Trial and Error

Nineteen

Steve knows he has a weak case, Victoria thought. Why else would he file a frivolous motion seeking sanctions against the state for discovery violations? She had turned over all the evidence. She’d filed her witness and exhibit lists, and the full police reports, not just the portions containing Nash’s statements, as required. She’d made witnesses available for depositions. She’d filed a notice of “similar fact evidence” that she intended to introduce involving Nash’s participation in other animal liberation raids.

But Steve, in his gunslinger mode, had filed a vituperative motion. He’d accused her of “trial by ambush,” of “secreting essential exculpatory evidence,” of “wanton breach of the Brady rule,” and other nonsense. He sought dismissal of the charges for “wholesale violation of the letter and spirit of Rule 3.220.”

At least he got the rule number right.

Now Victoria walked briskly down the fourth-floor corridor of the Justice Building, the heels of her brown suede pumps clicking on the scarred tile. She carried a soft leather briefcase, and her quick pace made it appear she was late for court. Instead of twenty minutes early.

“A purposeful stride. Chin up.”

Her favorite law professor, a woman in her seventies, had told Victoria that.

“Walk like a man, think like a woman, and strike like a tiger.”

Long before she became a professor, Sylvia Massey had worked her way up to managing partner of a deep-carpet New York law firm. It had not been an easy path. When Sylvia was a young associate, she’d been called “Honey” by the head of litigation and even worse by the female secretaries, who fiercely resented her.

“Dress as if you’re going to court. Not a disco.”

Victoria smiled to herself as she passed a pair of female public defenders sashaying down the corridor in short skirts and blouses opened two buttons too low. One of the women wore black fishnet stockings; the other’s legs were bare.

“If you want to pick up men, go to a bar. If you want to win in court, look, act, and speak like a professional.”

Old school. It made sense to Victoria. Today she wore a Coeli brown plaid jacket, belted at the waist, and a matching A-line skirt that fell below the knees. She had legs long enough for the A-line and a waist flat enough for the jacket. She looked back at the two young public defenders trailing in her wake. One chewed gum with an open mouth. The other had used a mahogany lip liner the width of a highway stripe.

What’s next? Bare midriffs?

Oh, Jesus. Walking toward her was one of the paralegals from the Probation Department. A Britney Spears wannabe in a red spaghetti-strap blouse that stopped three inches above her navel. Spandex black Capri pants and fuschia flip-flops that smacked the tile as she hurried toward the Probation office.

Victoria entered Judge Gridley’s courtroom. Empty, except for the bailiff. Elwood Reed was snoozing in a cushioned chair at the side of the bench. He was a stooped, lean, slow-moving man who got to his feet only twice a day-once when announcing His Honor’s entrance and once his exit-and would be jobless if he were not the judge’s cousin by marriage.

Victoria settled at the prosecution table and opened her partitioned briefcase. She pulled out her pleadings binder, evidence folder, research files, a yellow legal pad, a paperback version of the Florida Rules of Criminal Procedure, and five pens of different colors.

She waited, the only sounds the bailiff snoring and the air-conditioning humming. Steve would be late, of course. He’d whip on his tie while exiting the elevator. He’d shave with the Norelco as he waltzed down the corridor. He’d say “Howdy” to cronies, debate college football with uniformed cops, compliment a judge’s assistant on her new hairdo, scope out the hallways and rest rooms for any unrepresented felons who looked prosperous enough to pay a small retainer, and in general just be…Steve.

The door to the corridor opened.

This is a first. Steve, early?

But it wasn’t her lover, partner…and opponent. It was State Attorney Ray Pincher, scowling. “We need to talk, Ms. Lord.” He shot a look at the sleeping bailiff, then motioned toward the closed door of the jury room. “In there.”

“It’s not appropriate for us to discuss the case.” She sounded a little stiff, even to herself, but it was true. Once Pincher was “conflicted out”-admitted he was related to the defendant-he had to stay out. Lawyers call it a “Chinese wall,” a barrier to keep the person with the conflict of interest away from the case.

“I know the rule. But I’m no fool.” Pincher stepped into the jury room and, with a slight bow, held the door open, waiting for her to enter the interior room.

An odd feeling came over Victoria once inside. It was a Spartan place, having twelve chairs, one table, and no windows. Fleetingly, she wished she had heard all the debates that had taken place in this room. What a primer that would be for any trial lawyer.

“Hector Diaz paid me a visit this morning,” Pincher said.

The U.S. Attorney. Victoria had never met the man, but she knew Diaz’s reputation as a political opportunist.

Pincher paced at the head of the long table. “There’s an ongoing federal investigation of the Animal Liberation Movement. Diaz wants my dumb-shit nephew to cooperate, flip on the leaders of the group, maybe bring down the guys who hit that cruise ship.”

Victoria knew about the incident. For decades, Florida cruise lines had deposited passengers on a remote island for day excursions. “The Castaways Adventure, your own private, desert island,” according to the brochures. The brochure didn’t mention the tortoise beds along the beach, which the tourists would routinely trample.

One sunny day, half a dozen men and women wearing commando gear and armed with paintball guns landed in a speedboat. Screaming “Death to tyrants” and “Long live the turtles,” they splattered dozens of middle-aged tourists from the Midwest. Red seemed to be the predominant color, causing lots of people to think they’d actually been shot.

Chaos, of course. Six of the frightened passengers tried to swim back to the ship. One woman nearly drowned. A man had a heart attack. The paintballers were never caught.

“Diaz suggests you offer a plea,” Pincher continued. “Involuntary manslaughter. Six years. Seven years. Doesn’t care about the sentence. After all, the dead guy, what’s his name…?”

“Sanders.”

“Yeah. Sanders was a lowlife, one of the bad guys.”

“He was a retired naval officer,” Victoria corrected him. “Got a medal in Desert Storm.”

“Have any family members contacted you? Anyone claim the body?”

“No.”

“So no one cares about this guy. Why should we?”

“Felony murder’s a slam dunk. You said so yourself, Ray.” It was the first time she’d ever called him by his first name. But he was treating her as an equal, for once, and it just felt right. “We’ll have more leverage if I get the conviction, then bargain with Nash for his cooperation.”

“Already suggested it to the feds. Diaz says he can’t take the risk you’ll lose.”

“I won’t lose, dammit.”

“Don’t take it personally. It’s not about you.”

“What, then?”

“You never know what a jury will do. Or wasn’t that O.J. Simpson I saw on the first tee at Mel Reese the other day?”

Victoria didn’t want to plead out the case. She wanted to win it the old-fashioned way, with the reading of a verdict, the defendant slumping over, his lawyer looking like he’d taken an elbow to the Adam’s apple.

His lawyer. Steve.

Damn, what’s the right thing to do?

Victoria analyzed her feelings. Usually, she approached every legal issue with dispassionate logic. But now was her thinking warped by her competitiveness, her desire to beat Steve at his own game?

“All right,” she said with a sigh. “If I offer the plea, will your nephew cooperate?”

Pincher smiled. “He’d be a fool not to, but then my sister raised a house full of fools.”

“You think Nash has the information the feds want?”

“No idea. The ALM isn’t one group. It’s a bunch of disorganized cells. Losers who hook up and do one job, then go back to smoking weed. I’m betting Gerald doesn’t know a hell of a lot.”

“And you told this to the U.S. Attorney?”

“Of course. But he says he needs someone inside the group. For better or worse, he wants Nash.”

“So is this his request? Or yours?”

“We’ve got four or five joint operations with the feds. They’ve got more manpower and equipment than we do. I need their help, so yeah, I’m asking you to do this. But I can’t force you, Victoria. You know that.”

Likewise, it was the first time he’d called Victoria by her first name. She had never seen Pincher so humble. So human. There was something else, too. An air of resignation.

“Do you trust the U.S. Attorney, Ray?”

Pincher shrugged. “Diaz is a careerist who wants to run the Criminal Division of the Justice Department. He doesn’t take a crap unless someone in D.C. tells him to.”

“So this is coming from Washington? Why would a couple dolphin kidnappers be that big a deal?”

“Exactly what I asked Diaz. All he’d say was something about a ‘parallel investigation.’ Diaz thinks my nephew’s tied into something bigger than animal rights. But whatever it is, he won’t tell me.”

Victoria sized up the situation. If she tried the case, she’d win and Gerald Nash would get twenty-five years to life. Harsh. Especially when he didn’t pull the trigger and hadn’t intended to harm anyone. He was basically a naive kid who’d been led astray. If she let him plead to manslaughter, it wouldn’t exactly be striking like a tiger. But maybe there’d be a measure of justice in it. Surely there’d be a measure of compassion. Then there was her duty to the State Attorney’s Office and Pincher’s need for federal cooperation.

“I’ll make the offer,” she said. “But I doubt Steve will accept it.”

“Why? He’d be crazy not to.”

“Because he’s having too much fun trying to beat me.”