The Justice Game

Part VI: The Verdict
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On Monday morning, Jason swallowed hard and called Chief Ed Poole as a witness for the defense. Poole was a large and powerfully built man with the sloped shoulders of a football lineman. He moved slowly and methodically to the stand, glancing at the jurors as he did so.

Poole was mostly bald with undersized facial features, gray hair on the sides of his head, and wrinkles that radiated from his eyes and creased his forehead. He was dressed in a gray blazer and white shirt, his tie so tight around his neck that the skin bulged at the top of his collar.

He seemed comfortable and self-assured. He was a former police chief of a large city. He had seen a few things.

Jason began by taking the witness through his impressive list of credentials. Like any good expert, Poole seemed reluctant to mention everything he had done and managed to come off as both highly qualified and charmingly humble. When Jason moved to have Poole qualified as an expert on the issue of gun trafficking, there was no objection.

As Poole testified, he turned periodically to face the jury, throwing in a few wisecracks to keep them amused. He told them that 80 percent of guns used in crimes were purchased by criminals on the street or from their friends and family members. Those sales, of course, were entirely unregulated. Only 11 percent were bought legally at gun stores, and 9 percent of guns used in crimes were purchased illegally at retail stores like Peninsula Arms.

“What about the designs of the guns?” Jason asked. “The jury’s heard a lot about semi-automatic assault weapons like the MD-9. In what percentage of crimes are these types of guns used?”

“Actually, not very often,” explained Poole. He proceeded with a lecture about gun nomenclature and how he didn’t even like the phrase “semi-automatic assault weapon” because it was so misleading. At the end of his lecture, he looked back at Jason. “What was the question again?”

“In how many crimes are these types of guns used as compared to other types of guns?”

“Oh yeah,” said Poole, smiling. “Less than one in ten.”

Jason ended with his payoff question. “Do you have an opinion, to a reasonable degree of certainty, as to whether Larry Jamison could have obtained a gun from the black market even if every gun store in America had refused to sell him one?”

Poole laughed. “Surveys show that nearly 60 percent of high school boys say they can obtain access to a gun if they need to. That’s high school, Mr. Noble. For an adult like Jamison, give him a few hundred bucks and a few hours on the streets of downtown Norfolk, and you can take your pick.”

Jason didn’t return the witness’s self-satisfied smile. “Thank you, Chief Poole. Please answer any questions that Ms. Starling might have.”

Kelly stood quickly, anxious to attack. She was wearing a blue pin-striped matching jacket and skirt, navy blue heels, and a white blouse. She looked even leaner than normal, professional and sophisticated. Unlike Jason, she looked well rested.

How did she sleep at all last night? Jason wondered. In the mirror that morning, his own bloodshot eyes had reflected another sleepless night. He had thrown on a suit that he had worn three times in two weeks without taking it to the dry cleaner and barely made it to the courthouse on time.

“Are your answers, given under oath and under penalty of perjury, all truthful and correct?” Kelly asked.

Poole leaned back a little and grunted, as if Kelly didn’t know whom she was accusing. “Of course.”

“Have you ever lied under oath?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Are you presently in the midst of divorce proceedings?”

Jason stood and objected. But it was merely a formality; he knew Garrison would overrule him.

“I’ll link it up,” Kelly promised. “It goes directly to his credibility.”

“You’re on a short leash, but go ahead,” Garrison said.

Poole sighed heavily and shot daggers at Kelly. “Yes. Though I consider it none of your business, my wife and I are getting divorced.”

“Did you have to file an accounting in your divorce case, under oath, that detailed all your assets?”

Poole started to turn a little red around the ears. “Yes… and I did.”

“ All of your assets?”

“Of course.”

“You didn’t hide any secret accounts that you had used, let’s say… to pay a mistress?”

The courtroom buzzed, and Poole’s brow furrowed-indignation giving way to concern.

“Objection!” Jason said.

“Overruled.”

“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Poole said. “Or what it has to do with this case.”

Kelly smiled. She walked over to Jason’s chair and handed him a copy of the bank documents he had seen the week before. She asked the court reporter to mark for identification a copy of a bank statement as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 33 and a cell phone bill as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 34. “May I approach the witness?” she asked Judge Garrison.

“Yes.”

She handed the documents to a stricken Poole. “Can you identify what’s been marked as Plaintiff’s Exhibit 33 and Plaintiff’s Exhibit 34?”

Poole took his time looking at both documents. Kelly stood in front of him, unmoving, like an avenging angel. “Well?” Kelly asked.

Poole looked at the judge and then back at Kelly. “I’m invoking my Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination,” he said. “I refuse to answer the question.”

There was an audible gasp in the courtroom, followed by murmuring and the banging of Judge Garrison’s gavel. “Order! Let’s have it quiet in here.” Juror 7 had her arms crossed and her lips pursed in disgust. Jason could feel the stares of the courtroom audience. It was painful watching your case go down in flames.

“Plaintiff’s Exhibit 33,” Kelly said. “Isn’t that a statement from a bank account you own that was not declared in your divorce case?”

“I’m invoking the Fifth.”

“Where did the deposits come from? Isn’t this more money than you were making from your consulting work?”

“I’m invoking the Fifth.”

“And what about Plaintiff’s 34? Does that show cell phone calls to the same woman who was receiving payouts from this account?”

Poole’s face was crimson now, as if he might explode at any moment. His lips barely moved when he talked. “I’m invoking the Fifth, Counselor.”

“Let me ask you one more time,” Kelly said, “because you forgot to invoke the Fifth Amendment for this one earlier. Have you ever lied under oath?”

“I plead the Fifth Amendment,” Poole said.