Robert Tanenbaum: Bad Faith

The morning after Halloween there was no rest for the wicked or the just in Judge Temple’s courtroom. The day began in the judge’s chambers, where Rottingham objected to Karp’s plan to call Nonie Ellis to the stand, accusing Karp of “sandbagging” him.

As Karp listened to his counterpart complain vociferously, he thought about the whole turn of events since court adjourned the day before. As soon as the jury was out of the courtroom, Ellis had been taken into custody; read her rights, which she waived; and then escorted to the District Attorney’s Office.

Just to play it safe, Karp called defense attorney Belinda Morrow King, who had been retained to represent David Ellis on the morning of his murder, to come in and talk to Nonie before proceeding. In the meantime, he got the lowdown from Marlene on how the fugitive just happened to show up in court and take a seat next to his wife.

Marlene explained that after he left for court that morning, she’d received a text from an unknown number asking to meet her at the Housing Works Bookstore. “I had no idea who it was from,” she said. “I’ve met lots of people there, including David Grale. But it was Nonie.”

Ellis said she’d been staying at an East Village shelter under an alias and following the trial in the newspapers. When she saw that LaFontaine might testify, she told Marlene, she decided that she wanted to attend the trial. However, she wasn’t sure she was ready to turn herself in, and so she was hesitating.

“I was pretty sure that if she came and listened to that liar, she would come around,” Marlene told him. “So I suggested she wear a disguise and that if she was afraid, she could sit next to me. I was as surprised as anyone when she popped up and revealed her identity.”

King had met with Nonie in one of the DAO interview rooms. When the defense attorney came out, she shook her head and said, “It’s your lucky day, Karp. She wants to plead guilty to reckless manslaughter and is willing to testify against LaFontaine. She’ll give you a statement now.”

Before leaving for the parade, Karp had called Judge Temple at his home and asked for the hearing in the morning, expecting resistance from Rottingham. King had agreed to come, too, and backed up Karp’s story that her client had indeed been a fugitive and only in that eleventh hour agreed to turn herself in. The judge then ruled that Ellis could be called by the People as a rebuttal witness.

Her appearance on the stand had been devastating to LaFontaine’s defense. She not only supported the testimony of Monique Hale, clearly demonstrating how the defendant operated to gain the trust of his victims and then control them with threats of losing the “miracles he promised,” but also added to it. “He said that Micah’s death was because my husband, David, had lost faith and wanted to go back to the doctors,” she testified tearfully.

When she was finished, Karp asked, “Mrs. Ellis, will you walk out of this courtroom today a free woman?”

Nonie shook her head. “No. I pled guilty to reckless manslaughter. I’ll be going to prison.”

“Were you offered any sort of deal or other consideration in exchange for your testimony?”

“Only that you would tell the judge at my sentencing if I told the truth.”

As Nonie, visibly shaking with tears streaming down her face, stepped down from the witness box, LaFontaine suddenly shouted, “It is a mortal sin to bear false witness!”

The comment brought Nonie up short. But instead of letting it tear her down more, she seemed to gain strength from it. “Lying is not the sin I will answer for,” she replied so that the jurors heard her clearly. “Lying and murdering children are your sins, and I wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when you are brought before God.”

Nonie Ellis was the last witness, and they broke early for lunch. “When we return,” Judge Temple instructed the jurors, “the attorneys, beginning with Mr. Rottingham and ending with Mr. Karp, will deliver their final summations, after which I will charge you on the law and you will then begin your deliberations.”

During the lunch break, Karp retreated to his office, where he found Espey Jaxon and Jen Capers waiting. New Yorkers had woken up to the news that once again, they and their iconic city had been the target of terrorists. The newspapers and television stations fell over themselves to describe what they knew, and some of what they didn’t, about the attack on the Halloween parade, which they reported had specifically been aimed at District Attorney Roger Karp.

Six men dressed in wolf costumes and wearing suicide vests had been apprehended; another six had been arrested in a nearby apartment building before they could join in. The thwarting of the attack had been lauded by government press secretaries as a prime example of cooperation between federal and local law enforcement agencies.

In another loosely related incident, the press reported that a man at first believed to be the wanted killer David Grale had been taken into custody near Karp’s float but had been released shortly after when his true identity was learned. “I don’t know where they got that … whoop whoop … Grale stuff, never met the man. I was just having fun, minding my own … [expletive deleted] … business when the cops grabbed me,” the Times quoted Warren Bennett as saying.

The police were still trying to determine if the murder of a man, whose identity was not being released pending notification of kin, on the parade route at Sixth Avenue and 8th Street was related to the terrorist act, according to the Post . Some witnesses claimed that the man’s assailant was a tall blond woman wearing a Little Red Riding Hood costume, who had last been seen running north.

The media had not found out about the bodies of four men found in the East River. They’d been a topic of conversation in Karp’s office that morning before the hearing in the judge’s chambers. Two of the bodies were the two agents with the National Inter-Departmental Security Administration who had worked with Rolles on the Liberty Ferry mission; the other two were Russians with long criminal histories.

“I would guess they’re some of Grale’s work,” Jaxon said. He’d looked over at Jen Capers, who’d been quiet since arriving in the office. The pair had essentially agreed to look the other way and allow Malovo to escape, which rankled Capers maybe more than Jaxon, as the U.S. Marshals service prided itself on never losing prisoners. But they both knew that if not for the deal Karp told them he made with Grale, Malovo would have gone into the WITSEC program and there would have been no chance to keep her from walking away and continuing her murderous endeavors.

“Do you think Grale will live up to his part of the bargain?” Capers said at last.

Karp thought about it for a moment and then nodded. “David Grale is many things, including a serial killer,” he said. “But he is also a man of his word. I think he will. When, I don’t know.”

The lunch hour passed too quickly and it was time to head back to court, where Rottingham first tried to convince the jurors that the prosecution had failed to prove its case. His client was being persecuted, he said, for his religious beliefs.

“He believes that God, not doctors, heals and is the ultimate arbiter of who lives and dies,” the defense attorney argued. “He expressed that belief to other people, such as the Hales and the Ellises, and then gave of himself to pray alongside their sick children. And for this, the district attorney wants to put him in prison for murder.”

Rottingham shook his head as if he could not believe this travesty of justice. “And because some of his congregation were so pleased with his efforts-and I’d point out that they included the Hales and Ellises-they rewarded him with gifts and donations. But the district attorney says that somehow that makes him a murderer.”