Alan Jacobson - False accusations

“So I’m going to ask you to remember three things throughout this trial. The first is reasonable doubt-if there’s an ounce of doubt in your minds that my client is guilty, you must find her not guilty. The second thing to keep in mind is the concept of circumstantial evidence. No one saw Miss Harding driving that car. No one saw her kill those people. No one even saw her near Phillip Madison’s house either before, or after, she supposedly stole his car. There is no direct evidence of my client’s guilt whatsoever.

“The last thing that I want you to remember is that Miss Harding is innocent until proven guilty. I’m telling you now that the DA will fail to make his case. He has the burden of proof, and he will not meet his burden. Remember what I’m telling you, because I’ll remind you of it when the trial is over. You must find my client not guilty, because she is…Not Guilty. Thank you.”

Warwick took his seat. Denton tried to look impassively at the judge, awaiting his next orders. He did not want to look at the jury. Warwick had made a good showing, better than Denton had thought he would, exposing many of the weakest points of the prosecution’s case against Harding. And while no DA likes it when the defense, or the judge, belabors the point of reasonable doubt, Warwick did not merely belabor it. He beat it into the ground like a flag, and then saluted it.

Calvino looked down at his watch and declared a recess until after lunch. As everyone prepared to file out of the courtroom, the reporters were still scribbling furiously to get down their final thoughts on the opening arguments. The first person to leave the courtroom was the man who was sitting in the last row, nearest the doors: Jeffrey Hellman.

Hellman grabbed lunch with Denton and his assistant prosecutor. He commended them on a strong opening statement, and they discussed the strategies that Denton had outlined for the trial. Hellman felt it was a reasonable and sound approach.

When they returned to court, the jury was brought back in and Denton called his first witness: Detective Bill Jennings, who would establish the sequence of events leading up to his arrival at the crime scene, the collection of evidence by the criminalist, the discovery of the physical evidence on the car, the presence of Millstone beer cans inside it, and the resultant arrest of Phillip Madison. Jennings was brief and to the point. He had been through this many times in the past and knew how to allow Denton to lead him without letting it appear as such. He responded negatively here and there to give the impression that this was all something new, something they had not rehearsed or discussed.

After recounting their interview of the witness, Clarence Hollowes, the homeless man who later identified the Chicago Cubs hat, Jennings described their investigation in broad terms, hitting only the high points and explaining why they chose to drop the case against Madison and charge Harding instead.

On cross-examination, Warwick attempted to paint Jennings as a bumbling fool who was not sure who had committed the crime and who must have been manipulated into dropping Madison as a suspect. He leaned hard on him, trying to ascertain who it was who had applied the pressure to layoff Madison. Although Warwick attempted to get in Jennings’s face, the detective kept his composure, refusing to allow the attorney to rattle him. He explained that the evidence was clearly more convincing against Harding, and given her tirade in the market, he felt it was “a home run.” Warwick successfully had the last remark stricken from the record.

“I’d like to ask you, detective, what you consider to be the most important piece of evidence against my client.”

Denton was on his feet. “Objection. Vague and misleading. Overbroad.”

“Mr. Denton?” Calvino asked.

“How does counsel define ‘most important’? In terms of what?”

Warwick sighed. “I’ll restate my question, if it pleases the court.”

“It would,” Calvino said.

Warwick pursed his lips and nodded, then faced his witness. “What piece of evidence carries the most weight, in your opinion, detective, in leading you to conclude that my client is more guilty than Phillip Madison?”

“I’m going to object,” Denton said. “It calls for an opinion that has no relevance to the matter at hand.”

“I will show relevance, Your Honor, if counsel will give me an opportunity to proceed.”

“Very well,” Calvino said. “Make it quick, Mr. Warwick. Overruled.”

Warwick looked over at Jennings; the judge instructed him to answer.

“There’s a lot of evidence that I would consider important.”

“Is there one thing, detective,” Warwick said, “that you consider to be of greatest importance?”

“In my opinion, the evidence regarding her motive and her statements in the market wherein she declared her intention to take revenge are crucial pieces of evidence.”

“And the beer can DNA?”

“Important as well.”

“Is it accurate to state that those three pieces of evidence are the three most important?”

“Objection.” Denton was on his feet again; Calvino looked irritated. He waved Denton down into his seat with a muffled “Overruled.”

“Yes,” Jennings said, “I would consider those three to be the most important.”

“Thank you,” Warwick said, walking back to his seat. “Oh, I’m just curious, detective,” he said as he sat down, as if it were an afterthought, “does the fact that my client’s saliva and DNA were found on the beer cans in the car prove conclusively that my client was in that vehicle at the time the two people were run down?”

Jennings shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I wouldn’t say conclusively. At least, not by itself. But when you combine it with the other evidence, namely the two other factors I mentioned a minute ago, we see that at some point in time the beer cans belonged to her-”

“Your Honor-” Warwick interrupted.

“…and if she were trying to frame Dr. Madison,” Jennings continued, “then it would follow that she planted these cans-”

“Your Honor!” Warwick shouted, jumping to his feet and leaning forward on the defense table, as if ready to pounce if Calvino did not respond. “Please instruct the witness to merely answer the question that was asked of him, and not to launch into a narrative.”

“Detective,” Calvino said, “please just answer what’s asked of you.”

Warwick was flushed in the face; apparently frustrated that Jennings had maneuvered an important defense point into a prosecution advantage.

As Warwick approached the witness stand, Jennings landed his final dig. Looking at the judge, he said, “I believe I have answered what was asked of me.” His eyes were the size of quarters, like a child pleading his case of having raided the candy jar merely because it was there for the taking.

Warwick was now standing and leaning over the railing, his nose twelve inches from Jennings’s face. “I’d like to ask you about former Sacramento Police Officer Ryan Chandler,” he said, looking into his adversary’s eyes, watching for weakness.

“What d’ya wanna know?” Jennings asked with a singsong tone.

Denton’s back muscles tightened; it caught him off guard. He did not think that Warwick knew anything about Jennings and Chandler. How far was Warwick going to go with this? How much did he really know? What about the lab and Palucci-

“…so you had this ‘poor relationship’ with him, as you put it, detective. Warwick leaned back and tilted his head slightly. “Can you be more specific?”

Jennings shrugged his right shoulder. “Nothing much to tell. He and I were involved in a case together fifteen years ago. We disagreed on how to proceed, that’s all.”