Stephen Penner - Presumption of Innocence

"You can stop now, Mr. Welles," Judge Quinn interrupted. "He told me he had a good faith belief the girl would testify. I don't think Mr. Brunelle was lying. He ended up being mistaken, but that happens a lot in this line of work."

She turned back to Brunelle. "So should we just strike this hearing then, since you won't be able to show clear evidence of the crime to justify a no bail hold?"

"No, Your Honor," Yamata answered. "The hearing should go forward."

Judge Quinn looked back at Brunelle's junior partner. "And why is that, Miss…?"

"Yamata," she said with only a hint of irritation at having to say it again so soon. "And the reason why is that Mr. Welles' legal argument to the court was mistaken at best, misleading at worse, and in any event incorrect."

Welles turned red in the face. Brunelle-and Judge Quinn- suppressed a smile. Yamata kept her poker face, staring straight at the judge.

"I have filed a brief explaining all that, Your Honor," Yamata continued. "We did not receive any response brief from Mr. Welles."

Brunelle looked over and saw Karpati's eyebrows knit together as his mouth curled into a scowl. He could see why Holly might be afraid of him. He smacked Welles' arm and the defense attorney leaned down for Karpati to whisper something in his ear. The two exchanged heated whispers for a few moments. Then Welles stood up straight again. "My client has instructed me to file a response brief. I did not think it necessary given the misdeeds of the prosecution."

"Our brief was served on them in a timely fashion," Yamata protested. "We're ready to argue this today."

Judge Quinn raised her hand. "Counsel, counsel. Let's all step back from the precipice."

She turned to Welles. "How much time do you need, counsel?"

"One week, Your Honor. No more."

"Ms Yamata, will the State be ready to argue the motion in one week?"

"We're ready to argue it now."

Judge Quinn smiled, but Brunelle could see her patience was wearing thin. "So we'll be ready in a week as well, Your Honor," he interjected.

Judge Quinn smiled. "All right then. Here is what we're going to do. We will reschedule the bail hearing for one week from today. We will also schedule a pre-trial conference to discuss any other matters that might need to be discussed."

"May I suggest a continuance motion as well, Your Honor?" Brunelle spoke up. "I can speak with counsel in the meantime about possible dates for trial. I'm thinking probably the spring, Mr. Welles?"

Welles didn't look back at Brunelle. "We will object to any continuance. We demand a speedy trial."

The speedy trial rule in Washington required the trial to start within ninety days of the arraignment, unless the defendant was in custody, in which case it had to start within sixty days. They'd already lost seven days on the bail issue. Murder cases were always continued out past the sixty-day deadline upon agreement of the parties. Hell, joy riding cases were routinely continued out past the sixty-day rule.

Judge Quinn raised an eyebrow. "You're going to be ready to start a capital murder case in fifty-three days, Mr. Welles?"

"I will Your Honor."

Brunelle was getting tired of Welles' bravado.

"At least I will be more prepared than the State," Welles went on. "I see defense attorneys routinely agree to continuances so that the State can get it's DNA results back from the lab, or something equally damaging to the accused. I will not agree to give the State more time to manufacture evidence against my wholly innocent client."

Brunelle had to smile. The man had a point. He never did understand why defense attorneys would give him more time. Well, he did understand. They weren't ready either. But it was more than that. They weren't assholes like Welles.

"Fine, Your Honor," Brunelle addressed the court. "The State can be ready within the speedy trial expiration. But I would ask that the court make a finding that the defense has answered ready for trial. I don't think they should be allowed to challenge us to be ready, and then when we are ready, they ask for a continuance and claim to need more time to prepare."

Quinn looked back at Welles. "The man has a point. You want a speedy trial, I'll give you a speedy trial. But I'm not going to let you out of it, if turns out you guessed wrong and they really can get ready that fast."

Welles smiled, but Brunelle could see the worry hidden in the corners of his mouth. "We'll be ready, Your Honor. And my client will be acquitted."

Judge Quinn wisely didn't comment. Instead, she announced the schedule. "Trial will be scheduled for six weeks from today. We will have a status conference two weeks before trial. In one week from today we will have a preliminary pre-trial conference. In addition we will have a bail hearing. In the meantime, I am changing Mr. Karpati's conditions of release to a no bail hold."

"What?" Welles shouted. "We haven't had the bail hearing!"

"You're correct, Mr. Welles," the judge responded, "because you weren't ready. But I've read Ms. Yamata's brief and I think she's probably right. I'm not going to give your client a chance to post bail while we wait for a full hearing. No bail hold. Court is adjourned."

Judge Quinn stood up and retreated to her chambers.

Brunelle was going to say something smarmy to Welles, but Karpati was already grabbing at Welles' shirt sleeve.

Yamata stepped next to Brunelle and purred, "Told ya my briefs were exquisite."

The recital was at seven. Brunelle was supposed to be there at six forty-five. It was maybe twenty minutes from his office. But he didn't really feel like working past six that night. In fact, he didn't feel like working past five.

So he decided to take the long way to the high school. Actually, the totally opposite way, then double back. If he was going to try to convict Karpati without Holly, he was going to need to find someone else. There may not have been anyone else with the two of them that night, but people talk. And anything you say can and will be used against you. People think that just applies to things you say to the cops. Brunelle knew better. He hoped Karpati didn't.

He parked his car right in front of 'Darkness.'

It was early still, for a nightclub anyway, but he thought they might be open already. And he kind of wanted to miss most of the clientele. If anybody was going to know what Arpad Karpati was really about, it was going to be the staff. Maybe the regulars, but Brunelle wasn't sure was ready to meet the regulars quite yet. He buttoned his suit coat, smoothed back his just-starting-to-gray hair, and pulled open the faux castle door.

He had been kind of looking forward to the record-scratching, piano-stopping, everybody-looking-at-the-door reaction his suited entry into the underground nightclub would evoke. He was disappointed.

There were three other guys in suits drinking beers in the corner, and the bartender, a young woman covered in black clothes, silver jewelry, and colorful tattoos, looked up and said, not at all ominously, "Hi."

"Uh, hi," Brunelle answered. He walked over to the bar. "Can I get a beer?"

He wasn't going to do more than sip at it while he talked to the bartender. Not right before driving across town. He didn't think there would-or should-be a lot of tolerance for a prosecutor drinking and driving.

The bartender slid him a bottle of the latest local microbrew and was about to turn away.

"Thanks, uh, what did you say your name was?"

The woman stopped and stared at him. An 'are-you-fucking-kidding-me' kind of stare.

"Seriously, mister," she said. "You're old enough to be my dad. Which means I'm young enough to be your daughter. And that's just fucking gross."

Brunelle forced a smile. "Um, right. Sorry. That wasn't where I was headed with that. Not interested."