The Law Partners (Michael Gresham Legal Thriller Series Book 3) Page 16

  We go over the trial schedule we need the judge to order if we are to have a verdict before election day. Three days for the State's case; one day for the defendant's case; two days to pick a jury. Mira knows the timing of the situation and she tells us that her campaign has been going along in starts and sputters. Her biggest adversary hasn't been Lamont Johnstone and his party; her biggest adversary has been uncertainty. Her constituents are all saying, "Well, I could promise to vote for you if I knew you weren't going to be found guilty of murder. But with that hanging over your head...."

  So I try to assuage her as best I can and promise that I will do everything within my power to guarantee her a verdict before the last edition of the Chicago Tribune hits the streets before voting begins. Without that, she can kiss it all goodbye. Then we turn our attention to the trial starting tomorrow.

  Harley is late for our meeting, so Danny and I start in without her. We're doing a plausibility interview. Our job is to develop the story that we will try to sell to the jury. If we're successful, we win. If not, Mira goes to jail. This is the most important meeting we will have.

  Mira is very understated today, very calm and collected. She is wearing a Fall tweed outfit and her hair is down and breeze-blown. No lipstick, no eye shadow, just plain good looks. Danny and I are both exhausted; Dania had the twenty-four-hour flu and we were both up with her last night, me pulling the first watch, Danny pulling the second. Dania and Mikey are in her play room two doors down from us, Dania sleeping the sleep of the innocently exhausted, Mikey sleeping because that’s still mostly what he’s all about.

  "So," Mira says, "we all know about Brianna Finlayton quitting the District Attorney's office. She dismissed all charges against Tory Stormont then packed her personals and walked out. Not a word to anyone."

  "District Attorney protecting a cop, Tory Stormont?" Danny asks.

  Mira smiles. "Somebody sure as hell is."

  I step in. It's my turn to update Mira.

  "I wanted to brief you on Marcel. He's canvassed your neighbors. Your floor and the floors above and the floors below. No one heard a gunshot. And many of them were home, most sleeping, but a number were awake and would definitely have heard."

  "I might have been passed out but I think I would've heard a gun going off."

  "It happened. Harrow walked in. He was wheeled out on a gurney deader than a rock."

  "The video shows him walking in?"

  "It does. Did you open the door for him?"

  "I don’t know. Maybe. What about the gun? You've seen the actual firearms report?" Mira asks.

  "Yes. Definitely your gun."

  "Someone else did the shooting and they used my gun. That's scary to think that I was unconscious and some madman was wandering around my home with my loaded gun ready to kill. Makes me need to throw up just thinking about it."

  "We'll have to prove it wasn't you, of course. The State will do everything they can to prove it was you."

  "What about fingerprints on the gun?"

  "Only yours."

  "So whoever fired it was wearing gloves."

  "Unless it was you.”

  There. The comment hangs in the air between us like a black cloud. We’ve needed to have this particular talk.

  I continue, “Could you have blanked it out?"

  Mira is emphatic. “That wouldn't be like me. I don't do blackouts."

  “So let’s talk unconscious. Why and how did it happen? We need a story for me to give the jury.”

  She rubs her forehead, thinking. Then, slowly, “Tell the jury I had taken an Ambien with a small glass of wine. It knocked me out. Tell them that I hadn’t slept for two nights in a row because of the campaign. Which is mostly true. We’ve been extremely busy since May.”

  I nod and think. It’s enough, I decide. I can start off with that and see where it goes at trial. I decide to move on.

  "All right. Next item on my list is Brianna Finlayton. She dismissed all charges against Tory Stormont and resigned. My question to you, is, why?"

  At just this moment, Harley arrives and takes a seat. She looks fresh and brings along her own coffee drink.

  “I’m asking Mira why Brianna Finlayton would have dismissed the case against Tory Stormont, Harley. So let’s all think about this.”

  Mira leans away. She is thinking. She begins slowly, saying, "I've checked around the office with some friends. Tory Stormont is a white cop who murdered a black teenager. He'll do anything to stay out of jail because with these guys if they get sent to prison their days are numbered. They die in prison. So they fight it like no one else ever did. He got to Brianna. She immediately dismissed the charges against him. I don't think it's any more complicated than that."

  "He scared her off with threats against her?"

  "That's my best guess. I don't think it's any more complicated than that."

  "What about the District Attorney himself?"

  "What about him?"

  "Does he have ties to Tory Stormont? Which is probably a dumb question, am I right? I need to hear how you would answer if we called you as a witness."

  She looks sharply at me. "Are you asking, is the District Attorney in bed with the Chicago police union? Of course he is. All prosecutors are. It goes with the territory. Now about Robert Shaughnessy personally, I don't know the particulars. I don't know everything that goes on inside that office."

  "You weren't helping prosecute Stormont were you?"

  "No."

  Danny says, "What if someone wanted to wreck your run for District Attorney, Mira? Would they leave a dead body in your house to do that?"

  "Someone kills Harrow in my condo so I get indicted?"

  "Yes," says Danny, "why not?"

  "Someone such as my opponent?"

  "Lamont Johnstone?" Danny asks.

  "No, I don't think he has the balls."

  "What about Tory Stormont?" Danny presses. "Would he like to see you defeated in November?"

  "Of course. Lamont Johnstone is known for being best friends with the police union. He would do anything to protect Stormont and Stormont knows that."

  Her face goes blank for a moment and then a smile spreads over her face.

  She says, "So Stormont killed Harrow, who had indicted him and was prosecuting him. And he tried to implicate me in the crime because I wasn't in bed with the union and I would be next in line to prosecute him? That sounds very complicated to sell to a jury."

  Danny looks at me. "Michael, can we sell this to a jury? That Tory was plotting to control the election outcome? And that Johnstone is tied up with them?"

  I look hard at her. She's done her homework and I'm grateful for it. So I take a run at her theory just to see what it sounds like. "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, not every case is a dead body or a kilo of cocaine. The worst crime in Chicago is going on inside mahogany walls and boardrooms. Even a police officer got caught up and tried to guarantee that a prosecutor friendly to him got elected."

  Harley adds to my words, "Lamont Johnstone decided who got prosecuted and who didn't. That's what first assistants do: put the District Attorney's policies into practice. But then, when Johnstone left, Darrell Harrow took over for him and Darrell went after the police officer. Darrell Harrow wouldn't play ball with the cops."

  "So a cop killed him. Tory Stormont was the trigger man," Danny says. "What about it, Michael? Can you sell this?"

  They all look at me.

  It is coming into focus. "Maybe it was always about the election. If Mira loses the election, a cop-friendly prosecutor takes over. That means Stormont's implication in Harrow’s murder case goes away.”

  “What implication is that?” asks Danny.

  “The implication we’re going to make at trial when we point the finger at Stormont and away from Mira. The world is going to know about Stormont and his motive and the gun in his back pocket. We’re putting him on trial, my friends.”

  Mira says, "So I was indicted in order to guarantee Johnstone wins.
Pure evil."

  "Something stinks at the District Attorney's office," I say. "I can definitely sell it."

  So that's where we leave it: Lamont Johnstone departs the District Attorney's team to run for the office himself. His job falls to Darrell Harrow. Harrow indicts Tory Stormont for killing an unarmed black teen. Then Darrell Harrow winds up murdered and stashed inside Mira's living room. Brianna is next up to bat; it's her turn to prosecute Stormont. But Stormont puts the fear of God in Brianna Finlayton and she dismisses all charges against him. Then she resigns. Now Harrow’s gone, Mira's gone, and Brianna's gone. If Johnstone wins, there will be no case filed against Stormont for shooting Harrow, even with all the evidence I’m going to introduce at trial that implicates Stormont. It’s the best shot we have.

  Some of this is conjecture and I cannot prove it. But that doesn't matter. To the criminal attorney the only question is whether he or she can sell the conjecture to a jury. It's how criminal cases are defended. This is how it's done, pointing the finger elsewhere. You come up with a parallel fact track and you ascribe motive to someone else and you walk your client out of court.

  As we continue with our trial prep, it keeps coming back to me: I’m not sure how much longer I can keep doing this. My children deserve a father who stands for something more than hiding the truth from juries.

  Oh well, I shelve it for now. Duty calls.

  Now to build the case against Stormont as the true killer.

  That falls to me and Marcel. We've got part of it already.

  But we don't have it all. At least not yet.

  32

  Monday morning Harley and I arrive at court early. We have a motion to present.

  I am reviewing my notes as I wait for our trial judge to hear my Motion to Expedite. My notes pretty well set out what I think will occur at trial Monday to Monday, the week before the election:

  OCT 31 Monday FIRST DAY OF TRIAL. Motion Expedite. Jury Selection

  NOV 1 Tuesday: Jury Selection + Opening statements

  NOV 2 Wednesday: Detective Weldon

  NOV 3 Thursday: More State's Witnesses

  NOV 4 Friday: Last State's Witnesses. State Rests.

  NOV 5-6 (sat, sun) MG and MARCEL Confirm Wits will appear

  NOV 7: Stormont testifies, jury verdict

  NOV 8: election, morning newspaper comes out with NG verdict.

  The calendar is proving accurate.

  Present with me in the judge’s chambers are the District Attorney himself, Robert Shaughnessy; Miranda Morales; Danny and Harley; the court reporter; Judge Itaglia; and the clerk of the court.

  Seating is crowded as we all jockey to get on the judge's left-hand side where studies have shown the prevailing party sits something like eighty percent of the time. I am just off-center and to his left but Shaughnessy is to my right, not a good sign. I drive such idiocy from my mind and concentrate on why we're gathered together. Timing is everything from here on out.

  The case has moved from Judge Wang, who handled the pre-trial matters, to Judge Itaglia for trial. She's a no-nonsense judge in the courtroom with a great sense of drama that just oozes out of her in chambers. Everything is a much bigger issue than it ever actually is--in my opinion, anyway. Physically, she is a small woman, stooped and withered with age, a woman whose face and physique you might expect to find peddling wares on a sidewalk in some small Italian town. But her mind is the mind of a legal giant. She clerked for the Illinois Supreme Court at one time and there is always talk around of elevating her to that court. I watch as her hands are always in motion even where the rest of her is not, such as right now, looking down at the litigants' attorneys as we await her signal to begin.

  At last she says to me, "Counsel, it's your motion, please proceed. Please tell me why you want this trial concluded by November seven and why that should matter to me."

  "It should matter to you, Your Honor," I begin, "because justice demands we give this woman, if innocent, the opportunity to present herself as a viable option to the voters when they go into the booth on November eight to select a District Attorney. If this case hasn't been resolved before the levers are pulled inside the booth, then she loses, plain and simple. Even if the jury finds her not guilty the next day, it's too late then."

  "But what about the State's right to fully present its case against her? Don't I have to give the State its day in court? Why should I limit that to just three days as you're requesting?"

  Beside me, Shaughnessy nods vigorously and clears his throat. He's acknowledging that he's in complete agreement with what she's just said. Three days isn't enough, his demeanor and body language cry.

  I ignore him.

  "The State's case is a simple one, a circumstantial one. A detective, crime scene techs, and a medical examiner and he's done. There's no way that takes more than three days as long as the court requires the State to be efficient. As long as the court doesn't allow the State to drag its feet and drag out the trial. I already expect them to do this and I will be constantly on guard against the State engaging in delaying tactics. I hope and pray the court will join me in that."

  The judge looks over at Shaughnessy. He's chomping at the bit to be heard. His arguments are predictable, but he launches ahead anyway.

  "Judge, the State--as you have mentioned--has a constitutional right to present its case fully. Due process of law requires no less. This is a first degree murder case. We should never forget that. This is the most important case the State ever prosecutes for the benefit of the public. This is the type of case that intimidates the killers among us, the person who would kill were it not for the fact that he learns, from cases such as this one, that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars if he follows through on his plan to murder. That's why these cases are so important in the larger view. In the smaller view, these cases--this case--is hugely significant to the loved ones of the victim. His widow, his children, they have a right to see justice done. Justice in this case isn't about an election. It's about the meting out of punishment to their husband's and father's killer. That's the true justice waiting in the wings. It must happen, Judge. Justice cries out to be served."

  Judge Itaglia's hands flutter nonstop while we are talking. She's making notes, she's thumbing through pages of white pleadings on her desk, she's moving yellow legal pads hither and yon; it makes me wonder whether she's actually hearing anything of what's being said. Then I find I needn't have worried about that at all.

  "So let me see if I understand, here. The State's idea of justice is punishment and vengeance while the defendant's idea of justice is the reclamation of her professional life by the timely conclusion of the case so that her run for District Attorney can continue without the Sword of Damocles hanging over her head. Am I on the right track so far?"

  It's rhetorical and the DA and I both know it. We simply nod.

  She continues. "So let's see if we can whittle this thing down. First, we can hear all motions outside of court times. Before nine and after five. That way we don't waste jury hours with motions that the State might decide to file in an effort to delay things or run out the clock. This sounds like the NBA, ladies and gentlemen. So what else can we do?"

  "Limit the State's witnesses," I quickly suggest. "Keep it to a certain number, two hours for direct examination and one hour for cross examination. Three hours per witness, tops."

  "Impossible!" cries Shaughnessy. "My first witness, my detective, will very likely take up an entire day on his own."

  The judge's eyes at that moment screw down tight on the district attorney. "I think not. I rather like the idea of three hours per witness. Now, if the State needs more time for a witness, then that extra time will be subtracted from the remaining witnesses. Until we're down to the last witness and have no other time to draw on. So the last witness is three hours, tops."

  "Or you could do this, Judge," I say, "you could limit the State's case to three days. Two days to pick a jury, three days for the State's case. That gets us to
Friday night. Then I get one day--Monday--to put on the defendant's case."

  "Sure," says Shaughnessy, "and you're going to scream bloody murder if the jury takes longer than a few hours to reach a verdict. Would the court keep them past five o'clock Monday night to deliberate?"

  Judge Itaglia is cogitating. Finally, she leaves off the train of thought and says, "I'll keep the jury here as late as midnight Monday night. We want to give the defendant every fair chance at getting a verdict before the election. To be honest, everyone, I'm not feeling that favorably toward either side in this case. The State's case is circumstantial as there's no evidence the defendant fired the gun. On the other hand, the defense case seems to consist only of a denial that the defendant did it. My guess is that the defense's case is going to be closing argument to the jury that the state failed to meet its burden of proving the charges against the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt. How am I doing so far now?"

  Neither attorney speaks up. We don't wish to give away our game plans so we just don't respond.

  "So here's the order. Three days for the State, one day for the Defendant. Two days for jury selection. Whoever is sitting in that jury box at the close of the day on Tuesday, that's your jury, boys and girls. Plain and simple. Am I leaving anything out?"

  "How about time limits on witnesses?" I ask. "Three hours tops?"

  "No, I don't think so. I think if the State wants to spend its entire three days on one witness it should be allowed to do so. But when I say three days, I'm dead serious. Come Friday night, the State will either rest its case or I shall rest it for them. Any questions?"

  Shaughnessy is livid but he doesn't want to start a brawl with the judge even before we set foot in the courtroom, so he swallows it down. I would like to have seen the judge declare that the jury will have a verdict by midnight on Monday night or that she will declare a mistrial, but I haven't fully thought that through, so I don't go there.