“No further questions, Your Honor.”
Judge Crawford looked at the clock on the wall. “It’s now after four p.m. on Friday afternoon. The court will stand in recess until Monday morning at nine a.m.”
CHAPTER FIFTY THREE
Megan picked up the TV remote and pressed the button to change channels. There didn’t seem to be much to watch on Saturday afternoon and she needed to find something interesting to take her mind off yesterday’s court session. She looked at the clock; it was only one in the afternoon. She had been lying on the couch staring at the TV for two hours.
She turned off the TV, tossed the remote onto the coffee table, rolled over on her back and stared at the ceiling.
Yesterday had been the worst day she had ever had in court in her entire career—even worse than when she lost the Lisa Garrett trial. All the work she’d done to prepare Lucy’s case had exploded in her face. After months of trial preparation, she’d thought she’d covered every possible angle to be sure there were no surprises—who knew that the biggest surprise would be Lucy’s secret past. Lucy wasn’t the one on trial, and Megan suddenly felt outrage that the whole trial had shifted from what a man’s brutal assault on a woman, to what a woman had done some time in the past that affected her ability to be believed now about being assaulted. Mattingly had done what every good defense attorney does—he had planted a seed suggesting that the defendant was the real victim in the case, the victim of a liar.
She rubbed her eyes and let out a sigh. She felt as if someone had ripped her insides out. Lucy’s case was lost—she knew it in her bones. She had little hope that putting Lucy back on the witness stand and having her confess and apologize would make any difference. Juries were a funny animal. Once you lost their confidence it was hard to get it back. Her gut told her Lucy had made a fatal error and one they most likely could not recover from.
Lucy’s case would be going to the jury on the upcoming Monday. Megan wondered how long it would take the jurors to make a decision. She doubted it would take very long. In her mind she could hear the jury foreman announcing to the court “We the jury find the defendant Craig Tarkington not guilty.” It made her nauseous. Tarkington being found innocent would be a huge blow not only for Lucy but for women everywhere who were victims of sexual assault. This case would be deemed by many to be another example of why many victims of sexual assault do not or even should not come forward. No matter how strong sexual assault cases appeared to be there was always something that seemed to make them derail and blow up, something that turned it into a trial of the victim instead of the perpetrator. Craig Tarkington, she feared, would more than likely be added to the list of men who have committed a sexual crime against a woman and walked free.
Megan reached for a throw draped on the back of the couch and pulled it over her. She turned on her side and closed her eyes.
Her phone started ringing and buzzing on the coffee table. She hoisted herself up on an elbow and glanced at the clock on the wall. She’d been asleep for a little over three hours. Slowly, she reached over and picked up the phone. Eric Covington, the screen read. She hadn’t heard from Eric since the trial started. The last time they spoke he was pulling out all stops trying to find Tarkington’s friend Jack Temple. So far, that had been one dead end after another.
She pushed herself up to a sitting position and pressed the Answer button.
Before she could even finish saying hello, Eric’s voice came blasting through the phone.
“Megan, I found Temple!”
She sat for a second wondering if she’d heard right.
“Did you hear me?” Eric said excitedly.
“Yes…. but … I don’t know where to begin. This is incredible. How...?” She ran her hand through her hair.
“He’s definitely the guy who made the call to you about Tarkington.” The line crackled, Eric’s voice was cutting in and out. “Long story short. He’s in the witness protection program.”
Megan leaned back against the couch. “What?” That would explain how Temple had fallen off the face of the earth. “How...”
Eric interrupted her. “He’s in Portland, Oregon, living under another name, David Wainscott. I’ll tell you all about it when I get back later today. Right now I need to know how much time we have until the case goes to the jury. “
Megan had so many questions she wanted to ask but she knew now wasn’t the time. “Monday. It goes to the jury on Monday.”
“This Monday? “ Eric said, his voice filled with dismay.
“Yes.”
“Shit. I don’t know if we can get everything we need to do done by then and have him there for trial.”
“Not to mention whether the judge will let him testify even if we can get a continuance.” The phone connection was getting worse. “Where are you now?” She pressed the phone closer to her ear, straining to hear.
“I’m in Portland. I talked to Temple. He’s willing to testify but he said he has to be subpoenaed. I also need to talk to his supervisor in the witness protection program. That’s who I’m calling next.”
Megan leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Her heart was racing.
“We need some time, Megan. Monday is too soon to get this all done. We. . .”
The line went dead.
Quickly, Megan dialed Eric’s number. Eric answered and started talking as if they had never been disconnected. “I don’t think we can get Temple back there to testify and still meet all the requirements of the witness protection program before at least Wednesday. We need to continue the case until then. There will be certain requirements that will have to be met before the witness protection program will let him testify. I know that the courtroom will have to be secured and the public will not be allowed in the room during Temple’s testimony. His testimony and his identification have to be confidential and that part of the court record will be sealed from public view.”
“But Wednesday…” She felt her head beginning to ache. “The trial is basically over. I doubt the judge will let us reopen the evidence.”
“Scan me a subpoena. Leave the place for the date blank so I can fill in when Temple will appear. I’ll try to get him there sooner but I doubt it will happen before Wednesday.”
Megan told him she would scan the subpoena as soon as they hung up.
“This is an incredible breakthrough,” Eric said.
“Yes it is,” Megan said softly. “I just hope it hasn’t come too late.”
CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR
It was Monday morning. Megan had spent the weekend researching the law about reopening evidence after the prosecutor had rested the case. She knew that the courts were loathed to reopen evidence unless there was a very compelling reason. The case law confirmed what she already knew—she had to present a compelling argument to the court that it was in the interests of justice and fairness for the case to be reopened and Jack Temple to be allowed to testify. Whatever she said, it was up to the court’s discretion whether to allow the testimony or not.
Eric had flown back from Portland the day before and last night they’d met for dinner at The Blue Crab on the outskirts of D.C. Over dinner Eric had filled Megan in on how he located Jack Temple.
“As you know, I’d hit nothing but dead ends looking for him,” he said. “He just seemed to have fallen off the planet. And then I got an idea. Maybe he was in the witness protection program. I know someone in that program who owes me a big favor. I can’t tell you who or why they owe me. All I can say is that I asked him about Jack Temple. At first he wouldn’t talk, but eventually, when I told him why I needed to find him, he admitted that he was in the program. “
“Incredible.” Megan said. “No wonder we couldn’t find Jack.”
“Yeah,” Eric said. “The witness protection program relocated him to Portland about a year ago.”
“Why is he in the witness protection program to begin with?” Megan picked up her glass of Perrier
and took a sip.
“Apparently some of his high society friends introduced him to coke and he got hooked. He got in over his head. “
“For some reason, I didn’t get the impression that Temple was that kind of guy.”
Eric wiped his mouth with his napkin. “You never know. The Witness Protection Program allowed me to meet him at an office outside Portland. He was straight with me. He told me he regretted getting mixed up with people he knew who liked to do cocaine. He said it took over his life for a while. Apparently some of his friends were buying from dealers involved in a big coke ring between the Florida keys and D.C.” Eric took a bite of his hamburger.
“The friends told him they needed his help. There was a shipment coming in to D.C. and the regular guy who made the buy couldn’t do it. Temple didn’t want to do it but didn’t want word to get out that he was into drugs and his so-called friends used that against him. And by that point he owed the dealer some money.”
“I thought he was loaded.”
Eric shrugged. “I did too but something must have happened. The guys he was involved with made it sound like it would be a simple drug buy. He wasn’t really clear about exactly what happened but it sounded like they had him against the wall. Bottom line, he made the buy and the dealer he bought from was an undercover agent. And it was a substantial amount he bought. That’s how he ended up in the witness protection program. He turned state’s witness against the ring to avoid prosecution. The trial is coming up next spring. He could take down quite a few key people. From what he says, the public would be stunned to find out some of the big names who are this ring’s customers. “
“What made him contact me about Tarkington?”
Eric pushed his chair away from the table. “He’s been tight with Tarkington for years. Apparently he knows Tarkington has had other issues with women. He didn’t say who the women were or what happened. Tarkington told him he had sought counseling and was fine. One night a year or so after Tarkington told him he was on the straight and narrow, they were drinking on Temple’s boat. Tarkington had drunk more than his fair share and started bragging that he had had sex with Lucy even though she didn’t want to. He seemed to find it funny that Lucy had tried to fight him off. Temple said he told himself it was the alcohol in Tarkington talking. But when he heard about the criminal charges being filed against Tarkington, he said he knew he had to come forward, that what Lucy was alleging was exactly what Tarkington had told him.”
“And so he didn’t say who he was when he called because he can’t come out of the woodwork right now.”
“That’s right.” Eric nodded. “Being in the witness protection program makes life a little more difficult. Some things you just can’t do like a normal person.”
Megan looked Eric straight in the eyes. “Let’s hope the judge will allow him to testify and do it in a closed courtroom. How do you think he’ll hold up in court? Mattingly will try and eat him alive.”
“He’ll be fine. I’ve talked to him at length. He’s solid.”
Now, with the Monday morning court session starting in a few moments, Megan’s stomach was in knots and she felt her head beginning to throb. She had been awake most of the night making a list of the points she wanted to argue to the court for allowing the testimony.
On Saturday she had emailed Judge Crawford’s court reporter and asked her to let the judge know that she needed to start court on Monday addressing a new issue that had come up before the actual trial started. The reporter had emailed back and said the judge had been made aware and all parties should be in court at 8:00 to address the issue.
Judge Crawford took the bench now and instructed the bailiff to keep the jury out of the courtroom until further order. The galley was already filled to capacity with reporters. Judge Crawford folded his hands and rested them on the bench. “I understand, Ms. O’Reilly, you have something you would like to address with the court.”
Megan stood. “Yes, Your Honor.” She paused for a moment collecting her thoughts and then she glanced across the room at Mattingly. All of his attention was focused on her and what she was about to say.
“Recently, I received a voicemail message from a man who claimed to have evidence that would support the People’s case that Craig Tarkington is guilty of raping Lucy Hatfield. This person called me from a blocked phone number and did not leave any information we could use to contact him—no name, nothing. Eric Covington, our private investigator, determined who this person was and has been trying to locate him ever since I received the call and has had no luck until this past weekend. This witness is critical to this case. The witness…”
Mattingly exploded out of his chair. “Objection, our Honor! I know exactly where this is going,” he said angrily, his face red. “This case is literally minutes from going to the jury for deliberation and the prosecutor wants to add a witness and I….”
Judge Crawford raised his hand and looked at Mattingly. “Continue, Ms. O’Reilly.”
Mattingly flopped down in his chair, leaned back, and glowered.
“We have made a good faith effort to find this person and would have had him on our witness list way before now but we could not find any trace of him. We weren’t even sure if he would be a witness until we located him and had a chance to speak to him.”
Judge Crawford took off his glasses and laid them on the bench. “Ms. O’Reilly, in this day and age it’s difficult not to find someone. You have a private investigator working for you and access to the internet and you are saying that you still had no idea where this person was or if he would even be a witness? This person just disappeared into thin air?” The judge waved his hand in the air.
“He’s in the witness protection program Your Honor.”
Judge Crawford looked directly at her. “That would make a difference.” He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. “Ms. O’Reilly, what exactly would this witness be testifying about?”
“He will testify that the defendant Craig Tarkington admitted to him that he raped Lucy Hatfield.”
“Objection!” Mattingly said.
“Overruled.” Judge Crawford nodded at Megan.
“We could not, in good faith, list him before now as a witness. Now that we have located him and he has confirmed that he was the caller and will testify for the People, we request leave of court to allow us to reopen our case and present his testimony.”
“Is he available to testify today?” Judge Crawford asked.
Megan felt her stomach tighten. “No, Your Honor. We will need to have the witness protection program approve his testifying and certain safeguards will need to be in place for him to appear in court.”
“How soon can he be here? We have a jury waiting to receive the case for deliberation and they believe they will be receiving it today. The jurors have been here for several days and I imagine they are ready to wrap this case up and go back to their normal lives. “
Megan could tell Judge Crawford was not happy. She shifted her weight to the other leg. “The soonest our witness could be here is Wednesday.”
Megan looked across the room at Mattingly. He shook his head and threw his pen down on the defense table. Tarkington, his hands folded in his lap, looked down at the floor.
“Wednesday.” Judge Crawford let out a sigh.
Megan picked up her legal pad and flipped back a couple of pages. “I have researched the law on this issue and it states that the court has discretion to reopen the evidence if, under the totality of the facts, it appears that to reopen the evidence will serve the interests of justice. I can have our private investigator appear by phone and give testimony right now about all the efforts that have been made to locate this person before now, if the court would like.”
Judge Crawford shook his head. “We are all familiar with Mr. Covington and his work. He leaves no stone unturned.” He turned and looked at Mattingly. “Mr. Mattingly.”
Mattingly abruptly pushed his chair back and stood up. “Thank you, Your
Honor. Ms. O’Reilly can’t try this case by ambush. As the court knows, there comes a time when the evidence is closed. Ms. O’Reilly and myself both only get one bite of the apple. This case has been pending for some time and now that it is getting ready to go to the jury she wants to reopen it.” He shook his head. “I have not been made aware of any other witness until just now. We strenuously object to the evidence being reopened. Ms. O’Reilly’s time to present her case is up and I do not see any compelling reason to reopen the evidence.”
Judge Crawford rubbed his face and looked at Megan. “You believe that this person can be here by Wednesday?”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
The courtroom was so silent you could hear a pin drop.
Judge Crawford leaned over and whispered something to his court reporter. She quickly tapped the computer keys, studied the screen for a few moments, then leaned over and whispered something to him. Judge Crawford rubbed his face and sat thinking. After a few moments he rocked forward and placed his hands on the bench.
“I understand each party’s position. The evidence is closed. However, I also understand the need for justice to be served and what the case law says about this type of situation. What I am prepared to do is continue this matter for a week. We will reconvene next Monday morning. This will give Ms. O’Reilly time to have the witness brought here and the defense time to investigate this person and depose him if they so choose.
“Since this is involving a person in the witness protection program, the court will be closing the courtroom to the public on Monday and issuing a gag order so that no one involved in this case may discuss this witness or divulge any information including his name to anyone. The records of his identity and testimony will be sealed from the public.” He paused and looked around the room. “Should anyone violate this order they will be subject to contempt and sanctions by this court.” The judge turned and looked at Megan. She could see from his stern expression that he was not happy.
“Ms. O’Reilly, please make arrangements for Mr. Mattingly to interview this witness and complete whatever discovery he deems necessary.”
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