out Wilborn, the attorney sponsoring Gordon. He’s a Georgia Bar member—I looked him up—but that’s all I know. Also check with all the state bar associations where Gordon’s a member. See if any are investigating him now. Most bar investigations are kept confidential until completed, so that may be difficult. Maybe Richard will have some ideas.”
Nick picked up a pencil and spun it with the thumb and forefinger of his right hand. He cocked his head to the side, obviously in deep thought. Finally, he said, “That’s all I have now, Scott. Trial’s set, but the ball’s in Gordon’s court. We’ll just have to wait on his motions. I’m sure he’ll have some.”
“Yeah, probably. In the meantime, I’ve got some trials to finish, and one is downstairs right now. I better get back down.” Scott stood, walked to the door, where he turned to face Nick. He was about to say, “If you change your mind, I’ll be ready to take the case,” but thought better of it. He substituted, “Congratulations again, Judge,” and walked out.
CHAPTER SIX
September 11, 2007
It was almost 9:00 a.m., and Scott and Jessica were seated at the prosecution table in Courtroom F, waiting for Judge Charles Roberts to enter and call the court to order. Jessica was dressed in a white blouse, navy suit, and matching navy high heels. Her raven hair fell lightly on her shoulders. Scott was pleased that she looked so professional. It was a far cry from her first visit to his office. The one thing that had not changed was the hint of that very special perfume. So far, Scott had refrained from telling her how much he liked it.
During the past two weeks they had met several times to go over Jessica’s preparation for this trial. A young elementary school teacher, Mary Jo Halblest, was on trial for petty larceny of a handbag from one of the stores in Savannah Mall. She obviously wasn’t an experienced shoplifter, as she was quickly caught.
Scott knew very little about the defense attorney, Morrie Goldman. He was from a Savannah civil firm that rarely took criminal cases. They briefly met to consider a plea agreement offered by the state, which included no confinement time and only a fine and community service. Goldman informed Scott that the accused could not enter any guilty plea for fear of losing her job.
The jury selection went smoothly and swiftly. By 10:30, the jury was seated, and Judge Roberts looked down from the bench and addressed Jessica. “You may begin your opening statement.”
Scott watched as she walked to the lectern, placed some notes on it, and began in a calm but forceful voice. “May it please the court, and members of the jury.”
Then she took a step to the side, and continued. “On a late Saturday afternoon last May, a young elementary school teacher walked into Dillard’s at the Savannah Mall. She was carrying a wallet in her right hand, and that was all she was carrying when she entered.
“She walked immediately to a display of handbags. She removed several from the rack, one at a time, quickly replacing each after examining it. Then she removed a blue, solid leather bag with a large flap and a shoulder strap and began to examine it. It had a Fossil brand tag and a price tag attached. The price was one hundred and fifty-eight dollars.”
Jessica paused and turned to face the defendant. “The woman who was examining that bag was the defendant, seated over there.” Jessica pointed to the defendant, then turned again to the jury.
So far, so good, Scott thought. No patter, bromides, or platitudes.
“What the defendant did not know at the time,” Jessica continued, “was that Jim Adams, an experienced store detective was watching. The defendant had caught his eye for reasons he will explain. He watched as she held the bag firmly between her left forearm and abdomen.” Jessica bent slightly to illustrate. “Then she yanked all the visible tags, tearing them away from the bag. She quickly put them inside the bag, placed the leather strap across her shoulder, and walked toward the exit.
“But there was something else the defendant did not know: all of this was captured on a video camera. All of it. And something else she did not know: there was another tag which she had not yanked off. It was a magnetic tag embedded on the inside leather flap. When a bag leaves the store without being demagnetized, it sounds an alarm. And that is what happened a few minutes later when the defendant walked out the store doors.”
Scott was beginning to smile. She obviously had practiced as promised.
“To show you all this,” Jessica continued, “we will be presenting four witnesses. And three short videos. All the pieces will come together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.”
Jessica walked back to the table where Scott was seated. She opened her briefcase, removed a small box, and walked toward the jury. Scott rose from his seat slightly, trying, unsuccessfully, to see inside the box Jessica was carrying.
When she stopped at the jury rail, she placed the box on the top. Then she opened it, removed the contents—pieces of a jigsaw puzzle—and began distributing them to the jury.
“The evidence we will present to you will begin fitting together like these pieces of this jigsaw puzzle,” she said. Her action was so quick, so sudden, and so unexpected that it caught both Scott and the defense attorney by total surprise. They watched as Jessica pa
ssed out the puzzle pieces. Soon all members were holding a piece of a jigsaw puzzle.
“Each piece of evidence we present,” she continued, “will join with the others to present a complete picture that—”
Before she could complete her sentence, Judge Roberts interrupted. “Ms. Valdez, one moment. Bailiff, would you please pick up the items that were just distributed. Members of the jury, would you just pass the pieces forward to the bailiff. Now Ms. Valdez, you may return to the lectern and continue your opening statement.”
Scott now recognized his mistake of not insisting that his intern practice her opening in front of him. And he was thankful that Judge Roberts had not severely reproved her conduct in front of the jury. He apparently recognized that this was an innocent indiscretion by an inexperienced clinic student. Scott wondered if it was his responsibility to have informed her that passing anything to the jury in such a manner was entirely improper. Wouldn’t she have learned that in her Trial Advocacy class at Savannah Law? He made a note of the incident on his yellow pad for the critique later—not that he thought he would forget.
Jessica returned to the lectern. She was still quite composed, calm—the judge’s interruption did not seem to faze her. She took a short step out from the lectern and continued: “Members of the jury. This will be a short, uncomplicated trial. When all the evidence is in and you retire to determine your verdict, I’m confident you will return a verdict that speaks truth and justice—a verdict of guilty.” And with that, she returned to the prosecution table. Except for the zany jigsaw puzzle incident, Scott had to admit that it was a very good opening for a clinic student.
Morrie Goldman moved to the lectern for the defense opening, reminding the jury that the prosecution’s opening was not evidence and that they must withhold judgment until all the evidence was presented. “When we have the opportunity to present our case, and you learn about the impeccable character of this devoted and admired elementary school teacher, Mary Jo Halblest, I’m confident you will find that she committed no crime.”
Jessica’s first witness, store detective Jim Adams, authenticated the first video, showing the defendant entering the store without any handbag. This was followed by the testimony of another security officer and the video showing the defendant yanking the tags from the bag. The direct exam of both witnesses went reasonably well. Questioning technique was a bit wooden, and there were a few awkward moments in presenting the video evidence, but all in all, Scott was pleased with Jessica’s first trial. Goldman had very few questions of either witness on cross-examination.
Just as Jessica was about to call her third witness, Judge Roberts adjourned the court for the noon recess. Scott and Jessica grabbed sandwiches from the snack bar and went to his office to plan the afternoon session. Scott would save his critique of the morning session until the trial was over. His student was already under the pressure of her first jury trial, and any negative criticism at this stage would not be helpful.
But Jessica wanted immediate feedback. “How do you think I’m doing?”
“Jessica, we’ll sit down and have a discussion of the trial on Thursday. That will give you time to personally reflect on the trial, and you can tell me how you think you did. So, Thursday, we’ll go over the trial from beginning to end. But don’t worry—you are doing fine, and the trial is going quite well.”
“Well, how about the opening statement? I worked really hard on the opening. I really don’t see why the judge interrupted me.”
Scott paused before answering. Apparently she was proud of her opening. He would try to be positive now and explain the mistakes later.
“I was pleased with the delivery, Jessica. You looked confident, assured. And the jury was attentive. You even had Judge Roberts’s attention. We’ll discuss the jigsaw puzzle interruption later.”
“I thought that was a good hook. I got it out of a book.”
“A trial advocacy book?”
“Yes. It said opening statements were like a picture on the box of a jigsaw puzzle. The picture shows how the pieces will look when they all come together. So the opening statement is really the picture on the box; I was just trying to illustrate that.”
Scott had seen the analogy in trial advocacy books before. Of course, none had ever suggested presenting jigsaw pieces to a jury, and he was about to explain why when there was a knock on his office door. It was Morrie Goldman.
“Scott, I’ve come to tell you my client wants to plead guilty. I had suggested that from the beginning, but she finally came around. She wants to take the pretrial.”
“I’ll have to turn that over to my assistant, Ms. Valdez. It’s her case.” Scott looked over at Jessica and extended an open palm in her direction. “What do you say to that offer, Jessica?”
Jessica appeared surprised and did not immediately respond.
Seeing her hesitation, Scott said, “That’s not entirely fair. Jessica is new here and may not be familiar with our policies. Once the trial starts, there is no pretrial to accept. It’s expired.”
“I know that, but I’m wondering what you are going to ask for a sentence if she pleads?”
Scott thought for a moment before responding. “If she pleads straight up now, we won’t ask for confinement. It would be up to the judge, but since this is a first offense, it’s highly unlikely any sentence would include jail time. We may, however, argue for a stiff fine. That could have been avoided by accepting the pretrial we offered. We won’t support a deferred sentence, but we won’t present any argument against it, either. And there is possible probation and community service to consider. Your client flunked Theft 101, so restitution is not involved. You may want to request a pre-sentencing report. If her background is as good as our initial investigation revealed, that may help. Do you agree with this, Jessica?”
Jessica gave a mild smile and nodded in agreement.
“Then that’s what I’ll advise, and I’m sure she’ll agree,” Goldman said. “Thanks, Scott. I’ll relay this to the judge.” He shook Scott’s hand and left.
“Why do you suppose she decided to plead guilty?” Jessica asked as soon as Goldman was out the door.
“Sometimes they just want to test us, hoping we can’t get the case together. Maybe a witness will die, disappear, or just not show and maybe we’ll drop it. When they see the jurors staring at them and all the prosecution witnesses alive and present, they just want to cut their losses and put it behind them. This school teacher has a lot to lose by her guilty plea. But that’s her problem, not ours. We just do our job of prosecuting and let the judge do the sentencing. The system works just fine when everyone does his or her job.”
“We won’t need those last two witnesses. Should I go tell them?”
“No. Wait until the judge takes the plea. Sometimes defendants change their minds. This one already has, once.”
Scott picked up two case files from his desk. “Here are two more files for you to begin working on. One is a non-jury trial. I expect both to go to trial, but as you saw today, you can spend hours preparing and then they plead. Remember this, Jessica, the only way to make sure any case will actually go to trial is to not prepare.”
The afternoon session was short. Mary Jo Halblest entered a guilty plea, and Judge Roberts ordered a pre-sentencing report. Goldman walked over to the table where Scott and Jessica were seated and shook their hands. “Thanks,” he said, then quickly turned and walked away.
Scott and Jessica returned to Scott’s office. The phone message machine on Scott’s desk was blinking. Scott picked up the phone and listened.
“That was Nick,” Scott said as he put the phone down. “He wants me to stop by his office, but before I go, do you have any questions about your assignments?”
“No, I think I understand. For the rest of the afternoon, I’ll be working in the student office.”
“Will Draper has a jury trial still going this afternoon in Courtroom D. He’s a good prosecutor. You might want to sit in if you have time. It�
��s a DUI case.”
“It is? That’s my next trial. I think I’ll go down.”
“Good. I’ll see you Thursday.”
Jessica was the first to leave. Scott watched and listened as her heels made their signature sound on the hard flooring of the hallway. She was indeed beautiful, front and back. Once more he sensed the lingering fragrance of her perfume. He took a deep breath and smiled. He shook his head slowly and continued to smile as he walked to Nick’s office.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Scott rapped lightly on Nick’s door and was invited in. Nick was at his desk, leaning back in his tall swivel chair, reading a case file. “I didn’t expect you so soon,” he said. “I thought you were in trial.”
“I was, with my clinic student. Defendant pleaded halfway through, so we were out early.”
“How’s he doing?”
“She’s doing well, though it’s a bit early to tell. This was her first trial, but with the defendant deciding to plead straight-up after just two witnesses. I’m impressed.”
“Good.” Nick picked up some papers from his desk. “Got an email from Max Gordon this morning. I gave him my email address as soon as I heard he was on the case, in hopes of expediting the trial. We’ve had several exchanges. Harrison is still locked up and wants out. I suppose he thinks that porcine prick and his team of hoodlums can spring him.”
Nick held up a printed email and began to read. “Dear Nick.” Suddenly he turned to Scott. “Damn I hate being on a first name basis with that asshole.” Nick picked up the email again, took a few moments to read it over once more, and tossed it to the side of his desk.
“He says he can make the trial date we’ve set and does not expect to have but one motion. Of course, he’s such a liar. I expect him to load us down at the last minute with at least a dozen. I’ve informed him that Judge Desano has the case. I really can’t believe he’s not going to move to recuse Desano. He’ll also move for a change of venue. Because the first trial turned into a media-circus, he could have a winner with that motion.”
The Indictments Page 4
