I can't do this anymore!!!!

I can’t do this anymore Don, why are they trying to do this to me. Seemed like everyday I was saying those words to my lawyer. All I wanted was to move forward in my life and get some sort of normalcy. Don kept telling me to be patient and let him do his job. Bills kept piling up and Jack and Betty kept giving us the extra money we needed just to stay a float. I was embarrassed and ashamed to except their help, but was also appreciative. I had been moved to midnights as a dispatcher and I worked the 10pm to 6 am shift. It was good because I could pick some overtime up every now and then, but it also gave me a chance to spend my afternoons with Sydney. I loved it when she would crawl in bed with me in the morning and sleep with me. I knew I only had and hour or two before she would be pulling me eyelids up saying “daddy are you awake”.

Don called me one day and told me that he needed me to get to his office as soon as I could. When I walked into his office Don looked and me as he stood behind his desk smiling at me. “I FOUND IT” Don yelled at me, I found the hole in their case that we needed. I just sat there looking at Don. He sat down and he said ok let me explain this to you. Don had piles of paper work on his desk that related to my case, not including his other cases. Don had recently done depositions on all the witnesses and individuals involved in my case.

I sat there and just stared at Don with a big smile on my face. Don told me that his assistant was already typing up the paper work to send to the state attorney and the clerk of the court for a suppression hearing. A suppression hearing is a hearing in front of the judge where the defense argues that evidence and testimony not be allowed into the courts and or be used at trial. With what Don had found he was trying to get everything that happened that morning thrown out meaning the state attorney wouldn’t have a case at all.

 Judge Henderson called my case and I moved to the front of the room and took my seat at the defendants table with Don and Jimmy Delgado.  The deliberations began around 2:00 PM and one by one Don and the State Attorney in the case Rebecca Mueller questioned the witnesses. Sgt. Frank was the first on the stand, followed by Orval Walker, Mark Young and then Lt. Couch. For an hour Don ripped Dale’s testimony that he gave at earlier depositions to pieces. Everyone in the courtroom knew what Don was doing including the judge. Don was going after Dale’s credibility on the stand and it got so bad that Judge Henderson stopped Don in the middle of his questions. Dale sat there on the stand beet red with anger because Don had just made him look very foolish in front of a lot of people. Dale had made comments about me that weren’t true and had wrote things in his paper work about me that weren’t true and through the DMV hearing and the depositions that Dale had given to Don his stories had changed every time and now Don was tearing Dale’s statements apart on the stand.

Don and the State started arguing their case to the judge after 5:00 pm. The only way to describe the way the arguments went are “titter totter” one second the judge was on the defense side and the next minute he was backing the state. This went on for more than a hour as the state was throwing case law at Judge Henderson and so was Don. It seemed like everything Don had done was falling apart right in front of me as Judge Henderson ruled in favor of the state. I just shook my head and laughed as I listened to Henderson tell Don why he was taking the side of the state. Just then Corey Holmes came in the courtroom, little had I known Corey had been was sitting in the back of the courtroom listening. Corey used too be a Deputy for the Sheriff’s Office and had lost his job over unrelated matters. A lot of people didn’t like Corey, but I always got a long with him. Corey was now an assistant for one of the well known defense lawyers in town. 

Corey walked up to Jimmy Delgado and handed him some papers. Jimmy read them very fast and then stood up and yelled “your Honor may I approach” Judge Henderson allowed both parties to approach and Jimmy handed the judge the papers that Corey had given him. It was a recent from northern Florida that had the same circumstances as my case except the defendant wasn’t a police officer. It was a couple months old and the Florida State Supreme court had ruled on the case and found in the defense favor. Judge Henderson read the paper work and then looked at the state and said that it was clear to him now. Judge Henderson said he now found in the defense favor and all charges were dropped. The state did their best to argue their case and Henderson listened for a bit, then he said I find in the favor of the defense on all charges. Judge Henderson banged his gavel and got up and walked out of the courtroom.