Vox Populi Vox Dei Ch. 01

This story is part of an ongoing series. The chronological order of my stories is listed in WifeWatchman's biography.

Feedback and constructive criticism is very much appreciated, and I encourage feedback for ideas.

This story contains graphic scenes, language and actions that might be extremely offensive to some people. These scenes, words and actions are used only for the literary purposes of this story. The author does not condone murder, racial language, violence, rape or violence against women, and any depictions of any of these in this story should not be construed as acceptance of the above.

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Part 1 - Prologue

"Watson, you are a British jury, and I never met a man who was more eminently fitted to represent one. I (Sherlock Holmes) am the judge.

Now, gentleman of the jury, you have heard the evidence. Do you find the prisoner guilty or not guilty?"

"Not guilty, my lord," said I.

"Vox populi, vox Dei..."

------ Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Abbey Grange"

"This is Bettina Wurtzburg, KXTC Channel Two News!" shouted the redheaded reporterette from the KXTC studios at 7:00am, Thursday, August 8th. "Governor Val Jared has moved to suspend Town & County Councilwoman Kelly Carnes!"

Bettina began: "Deeply unpopular Val Jared used a State law, meant to suspend corrupt law enforcement officers, to suspend Councilwoman Carnes after she and her husband, dentist Stephen Carnes, were indicted on State and Federal charges of money laundering and campaign finance violations. Critics of the Governor furiously denounced him and his actions. Roll tape."

Tape rolled. First was Eldrick X. Weaver: "This action by the corrupt, racist Governor is inexcusable! He is just supporting illegitimate Mayor Daniel Allgood's racist attempt to stack the Council for the Republicans!"

Then came Council Member Malinda Adams: "Governor Jared, who has been credibly accused of sexual harassment against women, has once again used raw political power to abuse a woman."

Council Member Reginald B.F. Lewis: "The Governor wouldn't suspend Donald Troy when he was under suspicion for murder, but he quickly suspends Councilwoman Carnes for unproved charges brought by Commander Troy's Police. The double standard and hypocrisy are breathtaking!"

State Rep. Tasheeka Harris of Inner Midtown: "I am sick and tired of this racist Governor's abuse of women! It is long past time for the State Legislature to be convened to impeach and eliminate this man, who is a humiliation to our State as Governor!"

State Attorney General Karl Handel: "Governor Jared continues to exercise Abuse of Power as well as misogyny in this overly harsh action. I urge Governor Jared to resign, as he is an embarrassment to the Republican Party."

Back to Bettina live: "Gwen Munson, attorney for Councilwoman Carnes, has filed a lawsuit against the Governor's actions, citing that the law was unConstitutionally used before Councilwoman Carnes was convicted of anything. Channel Two News has learned that Superior Court Judge Harry Nance has issued a stay against the Governor's actions pending a full hearing."

Bettina: "And in other Court news, several big cases are coming up, keeping our Courts busy during the hottest part of the summer. Commander Troy's lawsuit against Ken Eidex and Jay Swenson of Citizens for Police Accountability will be starting preliminary arguments today. Our colleague Amber Harris's trial for assaulting a Police Officer and violating the terms of her bail is scheduled to be heard, but Channel Two News has learned that a plea deal could be reached. And on Monday, the big one: the trial of Peter Blassingame, son of transportation mogul Edward Blassingame, for rape and double murder, begins Monday..."

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

"Oooh, someone is looking good!" said Tanya Perlman approvingly as I came into the coffee klatch in the Chief's Conference Room, wearing a gray suit, white shirt, and Wildcat Red tie. My badge was on my belt and my gun holstered under my shoulder.

"Yeah you are." said Cindy Ross admiringly. "What's the occasion? Got a hot date?"

"Date with the Court." I said. "My lawsuit against Jay Swenson and Ken Eidex, and the CFPA. Mike Todd said it would probably look better if I'm in civilian clothes, since the group I'm suing has 'Police Accountability' in their name."

"That's a good point." said Cindy Ross.

"And we'll see if they've complied with the subpoena to turn over their financial documents and donor lists." I said. "That's my lodestone."

"Good luck with that." growled Sheriff Griswold. "But don't get your hopes up."

"Think they won't comply, Sheriff?" I asked.

"I actually hope they don't." said the Sheriff. "If they were smart, which they're not, they'd send false information to you. They've had plenty of time to create fake data and pass it along."

"Then they'd be looking at a long jail sentence." Cindy replied.


"If you can find them and put them in jail." said the Sheriff.

"Either way, I win." I said. "While I really want that information, if they have to run and hide, then they can't be harassing us and suing us for every little thing."

"Nor will Amber be bothering us much longer." Teresa Croyle said. "Her case is tomorrow morning, though I heard they're trying to work out a plea deal."

"And a strange plea deal, at that." I said. "Paulina told me that they were going for six months in a minimum security prison facility, then three years of parole. Amber's team offered to take two full years in prison in exchange for no parole after she serves it. Of course that might get cut to one year with good behavior, but the key point is no parole."

"As much as I despise Amber," Teresa said, "that sounds like a reasonable counter-offer on her part. What's the catch?"

"Paulina is not sure. Amber's lawyers have not yet submitted their formal offer" I said. "I'm going to be there tomorrow. Maybe I'll see what's wrong with it."

Part 2 - Disorder In The Court

9:00am, Thursday, August 8th. I sat with my attorney Mike G. Todd on the Plaintiff/Prosecution side in one of the smaller, very modern courtrooms in the Courthouse complex. Max Chambliss was the attorney for the CFPA, looking sleazy as ever in his rumpled brown suit, wilted collars, and almost Dilbert-'ish' necktie. He came in with a young legal aide. Jay Swenson and Ken Eidex had not yet come in.

There were a number of reporters in the pews behind us, including Keith Madden of the Town & County Examiner and Priya Ajmani of KFXU Fox Eight News. But this hearing was not particularly well attended, and no one from KXTC deigned to cover it.

"Oyez, oyez, oyez." said the Bailiff. "Court is in session, the Honorable Rodney K. Watts presiding." Judge Rodney K. Watts strode in and took his seat behind the bench.

"Be seated." said the Judge. "What is the first case?"

The Court Reporter said "Case number 36223, Troy v. CFPA."

"Plaintiff?" said Watts.

"Your Honor," said Mike G. Todd, standing up, "the defendants are not present for this preliminary hearing. Furthermore, Defense has not provided the financial data that we have subpoenaed, despite this Court's orders to comply with those subpoenas."

"Where are your clients, Mr. Chambliss?" asked Watts.

"I'm here as their representation, Your Honor." said Chambliss. "We were unaware that there was any requirement for them to be physically present."

"What, do I have to issue warrants for every defendant in every lawsuit?------- er, what are you doing, Commander Troy?" In clear violation of Court policy, I'd taken out my Police iPhone and was typing on it.

"My apologies, Your Honor." I said. "I'm asking the TCPD to put out APBs for Swenson and Eidex, to ascertain their physical locations if not to have Federal Marshals bring them to Court here."

"Your Honor, I vociferously object!" shouted Max Chambliss. "Commander Troy is abusing the rules of this Court, as well as using the Power of Police to harass my clients! I ask you to make a directed finding for the defendants now!"

"Your Honor," said Mike Todd, answering the objection, "I again state that the defendants have not met their obligations to turn over their financial information, especially their donor lists. I believe it's more than proper to have the Defendants arrested and brought in to explain that to you."

"Yes, Mr. Chambliss, what about that?" asked Watts harshly. "Where is the information that was subpoenaed and ordered to be turned over?"

"Your Honor," said Chambliss, "we filed a brief explaining that we were appealing that, and that we would not be turning that information over to the Plaintiff until our appeals were exhausted."

"That is not acceptable; neither I nor any other judge issued a stay of the subpoenas." said Judge Watts. "Commander Troy, make that text. I'm issuing a bench warrant for the arrests of Jay Swenson and Ken Eidex, and they will be held in Contempt of Court until they produce that list of donors. Likewise, Mr. Chambliss, you are to be he held in Contempt and jailed, as well. I'll likely be issuing a directed finding for the Plaintiff, but I'll hold off on that for now, since I'm sure Commander Troy as well as I strongly wish to obtain that data..."

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

After the hearing was over, I gave spot interviews to Priya Ajmani and Keith Madden, then headed back to Police Headquarters. When I went in, the Duty Desk officer at the employees entrance said "Sir, the Chief would like for you to go straight to his office."

"Okay. Thanks." I said. I headed down the hallway to the Chief's office. The Chief's assistant Cassie did the formal 'open-the-door' thing. Inside the Chief's office was Cindy Ross, Sheriff Griswold, the Chief, and EAD Owen Lange.

"How did it gooooo?" asked the Chief.

"They didn't show up, only the lawyer did." I said. "They sent Max Chambliss to be the legal beagle; he's their most worthless and expendable lawyer. And Judge Watts jailed him for Contempt of Court when he said they had not turned over their donor lists and wouldn't do so until all appeals were exhausted."

"Gimme my props, Crowbar!" Sheriff Griswold growled, pointing at me, his mustaches twitching most merrily. "I told you that would happen!"

"And that's why you're the Sheriff and I am but a lowly Police Commander, sir." I said agreeably, knowing I was being teased and giving some back.

"Commander Ross, shoot that man." said Griswold, again pointing at me. "He's kissing ass... no, wait... take him back to that Hospital basement and find out what he did with the real Iron Crowbar!"

Everyone except Lange laughed, though he did have a bit of a twinkle in his eyes. He said "I wonder about you guys, sometimes. But seriously, Commander, I'm not surprised those bozos didn't show up. Who do you think is behind the CFPA?"

"George Schwartz." I said. "He's a billionaire, ethnically Jewish but hates Jews, and is believed to be a Socialist but I think he's just an autocrat that wants to destroy the concept of Governmental power of the People, by the People, for the People. To that end, he was financing a lot of those activist groups that would sue me or the Police at every turn, mostly to drain us financially as well as prevent us from doing our jobs. It's him I want to go after, and drain of a few dollars."

"Yeah, he's been rabble-rousing for years. Decades." said the EAD. Then he came to the point: "The reason I came by, though, is to give you a heads-up on the Edward Blassingame case. The vast majority of the charges against him are Federal, and in what can only be called 'a surprise move', U.S. Attorney Richard Baldwin has been assigned to the case."

I nodded in understanding, but everyone else in the room looked mystified, so I said "Baldwin is the kind of U.S. Attorney that is just looking for a big case to make his name. He's on the Left side of the political spectrum, and has aspirations to run for Congress and even to be a judge on a Federal Bench somewhere. This kind of case could make his career."

"That's exactly right." said the EAD in his scratchy voice. "And if he were to get Blassingame to turn, and to give up the workings of his and the Swamp Frogs's operations, Baldwin would become a cult hero of activists like Jay Swenson and Ken Eidex, and many others. He'd be on the fast track to political success."

Cindy Ross said "But there's just one obstacle: Edward Blassingame only wants one thing: his son Peter out of jail. But Peter's crimes are State crimes, and there's nothing Edward or this Baldwin guy can do about them."

"That's right." said the EAD. "And Peter's trial is this month, thanks to him enjoying the right to a speedy and public trial, and no way in hell he's getting bail. Baldwin is going to have to move fast if he has any chance of getting Peter out of jail before a trial begins. What Muscone and Julius Jefferson have learned is that Baldwin is judge-shopping to get a Federal Judge to unlawfully give Peter total immunity from prosecution at the State level."

"So what do we neeeeed to get that stopped?" asked Chief Moynahan.

"Publicity." I said. "And lots of it."

"That'll help." said the EAD. "But your Court and your D.A.'s Office have to be ready to fight. And one other thing: there's been quiet but persistent activity with the Federal Marshals. Prisoners have been brought to the City and this area with larger teams than needed, and I can't find out where they went off to... meaning they may still be around. Keep your eyes and ears peeled..."

Part 3 - Structure

(Author's note: yes, this is going to be dry and tedious for some of you, but it's necessary table-setting. Thanks for bearing with it.)

At 11:00am, Thursday, August 8th, a meeting was scheduled in Classroom 'J' for every Police Officer whose first name was 'Lieutenant' or higher, including the Sheriff and the Police Chief. I also had all the Detectives attend.

"I suppose you're all wondering why I called you here today." I said jovially. "I thought I'd give you an early peek into the Police structure we've written into the new Town & County Charter."

I began a slide presentation with a chart. "First, the rank of Supervisor will no longer exist. For those of you who are Supervisors brevetted to Lieutenant... cough, Jerome Davis, cough... you will be promoted to full Lieutenant. And anyone else who is a Supervisor, we'll evaluate for promotion or reassignment on a case-by-case basis."

"So I'll start at the top, then the bottom, then work my way up to the middle." I said. "The Public Safety Officer, a.k.a. the Sheriff, will now wear four gold stars as his insignia. There were three reasons for this: one, most Sheriffs and/or Police Chiefs have that, and we want our Sheriff to look just as cool." Sheriff Griswold beamed as others acclaimed the move.

"Two," I continued, "and you'll hear this a lot... we thought about making this as flexible and scalable as possible. So rather than incrementally go to two stars and have to do this again later on, we just went to four stars."

"And the third reason," I said with a huge grin, "is that Our Sheriff is a drama queen who wanted those four stars, and so he's getting them." Everyone laughed at that. Sheriff Griswold beamed some more.

"Next is the Police Chief, Fire Chief, Public Health Officer, and the new EMS Chief." I said. "EMS is going to be 'separate but equal' from the Fire Department. These are the Divisions within the Public Safety Department. Army Division commanders are two-star generals, so our Chiefs will be wearing two stars. In the Fire Department's case, they have the tradition of the Bugles as insignia, so the Fire Chief can also wear the four-bugle or five-bugle insignia, but two stars is the formal insignia."

"What, not three stars?" asked Chief Moynahan jokingly.

"There was a reason for that, Chief," I said, "which I'll get to in a minute. Anyhoo, next are the Assistant Public Health Officers, the Assistant Fire Chief, Fire Marshal, Assistant EMS Chief, and of course your friendly neighborhood Police Commander and Deputy Police Chief. I had thought about taking over the bird-colonel insignia from the Chiefs, but arguments were made that many Police Departments, including the LAPD, have the Commander rank with one star. So I acquiesced."

"How kind of you." Cindy said acerbically. A red crowbar was waved in her general direction.

I continued: "And of course, the Deputy Police Chief will also have one star. She had delusions of grandeur, and sent me a draft proposal of her having two stars while I had one, or her having one while I had the bird, and of course I had to give her the bird, so to speak, on that fantasy." Everyone was rolling with laughter, and a green crowbar was being waved in my general direction.

"Now we know why you took the Charter Chairman job." Cindy said. "But one day... one day..."

"Yes, it is good to be the Charter Commission Chairman." I replied jovially. "Okay, our Fire Department friends are installation-centric. They will continue to have Superintendents and the Battalion Chiefs, which will be at the same level. But rather than forcing the Battalion Chiefs back to the gold oak leaf clusters like Army Majors wear, we upped the Superintendent to the silver Lieutenant Colonel insignia, same as I'm wearing now. And that might stop the Fire Captains Union from whining."

"We are also unifying the insignia with regards to color." I said. "The Sheriff's Chief of Staff wears a gold oak leaf cluster like a Major, but he's actually equal to us Commanders. The Fire Department had almost all gold insignia, but for the silver and gold oak leaf clusters both being used and a silver and gold Lieutenant's bars. The FD's rank of 'Watch Captain' was gold Captain's bars, which the TCPD began using for Precinct Captains."

"So there was confusion," I said, "and the Sheriff and Charter Commission Chairman get to win: the Fire Department is going to silver insignia for Captain and Lieutenant, 'Watch Captain' is disappearing in favor of full Captains, and there is only one Lieutenant rank."

I continued: "The Police will now have a gold Major insignia, and I literally mean that: Major. Like the Atlanta Police Department, we will have a slot called 'Major', which may be used in the future as an overall Installation Commander or Physical Properties position, and it will be answerable to the Deputy Chief."

"And we're giving up the gold Captain's bars, as there will no longer be a 'Precinct Captain' slot." I said. "You Precinct Captains will be promoted to full Captain." Precinct Captains Abram and Hewitt got wide-eyed with happiness over that, and high fived.

"Er, sir?" asked Joanne Warner, "what does that mean for the Captain of Operations slot?"

"You are an astute Detective, Ms. Warner.," I replied, "as well as having that military experience to draw upon. Yes, we will have to do something about Captain Croyle."

I tried, but just could not keep the smile off my face as I said "I have to do something with these old silver oak leaf clusters. Should the People vote wisely and pass the new Charter, Ms. Croyle, your new position will be 'Operations... Commander'. The official name of the rank is 'Lieutenant Commander', and you and the head of Internal Affairs will be the only two persons in the TCPD with that rank. And yes, it's considered to be a promotion, and very well deserved."

Someone, whose name shall not be mentioned but her initials are (C)indy (R)oss, began applauding, which everyone joined in. Teresa actually blushed, and mouthed the words 'thank you sir' towards me.

"Hey, what about me?" Tanya asked with a grin... but I could see in her eyes that there was an element of seriousness to her question.