Sausage and The Law Ch. 02

"And that's included as part of the draft bill I handed everyone." said Edward R. Steele...

Part 9 - Successful Arrests

Meanwhile...

The heavily-armed, well-armored contingent of TCPD Officers rolled through the Rio Linda Apartments, enveloping Building 10 in a pincer movement, and keeping visibility of the back porch of Apartment 10A. When the pincer met, the Officers poured out of the Police cruisers and ran in a coordinated and practiced set of movements to cover the exits.

*KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!* *KNOCK!*

"Town & County Police!" shouted Detective Sergeant Julia Rodriguez as she and Detectives Joan Laurer and Roark Coleman stood on either side of the door. All three were wearing double armor vests.

There was no response, but the peephole in the door darkened and then lit back up, showing that someone had looked out at them then drawn back. Julia knocked hard on the door and yelled "Police! Open up!"

Again, no response, but they could hear shuffling behind the door. Fearing it was being barricaded, Julia said "Ram it."

Officer Taylor Hawley of the SWAT Team came up. "Search warrant!" he yelled, then slammed the ram against the door. It flew open, the chain securing the door and its screws flying out of the wall. Joan Laurer rushed in, followed by Roark and Julia.

"GET YOUR HANDS UP!" Laurer yelled at Rhonda Huntington, who was in the living room but appeared to be running towards the bedroom. Rhonda stopped and put up her hands, and Laurer pulled her hands behind her back and affixed cuffs while Julia covered them with her TASER.

The apartment was a mirror image of the apartment across the hallway. The patio door out the back of the bedroom in back had opened, and a wiry man with a mop of brown hair and a mustache ran out and jumped over the wall to the grounds. He didn't get far.

*WHAM!*

Police had almost magically appeared, and the man found himself being tackled hard by Officer Ragnar Magnussen. "STOP RESISTING!" he yelled as he sat on the man's back and tried to affix handcuffs. "STOP RESISTING!" Other Officers arrived to help, and they soon had the man subdued and his hands cuffed behind his back. The Officer-cams that caught the order to stop resisting would help convict the perp of Resisting Arrest.

As they bodily lifted the man to his feet, Lieutenant Micah Rudistan came up to him. With a great deal of joviality he said "Randy Luna! So happy to finally meet you! As I'm sure you can tell, you are under arrest. Read him his rights."

As Officer Magnussen tried to read Luna his considerable rights, Luna yelled "Why are you detaining me? I haven't done anything wrong! You have no right to detain me!"

"Oh, I think we do." Rudistan said with great joviality, which had a way of getting under perps's skins. "First, we have a warrant to bring you in as a person of interest in a double homicide. And second, when people run out the back door while the Police are coming in the front door? That qualifies as 'evading the Police' and definitely gets my interest... and gets you criminally charged."

"I want a lawyer!" Luna yelled, then yelled as loudly as he could, to anyone possibly listening... and videoing with their cellphones: "I'M BEING UNLAWFULLY DETAINED! I'M BEING ARRESTED WITHOUT CAUSE!"

"Take him away." Rudistan said. As Luna was escorted around the corner of the building, Rhonda was being brought out of the building via the hallway door. Luna yelled at Rhonda to demand a lawyer and say nothing more. Rhonda said nothing. They were put into separate Police cruisers and transported to Police Headquarters for processing.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

3:15pm, Monday, January 10th. Lieutenant Commander Teresa Croyle and I came into Police Headquarters. The Council Committee of the Whole had decided to not debate the Sheriff's structure proposal yet. Sheila Sorrells had said it best when she said "Let's get this Public Health resolution whipped into shape for tomorrow night. We can talk about the rest of it later this week."

Everyone not a Member of the Council, except Sergeant-At-Arms Pierce, were 'invited' to leave, and we did not let the door hit us in our fourth points of contact on the way out. The Sheriff told us he'd come to Police HQ later on, and went to his office.

At Headquarters, Captain Claire Michaels and ADA Paulina Patterson came into the Main Conference Room to brief the Chief, me, and Teresa, We watched the Officer-cam footage of the arrests, then Claire gave her report:

"We searched the apartment." Claire said. "We brought in the dog. He alerted in the kitchen, and when we looked in the AC/heating vent in the wall of the kitchen, which was up near the ceiling, we found six kilos of China White. And behind that in the vent was a.357 Magnum 5-shot revolver, loaded with.38 special cartridges. Two shots fired and three unfired. Randy Luna's fingerprints are all over the gun and the cartridges. Jody Taylor is running ballistics now, and I hardly need say that if they come back to the slugs from the bodies of the victims, Luna is looking at the Death Penalty."

Claire: "Upon interrogation by Sergeant Rodriguez and Joan Laurer, Rhonda admitted that she had lied about Marquis Swift. She'd seen the television reports on KXTC about him, so she gave his description. She wouldn't throw Luna under the bus, though; she wanted to talk to her lawyer and cut a deal in exchange for fingering him."

"Who is her attorney?" I asked.

"Abby Howell." Claire said. "She's with the Rosemont & Burisma firm. She's an advocate to legalize prostitution, and she frequently defends prostitutes in Court as a Public Defender."

"What did Randy Luna have to say?" I asked.

"Roark Coleman and Teddy Parker interrogated him." Claire said. "His lawyer, Michael Bertram of Gaston & Bertram, P.C., showed up to represent him, and not as a public defender. Roark did a good job of laying out the case, and it's a slam dunk, but Bertram had Luna invoke, then refused to discuss plea deals."

"Why?" asked a stunned Teresa Croyle. "Considering that the Death Penalty is very much on the table, I'd think he'd be begging for a plea deal."

Claire replied "Bertram believes that we did not have sufficient grounds nor probable cause to obtain a warrant for Luna. He's not waiving the preliminary hearing, and he's going for total dismissal of the charges with prejudice."

Teresa said "But we got the warrants because Rhonda lied to Police, and he was her roommate, or boyfriend, or whatever, so it's perfectly normal to want to bring him in for questioning. And we found the drugs and the gun because of her, and her warrant. And furthermore, he fled the scene to evade Police, and he resisted arrest. So the evidence is good and valid, is it not?"

"Paulina?" I asked.

Paulina said "That's the route I'll certainly be taken during his hearing in the morning. If we get Judge Watts or Judge Washington, they'll likely dispense with the crap and it'll be bound over for trial. Folsom? That's not such a certainty."

Paulina: "And I'm not saying I agree with this, but Bertram may have a point. One thing I try to do is put myself in the Defense lawyer's shoes, and consider what I would do on the Defendant's behalf, and then work to either squash the problem or concede it and drop the charges."

Paulina: "In this case, I think we should be okay, but the case -can- be made that we had relatively thin grounds to ask for a warrant for that lunatic Luna in advance. Yeah, once he ran when we came in for Rhonda, and once the gun was found, he was toast. But he wasn't at home on Saturday, at least not that we know of, so asking for a warrant will be questioned as a (air quotes) 'phishing' expedition without probable cause."

Paulina: "So that's the threat, that Bertram will appeal to the Appellate Court. And Leahy is so rabidly Leftist and Activist, he'll likely dismiss -all- the charges with prejudice. And we'll have to take it to the State Supreme Court or a Federal Court, and that'll take a lot of time."

As Teresa shook her head in disbelief, I said "I have a question: Claire, why didn't you send Joanne Warner in with Julia to interrogate Rhonda? Or even Luna, since she's a good (air quotes) 'bad cop' during interrogations?"

Claire said "I'm not going to send her in with Roark, nor Roark with her. As you've seen, sir, they despise each other. I also have taken heed of your criticisms of Lieutenant Warner during interrogations, so I held her back on this case and let other Detectives get some experience. At the time, I thought it was a slam-dunk case, but that was before hearing Paulina talk about the possible loophole. Not that it matters; Roark and Julia did very good jobs."

I said "That makes sense. And there are a few other 'teachable moments' that we need to review with Joanne. I noticed in the meeting this morning that Joanne got defensive when Roark brought up things that contradicted her story, and that caused to to become less than objective, and to twist facts to fit the theory, rather than the other way around."

Claire said "I understand what you're saying, sir, but what were the red flags? I freely admit that I didn't see anything that was a problem at the time of the incident."

I nodded and said "And what I've noticed might be called 'perfect 20/20 hindsight'. So let's learn together. Our first clue is that if a black man like Marquis Swift appeared in that all-white neighborhood, he'd be noticed. By everyone. And he sure as hell wouldn't go in there alone; he'd have protection, or be part of a group."

Me: "Another clue was that this didn't fit the M.O. of Marquis Swift. I don't see how he could coincidentally be at the scene in order to take the opportunity, and I -really- don't see him following them to their home to effect the robbery. Even several keys of smack or China White aren't all that much for him to risk everything like that, especially not in a potentially hostile White neighborhood where he knows he's unwelcome."

Me: "And one other thing we should have picked up on. If Rhonda Huntington had seen Marquis Swift, why didn't she call the SBI or DEA and get the reward? But she never did, and that's because she never really saw him, and she'd have to give her name as a witness. That alone should've told me everything."

Me: "So this is totally on me for not seeing those anomalies right away. And I give Roark credit for realizing there was something wrong when he saw Yolanda's 3D recreation program, which is some really beautiful stuff that will really help us going forward."

Teresa said "I'll play Tanya Muscone, and tell you to stop beating yourself up."

"Yezzz." drawled the Chief. "You are good, Mister Crowbarrrr. And all of our Detectives are good. Good... not perfect. We got to the truth, we have the perps behind barrrrrzzz."

"Yes sir." I said. Then, as if it were a sudden thought, I said "I need to get with Mary Milton. For Michael Bertram to be representing Randy Luna suggests that Luna is 'connected', as in the Mob ties I heard this morning that he might be connected to. So if y'all will excuse me..." I got up and with the Chief's blessing exited the room...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

After talking to Mary in her office, I went to my office and found Paulina and Teresa already there, and Paulina making coffee in my coffeemaker under the TV monitor. After pouring all of us cups and sitting down, I saw both women peering at me. "Okay, what?" I asked as I took a sip of my coffee.

Teresa said "Spill it, Don. What's on your mind?" When I peered back at her, she said "What's got you so distracted that you didn't glom onto Rhonda Huntington on Saturday? I do think you saw it today, and let Roark bring it up to let him develop confidence. But something's on your mind. All this crap with the Public Health Service?"

"Oh Lord, no." I said with a near-scowl. "I couldn't care less about that, as long as we keep the HAZMAT Team." After a moment, I said "Teresa, has Todd said anything about what's going on at the University? And Paulina, I hate to ask you to break a confidence, but has Laura said anything about issues with the School?" Todd was a University Trustee, and Laura was Head of the Psychology Department at the School.

Teresa nodded in understanding, then said "There is a lot of angst and an increasing lack of respect among the Trustees for University President Jerry Moore, particularly with regard to the Climate Change 'loyalty documents'. But that's really nothing new."

Paulina said "Laura hasn't said anything to me about anything at the School. But she's also become withdrawn, and she's not confiding much to me, especially since I began dating Michael McGill." I noticed Teresa's head make like an owl and whirl to peer at Paulina upon hearing that.

I nodded and said "Laura hasn't been saying much to me about School-related matters, either. We almost always went to the University President's New Year's party when Sidney Wellman was President, but the Moores didn't even invite us to the last one a little over a week ago. I found out that they only invited people who'd signed the loyalty documents."

"Who told you that?" Teresa asked. "Todd and I weren't invited either, but he was told they were only inviting Faculty and Employees, and none of the Trustees nor major Boosters."

I said "I have a few sources, and they'd surprise you if you knew their names. And it's general scuttlebutt on Campus. Hospital Administrator Seth Warner and Joanne weren't invited, nor were any of the doctors On Staff." After another pause, I said, "O-kayyy, I'm going to go speak to the Chief, and see if I can sneak out of here a few minutes earrrrly."

Teresa again looked shocked...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Dinner at the Mountain Nest was... 'interesting'. It was just Carole, Jim, Laura, and myself. Bowser and Buddy were pretending to sleep near the back door.

I'd come home a little early, and had cooked dinner. Laura and I were having steak and sautéed asparagus, and I made the concession of having mashed potatoes instead of baked potatoes so that the kids could have mashed potatoes and gravy with cube steak. Bowser and Buddy did not complain, as they got bones out of the deal.

And no, no stringbeans. I had wanted a positive, happy dinner. But that wasn't happening. Laura was being relatively pensive and quiet. For years, the former Deputy Director of the Science and Technology branch of the CIA had been able to put any problems into a compartment of her mind, but whatever was bothering her now was at the forefront of her mind. And Carole knew it, which caused her to be quieter than normal.

As usual during dinner, I asked the kids how their day at school was. Carole, my fourth-grader, said that her classmate Sidney was being bullied, and that she, Marie, and Jameis were helping Sidney stand up to the bullies. But their English teacher Mrs. Worf not only didn't stop the bullying, she all but encouraged it because, according to Carole, Mrs. Worf didn't like Sidney, either. And worse, she had told Carole and Jameis that they'd be in trouble if they confronted the bullies, and she was 'birddogging' them during recess.

To my shock, Laura told Carole to not start any trouble nor escalate anything that might make her (Carole) a target. I told Carole to demand that I be called if there was any attempt to punish her, especially if Carole was not the transgressor.

Jim, my second-grader, said math was boring, that he already knew everything they were teaching in second grade, and that he already knew multiplication and division, as well. I was impressed; multiplication and division usually weren't started until 3rd grade. I inwardly knew that this was an inherent issue of kids with older siblings; Jim and Ross had learned half of what Carole (and Marie) had already been taught.

After dinner, I suggested we play games as a family. Jim did not want to play Monopoly, saying he knew all about Carole's interest-free loans to herself. So we played Uno. Daddy ended up having to 'draw eight' on several occasions.

Normally bedtime was a fight, as Carole did everything she could to not go to bed, then to delay going to bed, then arguing about it. Tonight, she quietly, almost meekly went and got ready for bed the first time she was told.

As Laura got the kids ready for bed, I took the dogs out. It was a cold night, so they did not waste time doing their business, and were ready to come back in within minutes. Once back inside, they rushed upstairs to settle into their baskets and guard their young charges while I made drinks for Laura and myself.

She came down the stairs and plopped down beside me on the sofa against the wall. She said "I'm wondering if Carole is coming down with a cold or something. She was really quiet tonight, all night. And she didn't put up any fuss about going to bed."

"She was excited enough yelling 'Draw eight!' when she hit me with that card." I replied. "But yes, she was on good behavior tonight."

She nodded and sipped her drink. "Strong." she said. "Trying to get me drunk?"

"Pliable, anyway." I said, then decided to stop delaying the inevitable any further by saying "Soooo. How was your weekend with Melina?"

"How'd you know it was her?" Laura replied.

"I saw Daniel at the Council Committee meeting." I said. "He said Melina had gone somewhere with you over the weekend."

"So how did the Council meeting go?" Laura asked. Deflecting to another subject, she was.

"Samo samo." I replied. "So, is there a reason you are avoiding talking about the weekend?"

"You're persistent." Laura said.

"I'm concerned." I replied. "You're not yourself right now. And you usually tell me what's going on, good or bad. So the deduction is not hard to make that there is something going on, and I've decided to coax it out of you since you haven't been forthcoming to this point."

Laura said "I was going to hold off until some things were clarified, but maybe it's better if I go ahead and tell you so you'll know." She finished off her drink, and I poured her some more from the bottles on the table in front of us as she began: "Melina and I went to Midtown. Friday night we stayed at the Hyatt-On-The-River in the River District, which is in the ritziest section of Midtown. We had dinner at The Chop House down there, which is Moe Molinari's best restaurant, went to the renovated Riverside Theater and saw 'Hamilton', then let guys buy us drinks in the Hyatt's lounge, but didn't let any of them pick us up."

Laura: "Saturday we went to the Governor's Mansion, for what we hoped would be secret talks with Governor Sharon Marshall and what she calls her 'Girls Group'. They're all women, and they're from both political Parties. State Senator Katherine Woodburn was there, as were State Rep Marsha Collins of Eastphalia, State Rep Gloria Bernstein of Westphalia, who succeeded Sharon Marshall there, Captain Kari Vance of the City P.D., Dr. Christina Cho of the State Crime Labs, U.S. Senator Lorraine McGill, and University Trustee Mrs. Myrtle L. James."

"Yep, Pubbies and Dems." I said.

Laura: "Britt Maxwell of the SBI is part of the unofficial group, but she was not at the meeting due to issues with me in the past. I did learn that she, U.S. Senator McGill, and Captain Vance met with Melina later in the day."

"So what is it about?" I asked. "Your meeting, that is."

Laura said "It's about what's going on at the University. Dr. Jerry Moore's insane push on those 'loyalty documents' are killing the School. Literally, it is being destroyed right before our eyes. It's also hurting the Hospital. A lot of big name donors, serious people who make Todd Burke look like small potatoes, are informing the Trustees that they are withholding all future donations. Not because of Climate Change; some are fully on board with that. But they don't like the 'loyalty documents'."