“Can they amend the charges up?” Talon clarified. “Yeah, they can do that. They’re the prosecutor. They can do whatever the hell they want.”
“Oh. Wow,” Curt shook his head. “And can they say that about Luke? That he’s responsible for Officer Dickerson’s death? Isn’t he presumed innocent?”
Talon shrugged. “Of course he is. And no one believes that. There’s a dead cop. And they’re going to say ‘dead cop’ as many times as they can, so by the time the trial starts, everyone will hate Luke, no matter what the facts are.”
“And they can just do that?” Curt complained. “Aren’t they supposed to be held to a higher standard or something? I mean, they’re supposed to be the good guys, right?”
“I don’t know about that,” Talon scoffed. “But yeah, there’s a special ethical rule just for prosecutors talking to the press. They aren’t supposed to say anything that would ‘heighten public condemnation of the accused.’”
“They totally just did that!” Curt pointed at the empty spot where Donaldson had just been standing.
“Yes, they did,” Talon agreed.
“So, what do you do now? File a bar complaint?”
Talon laughed at that. “I’m not filing a bar complaint.”
“Why not?” Curt asked. “Wouldn’t that create, I don’t know, a conflict of interest or something?”
Talon shook her head. “A bar complaint just isn’t my style.”
“Winning isn’t your style?” Curt challenged.
Talon grinned. “That’s exactly my style. And you know it. Which means I know how to do it. Trust me. Filing a bar complaint over a press conference is not how to win this case.”
“Really?” Curt asked. “It won’t help to take out the prosecutor?”
“Cut off one asshole,” Talon answered, “and two more will take its place.”
“Wow,” Curt said. “Gross.”
Talon laughed again. “There will always be another prosecutor,” she explained. “I’m not going to win by trying to disqualify their team. I have to win on my terms. And with my team.”
Curt just nodded, apparently ready to concede the argument.
“And you’re part of my team,” Talon reminded him. “Right?”
“Even if I don’t get paid?” Curt knew. He sighed. “Sure. But I really would prefer to be paid.”
“Me too,” Talon agreed. “And our false confession expert will absolutely insist on it.”
CHAPTER 11
“We don’t even know how we’re going to pay for you,” Mary Zlotnik said at the meeting Talon called with her and her husband later that week. “How are we supposed to pay for an expert too?”
“And an investigator,” Curt put in.
Talon shot him a harsh glance.
“That’s why I wanted to meet with you,” she explained. “We have some important decisions to make.”
“What happens if we don’t hire this expert you want?” Paul Zlotnik asked.
“Honestly?” Talon replied. “We’ll lose. The jury will accept Luke’s confession at face value, and he’ll be convicted. Period. And now he’s looking at life in prison.”
“I still don’t understand,” Mary interjected. “You say he confessed? Why would he confess? And why didn’t he tell us that?”
“That’s why we need the false confession expert,” Talon explained. “And that’s why we’ll lose without one. The jury will have the same questions. We have to have an answer for them.”
“I thought it was the prosecutor who had to prove everything,” Paul said. “Isn’t Luke presumed innocent?”
“He is,” Talon agreed. “But without the expert, the State will tell the jury he confessed and there won’t be anyone to say it’s not true.”
“What about Luke?” Paul suggested. “He can tell them it wasn’t true, that they forced it out of him. Right?”
“He can,” Talon agreed again. “But the jury won’t believe him. Without a scientific reason to disregard the confession, the jury will think he’s just trying to get out of trouble.”
“Get away with murder,” Curt put in.
Talon gave him another disapproving glance.
“He didn’t murder anyone,” Mary insisted loudly. “Why won’t anyone believe that?”
“Because he said he did it,” Paul answered his wife’s question. “Or he said he knew it was a robbery, and I guess that’s enough. I don’t know. That’s why we hired her.”
He turned to Talon again. “I believe you when you say we need this expert, but you have to believe us. We don’t have any more money. It took everything to hire you. There’s nothing left.”
“Why can’t we get a public defender expert?” Mary asked. “Do people with public defenders get to have expert witnesses?”
Talon nodded. “Of course.”
“Who pays for those experts?” Mary asked.
“The county,” Talon answered. “They have money set aside to hire experts. It comes out of the same budget as the lawyers.”
“Then why can’t we get an expert at public expense?” Mary asked. “We can’t afford one, but you say he absolutely needs one. Shouldn’t the county pay for that too?”
Talon thought for a long moment. Curt’s body language threatened he was about to say something, so she cut it off with a third harsh glance. Finally, she said, “I can try.”
“Really?” Mary asked.
“Really?” Paul echoed.
“It’s unusual,” Talon said. “And judges hate to do anything unusual. Plus, the public defenders aren’t going to want to use their budget on somebody else’s client. But you’re right. Luke deserves it and he can’t afford it. It doesn’t hurt to ask.”
“Oh, that would be wonderful,” Mary said. “Do you think it will work?”
“I can’t promise anything,” Talon cautioned. “I’ll file a motion for an expert at public expense. Hopefully, the judge will understand we can’t win this case without one.”
Paul leaned forward and shook Talon’s hand. “Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Talon replied. “No one is going to like giving public money to someone who hired a private attorney. I can’t promise this will work. And if it doesn’t, we’re right back where we are now.”
“We understand,” Paul said. “But that’s why we hired you.”
“To do the impossible.” Mary smiled.
“We read about you,” Paul explained. “We did our research. Everybody said you’re the best. They said if anybody could get Luke out of trouble, it was you. It’s why we’re risking everything.”
He looked to his wife, who nodded sadly and looked at Talon with glistening eyes.
“Because without Luke,” she said, “we don’t have anything.”
Talon nodded. “Of course.”
No pressure.
CHAPTER 12
It wasn’t a difficult motion to draft. The ask was straightforward, and there wasn’t a lot of case law on either side. Her client needed money to hire an expert, and the family had used all their resources to pay her (or to promise to pay her… eventually… maybe). The judge simply needed to order the county’s public defense office to pay funds directly to Talon’s expert.
Technically, the request for public funds was just between Talon and the judge. The prosecutor had no standing to argue against the motion, but she still had to provide notice to the prosecutor since it was under the criminal case number and the State was a named party. The problem was, prosecutors were so used to running everything, they couldn’t even conceive of a situation where they didn’t get to talk.
That meant a trip to the prosecutor’s office to drop off the notice of the hearing. The last thing any defense attorney wanted to talk about with the prosecutor was defense tactics. It was bad enough that the motion would expose at least part of Talon’s strategy. She didn’t want to get into an off-the-record conversation with Cecilia about it. In court, the opportunities to speak were structured and limited. S
he could stonewall the prosecutor by simply limiting her answers to the judge’s questions. But a hallway conversation with Cecilia might lead to a slip of the tongue that betrayed even more of Talon’s plans than the motion was already exposing.
That was what the ‘IN’ basket at the front desk of the prosecutor’s office was for, as far as Talon was concerned. Drop and dash.
It almost worked.
Talon dropped off the notice of hearing in the prosecutor’s office on the ninth floor and took the first elevator back down to one. She was halfway across the lobby when she heard Cecilia call out to her. And not in a friendly way.
“Talon! Talon! What is this?”
Talon sighed, then stopped and turned around. Cecilia was waving the notice Talon had just dropped off. Cecilia must have been hiding behind the receptionist or something and run down the stairs after her.
“It’s called a pleading,” Talon called back. “That’s the general term for a document filed by a party to a court action.”
“You’re going to hire a false confession expert?” Cecilia practically spat as she closed the distance between them. “Really? That’s the best you can do?”
“You haven’t seen the best I can do,” Talon responded. “Not yet anyway. But yes, we plan on hiring an expert to explain to the jury how your cops coerced a false confession from an innocent man.”
Cecilia crossed her arms. “I thought he was just a boy.”
“And I thought you were a decent, honorable prosecutor,” Talon said. “But I forgot. No such thing. Like unicorns. And justice.”
“I’m going to oppose this.” Cecilia shook the pleading at Talon.
“You don’t have any standing,” Talon replied. “You can’t object to the defendant preparing his defense.”
“I can object to a defendant using public money to get away with the murder of a public servant who died protecting the public at large.”
“Did you want to say ‘public’ one more time?” Talon sneered. “Or are we done?”
“We’ll be done when the jury says ‘Guilty’,” Cecilia answered, “and the judge sends your client to prison.”
“For the rest of his life,” Talon expounded. “For something his friend did.”
“We talked about this, Talon.” Cecilia put her hands on her hips.
“Yes, we did, Cecilia,” Talon responded. “You know, I used to respect you. I still want to. But you’re drinking the Kool-Aid on this one, and I don’t get it. Did Donaldson promise you a promotion or something?”
Cecilia lifted her chin. “I don’t need a promotion to want to see justice.”
“Justice?” Talon laughed. “This is vengeance.”
Cecilia thought for a moment. “Maybe vengeance is a part of justice.”
Talon had a snappy retort ready. Several in fact. But she stopped herself. She really did want to keep liking Cecilia Thompson. There were so few prosecutors who understood what Talon did. She didn’t want to lose one. “Think about this, Cecilia. Don’t let this case change you. Think about this motion. Let’s get an expert on false confessions. Let’s see what they say. Maybe they say Luke was telling the truth and he did know. If so, you can sleep easy knowing you held him accountable for a murder the law says he’s responsible for. But if they say it was coerced, that Luke didn’t know, that he really was just sitting in his car waiting on a friend—wouldn’t you want to know that?”
Cecilia didn’t reply immediately. She let her eyes drop from Talon’s to the paper in her hand. It had the date and time of the hearing.
“I’ll see you next Tuesday, Talon,” Cecilia finally said. “Don’t expect me to sit back and stay silent on this issue.”
Talon frowned. “Honestly, Cecilia, I don’t know what to expect from you anymore.”
CHAPTER 13
Normally, going in front of a judge who’d spent a career as a public defender before ascending to the bench would have been a good thing for Talon. But on a motion asking for public money for a defendant who apparently had enough money to hire a private attorney? Not so much.
Judge Bryan Gainsborough was one of the defense bar’s favorite judges. Although that wasn’t necessarily saying much. Judges were elected in Washington State, and it was just good politics to be pro-law enforcement. That was fine for governors and legislators, mayors and council members, but kind of a problem for judges who were the only check on overzealous cops. Gainsborough was one of the few judges who wasn’t afraid to rule against the cops if it was appropriate and that usually made him a good draw for the defense. But Talon wasn’t asking for a ruling against the cops. She was asking for a ruling against the public defense budget.
The hearing was set on a busy calendar of miscellaneous criminal motions. Nothing that required testimony—those were assigned out to empty courtrooms for half- and full-day hearings. The ones on Gainsborough’s calendar were motions the judge could rule on based just on the arguments of the attorneys. Or, Talon hoped, in her case, the argument from just one attorney. Cecilia had, as promised/threatened, appeared for the hearing, so Talon’s first order of business was to block her from addressing the judge at all.
“Are the parties ready on the matter of The State of Washington versus Lucas Zlotnik?” the judge read the name of the next case on the docket.
“The defense is ready, Your Honor,” Talon spoke up first, “and this motion does not call for any response from the State. The State has no standing.”
That wrinkle broke up the monotony of an entire morning of routine discovery motions. Judge Gainsborough looked up from his papers and actually focused on the litigant before him.
“Ms. Winter,” he greeted her. “Nice to see you again. Are you saying there won’t be a prosecutor here for this motion?”
“I’m here, Your Honor,” Cecilia stepped forward. “Cecilia Thompson on behalf of the State of Washington.”
Judge Gainsborough nodded to her. “Ms. Thompson. Good to see you as well. So, do you agree with Ms. Winter’s assertion that you have no standing on this motion?”
“No, Your Honor, I do not,” Cecilia answered. “I believe the State has standing to address any issue in a criminal case, even if only to help inform the Court in its decisions in an effort to assure that the rights of the public are properly considered.”
Judge Gainsborough nodded for several seconds. He didn’t ask Talon to respond. Instead he took a few moments to read the file. Then he looked up and addressed Talon. “You want public money for an expert even though you’re retained privately?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Talon answered. She knew just to answer the question. Gainsborough would give her the chance to make her argument, but she could show him the respect of waiting until he did so.
“You are being paid for this, correct?” the judge clarified. “You didn’t take the case pro bono?”
Talon was tempted to explain the extraordinary financial arrangements she had reached with Luke’s parents, but knew not to discuss fees in public. “It’s not pro bono, Your Honor.”
Judge Gainsborough frowned. He turned to Cecilia. “I take it, the State objects to Ms. Winter’s motion?”
Cecilia stood up even straighter than she had already been standing. “No, Your Honor. The State does not object. In fact, we join the motion.”
Talon turned to look at her opponent and couldn’t help but smile. A small smile, hidden in the corner of her mouth. But a smile nonetheless.
Judge Gainsborough cracked a small smile as well. “Is that so, Ms. Thompson? Well, then, that makes my job easy. I will sign the order. But, Ms. Winter?”
Talon looked back up at the judge. “Yes, Your Honor?”
“If the Director of the Department of Public Defense takes issue with his budget being used to assist a private-paying client,” Judge Gainsborough pointed down at her, “I’m sending him to you.”
Talon nodded. “Yes, Your Honor. That’s fair. Thank you, Your Honor.”
Gainsborough signed off the proposed or
der Talon had included with her motion and in a few moments Talon had a certified copy of the order to take down to that same director of the public defender’s office to discuss how to make arrangements to pay whatever false confession expert she could now try to find and hire.
But first, she had a question.
“Cecilia!” Talon called once they were both in the hallway. Cecilia was already halfway to the elevators.
Cecilia was making a beeline for the elevators, but she stopped at Talon’s voice and turned around. “Yes?”
Talon walked over to her. “Thanks. That was really professional of you.”
Cecilia shrugged, but stayed more formal than usual. “Just doing my job.”
“Isn’t your job to oppose me at every corner or something like that?” Talon teased.
Cecilia shook a serious head. “No. My job is to enforce the law. My job is to hold people responsible for the crimes they commit. And my job is to do that with complete and total transparency. You can hide evidence from me, you can get a client evaluated a dozen times for mental illness and only tell me about the one psychiatrist who says he’s crazy. You can conceal, and misdirect, and sandbag. But I can’t do any of that.”
Cecilia crossed her arms. “My job is to tell you everything up front. To give you every report, every photograph, every last note made by every last cop. My job is to protect your client’s rights despite what he did and make sure he is afforded every protection and every opportunity he’s guaranteed by both the Federal and State Constitutions. My job is to do all that and win anyway.”
She locked eyes with Talon. “And that’s exactly what I’m going to do. I’m going to do all that. I’m going to be the fairest, most ethical, most righteous fucking prosecutor you ever met. And I’m going to convict your guy anyway.”
CHAPTER 14
The drive back to the office was short, but kind of fun in the rental she was using while her car was being repaired. It was like a new car, without the new car payment. The drive was long enough to let Talon collect her thoughts about what had just happened, and what she needed to do next. Unfortunately, it was also long enough for her to get pulled over.
Talon Winter Legal Thrillers Box Set Page 49