[Damien Harrington 01.0] The Alibi

by Rachel Sinclair

  “But what you said to the guys inside went against Vittorio’s reputation on the outside, not Enzo’s.”

  “Yeah. So what? As I said, Enzo was paying me very well to pretend that it was Vittorio who was raping women. I’m not going to go against that.”

  I sighed. “Okay. Well, that was all that I wanted to know.”

  When I was driving home that evening, I got an even worse surprise.

  Garrett called me, and I clicked on and talked to him. “Yeah, Garrett,” I said, “what’s up?”

  “I found out who the secret partner is of that bastard Robert Weismann,” he said. “It took a lot of digging, but I found it out.”

  “Who is it?”

  “It’s your client, Gina Degrazio.”

  Chapter 15

  “What? What do you mean, Gina Degrazio is the secret partner of Robert Weismann?”

  “Just what I’m telling you. I found out that she was brought on as a secret partner, not a silent partner, but a secret partner, because of her mob ties. She couldn’t be a regular partner because she was associated with criminal elements, and apparently Robert Weismann didn’t want the feds to be banging down his door for having a mob-related partner on board. He wanted her as a partner, but he didn’t want her name on any of the titles or nothing like that. But she’s a partner, all right. That means that there’s one more person that we can sue for damages.”

  I felt my blood pressure start to rise as I considered what Tom Garrett was saying to me. Obviously, I couldn’t defend Gina on a criminal charge while simultaneously suing her. That would be an open and shut conflict of interest case. The Missouri Bar would burn me at the stake for that one.

  That meant one of two things – either I got off her criminal case, or I got off the personal injury mold case. It was bad enough that I had been working the two cases simultaneously anyhow, but I had a good excuse – I didn’t know that she was involved in the mold case, and it wasn’t something that could have just been discovered in a routine conflict check.

  That raised the stakes on whether or not I could get off Gina’s case 1000%. I had gained the trust of the people I met with. They were in a desperate situation, deathly ill with no place to go, and I came in and befriended them and reassured them that everything was going to turn out okay. I made them believe that I was on their side and that I would be right with them every step of the way. Yet I was faced with the reality that I might have to betray them. I might have to tell them “never mind.” I could find another attorney to take their case, somebody that I could trust to do a good job, but I still felt guilty. I felt incredibly guilty for possibly abandoning them.

  I didn’t want to see their faces when I told them that I had to get off their case and send it to another attorney. Yet, that was going to be the reality if I decided to stay on Gina’s case.

  Goddammit. Everything seemed to be against Gina’s case. Everything. I wanted off of it anyhow – she didn’t listen to me, she hid things from me and she lied to me. I didn’t know how I was supposed to win her case under those circumstances.

  “Damien?” Garrett said. “You still there?”

  “Yeah. I’m still here.”

  “Can you work both her criminal case and stay on the mold case?”

  “No. I can’t.” I shook my head. “I can’t. I have to choose one or the other. And goddammit, I want off her criminal case anyhow. I wanted off of it even before you told me the news about her being a secret partner with this Robert Weismann guy. Now, I really want off of it.”

  “I was actually excited about the class action mold suit. I was energized by the idea that I could actually help people for once. I mean, I know that I’m helping people in my criminal defense work too, but in cases like Gina, it just makes me want to take a shower. Helping her beat the charge of murder against her husband isn’t going to give me nearly the satisfaction that I was going to feel if I won a huge judgment against Robert Weismann, and those people that he hurt were made whole.”

  I felt so frustrated right at that moment, I felt like screaming and beating my fists on the steering wheel. “Goddammit, goddammit, goddammit,” I yelled at nobody in particular. “I’m sorry, Garret, thank you for calling me about this, but I have to go.”

  “Don’t apologize. I know how you feel. You were really excited about these cases, and now-“

  “And now I have to let all of them down. These people who have been let down, time and time again, and they’re going to be let down one more time. By me.” I shook my head. “Goddammit,” I said in a low voice. “Goddammit.”

  I hung up and pulled my car into my underground parking lot and rode the elevator to my office. I was going to have to talk to Gina once more. I was going to have to get the whole story from her, and she was going to have to tell me straight. I knew that, after I spoke with Nick, I wasn’t going to chance withdrawing from Gina’s case.

  That meant that I had to let all those poor people down.

  Gina came to my office the next morning. After I got off the phone with Garrett, I knew that I didn’t have the energy to talk to her. I was just completely drained. So, I went home. I kept Gretchen on the clock that evening, because I needed her to work with the kids while I went into my man cave and watched TV and just vegged out. I needed time and space to think about my options.

  Several times, I went to my home office, booted up the computer, and started to prepare disengagement letters to each of the mold clients that I signed up. But I could only start these letters, not finish them, because I didn’t want them to go out. I couldn’t face, just yet, the fact that I was going to have to let these people slip through my fingers. But when I closed my eyes, I saw their disappointed faces. I saw myself telling each one of them, in person, that I had to drop them, and I saw each of their faces look devastated.

  Would they trust another attorney? Could I find somebody that I trusted? I didn’t even know. The people that I knew who were practicing law were all criminal defense attorneys. I didn’t go to law school locally, so I didn’t necessarily know everyone practicing in the area on a first-name basis. I knew all the folks at the Public Defender’s Office, and there were a few of those chums who went on to personal injury firms, but these were large firms that they joined. Large firms that weren’t going to give my clients the personal service that I was planning on giving them.

  I was just going to have to ask around and see if I could come up with some names to give these people. I was going to have to personally find somebody who was going to be willing to be patient and hold these people’s hands and really make them feel like they mattered.

  That was the bottom line. I needed somebody to let each of these people know that they mattered. That their lives were at stake, and that they weren’t just a number. In other words, I was going to have to go above and beyond to find the right person to take them on. Then, and only then, would I go through the devastating process of telling each of them, face to face, that I could no longer represent them.

  I went to bed that night after drinking several shots of whiskey, feeling defeated.

  The next day, Gina came into the office. “Well,” she said, as she sat down. “What did you decide?”

  “I’ve decided that it’s time for you to tell me the truth. Your arraignment is tomorrow. After the arraignment happens, we’re going to be on a tight schedule. Judge Reiner doesn’t mess around. He wants his cases docketed quickly and he wants them gone just as quickly. He’s nothing if not efficient. That means that you and I are going to have to be on the same page, and we have to get on the same page quickly. So, you have to answer every question that I have for you, and you have to answer these questions truthfully.”

  “I have been truthful,” Gina said.

  “Save it. Now. Here’s the first question I have for you. I understand that you are a secret partner with Robert Weismann, and the two of you own some real estate around the city. I need to know exactly what compelled you to invest with him and why you had
to be a secret partner. I also need to know where you got the money to become a secret partner with him.”

  “I don’t know what-“

  I put my hand up. “Gina, stop. Just stop. I know for a fact that you are involved with these apartments, and I know for a fact that your name does not come up on any title searches. Now, answer these questions straight.”

  She sighed. “Okay. You got me. Listen, Robert and Enzo are friends. They go way back. Enzo has his restaurant license and his spot downtown because of Robert. Robert’s loaded, he knows lots of people in City Hall, he pulled some strings, and Enzo got his downtown restaurant.”

  “Oh? Robert did that out of the goodness of his heart?”

  “No. Of course not. Listen, Robert said that he needed an investor to go in with him on buying the apartments. He needed somebody else to partner with him. He told Enzo that if he found somebody who was willing to invest with him, that he would get Enzo that restaurant license and that place downtown.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Okay. So, he buys these dilapidated places that he ignored and let mold grow, and he roped you into partnering with him. I guess because he needed somebody else to take the fall for when the inevitable lawsuits came down against him. I guess that you were that patsy. Now, riddle me this. Enzo was the guy who profited from this arrangement, not you. So why is that you were the one that agreed to be the secret partner for Robert and not Enzo?”

  She shifted uncomfortably in her seat. “I owed Enzo a lot of money from way back. Gambling debts that he cleared up for me at some Vegas casinos. You ever see The Godfather? You ever see that scene where Vito is helping that guy and saying that he wants something in return when the time comes? Well, that’s the arrangement that Enzo and me had when he pulled some strings to erase my gambling debts. I owed him, so I did this for him. Enzo got his restaurant downtown and Robert got his partner.”

  “Okay. Now, let’s roll it back even further. I can only assume that Robert got you involved because he knew that the properties he was buying were death traps. He probably knew that they were mold infested, and he probably knew that they were lawsuits just waiting to happen. He wanted a partner to cushion the inevitable fall, so he chose you. First off, did you know that was why he wanted you as a partner? Did you know about the toxic mold that’s growing in those apartments? The toxic mold that is making people extremely sick and even killing some people?”

  “No. I didn’t know it at the time. I knew that there was some reason why he wanted me as a partner, but I didn’t know exactly what the reason was.”

  “But why did he buy those properties? What purpose do those properties serve for him?”

  She sighed. “He got a tip that an international developer was interested in that land. He knows people who have insider information, and he found out that the land that those apartments are on was going to be worth 20x what it was worth that day. That land developer was going to tear down those slums and use the land to develop some condos. So, he bought those apartments. He bought them before it ever became public that Adium Incorporated, which is the firm that wanted the land, was interested. He knew that Adium Incorporated was going to file their letters of intent to buy the property, and he wanted in before that was publicly known.”

  “My investigator did an extensive search on these properties, and there were no letters of intent filed from anybody. I didn’t see that anybody bid with Robert for possession of those properties.”

  “No, they didn’t. They didn’t end up bidding. They decided at the last minute that they didn’t want those properties anyhow, so they ended up bidding on some other properties that were close by. Robert ended up stuck with the places. It turned out, though, that he brought me on as security just in case he did end up holding the bag.”

  “Listen, I didn’t find out about the mold issues until he told me about them. He told me that he had found out that a little boy died in one of the apartments, and so did a middle-aged woman. He told me that he found out that people were getting sick. He told me that we needed to be prepared for a multi-million dollar lawsuit. He said that he tried to unload the property so that they became somebody else’s problem, but apparently that lady, Arnetta Williams, died before he could sell.”

  I sighed. “Okay. Listen, I was going to be the attorney on these mold cases, but I obviously cannot sue you since you are my criminal client. And, don’t worry, anything that you have told me about these mold cases would be strictly confidential, and covered under privilege, so I can’t disclose anything that you said about the mold to the next attorney who will be handling this case. I probably shouldn’t say anything more to you about this, however. In fact, I might have already said too much.”

  She looked perplexed. “You were going to sue about the mold?”

  “I was. I didn’t know that you were a partner until this afternoon. Now, I obviously am not going to be the attorney who will be filing suit.”

  “Does that mean that I’ll still be your criminal client?”

  I took a deep breath. “Unfortunately, yes. I’m feeling slightly more comfortable about that, however, than I was. You seemed to be forthcoming about your association with Robert Weismann, so that’s a positive sign.”

  Gina appeared to relax. “So, there is going to be a lawsuit about the mold?”

  “I don’t know. I won’t be filing it, so I can’t tell you if there’s going to be a lawsuit or not. Now, I need to ask you some more questions. I need to find out how you know Joey Caruso and what kind of hold you have over him. You tell me that Joey will turn in my friend Nick if things don’t go right in your criminal case, or if I withdraw from your case. But why would Joey care? Are you telling me that you’re just going to tell Joey to rat on Nick and he’s just going to do it because you asked him to?”

  “No.” She shifted even more uncomfortably in her seat. “Okay. I’ve been thinking about this a lot, and I’ve even talked about this with Enzo. He tells me that I’m your boss, and what I say goes. That if I tell you not to go to certain things in the trial, you won’t go there. That’s what he tells me. So, he told me that I can go ahead and tell you everything.”

  Finally. “Go ahead.”

  “Well, it started when I got into this apartment deal. I didn’t know what I was getting into, and, all of a sudden, I get phone calls from Robert Weismann telling me to be prepared for a multi-million dollar lawsuit. I don’t have that kind of money. Robert’s telling me that if we get judgments against us, we’re going to owe that money, and that even if I went bankrupt, I couldn’t get out from under it. So, yeah, I suddenly find myself having to maybe pay people millions of dollars that I don’t have.”

  I suddenly realized that I probably knew where this was going. “Go on.”

  “Well, Enzo killed Vittorio, as you’ve already figured out. We made a deal – Enzo would give me my $3 million bond, and I could keep that money after I beat the case, in exchange for me taking the fall for him. We signed a contract, legally binding, I got a lawyer to review it, but we signed a contract that said that I could keep the $3 million after I beat the case.”

  “That contract couldn’t possibly be legally binding. You have to have consideration for a contract to be binding, which means that both parties need to give something to one another. The only consideration for this contract was that you would take the fall for Enzo’s crime. That can’t be considered to be legal consideration.” I stared at her. “Yet you got a lawyer to tell you that contract was legally binding?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you told that attorney what the terms of the contract was?”

  “No. The contract didn’t say that I was taking the fall for Enzo. It just said that I was going to get to keep the money he paid for the bond if I beat the case.”

  “You got that contract with you?”

  “Yeah.” She had an accordion file with her, and she brought it out. “Here.”

  I took about a half hour to review the contract, and I was satisfi
ed that it was binding on both parties. I figured out exactly why the contract was binding on both parties, too – the contract stated that Enzo owed Gina $3 million for prior debts. I didn’t know for sure, but I imagined that the attorney who reviewed the contract told Gina and Enzo that their current arrangement would never fly, so they needed to put something else into the contract that would be considered legal consideration. Whatever, this was a contract that they both signed, the consideration was proper, so it was enforceable in court.

  “This contract states that you forfeit the money if you’re convicted.”

  “Yeah. I figured it was worth the roll of the dice.”

  I shook my head. “Worth the roll of the dice? In what world is your freedom worth the roll of the dice?”

  “In my world. Listen, those apartments aren’t the only thing I’m in hock to. I’m also in hock to Joey. Big time hock to him. A million dollars is what I owe him, and he knows guys that will take me out, and not to dinner. Joey’s threatened to ice me more than once. So, I got this promissory note from Enzo that says that I’m going to get $3 million if I beat this case down, so Joey’s not so antsy to see me wiped off the face of the earth no more. Suddenly, Joey’s hanging back and seeing if I’m going to beat this case, because he wants his money.”

  “Why do you owe Joey so much money?”

  “Because he gave me a bunch of money to open up some massage parlors for him. He wanted to launder his money through these massage parlors.”

  “Okay. And what happened to the massage parlors?”

  “Well, they were shut down, all of them, by the city.”

  “And why were they shut down?”

  “The girls were giving happy endings.”

  I nodded my head. “That will do it. But Joey had to know that if he gave you money for a less-than-legitimate business that something like that was bound to happen.”