William Bernhardt - Hate Crime

“I take it you’re Ms. McCall?” Lacayo said, leaning down from his bench. He looked almost reptilian, hovering, his beak nose pointed downward, and was obviously unhappy.

“I am, sir.”

“You’re not a member of our bar, are you?”

“No, sir. But Kevin Mahoney has filed a brief on my behalf to be admitted pro hac vice .”

“Apparently local counsel failed to give you adequate instruction, Ms. McCall, so allow me to fill in the gap. I’m not a stickler for much, but there is one thing I absolutely insist upon. And that is punctuality.”

It would be. “Yes, sir. I’m sorry, sir.”

“Ask any lawyer in this county and they will all tell you the same thing. Judge Lacayo is a tolerant, patient man. But he will not put up with dillydallying. Everyone knows that.”

Of course they do, Christina realized. That’s the whole reason for this little prank. Poisoning the well before I have a chance to take a drink.

“Maybe they do things differently in-” He glanced down at his papers, then made a face as if he’d just sucked on a lemon. “-Ok-la-homa. But here in Cook County, we expect our lawyers to behave as professionals.”

“Yes, sir.”

“It’s more than just nit-picking. It goes to the whole caliber of representation. A tardy lawyer is a sloppy lawyer. That’s what I always say.”

“Certainly, sir.” Should she tell the judge what happened? Of course not. Then he would consider her a whiner-and a stooge-in addition to a dillydallyer.

“I’ll overlook your flagrant misconduct this one time, Ms. McCall, but only this once. If it happens again, there will be consequences. I’ll be watching you.”

She glared at Drabble, who studiously avoided her gaze. He’d won this round and they both knew it. He’d ensured that she got off on the wrong foot with the judge-and the client as well, since Ellen Christensen was in the gallery. All she could do was grit her teeth and bear it-and plot her revenge.

“Are you ready to move forward, Ms. McCall?”

“I am, your honor.”

“And you are death-qualified?”

“Yes, sir.” Though perhaps not in the way that he meant…

“Very well. We shall proceed.” Christina had no experience with Judge Lacayo, but she couldn’t believe that he normally behaved this way. He seemed uncommonly stiff and formal, doing a stern paternal routine that almost seemed like an SNL send-up of a judge. Probably the influence of all the reporters in the courtroom, she speculated. Not to mention all the protesters outside.

Judge Lacayo called the case and got right to the nitty-gritty. “Ms. McCall, I have your motions before me. Normally, I would not allow what are essentially pretrial motions at this stage of the proceeding-when the jury has been selected and the trial is simply in recess-but as we all know, there have been some extraordinary circumstances, so I granted this hearing.”

“Thank you, your honor.”

He turned his attention to the papers on his bench. “Predictably enough, your first motion is another request for a continuance of the trial date. I thought I had already made clear-”

“If I may, your honor.” Christina grabbed her notes and headed for the podium. “I know the court is anxious to get this trial moving, but as you’re aware, I received this case only a few days ago.”

“We’re all aware of the regrettable circumstances that required Mr. Mahoney to step down.”

“Exactly. So given the magnitude of the penalty potentially faced by my client, I’m requesting a three-month continuance in order to have time to thoroughly prepare-”

“Do you have access to Mr. Mahoney’s notes?” the judge asked, cutting her off.

“Well, yes, sir, I do.” The problem was, there was nothing there.

“And I believe you even have access to Mr. Mahoney himself.”

“That’s true, your honor. He’s been very good about-”

“So I don’t see the problem.”

“The problem, sir-” Christina took a deep breath. The trick was to make her point without suggesting that Kevin Mahoney had been negligent in preparing the defense the first time around. “-is that every attorney has his or her own style, and while the materials that Mr. Mahoney was prepared to use at trial might have worked for him, I’m finding them somewhat…”

“Yes, counsel?”

“Unavailing. If the court would simply allow me adequate time to prepare my own defense, I think the results would be far more salutary.”

“If I may, your honor,” Drabble said, rising to his feet, “the State would oppose giving the defense additional time to fish around and see if they can come up with something better.”

“It’s not a matter of fishing around,” Christina insisted. More like praying for a miracle. “But in a case of this magnitude-”

“If I understand what you’re saying,” Judge Lacayo said, “you’re essentially asking for more time because Mr. Mahoney had a different defense style than you do. I’m sure you take great pride in your style, Ms. McCall, but if the defense has had adequate time to prepare-and this one has-I see no need to extend it. Furthermore, the speedy trial provisions of the Constitution mandate that we proceed.”

“But your honor-”

“If, on the other hand, as I suspect, you just want more time to see if you can dig up a better defense, it would be positively unfair to allow you more time. So if you have nothing else…”

Christina rifled through her notes. Where was that case? “Your honor, I would direct the court’s attention to State v. Harmon .” Thank goodness for Paula. Christina had found this case in her e-mail this morning, with the rest of Paula’s invaluable research. It was exactly what she needed.

“I know the case, counsel.”

“Then you know that the Harmon court established that in addition to the needs of the defense and the interests of fairness, public policy considerations should be examined when determining whether to grant a continuance.”

Judge Lacayo sat up at attention. “Are there public policy issues here, counsel?”

“Yes, sir. Needless to say, there has been an enormous amount of public interest in this case.” She glanced back to both sides of the gallery, making her point. “It’s more than just a murder case. In the eyes of many, it has taken on a symbolic mantle. It’s become about tolerance, diversity, and the effectiveness of the American criminal justice system. People are looking to this case, this courtroom, to give them a sense of resolution and, if I may say so, a sense of justice. It is important that we don’t fail them.”

Lacayo appeared to be listening intently. “Go on.”

“If I am required to proceed with haste, there will always be some who will say the result was tainted by the circumstances in which the defense was prepared and presented. In order to give people a sense of resolution, we must assure them that the trial was conducted in such a manner as to give the truth a full and fair opportunity to arise.”

“So what I hear you saying, counsel,” said Lacayo, inching forward, “is that in order to keep people from claiming your client was railroaded, I have to give you everything you want.”

Christina felt the prickly heat creeping up her collar. “I wouldn’t put it like that…”

“And how far does that go, Ms. McCall? I notice you’ve also filed a motion to suppress. Do I have to cave in on that one, too? In order to assuage the public need for resolution.”

“Your honor, equity always plays a larger role in continuance motions, and here-”

“No, I’m sorry, counsel.” He eased back into his black leather chair. “When you raised the public policy concerns, you had me going for a moment. But you have to realize there are many factors that favor going forward-principally an increasingly clogged criminal docket. Also, if I continue this case for three months, the jury will have to be dismissed and a new one impaneled. And for what? So you can appease the public? So you can develop a defense that’s more in your style? I’m sorry, Ms. McCall, but you just haven’t given me adequate grounds for a continuance. Motion denied.”