Steve Martini - Shadow of Power

“You’re talking about the Aryan Posse?” He deals with it in the way Herman deals with everything, directly. “And you want to know why the firm didn’t send an African American investigator out to interview the members of the organization?”

“It was on my mind,” says Tuchio. But this is not exactly the way he would have approached it.

“Well, first off, your question assumes that these are Carl’s friends, and to be honest, I don’t know that.”

“We’ll get to that later,” says Tuchio. “For the moment let’s just stick to the question of why your firm didn’t send you out to the reserve, to interview members of the Aryan Posse? If they weren’t his friends, they certainly knew your client.”

This is what Tuchio has wanted to get at all day.

“Well, it ain’t rocket science,” says Herman. “Some people might think that if I went out there, I might not come back.”

Full-out laughter from the jury box. Belly laughs from two of the bailiffs.

“So the thought was that if you went out there, harm might come to you.”

“No, you got it wrong,” says Herman. “Harm never comes to you unless you go looking for it.”

This of course is the answer to the prosecutor’s question, but Tuchio doesn’t like it.

“Still, you just said that if you went out there, there was a chance you might not come back?”

“There’s always the chance, but there’s one thing you can be sure of.”

“What’s that?” says Tuchio.

“If I didn’t come back, it wasn’t ’cuz I joined up,” says Herman.

More laughter from the box. Some of the deputies are turning toward the walls they’re laughing so hard.

Tuchio is getting tired of Herman’s one-liners.

So he tries to go frontal with him.

“Let’s cut to the chase. Let’s make it clear for the jury,” he says. “The reason your firm didn’t want to send you, an African American, out to the reserve to talk with the Aryan Posse was that they knew it wasn’t safe. Isn’t that a fact?”

“I thought that’s what I just said.”

“So those are dangerous people as far as you’re concerned? The Aryan Posse?”

“Let me put it this way-”

“No. No. Just answer the question. Yes or no,” says Tuchio.

“That kind of rigid attitude will give you ulcers,” says Herman.

“Don’t worry about my ulcers, just answer the question,” says Tuchio.

“But I do worry,” says Herman. “People like you get ulcers and screw up, and then people like me get sent out to the Aryan reserve undercover.”

More laughter. Two of the deputies out in the audience, faces red as beets, are laughing their way toward a coronary.

“That doesn’t answer my question,” says Tuchio.

No, but the jurors are rolling around like bowling balls in the box. There’s nothing that can kill a serious prosecution faster than laughter. Herman is loose on the stand, and Tuchio is starting to feel like he’s center stage at Comedy Club Central.

“The Aryan Posse, are they dangerous people? Yes or no?”

“I can’t answer that question.”

“Yes or no?” says Tuchio.

“I’m not gonna answer the question yes or no.” Herman sits in the chair, dwarfing it, his arms folded, and his lips clenched like those of a third-grader refusing to eat his carrots, all 285 pounds of him.

“Answer the question,” says Tuchio.

“You want an answer, I’ll give you an answer. I just can’t answer it yes or no. You don’t want an answer, I’ll go home. Either way is fine by me,” says Herman.

“Your Honor, I’d ask that the court direct the witness to answer the question,” says Tuchio.

“He’s offering to answer the question, Your Honor. Counsel won’t let him,” I say.

“Let the witness answer the question,” says Quinn.

“Answer it!” says Tuchio.

“I don’t know whether the Aryan Posse is dangerous or not. How can I say that everybody, just because they belong to a group, is dangerous or not dangerous? The reason I wasn’t sent out there wasn’t necessarily that they were dangerous-though they might be, I don’t know-but the reason was because the purpose of an investigation is to get information. What do you think those people are gonna tell me when I get out there on the white man’s reservation? You think they’re gonna open their souls and tell me their secrets? You believe that, then you’re no cynic,” says Herman. “You gotta either be terminally stupid or the reincarnation of Mahatma Gandhi.”

This brings the roof down around Tuchio’s ears. Even the judge is laughing.

Tuchio clears his throat, looks around a little, and waits for the laughter to die, but it doesn’t. He looks at Herman and considers whether there might be another tack to take. Finally he just shakes his head.

“No further questions.” You can barely hear it as he walks back to the counsel table.

When Harry and I arrived at the courthouse just after eight in the morning, groups were already starting to form outside. The carnival atmosphere was gone, driven off by tension in the air, like an approaching army, a sense of siege, a feeling that the moment had arrived.

Even with the secrecy imposed by the judge’s guillotine, Plato Quinn’s gag order looming over all our heads, the press has now punctured the seal. Fragments of information concerning the infamous letter are beginning to surface, stories running on cable news and the networks.

By the time we get to the courtroom, Ruiz, the clerk, is busy waving all the lawyers down the hall toward the judge’s chambers. When we get there, Quinn is standing in the middle of the room leaning against the front edge of his desk, watching the television. He puts a finger to his lips to keep us quiet as we file in.

“…news that a copy of the letter was found, what undisclosed sources are now referring to as the ‘Jefferson Letter.’ It is being described by unnamed sources as a document of ‘immense historic importance.’”

It is one of the cable channels. The reporter holding the microphone is staring intently into the camera as he stands in front of the Capitol building in Washington.

“The trial of Carl Arnsberg, a reputed neo-Nazi, for the murder of author Terry Scarborough has been ongoing now for nearly five months. The trial has been hotly covered by the media both here and abroad. Scarborough’s best-selling book Perpetual Slaves, based on the historic language of slavery in the Constitution and dealing with modern race relations, has been an international bestseller for nearly a year. The book sparked racial violence in at least five cities during the forty-seven days that Scarborough was on tour, before he was murdered.

“It was reported last week, and confirmed by court testimony yesterday, that an item of evidence missing from the scene of Scarborough’s murder, and presumably taken by the killer, has surfaced and had somehow been delivered to the law offices of Madriani and Hinds in Southern California. Madriani and Hinds are the lawyers representing the defendant, Carl Arnsberg.

“However, the information disclosed late last night that the item of evidence in question may be the reputed Jefferson Letter places a whole new dimension on the trial.

“Members of Congress are now weighing in. With reports that the letter may contain damaging information regarding African slavery at the time of the American Revolution, information never previously revealed, there are deep concerns in Congress and in the White House that disclosure of this information could spark renewed and broader racial violence.

“This is Howard Chamrow reporting from Washington.”

They cut back to the studio.

“Tom, do we have anything more on this?”