Stephen Penner - Presumption of Innocence

Welles had slipped inside during the paparazzi assault on Brunelle and was opening his Italian leather briefcase on the defense counsel table.

"Nice to see you again, Dave," he said. "Better luck this time."

Brunelle grimaced. "Nice to see you too. And thanks." He recalled the last case he and Welles had tried together. Welles had gotten an acquittal with a strange hybrid defense of prescription drug abuse, self defense, and baseless police misconduct allegations. "You know that guy killed somebody three months after you got him off, right?"

Welles shrugged. "Don't worry Dave. He paid his bill in full before he went back to prison."

Nice , thought Brunelle. "So is this one pro bono?"

Welles smiled. "There are two things I never do, Dave. One is discuss fees. The other is handle a case for free."

"This guy has that kind of money?" Brunelle was surprised. Welles was top tier, and charged top tier money. But more than surprised, Brunelle was really fishing for information.

Welles didn't bite. "As I said, I never discuss fees." He put out a hand. "Do you have copies of the charging paperwork for my client?"

Brunelle pulled the forms from his file and handed them to his adversary. "I'll let the judicial assistant know we're ready."

A few minutes later, Judge Quinn took the bench.

"All rise!" announced the judicial assistant. "The King County Superior Court is now in session. The Honorable Susan Quinn presiding."

"You may be seated," said the judge as she took her seat above the litigants. "Are the parties ready on the matter of the State of Washington versus Arpad Karpati?"

"The State is ready," answered Brunelle.

"May it please the court," said Welles. "William Harrison Welles entering my notice of appearance on behalf of my client, Mr. Karpati. We are ready to enter our plea of not guilty and begin our vigorous defense of these false accusations."

Judge Quinn stared down at Welles for several seconds. "Save it for the jury, Mr. Welles. I just need to know if we can bring your client in."

Welles smiled. "By all means, Your Honor."

The judge nodded to the guards, who opened a side door to the holding cells built behind the courtrooms. Karpati strutted in, hands cuffed in front of him and a guard right behind him. He was wearing his jail-issued gray pajamas and plastic flip-flops. He grinned at the gallery and shook, as best he could, Welles' hand.

"May my client be unhandcuffed, Your Honor?" Welles requested. "I assure you he poses no threat to anyone."

Judge Quinn nodded again and one of the guards stepped over to unhandcuff Karpati. Then the guard directed him by the shoulders into the defendant's chair at the defense table. Welles sat beside him and put his arm around him, whispering something in his ear. Brunelle stayed up at the bar and handed the charging documents to the judicial assistant, who passed them to the judge.

"At this time," began Brunelle, "the State is filing charges of Aggravated Murder in the First Degree against Mr. Karpati."

That much was on the first page. Brunelle was pretty sure Welles hadn't looked at page two yet.

"In addition," Brunelle went on, "the State is filing a count of Rape of a Child in the Third Degree."

That got Karpati's attention. He surrendered an agitated "What?!" before Welles grabbed his arm and whispered something in his ear. Whatever Welles said didn't seem to make Karpati any less angry, but he didn't say anything more.

Welles stood up. "We have received copies of the charging documents, Your Honor. We waive a formal reading of the charges, and enter pleas of absolutely not guilty to all counts."

Brunelle rolled his eyes at the 'absolutely.'

"We would like," Welles went on, "to be heard on conditions of release pending trial."

Brunelle had already pre-filled out the order on conditions of release. Aggravated murder in the first degree was a capital offense. The court always held capital defendants in custody without the opportunity to post bail. Nevertheless, the judge looked at Brunelle. "What is the State's recommendation as to conditions of release?"

Brunelle, still dumbstruck by even the request to discuss bail, hesitated before replying. "Uh, we would ask the court to hold Mr. Karpati without bail. This is a capital case, and pursuant to the state constitution, capital defendants are not entitled to bail."

The judge turned to the defense attorney. "Mr. Welles, what say you? It is the normal practice of this court to hold capital defendants without bail."

"It may be, Your Honor," Welles said with a flourish of his hand, "but only because I have yet to argue this issue before this court."

Brunelle resisted his urge to huff, and instead busied himself by pretending to take notes on Welles' argument. Judge Quinn raised an eyebrow, but didn't interrupt.

"The State constitution does not deny a capital defendant his Constitutional right to bail," Welles went on. He pulled out a green covered statute book from his large brief case. He flipped it open to the page he had already bookmarked. "It merely makes such assurance explicit for noncapital cases. The actual language is, and I quote, 'All persons charged with a crime shall be bailable by sufficient sureties, except for capital offenses when the proof is evident or presumption great.'"

Brunelle looked askance at Welles. The judge did the same. "That doesn't seem to support your position, Mr. Welles," she said.

"Oh, but it does, Your Honor," Welles smiled. "Listen again. 'All persons charged with crime shall be bailable.' All. The only exception is capital offenses. But not all capital offenses. Oh no. Only those where the proof is evident or the presumption great. Well, we know what the presumption is. My client is presumed innocent. The presumption is great, your honor, in fact it is sacrosanct. But it is a presumption of innocence and therefore a presumption of bail."

"What about the part about the proof being evident?" Judge Quinn asked.

"Precisely!" Welles threw a hand in the air. "What about that evident proof? Where is it? Is it here today? Has the State brought anyone to present this evident proof? No, of course not. Because my client is innocent. Innocent, I say. And I daresay they know that, and that is why they have not brought any evidence to today's hearing. Just some flimsy pieces of paper drafted by the prosecutor this morning. There is no proof in this case, Your Honor. None. And therefore, under the constitution of this great State, you, Your Honor, with all due respect, you are absolutely prohibited from denying my client bail."

Judge Quinn let her stare linger at Welles for a minute. Then she pursed her lips and looked at Brunelle. "State's response?"

"The State has filed a criminal complaint," Brunelle responded evenly, "which charges the defendant with the crime of aggravated murder in the first degree. That is a capital offense. Attached to the complaint is a summary of the investigation which includes information from an eyewitness that the defendant committed the crime in her presence. The proof is evident. The court should deny bail."

"The eyewitness," Welles laughed, "is a fifteen-year-old drug addict, with a history of lying to the police, whose fingerprints were found at the scene and who has every reason to claim someone else did it. In addition, she is currently charged in juvenile as a codefendant, and therefore cannot be called as a witness by the State at my client's trial without violating her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent. The police officers will not be permitted to testify as to what she said, because that would be hearsay and would deny my client his Sixth Amendment right to confront the witnesses against him, mainly this lying little miscreant. There is absolutely no admissible evidence against my client and the first thing I will be doing after this hearing is drafting up my motion to dismiss this case."