"Would you tell us about her condition when you first started seeing her, your treatment of her and how she progressed during those early months?"
Dr. Coates cleared his voice and apologized to the judge and jury for the remainder of a cold in his throat. That prompted Deputy Johnson to bring him a glass of water.
"Thank you, Deputy. When I first saw Lucy, she was in extremely bad condition. She was suffering from one of the worst post-traumatic stress disorders that I have ever seen. I was seeing her three times a week at her Aunt Jessie's house. Although I had read her medical records and she had made a fairly good physical recovery, she insisted that our counseling sessions take place while she was in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin. I did most of the talking and was lucky to get a yes or no in response. In my opinion she was determined to hide from the world and wanted nothing more to do with anything or any person outside of that room. After several weeks, I was finally able to convince her to dress and be in her wheelchair when I arrived. That was a giant step. At first, I was worried that she might be contemplating suicide. I warned her aunt and her aunt's staff to clear the house of any guns and to secure any sharp objects."
"Doctor, did she need a wheelchair?" Johnny Bob asked.
"Not from a physical standpoint. All of her neurological systems were intact, and while her muscles were weak, she could have walked. It was a further sign of her severe emotional disturbance."
"Now, Doctor, I understand that it was not until Lucy was at a church service with Reverend Luther that she began walking again. Can you enlighten the jury on how that happened?"
"Certainly, I've got to give Reverend Luther credit for getting her to walk."
The jury looked at T. J. who merely nodded in return.
"Reverend Luther did an emotional healing, not a physical one. Whatever he did on that Sunday gave Lucy the motivation to get out of the wheelchair and walk on her own two feet. His touch seemed critical. Since that time, she has felt a real closeness to Reverend Luther. She sees him as the one person outside of her family whom she can trust. He's become almost like a second father to her."
Johnny Bob spent the rest of the morning having Dr. Coates describe each of his visits with Lucy and how she progressed. It was a long process, even laborious. Still, the lawyer thought it was important enough that he was willing to risk boring one or two jurors to make sure they understood the depth of Lucy's emotional distress. After the lunch break he covered Lucy's current condition and her prognosis.
"Mr. Tisdale, Lucy is much improved, but she will never be normal. When we talked her into resuming her high school studies, she would only do so with tutors that her aunt brought to the house. She refused contact with anyone her age, particularly boys. She is dreadfully fearful of doctors and hospitals. I'm just thankful that she has not had a medical problem that required her to see a doctor. If that had occurred, it might have put her back in bed with the covers pulled over her head."
When Dr. Coates mentioned Lucy's refusal to have anything to do with boys, Johnny Bob had to separate her problems caused by the abortion from those potentially caused by the rape.
"Doctor, wouldn't she have had some of these problems even if the abortion had been one with no complications?"
"Possibly, sir. I've counseled young ladies who have had a routine abortion, if I may use that phrase. I have had to help them work through guilt, anxiety, crying episodes, sleep disorders, depression, and a variety of other problems. While they frequently have serious consequences from an abortion, with my help, they are usually able to get on with their lives after some extensive counseling. That, unfortunately, is not the case with Lucy."
"Tell the jury, Doctor, what Lucy can expect in the future?"
"Glad to, Mr. Tisdale. She's going to need my counseling for several years. I would hope that in, maybe, three years, it would be down to once or twice a week. For the rest of her life, she's going to have periods of time that will require intense therapy. For example, if she were to become romantically involved with a man and that relationship didn't work out, it could throw her back into a depression like she has just been through. If she has to go in the hospital for any reason, her distrust of doctors is such that a hospitalization could also cause a similar reaction."
"What about childbearing, Doctor?"
"That's probably the hardest thing that Lucy has had to deal with. Your obstetrical expert has told her that it is not likely that she will be able to conceive and bear children. Like most young women, her life plan had included finding a suitable husband and raising a family. That has all changed. In her mind, no man will want to marry her now. She starts crying every time I try to bring up the subject of her infertility. Still, it's important that I continue to try to address that issue with her since, in my opinion, the only way she will come to grips with it is to talk it through."
As Dr. Coates described Lucy, Johnny Bob looked at the jury and found Amy Bourland, Olga Olsen and Catherine Tucker quietly wiping their eyes. Just the reaction he wanted. Johnny Bob wound up his examination of Dr. Coates by offering his past bills into evidence and his estimate of the cost of future psychological counseling. Last, he offered Dr. Coates' counseling records in evidence and passed the witness. Having worked with Dr. Coates before, Johnny Bob expected Dr. Coates to craft his notes so they would be most advantageous to Lucy's case. Not that they wouldn't be truthful opinions, only that the opinions would be slanted to assist Johnny Bob in justifying the largest possible verdict for his client.
Tod took over. His experience told him that he should avoid challenging this witness's opinions. With such a seasoned testifier, all that he would accomplish would be to give Coates an opportunity to twist Tod's questions around and re-emphasize Dr. Coates' opinions. The jury had heard enough of the poor Lucy story. Instead, he turned the jury's attention on Dr. Coates himself.
"Now, Dr. Coates, this isn't your first rodeo, is it?"
Judge O'Reilly smiled.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Duncan," replied the witness. "I'm not sure I understand what you mean."
"I'll clarify, Doctor. You've been working for Mr. Tisdale almost since the time that you got out of school, haven't you? Matter of fact, according to my research, you've been involved in 42 cases for Mr. Tisdale in the past fifteen years, all of them with plaintiffs who were seeking money damages in lawsuits. Correct, sir?"
"Mr. Duncan, I don't keep such statistics, but you could be right. Mr. Tisdale has asked me to care for his clients on a number of occasions."
"And you also write reports and testify when Johnny Bob calls. When he whistles, you come running, right?"
"I wouldn't put it quite like that. I am available for hire for him as well as other attorneys, sir."
"Speaking of other attorneys, you've testified literally hundreds of times, either by deposition or in trial, always hired by plaintiff lawyers who are out to get money for their clients?"
"Well, sir, if I remember correctly, I did testify a couple of times for defense lawyers."
"That, though, was early in your career, before you began advertising in the plaintiff lawyer magazines, wasn't it, Dr. Coates?"
"Probably true, sir."
"As a matter of fact, Doctor, over three quarters of your income comes from working with plaintiff lawyers, and it's enough income that you have a house in the Rivercrest section of Fort Worth, just a couple of blocks from Ms. Woolsey."
"Well, sir, frankly, I'm very good at what I do. I've been well paid over the years. I might add that my house is not quite as big as Jessie's."
"Speaking of payment, not counting your counseling with Lucy, you've billed Mr. Tisdale twenty thousand dollars, just for your work on this case?"
"Approximately, Mr. Duncan," Dr. Coates replied with a smugness in his voice that gave the impression that he thought he was worth every penny of it.
"No wonder you can afford a house in Rivercrest."
Johnny Bob started to rise to object. Seeing him getting out of hi
s chair, Tod said, "Oh, never mind, Your Honor. I think the jury gets the idea."
It was the end of the day. Johnny Bob conferred with Claudia and then rose, "Your Honor, subject to making sure that all of our exhibits are properly marked and in evidence, Plaintiff rests."
As the jury and the audience left the courtroom and the lawyers were packing up their gear for the night, Jan wandered up to the court reporter's table where exhibits, mainly medical bills and records, were stacked. Not looking for anything in particular, she picked up the records from Doctor Coates and rummaged through them until she stopped at a page near the back. She studied an entry and flipped several pages forward and back, looking for a similar entry. Making sure that Johnny Bob and Claudia were wrapped up in their activities, she motioned for Tod to join her and pointed out the entry that caught her attention. It was one seemingly innocuous phrase: "Saw Dr. Olstein."
That was it. There was none of the detail normally used by Dr. Coates. Tod confirmed with Jan that the name did not appear elsewhere in the records and told her to write it down. They would defer talking about it until they returned to the fire station. He walked over to Dr. Moyo and told him that something had come up and they needed him with them back at the station.
CHAPTER 74
Tod pitched his briefcase into the back of his Suburban. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he called Grace at the fire station and told her to go down the street to buy a couple of six packs of Budweiser. Next, he called home to check on the boys. Not surprisingly, he heard the answering machine. He left a message that he was out of trial for the day and would be at the office for several more hours. Then, he mused about the mysterious Dr. Olstein.
The name had not come up before, not in testimony, not in responses to discovery, and not in any medical record. They had asked Lucy in her deposition about every health care practitioner that she had seen since the day she was born. They asked similar questions to her mother and aunt. This Dr. Olstein had not been mentioned by any of them. They had subpoenaed the records from Dr. Coates twice, once as soon as they learned that Johnny Bob had hired him, and again a few weeks before they put Lucy under oath in her deposition. Olstein's name was not there either time. The name appeared in the notes of a session between Lucy and Dr. Coates after the deposition and before trial, yet there was no indication as to when Lucy saw Dr. Olstein. It could have been around the time of that visit, months before, years before, or even shortly before trial. Maybe it was important. Maybe it was insignificant.
One thing did strike Tod as such thoughts traipsed through his mind. Lawyers knew Coates to be one who wrote notes that were most helpful to his patients and their lawyers when litigation was involved. This cryptic note was all of three words. Further, Johnny Bob had kept Dr. Coates on the stand for almost an entire day, covering every session he had with Lucy. Yet, on the visit for that particular day, Dr. Coates had not mentioned this Dr. Olstein. Tod's curiosity was peaked.
Gathering in the war room, Tod, Jan, Wayne, Marilyn and Dr. Moyo assessed the testimony of Dr. Coates and the impact of all of Johnny Bob's witnesses.
"Coates didn't surprise me," Wayne began as he passed beer around to everyone except Marilyn who opted for bottled water. "Every one of us could have predicted what he was going to say. He's been singing from the same hymnal for fifteen years. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is always one of his favorite diagnoses."
"Yeah, Wayne, I agree," Jan said as she brought the feminine viewpoint into the discussion, "but no one can seriously quarrel with the diagnosis in this case. Lucy went through more than anyone should have to, particularly at seventeen."
"And don't forget that there were at least three of the female jurors who were tearing up when Coates started talking about her not being able to have any kids," Marilyn added.
"Fact of the matter," said Tod, "is that we haven't caught her or anyone on the plaintiff's side in a lie. Every plaintiff lies about something. You just have to find out what it is. When you do, you can win your case because jurors are not likely to give liars any money. Right now all of their witnesses could be in Mother Teresa's choir. The one exception may be T. J., and we don't have anything concrete on him. On the other hand, Lucy's damages are potentially going to be big. Now let's talk about this Dr. Olstein. Jan, tell them what you discovered at the end of the day."
"While you guys were packing up, I went over to the exhibit pile and was just rummaging through Dr. Coates' records when I ran across this name. All the note said was 'Saw Dr. Olstein.' Nothing else," Jan explained. "It's for a visit a couple of weeks before trial, but there's no clue as to who Dr. Olstein is, where he is, when she saw him, or what she saw him for. He could be a chiropractor, for all we know."
"Well, let's start with the assumption that he's a real doctor. Any guesses as to why she saw him. It could just be the flu or a sore throat."
"I'll start the guessing, Tod," Marilyn volunteered. "I don't think that it's something like that. That's not the kind of problem that would come up in a conversation with a psychologist."
"Good point, Marilyn."
Dr. Moyo joined in the debate. "Tod, I've been around you lawyers for months now and I may be starting to think like some of you. That, by the way, may not be such a bad thing. Nonetheless, I agree with Marilyn. I don't think that whatever Lucy saw this Dr. Olstein for will be helpful to her. Otherwise, she and Johnny Bob would have listed him as a witness. At the very least, Lucy or Dr. Coates would have testified about it."
"Okay, Wayne," Tod said, "go get one of those honorary law degrees out of the back closet and write Dr. Moyo's name on it. Just kidding, Zeke, but your analysis may be right. I'll add that if Johnny Bob and Claudia had known about it, they certainly would have had to list him. They're good lawyers and they wouldn't take a chance on hiding a witness, so, I think that we can add to your analysis that Lucy and Coates didn't tell them about this Dr. Olstein. We need to chase him down and we only have a couple of days to do it. I ought to kick myself in the butt for not studying those latest records from Dr. Coates before I let him off the stand."
"Come on, now, Tod," Jan chided him. "No self flagellation. There's no way for you to have expected that a new, undisclosed, doctor would pop up in his records just a couple of weeks before trial. I also suspect that Johnny Bob didn't pick up on that name since they probably thought they already had all of the records of her visits with Dr. Coates. Besides, it may turn out to be nothing."
"Thanks, Jan. I'll put away my whip now. Marilyn, let's get to the bottom of this. Let's try the easy way first. Go get our Harris County Medical Society Directory. Maybe we'll get lucky and find that he's in Houston."
Marilyn left the room and returned almost instantly, a large directory in her hand. "Nope, not there. I've looked for a physician with a name of Olstein and also tried Olstien, Olsten, and Osten. Matter of fact, I looked at all of the 'Os' and found nothing. He's not in Harris County."
"Next likely place is Fort Worth. I'll make a couple of calls to some lawyer friends of mine up there. I ought to be able to find one still in the office."
Tod went to the phone and called information in Fort Worth. On the third try to a lawyer's office, he found who he was looking for. After a brief conversation, he turned to the group. "No luck. No Dr. Olstein or anything close to it in Tarrant County."
"If this doctor is in Texas, Tod, I can find him," Zeke said. "I can't do it until in the morning. Then, I'll call the Board of Medical Examiners in Austin. They'll tell me if there's someone with that name practicing in the state and the location of his office. I'm not sure what time they open. I'll start calling at eight o'clock."
"Good idea, Doc," Tod responded. "You stay home and start making those calls. As soon as you get something, call Wayne on his cell phone. I'll have him keep the phone on until we start testimony around nine."
The next morning when Wayne got to the courtroom at eight-thirty, he told Tod that he still had not heard from Dr. Moyo. Tod sent him to their assigned roo
m to await the call that they hoped would come before the judge took the bench.
Ever alert for changes in the patterns of a trial, Johnny Bob noticed that Dr. Moyo was missing and struck up a conversation with Tod. "Well, my worthy adversary, you sure did beat up on my witnesses. I only hope that I can return the favor."
"Come on now, Johnny Bob, I scored a few points just like I'm sure you'll do."
"You figure that we'll get this thing over by the end of the week?"
"Good chance, Johnny Bob, particularly if the judge lets us work on Friday and I suspect she will. She wants this one over about as much as you and me."
"What'd you do with your client, Tod? Haven't seen him around this morning."
"Oh, he had to drop a form by Baylor this morning, something to do with his new job. I told him he could be a few minutes late, if necessary."
As he finished the sentence, he saw Wayne motioning to him from the hallway door. Tod excused himself. When they closed the door to their room, Wayne started. "We've got him, I think. Moyo called. There are two doctors with that same last name in Texas. There's one in West Texas. The board says he's been retired for five years. The other is a Dr. Wallace Olstein. He's a family practice doc, seventy-five years old, still with an active license. Lives and has an office in San Augustine."
"Is that within a hundred and fifty miles, Wayne?"
They had both been to San Augustine for depositions, but neither really paid attention to the distance. All he could recall was that it was a three-hour drive through East Texas and the town was close to the Louisiana border. Now, though, the distance was important because if Olstein was within that distance, they could subpoena him or his records to the trial in Harris County. Beyond that distance, they could do nothing but call him and try to pry information out of him.
"I've already called Grace. It's close, maybe a little over a hundred and fifty miles, but who's gonna measure? I say we subpoena his records. I'll bluff, if necessary."
It took Tod only a split second to make a decision. "Okay, get your ass over to the real courthouse and get a subpoena issued to the custodian of his medical records for anything they have on Lucy Baines Brady. Then, hightail it up to San Augustine and serve the subpoena. I want those records back here by tonight."
So Help Me God Page 44
