Steve Martini - Double Tap

“I was told that Mr. Ruiz had engaged in some unprofessional-”

“Objection: hearsay.”

“Sustained,” says Gilcrest.

“At some point were you shown the contents of a security videotape involving Ms. Chapman and Emiliano-”

“Objection.” I’m on my feet.

“Sustained. Mr. Templeton!” Gilcrest gives him a stern look. “The jury is to disregard the question. Mr. Templeton, any more of this and. I will see you in chambers,” he says. “Now proceed.” If Templeton were closer, the judge would rap him with the gavel.

“What was your understanding of what had happened regarding Mr. Ruiz at Isotenics?”

“Objection: hearsay, calls for speculation.”

“Sustained.” The judge is now looking down at the Death Dwarf with a cold stare.

Templeton is having trouble getting at it. He stops for a moment, shuffling the papers on the podium in front of him until he finds the note he’s looking for.

“On February twenty-fifth last year, did you receive a telephone call from Madelyn Chapman?”

“I did.”

Templeton nods. Back on track. “And during the course of that telephone call, what did Ms. Chapman tell you?”

“She demanded that I terminate her personal security detail and specifically requested that Mr. Ruiz be removed from that detail immediately.”

“Why? Did she say why she wanted this done?”

“She said that Mr. Ruiz had become too familiar and that he had made inappropriate advances toward her, or words to that effect. I can’t recall exactly how she phrased it.”

“And did you ask for details from Ms. Chapman during this telephone conversation?”

“I did.”

“And what did she say?”

“She said that if I wanted details, I should look at the contents of a security videotape that was taken in her office the day before.”

Templeton would go back to the videotape and ask Rufus what he saw on it, but he knows the judge would come off the bench and beat him to death with the gavel.

“And did you remove Mr. Ruiz from the security detail?”

“I did. Immediately,” he says. “I assigned him to other duties.”

“Executive protection duties?” says Templeton.

“No. Standard watch duties. Night watchman,” says Rufus. “While we conducted an investigation of Mr. Ruiz’s conduct.”

“Did you participate in that investigation yourself?”

“I did.”

“And did you give any instructions to Mr. Ruiz at the time that you removed him from the security detail? I’m specifically referring to instructions regarding Ms. Chapman.”

“Yes. I told him that he was not to go near her. He was to remain away from and off of the campus at Isotenics; he was not to go near her house, or to have any contact with her personally, in writing or by phone.”

“And did you consider these instructions to Mr. Ruiz concerning the victim, Ms. Chapman, to be conditions of his continued employment with your firm? That any violation would lead to his immediate job termination?”

“Yes, I did.”

There is a lot of back-scratching going on here, questions that I suspect have been inserted by the insurance carrier as a condition of cooperation by Rufus with the prosecution.

“Did you tell Mr. Ruiz that his refraining from any contact with Ms. Chapman was a strict condition of his continued employment?”

“I did.”

“Let me ask you a question. After Mr. Ruiz was removed from the Chapman security detail, did you have occasion, during the course of this investigation, to observe his activities both on and off duty, and did you take videotape recordings of some of that activity?”

“Yes, I did.”

“And why did you do that?”

“I had reason to believe that, notwithstanding the fact that I had specifically instructed Mr. Ruiz to avoid any contact with Ms. Chapman, he was in fact following and observing her at certain times. Again, after I had instructed him to stay away.”

“And where did this information come from?”

“An employee at Isotenics, Incorporated.”

“Can you tell the jury the name of that employee?”

“Victor Havlitz.”

“And who is Victor Havlitz?”

“He is currently the acting CEO of Isotenics, Incorporated. At the time he was vice president in charge of marketing.”

“So, based on information that Mr. Havlitz had seen Mr. Ruiz observing Ms. Chapman, you conducted surveillance of Mr. Ruiz. Is that correct?”

“Yes.”

“And what did you observe during this surveillance?”

“That in fact Mr. Ruiz, the defendant, was following Madelyn Chapman and watching her. That from what I could see and observe, he was stalking her.”

“Objection, Your Honor! This is nothing but pure speculation on the part of the witness.”

“Your Honor, the witness is testifying as to what he saw.”

“I’ll allow it. Mr. Madriani, you’ll have your chance to cross-examine the witness.”

I take my seat.

“And did you take videotape and photographs of this activity involving Mr. Ruiz following and, as you say, stalking Madelyn Chapman?” Having been allowed through the toll-gate, Templeton jumps on the stalking charge and tries to ride it like a hobbyhorse.

“I did.”

Templeton has his detective rummage through the evidence box on their table and comes up with a small digital videotape and three sets of photographs. The photographic prints are selected frames from the video as well as still shots. One of these goes to the judge, one to us, and the third to the witness on the stand.

“Do you recognize the photographs that have just been handed to you?”

Rufus flips through them, six pages in all.

“I do.”

“Can you tell the court what these photographs depict?”

“They are frames of the videotapes that I took along with some still photographs.”

“Were these taken during the course of your investigation of Mr. Ruiz?”

“They were.”

Five of the frames show Ruiz standing, looking at Chapman in the distance, one of them while she is shopping at a boutique in the Village in La Jolla. Another shot, one of the more damaging pictures, shows him parked outside of her house half a block from the murder scene. He is sitting in his car, smoking a cigarette, as he watches the house.

“Do you recognize the videocassette?” This has been handed to the witness.

“Yes. The label shows my initials and the dates that it was recorded.”

“Did you alter the contents of the videotape in any way?”

“I did not.”

“No editing?”

“No.”

“And was that tape in your possession the entire time before it was turned over to the police?”

“It was.”

“Your Honor, I would move the still shots of the individual frames and the photos as well as the videotape be entered into evidence and request that the videotape be played for the jury at this time.” Templeton wants to end the day on a high point so that the jury, having slept on it, will remember this well when it comes to deliberations. This puts me at a disadvantage, since I will have to wait until morning for my cross-examination of Rufus and an attempt to at least take some of the edge off of the stalking charge.

“Any objection to the photographs and the video coming in, Mr. Madriani?” The judge is looking at me.

“No, Your Honor.”

Of course this has all been hammered out in chambers in pretrial motions. Harry and I tried a dozen ways to keep the tape out, all of them swatted down by the court. We have known for more than two months now that this tape would come in. We have viewed it repeatedly for hours in the conference room as well as on DVD on a laptop computer at the jail with Emiliano, trying to figure ways to defend it. The problem is that, without putting Ruiz on the stand, there is no way to explain his reason for following Madelyn Chapman or the fact that he was observed watching her house on three separate occasions, caught on film during two of them and shot with a long, low-light lens in the other.