Joseph Teller - Bronx Justice

On Friday morning Jaywalker drove to the Bronx County Courthouse, which housed all of the Supreme Court parts. It covered then, as it covers now, an entire city block, from the Grand Concourse on the east to Walton Avenue on the west, and from 160th Street to 161st. From its upper floors you could see then, as you can still see today, the elevated train tracks above Jerome Avenue, and Yankee Stadium just beyond.

Jaywalker took one of the elevators to the sixth floor. The building was laid out around a square center courtyard, and no matter how many times he’d been there, he always found himself disoriented as soon as he stepped off the elevator. As usual, he walked three-quarters of the way around just to get to a courtroom that would have been right around the corner, had only he chosen to walk the other way.

Darren, Charlene, Inez and Marlin Kingston were waiting for him outside Part 12. They exchanged greetings and went inside. Jacob Pope was already there. He handed Jaywalker a copy of the indictment.

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF BRONX

——————————————————-x

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK

x

x INDICTMENT

—against—

x 5476/79

DARREN KINGSTON, x

Defendant.

——————————————————-x

THE GRAND JURY OF THE COUNTY OF BRONX, by this indictment, accuse the defendant of the crime of RAPE IN THE FIRST DEGREE, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of Bronx, on or about August 16, 1979, being a male, engaged in sexual intercourse with Eleanor Cerami, a female, by forcible compulsion.

SECOND COUNT:

AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuse the defendant of the crime of RAPE IN THE FIRST DEGREE, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of Bronx, on or about August 16, 1979, being a male, engaged in sexual intercourse with Joanne Kenarden, a female, by forcible compulsion.

THIRD COUNT:

AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuse the defendant of the crime of AN ATTEMPT TO COMMIT THE CRIME OF RAPE IN THE FIRST DEGREE, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of Bronx, on or about August 17, 1979, being a male, attempted to engage in sexual intercourse with Tania Maldonado, a female, by forcible compulsion.

FOURTH COUNT:

AND THE GRAND JURY AFORESAID, by this indictment, further accuse the defendant of the crime of AN ATTEMPT TO COMMIT THE CRIME OF RAPE IN THE FIRST DEGREE, committed as follows:

The defendant, in the County of Bronx, on or about September 5, 1979, being a male, attempted to engage in sexual intercourse with Elvira Caldwell, a female, by forcible compulsion.

And that was only page one. The indictment went on to charge Darren with additional counts of first-degree sodomy, sexual misconduct, sexual abuse, assault against two of the victims, and criminal possession of a weapon—a knife—on each occasion. In all, there were twenty-three separate crimes charged. The only pieces of good news, if they could be called that, were that from the original five victims, it seemed now they were down to four who were willing to testify, and of those only two had apparently been actually raped; the other two counts were of attempted rape. Still, Jaywalker could do the math in his head: two completed rapes, each carrying a maximum sentence of twenty-five years, plus two attempts, worth fifteen each. Add them all up, and Darren was facing eighty years in prison.

The case was called in its turn, and Jaywalker accompanied Darren to the podium. The clerk asked how the defendant pleaded, and Darren answered, “Not guilty.” His voice was soft, but he didn’t stutter. Perhaps he’d been practicing the words, having been told ahead of time by Jaywalker that he would be required to say them. Bail was ordered continued, and the case was adjourned for three weeks, to give the defense time to submit written motions.

Outside the courtroom, Jaywalker cornered Pope and asked him if he would consider giving Darren a polygraph examination. Pope raised an eyebrow as he seemed to think about it, but Jaywalker could see Why rock the boat? written all over his face.

Finally he said, “Let me run it by my boss.” Passing the buck, no doubt, not wanting to be the one to say no. “Oh, one other thing,” he added. “Tell your man he’d better keep out of the area up there.”

“What do you mean?” Jaywalker was puzzled.

“I mean this,” said Pope, in a tone even more serious than his usual humorless one. “I got a call from Detective Rendell the other day. He said one of the girls phoned him and said she’d seen the guy again, in her lobby. Rendell figured shit, maybe we’ve got the wrong guy locked up. He called me. I did some checking and found out your client had made bail.”

“When was this?”

“I don’t know,” said Pope. “Beginning of the week, maybe. He was out before the weekend, right?”

“Right,” Jaywalker had to agree. It was true.

“Now understand me,” said Pope, his eyes narrowing. “This is a free country. I’m not telling your man where he’s allowed to go and where he’s not. But he starts intimidating my witnesses, I’ll have him back in jail in an hour, and his family can see if they can make fifty million dollars. I suggest you tell him that.”

“I will,” Jaywalker said soberly. “She’s sure it was him?”

“She’s sure.”

Jaywalker didn’t know whether to hate Pope for threatening them or thank him for the warning. Before he had a chance to do either, Pope turned and walked away.

Jaywalker lost no time in confronting Darren with what he’d just been told. He was about to read him the riot act for disobeying explicit instructions when Darren interrupted him. “Jay, you know that’s not m-m-me she’s talking about. I haven’t been out of the house alone for one minute since I got out.”

Darren’s family jumped to his defense, backing him up completely and persuasively. So Jaywalker sent them off with homework assignments. Each of them was to take paper and pencil and write out everything they could remember about Darren’s movements since his release on bail, as well as his whereabouts on the three days listed in the indictment, August 16th and 17th, and September 5th. Jaywalker instructed Darren to buy a pocket calendar and begin making detailed entries of his comings and goings each day, cursing himself for not thinking of it earlier. Then they set up an appointment at his office for Monday and parted ways.

Jaywalker headed for his car buoyed by a feeling of excitement. Admittedly, the indictment had been bad. Of the five victims, Pope had succeeded in getting four of them before the grand jury on short notice, and if he got the fifth, he could always go back in, have her testify and get a superseding indictment. Jaywalker’s suggestion of a polygraph examination had met with fairly predictable skepticism, but at least Pope hadn’t quite responded with a flat-out no. But by far the most interesting development had been the business about one of the victims claiming to have seen Darren in the lobby of her building since his release. For starters, Darren and the rest of the Kingston family insisted that he hadn’t been out alone since Marlin had brought him home from Rikers Island. But even beyond that, it just didn’t make sense. In the movies and on TV, the perpetrator invariably returns to the scene of the crime, blending into the crowd or lurking around furtively to watch the investigators at work. But in real life, having been unlucky enough to be arrested but lucky enough to have gotten out on bail, wouldn’t he want to stay as far away as he possibly could?

It sure seemed that way to Jaywalker.