Outrage

by Robert K. Tanenbaum

  He doesn’t like being second-guessed, Karp thought. I don’t suppose any of us do, but he has to see the logic. This case is going to get a lot of press attention and Alea Watkins is a tough, seasoned adversary. You can’t hand a case like this over to a rookie.

  “We’ll talk about that in a bit,” Karp said. He didn’t want to beat up on Davis; he might not be ready for the job right now, but someday he could be if he remained with the DAO. But he still needed to make his point; he felt that teaching his subordinates was one of his main functions as a DA. “Why didn’t Danielle get in touch with the senior ADA who was supervising the night chart when she got the call? The Yancy-Jenkins murders were as high-profile as it gets and that usually requires an experienced hand.”

  “Well, for starters she wasn’t immediately told that this concerned the Yancy-Jenkins murders,” Davis said. “This Detective Graziani who called said he had a suspect who’d confessed to a Manhattan double murder. She only learned which case it was when she got there.”

  “Okay, that’s for starters,” Karp said. “But what’s next? Why not call after she got there and learned which case this was?”

  Davis dipped his head, but then to his credit he looked Karp in the eye. “Actually she tried to reach Terry Daley, the senior ADA who should have been on call, but there was a mix-up in the schedule and he wasn’t home. Then she tried to call me, too, but I was late getting to the Yankee game and had rushed out of the house without my cell phone. I guess there was a concern by the detective that the suspect might lawyer up. So by the time I got home and got her message, she’d already gone ahead and questioned the suspect and got a separate confession.”

  The younger man hung his head again. “Sorry, I messed up,” he said. “I shouldn’t have been out of touch.”

  “Yeah, with this job we’re pretty much on call twenty-four/seven, or at least we have to make sure that the lines of communication are open,” Karp replied. “But it happens, and it’s one of those lessons we don’t soon forget.”

  “True, true,” Davis said, and smiled slightly as he pointed to his head. “It’s now engraved in stone.”

  Karp chuckled. “Good. Then let’s move on from here. Refresh me on the timing of these events. I take it the suspect confessed Monday sometime after our bureau chiefs meeting.”

  “Yes,” Davis said, and pointed at the file folder. “You’ll see how it breaks down in there, but essentially Graziani calls Monday evening and says he’s got this guy who’d been popped in the Bronx on Sunday for an assault and ended up confessing to a murder up there. And now he’s confessed to a Manhattan homicide. So Danielle then trots up to the Bronx jail and gets the whole story. Apparently, Graziani was working narcotics in the Two-Six when the Yancy-Jenkins murders went down. He did some work with the task force, so he was familiar with the details of the case. Anyway, he hears about this guy confessing to the Bronx homicide and gets a hunch to look at the evidence. Turns out, this guy—the perp’s name is Felix Acevedo—was carrying a woman’s engagement ring in his wallet with the inscription filed away. And Graziani knew that whoever killed Olivia Yancy took her engagement ring; in fact, the bastard cut her finger off to get it. So Graziani goes after this guy and pretty soon he gets the guy to confess to the Yancy-Jenkins murders. That’s when he called the DAO and got Cohn.”

  “Okay, I understand all that,” Karp said. “But why the rush to indict?” He knew it sounded a little harsh, like an indictment itself, but it might well be a question Alea Watkins would raise to get the case thrown out, and he wanted to see how Davis would react.

  Davis bit his lip. “I didn’t consider it a rush. It’s pretty much a slam-dunk case. The defendant confessed first to Graziani and then gave a virtually verbatim Q & A statement to Danielle—plus he confessed to the murder in the Bronx. When you read the confession and the Q & A you’ll see the guy is as consistent as a Swiss watch. Hardly a word of difference between what he told the detective and what he told Cohn. Then there’s the ring. To be frank, I think his defense attorney is going to take one look at the evidence and beg us to plea-bargain the case.”

  Karp thought about what Marlene had said about her meeting with Alejandro and Acevedo’s mother. His gut told him that it wasn’t going to be anywhere near as much of a “slam dunk” as Davis thought, and he doubted that “Perry Mason Junior” Watkins was the sort to beg for mercy.

  “What’s the status of the Bronx case?” Karp said.

  Davis frowned. “I’m not sure. I don’t think they’ve filed an indictment yet. Maybe it’s not as strong a case … I’m not familiar with all of the details. But I can find out.”

  Karp’s brow furrowed and he shook his head. “I owe my old friend Mr. Bronx DA himself, Sam Hartsfield, a call. I’ll let you know what he says.”

  Davis nodded but didn’t reply. Karp knew that his young colleague was taking it hard. “It’s okay, Pat,” he said. “Under the circumstances, I understand how it all happened. I just want to review the case file, like we would have at the meeting, and make sure we didn’t leap into something we’re going to regret. I can’t emphasize enough how vital it is for this office to not only believe that we can win a case but be convinced a thousand percent that the defendant is factually guilty and that we have the legally admissible evidence to prove it. Otherwise, we don’t go forward. But that first threshold is factual guilt.”

  Davis squared his shoulders. “I’m aware of that, and I’m convinced he did it. The confessions are just too on point. And I don’t see how the defense is going to keep them out of evidence.”

  Karp held the man’s gaze for a long moment, then pursed his lips and nodded. “All right then,” he said, and tapped the file. “I’ll take a look at what we got. As far as personnel, I want Ray Guma as lead counsel; Danielle can second seat.”

  “Guma?” Davis asked, surprised.

  Karp raised an eyebrow. He knew that a lot of the new young Turks in the office thought of Guma, who worked only part-time due to his health, as a relic. But Karp knew that he was as good as they came—smart and tough as nails in a courtroom. A brawler more than a boxer, but he got the job done and would be a good match for Watkins. “Yes, Guma. I don’t know if you’re aware of this but he was the DAO rep on the Yancy-Jenkins task force … the same one this Graziani worked with. He’ll be able to spot any holes.”

  Davis twisted his lips. “Cohn isn’t going to like it.”

  Karp scowled slightly to show that there wasn’t going to be a lot of argument regarding this decision. “Then she can excuse herself from the case,” he said. “If you’re wrong, and the defense doesn’t come looking for a plea deal—and I don’t think they will—there’s going to be a fight. Cohn can learn a lot from an old warhorse like Goom.”

  A few minutes later, Davis excused himself. When he left the office, Karp glanced down at the file on his desk. Under the circumstances, I understand how it all happened. He suspected the truth was that Davis wanted badly to close this case while on his watch. But if ambition meant taking shortcuts, it could lead to disaster.

  14

  BASEBALL PRACTICE HAD BEEN OVER FOR TWO HOURS, but the twins were still arguing when they got out of the yellow cab on the corner of Third Avenue and Twenty-ninth Street. They stood facing each other for a moment, tense and angry.

  “You know Coach Newell told Chase to hurt him,” Giancarlo said. “It was just practice and he slid into Esteban hard at second with his cleats up.”

  “Chase was just trying to break up the double play,” Zak argued, and moved past his brother to the door of the Il Buon Pane bakery. The debate was momentarily interrupted when he opened the door and they were greeted by the smell of fresh-baked pastries and breads.

  However, once Giancarlo recovered his wits and noted that they were going to have to stand in line anyway, he returned to the fray. “Esteban had already made the play,” he said, “and, I might add, a frickin’ great play—catches that one-hop blast up the middle, tags second himself,
and fires over to first to double them up. He’d let go of the ball ten feet before Chase even got there. There was no reason to go into him like that.”

  “Coach Newell is just trying to get us to play hard-nosed baseball with the playoffs coming up,” Zak said, getting more surly and defensive with each point his brother made.

  “Esteban got hurt because of it,” Giancarlo said. “That was a nasty cut on his leg from Chase’s cleats.”

  “It looked worse than it was.”

  “Zak … come on … he was bleeding like he’d been stabbed.”

  Zak shrugged. “He should have seen Chase coming and moved.”

  “He wasn’t expecting to get a cheap shot by his own teammate.”

  “You’d think he would have learned by now.”

  Giancarlo stopped and stared at his brother in shock, then slowly shook his head. “Yeah, you’re right,” he said sarcastically. “He should understand by now that a racist xenophobic coach and his little toadies would be looking for ways to hurt a seventeen-year-old because he’s a Mexican. I mean, what a stupid wetback. What does he expect? Fair treatment? Maybe play a meaningless game without one of his own teammates trying to injure him? Dumb spic.”

  Zak scowled. Chase Fitzpatrick was the team’s catcher—a big, not terribly bright redhead and one of Max Weller’s toadies. “I’m very impressed with the ‘xenophobic’ adjective, but you’re overreacting.”

  “Overreacting!” Other customers turned around or looked up from their tables with disapproval at Giancarlo’s shout. Although there was a constant hum of conversation in Il Buon Pane, people maintained a certain level of decorum meant to preserve the tranquillity of the place, and a shouting teenager wasn’t part of it.

  Giancarlo recognized this and immediately lowered his voice to an angry buzz directed at his twin. “I was the only one on the team to go out there to see how bad he was hurt. He was lying on the ground, Zak, holding his leg and bleeding. Coach Newell never even came over. He sent an assistant coach.”

  Zak rolled his eyes. “Newell was busy. He probably didn’t think it was that bad.”

  “He high-fived Chase when he came back to the dugout!” Giancarlo said.

  “I didn’t see that.”

  “I did! So did a lot of other guys. And so did Esteban. The guy had tears in his eyes but didn’t say a word, and by the way, thanks for getting my back like you said you would. I didn’t exactly see you come out to help.”

  “You didn’t need me,” Zak replied. “And Coach Hames told me to keep warming up. Nobody was jumping your butt for helping Esteban.”

  “What about the crap I caught in the locker room after practice? ‘Taco lover,’ ‘Bean Dip’—those were just a couple of names … all homophobic of course …”

  Zak replied, “Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will—”

  “Never hurt me. Yeah, I know,” Giancarlo retorted. “But this time Esteban did get hurt. And I could be next. Max and Chase and their pals were all laughing about Esteban, then Chase said, ‘Hey, Giancarlo, maybe now Coach will let you play shortstop for sliding practice.’ Sounds like a threat to me.”

  “I’ll kick his butt if he does,” Zak blustered. “He’s just a big, fat catcher.”

  “You’re not getting the point—”

  Whatever Giancarlo was going to say was cut short by the appearance of Moishe Sobelman. “Boys, boys, what are these hard words and angry eyes?” he asked, clapping a hand on each boy, though he had to reach up to do so. “It’s a terrible thing when brothers fight. But come, let’s discuss this over something to eat. Let me see, will it be your father’s favorite, cherry cheese coffee cake, or could I interest you in something else today? A raspberry almond torte, perhaps? Of course, your mother will probably be angry with me for ruining your dinners.”

  The twins immediately stopped sneering at each other and grinned at Sobelman. They happily followed him around behind the counter into the kitchen, where Moishe sat them down at a small table and took their orders. Neither ventured too far, however, from their father’s addiction, opting only to try the blueberry cheese coffee cake.

  Sobelman went out to the counter and then returned with the coffee cakes. He then sat down with a cup of coffee and waited for the boys to get well into their treat before asking what they’d been fighting about. He then listened patiently as each boy gave his side of the story.

  “It’s only six or seven guys, and we have twenty-five guys on the roster,” Zak said in conclusion. “If something happens and those guys get kicked off the team, or Coach Newell loses his job, we’ll have no chance to take state this year. Why should the whole team suffer for one guy?”

  Sobelman looked thoughtful and then responded gently. “Indeed, why should the rights or happiness, or even the safety, of one person supersede what is best for many? Then again, I guess there is a question of what is best for many in the long run. It is a very difficult and often frightening decision to speak up for someone else, Zak. But let’s look at this from the perspective of your report for your bar mitzvah class.”

  Sobelman got up and rummaged through a drawer. “In the 1920s, the Nazis were just a few thugs meeting in German beer halls. But they were loud and aggressive, and speaking out against them could even result in a beating. Still, they could have been easily stopped if the majority of Germans who didn’t subscribe to their hateful views had said something, or at least voted against them.” He picked up a piece of paper from the drawer and walked back to the table and sat down.

  “You may have heard this; it was part of a speech given by Martin Niemöller, a German minister and philosopher,” Sobelman said, and read from the piece of paper. “‘First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the trade unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.’”

  “I’ve heard that before,” Giancarlo said. “When we were studying the Holocaust in a bar mitzvah class my dad was teaching.”

  “Good,” Sobleman replied. “I’m glad you’ve heard it somewhere. But did your father tell you much about Mr. Niemöller?”

  “No,” the boys said.

  “Well, it is good to know his history as well as his words,” Sobelman said. “For instance, he was a submarine commander in World War I but later became a pacifist and anti–nuclear weapons activist. In the 1930s, he was staunchly anti-Communist and initially supported the Nazis’ rise to power. Only when the Nazis made churches subordinate to the party did he balk and begin speaking out against them. He became very popular in Germany, which angered Hitler, who had him arrested in 1937. He spent more than a year in jail. When he got out, he continued to speak against the Nazis, which got him arrested again and this time sent to the death camps at Sachsenhausen and Dachau in ‘protective custody.’ He was, of course, treated better than the Jewish prisoners and so survived seven years in those hellholes until he was liberated in 1945. He gave his ‘they came for the Jews’ speech after that … which has, of course, become a popular treatise on the danger of political apathy.”

  “I understand your point,” Zak said defensively. “But what does this have to do with a baseball team and one kid getting bullied a little?”

  It was Sobelman’s turn to shrug. “Maybe only to illustrate how horrible things like the Holocaust start small—a few evil men in a pub, or in a corporate boardroom, or a socialist workers’ party meeting. These evil men believe they know what’s best for everyone else. They say some things that make people uncomfortable, but no one does anything about it. People shrug and say, ‘It’s their right to free speech,’ which is fine, but they don’t counter it, or denounce it, with free speech of their own. The masses are mute. Perhaps they are too intimidated by the smear campaign that would be directed at them. Or maybe they’re afraid of physical violence, even assassination. But d
eep down in their souls where they are frightened, they know they actually want someone else to make the tough decisions for them.”

  Sobelman reached across the table and set his hands on Zak’s wrists. “Right now it’s just a few bullies on a boys’ baseball team. But tolerating this behavior now becomes a mind-set that will carry into the future. These bullies are the same sort of people who end up in those pubs and boardrooms and meeting halls. And those who witness the debasement of another human being and do nothing about it are the same people who may someday ask themselves why they didn’t stand up when the evil men come for them.”

  “But shouldn’t Esteban have to stand up for himself first?” Zak asked. “He never does anything about the crap he gets. He won’t fight. He doesn’t tell the principal.”

  “Certainly he has to defend himself,” Sobelman said in agreement. “We Jews in Europe learned that the hard way. Except for a few anomalies like the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto and our revolt at the Sobibor camp, we allowed ourselves to be led like sheep to the slaughter.”

  Sobelman shook his head. “No wonder those of us who survived it, who want nothing more than to live a peaceful life in the manner that God has ordained for our people, swore that never again would we surrender without a fight. People who criticize the Israelis for their tendency to react harshly to threats might do well to remember that Arabs were not the first people to decide that Jews had no right to exist.”

  “So then you agree that this is really Esteban’s problem?” Zak asked, thinking he’d scored a point.

  “It’s only part of the equation,” Sobelman replied. “It’s hard to face the world on your own. Still, if you won’t stick up for yourself, you can’t expect others to always fight your battles for you.”