245. Truth

Bridgeport, present day

At the preliminary hearing a week before the trial was set to start, Jessica fought valiantly to have the charges dropped, citing lack of evidence. When that didn't work she pushed to have the case transferred to the VIA since her client is a vampire. 

The prosecution argued one of the victims was human, and as such the case should remain with the Department of Justice. Jessica wasn't surprised when Judge Rosenberg denied her second motion; Thornton had warned her it might happen.

And so she soldiered on and demanded to have a closed trial. She also asked the judge to issue gag order. Given J.D.’s celebrity status, and the media storm following the arrest, she firmly believed her client wouldn't have a fair trial in an open court, and the details of the case would not only destroy her client's career but that of his band mates. 

The judge agreed with her this time. But he made it very clear to both parties that he would not tolerate any dirty tricks and underhanded tactics in his courtroom. His only agenda was to make sure that justice is served, and it was a job he planned on carrying out with utmost fairness to both parties.

After the hearing, Jessica convened with J.D., Michaela, Katie and Cameron to take them through the trial. 

J.D. was ready to change his plea to guilty. He was exhausted from being harassed by the media; he wanted the mess to be over so the bloodhounds could leave his family alone.

“You will do no such thing!” Jessica would not entertain any talks of changing the plea. She was ready to go to trial, and she was confident they would win the case. Ben was working very hard to locate the source at the print firm.

“What if he doesn’t find the source?” J.D. asked. Ben didn’t exactly have a good track record.

“Then we keep fighting, with or without Ben. I’ve never lost a case, and I don’t plan to start now.” Jessica told him…

The trial began promptly at 9:00 am the following Monday. By 9:30 am, after the prosecution had made their opening statements, they were ready to call their first witness. 

Mrs. Clarke had waited ages for this moment, and she wasted no time lambasting J.D. and Krimsyn in her testimony, going as far as labeling them murderers and unfit parents.

During cross examination Jessica was ruthless. "You claim Mr. Summers and his partner are horrible people, and they murdered your children, you feel they are unfit parents, explain to the court then how you could let your son move in with them? How could you allow murderers to take care of your child?"

"I didn't want him to go with them, but Joshua insisted he wanted to stay with the Frosts."

"So you let a child make decisions for you?" Jessica shook her head incredulously. "Who's an unfit parent now?"

"Objection your honor!" The prosecution was quick to come to Mrs. Clarke's defense.The judge warned the Jessica to tread carefully. She apologized meekly to the court before she turned back to Mrs. Clarke. “Is it true that after the defendant's daughter attacked your son, he and his family came to you and asked for forgiveness?"Mrs. Clarke sat stubbornly in her seat, refusing to answer the question.

"Mrs. Clarke answer the question please!" The Judge was running out of patience, fast.

"Yes they did." She answered at last.

"Do you think that's something a murderer would do, own up to their mistakes, would a horrible person humble themselves and ask for forgiveness?"

This time Mrs. Clarke didn't hold back on her rage. "They killed my children; I don't care what you say! That man and his partner killed my babies! They killed them!" 

The judge warned her to contain herself, but Mrs. Clarke was past being reasonable, she jumped from her seat and ran to the defense's table, screaming "murderer" the whole time. But the security guards apprehended her before she could throttle J.D.

The Judge called for a short recess and demanded to see the defense and the prosecution in his chambers where he blasted both sides for their antics. He warned the prosecution about their witness. “One more outburst from your witness, and I’ll hold her in contempt of court!”

Winston hung his head, embarrassed by his client’s outburst. During their meeting Mrs. Clarke always appeared to be calm and level headed, she’d never hinted at her volatile emotional state. Putting her on the stand had proved to be a mistake.

Court resumed shortly after that and Winston called his second witness, John Clarke. 

John had nothing bad to say about the Frosts. In all his dealings with them, they’d been nothing but respectful and kind. 

This was clearly not what Winston wanted to hear. He quickly reined in his witness with more pointed questions.“Given the evidence, and the defendant’s influence and power, do you think he had anything to do with your children’s death?”

“Objection your honor, the prosecution is leading the witness!” Jessica slammed her hand on the table for emphasis.The judge gave Winston a warning look.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Clarke answered the question anyway. “I’d be lying if I said the thought had never crossed my mind. But I honestly don’t know. And it doesn’t matter now. They know the truth, and someday they’ll have to answer to God for their actions. But none of us are God…” 

Once Mr. Clarke started on the word of the Lord, he wouldn’t be silenced. His testimony became a sermon very quickly. But the judge put a stop to it, explaining they were not there to discuss theology, the focus should be on the case.

“Can I go now?” Mr. Clarke asked. He had nothing more to add. “If there’s nothing from the defense you may step down.”

Jessica though had a few questions for Mr. Clarke. She asked him about his relationship with his son. Mr. Clarke answered truthfully, they were never close.

“Why not?” Jessica asked.

“He was a-” Mr. Clarke couldn’t finish his statement. He looked away, it was almost as if he was embarrassed by what he was about to say.

“Why weren’t you close with your son Mr. Clarke?” 

Silence.

“Mr. Clarke, may I remind you that you’re under oath, and you have to answer the questions.” Judge Rosenberg stared pointedly at him.

“He was a difficult boy, always getting in trouble. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my son, but from the time that he was small, he scared me.”

“Why is that?” Jessica pushed on, she was onto a good thing here, and she had no intention of letting go. 

“There was always a darkness inside him that made it hard for me to want to get close to him.”

Mrs. Clarke bawled her eyes out then; she couldn’t believe what her husband was saying about one of their children. “How dare you! How dare you sit there and say all those horrible things about our son!” She screamed. And the judge ordered for her to be removed from the room.

Jessica carried on as if nothing had happened. “Would you say you were relieved when the Frosts took him in?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Do you think the Frosts cared about your son?”With no hesitation, he answered. 

“Yes they did.”“What gave you that impression?”

“They gave Joshua a home, and a job, they gave him opportunities that most kids like him never get. They also paid for his engineering studies.”

“Would a murderer do that? Would he take in the son that you yourself couldn’t bring yourself to love, and give him a home and put him through university?”

By now Mr. Clarke was sniffling in his chair, he could barely talk. Jessica didn’t care though, she’d proven her point. 

“No further questions your Worship,” she addressed the judge as she retreated back to the defense table.

Judge Rosenberg dismissed the court for the day; they’d convene the following morning. The Frost-Summers clan was in high spirits as they left the courtroom. The prosecution had not done a very good job of portraying J.D. as a murderer.

The next morning, detectives Smith took the stand as the prosecution’s third witness. She ran the court through their investigation; Michaela’s actions were brought to light along with the attempted rape in Hollow Creek.  Because of the attempted rape and the subsequent fight between J.D. Joshua and Cameron, they’d concluded J.D. Summers had motive to kill Joshua. 

“How long have you been in service?” Jessica opened her cross examination. “Eight years,” Detective Smith answered.

“And in those eight years how many rapists have you apprehended?”

“I don’t know.”

“Just a ball park figure will do, Detective Smith.” Jessica smiled at the detective.

“A hundred, maybe more.”

“And of those hundred rapists, did any of them end up dead, killed by their victims’ fathers out of revenge?”

“Not that I know of.”

“But following your reasoning, at least a hundred rapists should be dead because the fathers of the victims always seek revenge, am I right?”

“No, that’s not what I said!” Smith tried to explain, but Jessica cut her off.

“How can you be so certain, that my client killed the man who’d assaulted his daughter? Where is the physical evidence tying him to scene of the crime? You heard yourself from the father that one of his children was troublesome, isn’t it possible that someone else wanted him dead? Did you know that the deceased molested his sister’s friend months prior to coming to Bridgeport? Wouldn’t the friend’s father want revenge too if we were to apply your kind of thinking here?”

Detective Smith went ashen at this revelation. The assault on Eli’s friend was yet another thing the Clarkes had failed to disclose.

“No further questions, your honor.”

After a ten minute recess, the prosecution called their fourth witness, Detective Richards. And a large part of his testimony focused on J.D’s elaborate raffle scheme. The detective had no doubt in his mind that J.D. had killed the Clarkes children. He had enough money and ample resources, as he’d proven through his elaborate raffle scheme, to hire a hit man and make sure the murder didn’t trace back to him.

“Did you review my client’s financial records?” Jessica asked the detective.

“Yes.”

“Did you review his partners’ financial records?” Again Richards’ answer was a firm yes.

“Did you find any irregularities in their finances, inexplicable amounts of money paid out from their accounts that would lead you to conclude they’d hired a hit man?”

“No. But your clients have numerous bank accounts, the payment to the hitman could have come from any of the bank accounts we didn't have access to."

“No further questions.”

Before Richards could step down though, Jessica remembered she had one more question for him.

“The records from the print shop, how did you get them?”

“Through an anonymous source.”

“Detective Richards, need I remind you that you’re under oath?” Jessica frowned at the detective.

“I’m telling the truth.” Richards insisted.

Ben, with Amman in tow, chose that moment to walk in.

Jessica grinned at the detective; she’d given him a lifeline earlier, and he didn’t take it, choosing instead to hang on to his rope, she couldn’t wait to watch him hang himself…

AN: Special Thanks to Daisies, author of Alissa. She's written a lot of courtroom scenes and I wanted her guidance on the courtroom procedures in Krisis and she was kind enough to go over this chapter.

A big thank you to Sunshine, author of Rock Babies and also works in law enforcement. She'd wanted to help but couldn't at the last minute because of school obligations. 

You both may not remember as this update was written over 2 years ago, but thank you for your help. It means a lot to me.

As always, thank you Ozzy for all your help with cleaning up the shots and general proofing of the updates. I don't know how you put up with me.