Майкл Коннелли - The Law of Innocence

Soon Judge Warfield appeared in the doorway behind the clerk’s corral and court was called to order. Before getting to the motion to suppress, I told the judge that I had a new motion to file with the court on an emergency basis because the prosecution was still not playing fair when it came to the rules of discovery.

“What is it this time, Mr. Haller?” the judge asked.

Her voice took on a tone of exasperation, which I found disconcerting, since the hearing had just started. As I walked to the lectern, Jennifer carried copies of the new motion to the prosecution table and the court clerk, who then handed the documents to the judge.

“Your Honor, the defense just wants what it is entitled to,” I said. “You have a discovery motion in front of you for data from my own car and cell phone, which the prosecution has not provided because it knows it is exculpatory and will show that I was in my house and that my car was in my garage when I supposedly went out and abducted Mr. Scales and then took him back to my house to murder him.”

Dana Berg immediately stood up and objected. She didn’t even have to state her grounds for the objection. The judge was on it right away.

“Mr. Haller,” she boomed. “Making your case to the media instead of the court is unacceptable and... dangerous. Do you understand me?”

“I do, Judge, and I apologize,” I said. “Defending myself has taken me to some emotional depths I don’t usually deal with.”

“That is no excuse. Consider that your one and only warning.”

“Thank you, Your Honor.”

But as I spoke my apology, I couldn’t help wondering what the judge would do to me with a contempt citation. Put me in jail? I was already there. Fine me? Good luck collecting with me earning zero income while I fought a murder rap.

“Continue,” the judge instructed. “Carefully.”

“Judge, the motion is clear,” I said. “The state obviously has this information and we have not received it. It appears that it is the practice of the District Attorney’s Office to hold discovery and not share it unless it is specifically asked for by the defense, and that is not the way it works. This is vital information about my own property that I need in order to defend myself, and I need it right now, Your Honor. Not when the prosecution feels like it.”

The judge looked at Berg for a response and the prosecutor took the lectern, lowering the stem microphone to her level.

“Your Honor, Mr. Haller’s assumptions are completely wrong,” she said. “The information he seeks was acquired by the LAPD following the issuance of a search warrant, which took time to write and execute. The material that came from that search warrant was received by my office just yesterday and has not yet been reviewed by me or anyone on my team. I believe the rules of discovery allow me to at least review evidence before passing it to the defense.”

“When will the defense have this material?” Warfield asked.

“I would think by the end of the day tomorrow,” Berg said.

“Your Honor?” I said.

“Hold your horses, Mr. Haller,” Warfield said. “Ms. Berg, if you don’t have time to review the material, then get someone else to review it or turn it over blind. I want you to give it to the defense by the end of the day. That’s today I’m talking about. And that’s the workday. Not midnight.”

“Yes, Your Honor,” a chastened Berg said.

“Your Honor, I would still like to be heard,” I said.

“Mr. Haller, I just got you what you asked for,” Warfield said impatiently. “What else is there to say?”

I went to the lectern as Berg stepped away. I glanced back into the gallery and saw Kendall sitting next to my daughter. That gave me confidence. I raised the microphone stem back up.

“Judge,” I began, “the defense is troubled by this absurd idea that discovery does not need to be completed until a review of the discoverable evidence occurs. Review is an amorphous word, Your Honor. What is a review? How long is a review? Two days? Two weeks? Two months? I would ask the court to set out clear guidelines about this. As the court knows, I have not and will not waive my right to a speedy trial, and therefore any delay in the transfer of discovery puts the defense on an unfair footing.”

“Your Honor?” Berg said. “May I be heard?”

“No, Ms. Berg, there is no need for you to be heard,” Warfield said. “Let me make clear the rules of discovery in this courtroom. Discovery is a two-way street. What comes in must go out. Forthwith. No delay, no undue review. What the state gets, the defense gets. Conversely, what the defense gets, the state gets. Without delay. The penalty for violation is the disallowance of the material at the source of the complaint. Remember that. Now, can we take up the cause that this hearing was scheduled for? The motion in limine filed by Mr. Haller to essentially disallow the body in this case. Ms. Berg, you bear the burden of justifying a warrantless search and seizure. Do you have a witness to call in this matter?”

“Yes, Your Honor,” Berg said. “The People call Officer Roy Milton.”

Milton stood in the gallery and walked through the gate and to the witness stand. He raised his hand and was sworn in. After he was seated and the preliminaries of identity were completed, Berg elicited Milton’s version of my arrest.

“You are assigned to Metro Division, correct, Officer Milton?”

“Yes.”

“What is Metro’s jurisdiction?”

“Well, we have the whole city, I guess you could say.”

“But on the night in question, you were working downtown on Second Street, weren’t you?”

“That’s correct.”

“What was your assignment that night, Officer Milton?”

“I was on an SPU assignment and was posted near—”

“Let me stop you right there. What is SPU?”

“Special Problems Unit.”

“And what was the special problem that you were addressing that night?”

“We were encountering spikes in crimes in the civic center. Vandalism mostly. We had spotters in the center and I was in a support car posted just outside the zone. I was at Second and Broadway, with eyelines down both streets.”

“Eyelines for what, Officer Milton?”

“Everything, anything. I saw the defendant pull out of the parking lot on Broadway.”

“You did, didn’t you? Let’s talk about that. You were stationary, correct?”

“Yes, I was parked at the curb at the southeast corner on Second. I had a view up to the tunnel in front of me and down Broadway to my left. That was where I saw the vehicle leaving the pay lot.”

“Were you assigned that position, or did you choose it?”

“I was assigned that general location — the top corner of the box we were putting over the civic center.”

“But didn’t your position put you in a blind? The L.A. Times Building would block any view of the civic center, would it not?”

“Like I said, we had spotters inside — observers on the ground in the civic center. I was containment. I was placed in a position where I could react to anyone leaving the civic center on Broadway. Or I could come into the box if needed.”

Step-by-step she walked him through the pull-over and the discussion with me at the rear of my car. He described my reticence to open the trunk to see if the license plate was there, then his spotting the substance dripping from the car.

“I thought it was blood,” Milton said. “At that point I believed there were exigent circumstances and that I needed to open the trunk to see if someone was hurt inside.”

“Thank you, Officer Milton,” Berg said. “I have nothing further.”

The witness was turned over to me. My goal was to build a record I hoped would be useful at trial. Berg had not bothered to show any video during her questioning, because all she needed to do was establish exigent circumstances.