Joseph Teller - Guilty As Sin

But Jaywalker had been around the block often enough to know that didn’t mean the incident had had no effect. The fact was, Shirley Levine was now pissed off at the prosecution, and rightfully so. Jaywalker knew that, and while there might be nothing he could do with it at the moment, sooner or later he was going to find an opportunity to turn it to his advantage-and Alonzo Barnett’s. That opportunity might come during cross-examination, summation, or even deliberations, should the jurors, for instance, have a question about what they should make of Egan’s testimony.

But for now, all Jaywalker could do was fret.

When they resumed, the spectator section was cleared. There was some complaining, but a run-of-the-mill drug case doesn’t exactly bring out the scalpers. Had there been reporters present, one of them might have put in a call to his or her legal department. But there were no reporters present. Nothing about Alonzo Barnett’s case had been newsworthy up to this point, and nothing was about to be. The people who were most upset at having to leave were the four of five Jaywalker groupies, retired guys who magically materialized whenever he was involved in a trial.

PULASKI: Captain Egan, would you tell us the name of the informer who at that time resided on the eighth floor of 345 West 127th Street?

EGAN: Only if I’m directed to do so.

Another cute stunt, this one no doubt choreographed by Daniel Pulaski.

THE COURT: Consider yourself directed.

EGAN: The informer’s name was Jackson Davis.

PULASKI: Thank you.

And with that, Pulaski sat down.

As Jaywalker rose to cross-examine, he half suspected a trap. Why hadn’t Pulaski had Egan pinpoint the apartment Davis lived in? Was it something other than 805, as Alonzo Barnett had testified? But Jaywalker knew he couldn’t afford to be cautious at this point. Sometimes you tested the waters, gingerly dipping in a toe. Other times you sucked in a deep breath and dived in. For better or for worse, this was going to be one of those other times.

JAYWALKER: Tell me, Captain Egan, does this master cross-index of yours include apartment numbers?

EGAN: Yes, it does.

JAYWALKER: So what apartment number did Jackson Davis reside in at 345 West 127th Street?

EGAN: Apartment 805.

JAYWALKER: Which just happens to be precisely where Alonzo Barnett said he went. Correct?

PULASKI: Objection. Captain Egan wasn’t present during Barnett’s testimony.

THE COURT: Yes, but I was, and the jury was. And Mr. Barnett did indeed say he went to Apartment Number 805. Next question, Mr. Jaywalker.

JAYWALKER: You also said that your cross-index can be accessed by nickname. Correct?

EGAN: Yes, as long as the nickname is unusual enough. Something like “Lefty” or “Shorty” might pose a problem, for example.

JAYWALKER: How about something like “One-Eyed Jack?” Do you think that might pose a problem? Or would that be unusual enough?

EGAN: No, I’d have to agree that’s pretty unusual.

JAYWALKER: So did Jackson Davis have a nickname, by any chance?

EGAN: Yes.

JAYWALKER: What was his nickname?

EGAN: One-Eyed Jack.

JAYWALKER: Do you happen to know how he got that nickname?

EGAN: I have no idea.

JAYWALKER: Was Mr. Davis working off a case of his own in order to stay out of prison? Cooperating out of the goodness of his heart? Or was he being paid for his services?

PULASKI: Objection. That’s privileged information.

THE COURT: Overruled. Now if you’d said “That’s three questions in one,” Mr. Pulaski, or “It’s irrelevant,” I might have sustained your objection. But as far as privilege goes, there is none. And if there ever was, it’s been waived by Captain Egan’s taking the stand and testifying about the subject on direct examination.

PULASKI: Objection. That’s three questions in one, and it’s irrelevant.

THE COURT: Sorry, too late. Was Mr. Davis paid, Captain Egan? Yes or no?

EGAN: Yes, Your Honor, he was.

THE COURT: Next subject, Mr. Jaywalker.

And by using the word subject rather than question, Judge Levine was making it clear to Jaywalker that he was to move on, that there weren’t to be any follow-up questions like Who was paying him, how much, and on what basis? Because the judge was right. It was irrelevant. Jackson Davis hadn’t testified, so his credibility wasn’t at issue. Technically speaking, the details of his payment had no bearing upon Alonzo Barnett’s guilt or lack thereof.

Needless to say, technically speaking wasn’t exactly Jaywalker’s native tongue. Still, he had to admit that Shirley Levine had given him a couple of favorable rulings to get even with the prosecution. But there were limits to her generosity. So he’d have to try some other way of helping the jurors get acquainted with Jackson Davis.

JAYWALKER: Do you by any chance have a photo of Mr. Davis?

Egan thumbed through his papers and eventually pulled out a photograph, a three-by-five color glossy, and handed it to Jaywalker. It was a mug shot, a pair of side-by-side images of a middle-aged black man, one full face, the other in profile. On the left image, the one where the subject had been directly facing the camera, a placard held against his chest displayed in movie-marquis style the initials NYPD, the department’s blue-and-white shield, the name DAVIS, Jackson, and the date, 01-09-79. You didn’t have to look too closely to see that one of the subject’s eyes was real and focused, while the other was glass, or whatever they made fake eyes out of back then.

Jaywalker had the photo marked into evidence as Defendant’s Exhibit A and passed among the jurors. He wanted to make sure they saw the bad eye for themselves. At the same time, he wanted them to get a good look at the guy their tax dollars were subsidizing because the poor fellow couldn’t make enough of a living selling heroin under the police department’s protection.

JAYWALKER: How about Clarence Hightower? Is he in your index, too?

EGAN: No, he isn’t.

JAYWALKER: You’ve checked?

EGAN: I have.

JAYWALKER: By name, address and nickname?

EGAN: All three.

JAYWALKER: No entry for him?

EGAN: None at all.

JAYWALKER: Did you check under “Stump”?

EGAN: Yes, I did. Negative.

JAYWALKER: So I assume you have no photograph of him?

EGAN: Actually, I do. But only because I took the trouble of hunting one down. Miss Shaughnessey over there [Gestures] told me you’d probably be asking me about him.

Even as Jaywalker looked at “Miss Shaughnessey over there” and the two of them fought off grins, Egan busied himself digging out the photograph and handing it over. It, too, was in color, but it contained only a single exposure and bore no placard with lettering. Jaywalker recognized it as an old-fashioned Polaroid print, the kind you used to snap and wait a minute for it to develop before sticking it onto a piece of gummed cardboard. He’d thought those things had gone the way of hot-water bottles and seltzer dispensers. Leave it to the NYPD to still be using them. Jaywalker flipped the photo over. Early in his career, he’d once made the mistake of not checking the back of an exhibit, resulting in the jury learning that his client was nicknamed “Jimmy the Strangler.” So he’d been burned by his carelessness. But only once. This time Jaywalker saw nothing but the word “asp” inked on the back of the cardboard. Another nickname, perhaps? If so, how fitting.

Jaywalker turned the photo back over. He’d never seen Clarence Hightower in person, but he’d seen another photo of him back when he’d checked his court file, not too long after being appointed to represent Alonzo Barnett. His reaction now was pretty much the same as it had been then. Clarence Hightower was one ugly dude. Not menacing or deformed or anything like that. Just ugly. Still, the photo certainly wasn’t important enough to circulate among the jurors, as the one of Jackson Davis had been, showing as it did the bad eye and hence the nickname. But come summation time, Jaywalker might nonetheless want to hold up Hightower’s photo for the jury to see, as a way of putting a face-and an ugly one at that-on the guy who’d gotten Barnett into all this trouble. Would it have an impact on the verdict? Probably not. But then again, who was to say? Jaywalker had won cases before on things as unlikely as ugliness. So he offered the photo into evidence as Defendant’s B. And with Daniel Pulaski shrugging his shoulders and raising no objection, it was received.