The Reversal

“Fifteen minutes, Mr. Haller? I have another matter holding. I could handle it and come back to you.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.”

This meant we had to leave the table while another prosecutor handled his business before the judge. We pushed our files and Maggie’s laptop to the back of the table to make room, then got up and walked toward the back door of the courtroom. As we passed Bell he raised a hand to get Maggie’s attention but she ignored him and walked by.

“You want to go upstairs?” Maggie asked as we came through the double doors. She was suggesting that we go up to the DA’s office.

“There isn’t time to wait for an elevator.”

“We could take the stairs. It’s only three flights.”

We walked through the door into the building’s enclosed stairwell but then I grabbed her arm.

“This is good enough right here,” I said. “Tell me what we do about Bell.”

“That piece of shit. He’s never defended a criminal case, let alone a murder, in his life.”

“Yeah, you wouldn’t have made the same mistake twice.”

She looked pointedly at me.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Never mind, bad joke. Let’s just stay on point.”

She had her arms folded tightly against her chest.

“This is the most underhanded thing I’ve ever seen. Royce wants me off the case so he goes to Bell. And Bell… I can’t believe he would do something like this to me.”

“Yeah, well, he’s probably in it for a dip into the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We probably should have seen something like this coming.”

It was a defense tactic I had used myself before, but not with such obviousness. If you didn’t like the judge or the prosecutor, one way of getting them off the case was to bring someone onto your team who has a conflict of interest with them. Since the defendant is constitutionally guaranteed the defense counsel of his choice, it is usually the judge or prosecutor who must be disqualified from the trial. It was a shrewd move by Royce.

“You see what he’s doing, right?” Maggie said. “He is trying to isolate you. He knows I’m the one person you would trust as second chair and he’s trying to take that away from you. He knows that without me you are going to lose.”

“Thanks for your confidence in me.”

“You know what I mean. You’ve never prosecuted a case. I’m there to help you through it. If he gets me kicked off the table, then who are you going to have? Who would you trust?”

I nodded. She was right.

“Okay, give me the facts. How long were you with Bell?”

“With him? I wasn’t. We went out briefly seven years ago. No more than two months and if he says differently he’s a liar.”

“Is the conflict that you had the relationship or is there something else, something you did or said, something he has knowledge of that creates the conflict?”

“There’s nothing. We went out and it just didn’t take.”

“Who dropped who?”

She paused and looked down at the floor.

“He did.”

I nodded.

“Then there’s the conflict. He can claim you carry a grudge.”

“A woman scorned, is that it? This is such bullshit. You men are-”

“Hold on, Maggie. Hold on. I’m saying that is their argument. I am not agreeing. In fact, I want-”

The door to the stairwell opened and the prosecutor who took our places when we had gotten up for the recess entered and started up the steps. I checked my watch. Only eight minutes had gone by.

“She went back into chambers,” he said as he passed. “You guys are fine.”

“Thanks.”

I waited until I heard his steps on the next landing before continuing in a quiet tone with Maggie.

“Okay, how do I fight this?”

“You tell the judge that this is an obvious attempt to sabotage the prosecution. They’ve hired an attorney for the sole reason that he had a relationship with me, not because of any skill he brings to the table.”

I nodded.

“Okay. What else?”

“I don’t know. I can’t think… it was remote in time, no strong emotional attachment, no effect on professional judgment or conduct.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah… and what about Bell? Does he have something or know something I have to watch out for?”

She looked at me like I was some sort of traitor.

“Maggie, I need to know so there’s no surprise on top of the surprise, okay?”

“Fine, there’s nothing. He must really be hard up if he’s taking a fee just to knock me off the case.”

“Don’t worry, two can play this game. Let’s go.”

We went back into the courtroom and as we went through the gate I nodded to the clerk so she could call the judge back from chambers. Instead of going to the prosecution table, I diverted to the defense side where Royce was sitting next to his client. David Bell was now seated at the table on the other side of Jessup. I leaned over Royce’s shoulder and whispered just loud enough that his client would hear.

“Clive, when the judge comes out, I’ll give you the chance to withdraw this motion. If you don’t, number one, I’m going to embarrass you in front of the camera and it will be digitally preserved forever. And number two, the release-and-remuneration offer I made to your client last week is withdrawn. Permanently.”