Bad Faith

29

Fulton arrived the next morning to drive him to the courthouse. “After your little incident with David Grale last night, the press is going to have the place surrounded like Fort Apache,” the detective said. “I talked to Murrow and his phone has been ringing off the hook.”

The detective held up a copy of the New York Post. HOLY GRALE SLASHES DA, the detective read. “Butch, the Post devoted four pages to Grale, his background, the Mole People, and all the killings he’s responsible for. They even quoted your cab driver.”

Karp smiled. “You mean the press cares if a mad killer tries to assassinate the district attorney?”

“So when you going to tell me what this is all about?”

“You drive, and I’ll fill you in.”

Five minutes later, Fulton knew the story but it didn’t make him happy. “It’s risky as hell,” he said. “You’re relying on a half-mad sociopath who has his own agenda.”

“Half-mad?” Karp replied with a smile as he got out of the car at the Hogan Place exit, ignoring the shouted questions of the media who were camped outside the security barrier. “I think you’re giving him some credit that may or may not be due. But I think in this case, his agenda meshes with ours. And it may be our best bet to avert a disaster.”

“I still don’t have to like it,” Fulton said.

“Neither do I, my friend, neither do I. But get a call in to Jaxon and see if he’ll meet at lunch.”

Karp was still thinking about Grale and his conversation with Fulton an hour later when Judge Temple asked him to call his next witness.

“Thank you, Your Honor,” he said, rising. “The People call Monique LaRhonda Hale.”

A minute later, Fulton escorted the woman into the courtroom. She saw LaFontaine and his lawyer staring at her and immediately burst into tears.

Karp’s heart went out to her as she approached her seat in the witness box like a condemned prisoner going to her execution. But he needed her; he had fought tooth and nail to have her testimony admitted under the “prior bad acts” doctrine to show that what had happened to Micah Ellis and his parents was part of a pattern of criminal behavior engaged in by the defendant-a sinister scheme to defraud vulnerable moms and dads in search of a “miracle” to save their ailing child.

Now he had to take the frightened, weeping woman, who’d lost her child and her husband, through the painful memories that began when her daughter, Natalie, got sick and went to the Children’s Hospital to be treated. And that led to the day LaFontaine had shown up at her doorstep shortly after Natalie’s final chemotherapy session had ended.

“He seemed to know everything about us,” Hale testified. “He even knew that my husband had some run-ins with the law, but he said he knew that Charlie had turned his life around and that if we had total faith in the Lord, Natalie could be cured. But we had to stop taking her to the hospital.”

“Why not just continue the medical treatments?” Karp asked.

“She was just so sick, and the doctor said he couldn’t guarantee that she would get well,” Hale replied. “But John-Reverend LaFontaine-was so sure of himself. He said that God would work through him to cure her if we proved we believed in Him.”

“Did Natalie seem to get better?”

“Yes, we prayed a lot and it seemed to work.”

“Did the defendant ever bring anyone else over to your house to help with these prayers?”

“Yes. Sometimes Nonie Ellis was with him, and sometimes Sister Sarah. They both had little boys who were also being healed through prayer.”

“Did Sister Sarah have a last name?”

“I’m sure she did, but I didn’t know it.”

Karp showed her a mug shot of Sarah Westerberg and asked, “Do you recognize the individual depicted in this photo, People’s Exhibit Thirty for identification?”

“Yes, that’s her, that’s Sister Sarah.”

He then showed her a photograph of Nonie Ellis.

“That’s Nonie.”

“Did you ever meet their little boys?”

“I met Micah,” Hale responded. “She brought him over a couple of times to play with Natalie. He was such a nice little boy, and Nonie was a dear.”

“How about Sarah’s child? Did you meet him?”

Hale shook her head. “I think his name was Kevin. But no, she never brought him over.”

“Mrs. Hale, at some point did your relationship with the defendant become more than just that of a spiritual adviser and one of his followers?”

Hale, who had been doing better since the questioning started, bit her lip and started to cry again. “Yes, one day when my husband, Charlie, was out, he came over and said that he had fallen in love with me. That Jesus had appeared to him in a dream and said that God blessed our love. He said that our union in Christ would prove how committed I was and that it would help Natalie.”

“So you became lovers?”

“Yes.”

“And at some point did your lover, the defendant, come to you with a proposal regarding life insurance for Natalie?”

“Yes. He asked if Brother Frank, one of the men in his church, could talk to me about life insurance.”

“Were Brother Frank and LaFontaine close?”

“Oh yes, Brother Frank came with him to the house several times. They seemed like good friends.”

“And did Brother Frank talk to you about life insurance?”

“Yes. He said that someday a policy would be worth a lot of money and we could use it for Natalie’s college education or her-” At that point Hale broke down again and needed a few moments to recover before going on. “Or for her wedding.”

“But it was a life insurance policy that would pay in the event of Natalie’s death?”

Hale shook her head. “Yes. He said that as long as we kept the faith we didn’t have to worry about that. But he said that if something did happen to her-he made it seem like Charlie couldn’t be trusted-at least some good could come of it by helping LaFontaine’s ministry.”

“So the death benefits were assigned to LaFontaine and his church?”

“Yes.”

“Did your husband go along with the plan?”

“No. He was suspicious of LaFontaine … I think he knew that there was something going on between us. But anyway, he wouldn’t sign it.”

“So how did you get the policy?”

“John talked me into letting Frank pretend to be Charlie and Frank signed it.”

“Did an insurance salesman ever come to your house and ask for the family’s medical history?”

“Yes. But John said that I shouldn’t tell him about Natalie. He said that it would be the same as saying that the doctors had cured Natalie, and that would be an affront to God.”

“To your knowledge did the insurance agent learn about Natalie’s condition?”

“I guess not,” she replied. “Because they gave me the policy.”

Karp had walked over to the witness stand and poured her a cup of water from the pitcher next to the witness box. He handed it to her.

Then, standing in close proximity to the jury rail, the judge’s dais, and the witness box, Karp said, “Mrs. Hale, I know this has to be very hard on you; your daughter, Natalie, passed away.”

“Yes. My little girl died.”

“And the life insurance company paid the death benefits?”

“Yes.”

“Which were signed over to the defendant, John LaFontaine, and his church?”

“Yes.”

As the woman cried quietly, Karp gently asked, “Mrs. Hale, did there come a time when your intimate relationship with the defendant ended?”

Hale nodded and dabbed at her eyes. “I felt so guilty,” she said. “I told him it was over, which didn’t seem to bother him. Then I told Charlie about the affair and the life insurance policy.”

“What was Charlie’s response?”

“He was angry, so angry. He went to confront LaFontaine.”

“Were you there when the confrontation took place?”

“No.”

“Do you know firsthand what was said?”

“No.”

Karp left it at that. There were some things he could not bring up. He couldn’t talk about what had happened to Charlie Hale. Nor, after vigorous pretrial arguments from Rottingham, was he allowed to enter the underlying facts into evidence, because of its collateral nature, including questioning Monique Hale about the night of the shootings. The judge had agreed with Rottingham that there was not enough evidence connecting the event with LaFontaine and that it would be highly prejudicial and outweigh any probative value.

With Hale on the stand, Rottingham now did his best to portray her as an adulteress who had been spurned by her lover and had wanted the insurance money for herself and her husband.

“Mrs. Hale,” he said, emphasizing the “Mrs.” “You were married at the time you began having sex with the Reverend LaFontaine?”

“Yes.”

“Did he force himself upon you?”

“No, he said he was in love and that Jesus told him it was a beautiful thing in the eyes of God and it would help Natalie.”

“That’s your take,” the defense lawyer said scathingly. “But you don’t have any letters or e-mails to that effect, do you?”

“No. That’s just what he-”

“And did the Reverend LaFontaine somehow force you to stop taking Natalie to the hospital for treatment?” Rottingham interrupted.

“No. But he said that if we did, it would show we didn’t have faith in God and that he wouldn’t pray with us anymore.”

Rottingham questioned Hale as to whether it was possible that she was confusing Sister Sarah with Nonie Ellis-the two women did resemble each other-and that the former had never visited her home with LaFontaine. But Hale was adamant that Sarah Westerberg had been with the defendant.

“Was my client with Frank Bernsen when he came over to talk about the life insurance policy?” Rottingham asked.

“No, he just asked if Frank could talk to me about it and said that he would consider it a personal favor.”

“And was my client present when Frank Bernsen pretended to be your husband and signed the agreement with the representative of the life insurance company?”

“No.”

“And are you aware that as the financial officer of the Holy Covenant Church of Jesus Christ Reformed, Frank Bernsen had complete access to the church bank account?”

“No. I was never told any of that … I wouldn’t have cared.”

“Yes, all you cared about was your sexual liaisons outside of your marriage with my client, isn’t that true?”

“No, I-”

“No further questions, Your Honor,” Rottingham said, cutting her off.

Karp rose quickly and said, “I believe before your answer was clipped by Mr. Rottingham, you were going to answer his question regarding what you cared about. Would you please answer that question now?”

“Yes, I cared about my little girl,” Hale said, and burst into tears.

“Did the defendant convince you that the only way to save your daughter was to stop seeking medical attention and place your faith in him?” Karp said, letting the anger rise in his voice.

“Yes. And I believed him.”