A YOUNG SUCCUBUS NAMED DELICIA by Michel Poulin - HTML preview

CHAPTER 37 – DELICIA’S JUSTICE

09:04 (California Time)

Thursday, July 25, 1974

Courtroom Number Six, Los Angeles District Municipal Court Hall of Justice Building, North Spring Street

Downtown Los Angeles, California

‘’ALL RISE FOR THE HONORABLE JAMES RITTER, OF THE LOS ANGELES DISTRICT MUNICIPAL COURT!’’

The crowd nearly filling the courtroom’s spectators’ benches got up, along with Robert Purnell and Vance Sterling. Sylvia/Delicia had come early and had thus been able to secure a place at one end of the bench directly behind the defense table, next to the central aisle of the courtroom. She gave an encouraging smile to a very nervous Robert as they all sat back with the permission of Judge Ritter. Ritter then had the court clerk read the charges against Robert before looking at the young man.

‘’Robert Purnell, do you still plead not guilty to those charges, as you did on January the Seventeenth?’’

‘’I do, Your Honor!’’

‘’Then, the Court Clerk will register this not guilty plea as confirmed.’’ Vance Sterling, who had stood up at the same time as Robert, then followed up at once.

‘’Your Honor, before this trial proceeds with examining the charges against my client, I would like to petition this court in order to have two of the accusations thrown out as being without merit.’’

As Vance was speaking, Sylvia was directing a silent ‘Charm’ spell at Judge Ritter, to make him most sympathetic to Robert Purnell’s cause. Ritter thus didn’t deny Vance’s request out of hand, to the prosecutor’s outraged disbelief.

‘’What are those two accusations and on what grounds do you wish them to be thrown out, Mister Sterling?’’

‘’The accusations of aggravated assault causing bodily harm against a police officer and of resisting arrest, Your Honor. The recent judgment about the class action suit made against the Police Department of Los Angeles…’’

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‘’OBJECTION, YOUR HONOR!’’ shouted William Stone, the prosecuting attorney, seeing where Vance wanted to go concerning the two most serious accusations against Robert Purnell. ‘’THAT JUDGMENT IS IRRELEVANT TO THIS CASE.’’ In response, Ritter banged his gavel once to shut up Stone, then looked severely at both Stone and Sterling.

‘’The two attorneys will now approach the bench.’’

Taking with him a document, Vance walked to the judge’s bench, stopping right against it, while William Stone did the same on the left of him. Ritter then spoke to Vance in a near whisper, so that the members of the jury could not hear what he said.

‘’Please tell me about that class action suit, Mister Sterling.’’

‘’Your Honor, as I was about to say out loud, I am referring to the court judgment rendered two days ago in the case of the class action suit filed by the customers and staff of the ‘Surfers’ Karaoke Bar’ against the L.A.P.D. and the City of Los Angeles, concerning the police raid at the bar last Christmas. That class action suit claimed that this raid, made without a proper warrant and based on frivolous allegations, was conducted with excessive use of force, resulting in the mass violation of the rights of the customers and staff members who were then present. The court has ruled against the city and the L.A.P.D. in that case, concluding that the police raid had violated constitutional rights of assembly, liberty and safety and had been marked by the blatant use of excessive force by the police and by the wrongful arrest of 58 persons, with the police also refusing medical treatment for the persons arrested. The city has thus been condemned to pay a total of five million dollars in damages to the suit’s signatories. Here is the copy of the said judgment, Your Honor.’’

As Ritter, who had already heard loud echoes from that judgment, took the document offered by Vance and started reading it, Stone protested in a low voice.

‘’Your Honor, the facts are that this Robert Purnell did strike a policeman during that raid, then resisted arrest.’’

‘’Facts not yet in evidence, Your Honor! Those accusations were based on the words of police officers who have just been found guilty of use of excessive force and of making wrongful arrests. I am ready to build a case against those two accusations, based on the findings of that court judgment.’’

‘’You are free to argue your points about those accusations, Mister Sterling. Let the jurors hear about that judgment. Mister Stone, this preceding judgment does blow a

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rather big hole in your argumentation to come. Do you still want to proceed with the two accusations being contested by Mister Sterling?’’

‘’I do, Your Honor!’’

‘’Very well! You may both return to your seats.’’

Ritter waited for both attorneys to be back behind their tables before looking at Vance.

‘’Mister Sterling, you may now expose your reasons for wishing to have the accusations of aggravated assault causing bodily harm to a police officer and of resisting arrest thrown out.’’

‘’Thank you, Your Honor!’’

As Vance was basically repeating for the benefit of the jurors what he had said to Ritter, Sylvia threw a silent ‘Mass Suggestion’ spell at the jurors, inciting them to treat with antipathy and disbelief the police version of the raid on the bar. When the time came for William Stone to refute Vance’s arguments, he faced twelve unsympathetic jurors who stayed cold to his own arguments. Feeling bad already about this trial, Stone then called in his first witness, one of the police officers who had participated in the raid against the gay bar. As the policeman, wearing his uniform and badge, sat in the witness’ chair, Sylvia hit him with an ‘Idiocy’ spell, temporarily diminishing his intelligence, wisdom and charisma by a measurable degree.

‘Let this moron look like the moron he is!’ Thought Sylvia, a smirk on her lips. The prosecutor then approached the policeman, counting on him to help nail Robert’s coffin.

‘’Please state your name and function, Officer.’’

‘’I am Agent Steve MacIntyre, of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Vice Squad.’’

‘’Were you present when the ‘Surfers’ Karaoke Bar’ was raided on the night prior to Christmas of 1973?’’

‘’Yes, I was!’’

‘’What was your role in that raid?’’

Hit by a ‘Suggestion’ spell from Sylvia, the policeman smiled as he recounted his actions of the night, bragging proudly about them.

‘’I was one of the first officers to enter that queers’ bar, sir. Boy, did I have fun hammering those degenerates with my baton! One of them dared to slug me as I was teaching a good lesson to his dance partner, so I and four of my comrades then beat that fag to a pulp.’’

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As Judge Ritter and the jurors stared at him with scandalized looks, the policeman continued on, to the horror of William Stone.

‘’When that fag passed out, I gave him a few more baton strikes to break his nose and split his lips…’’

‘’That will be enough, Officer MacIntyre!’’ said a bit too late Stone. ‘’I am finished with that witness, Your Honor.’’

Ritter gave him a sardonic look before addressing Vance Sterling.

‘’Mister Sterling, do you have questions for that witness?’’

‘’I certainly do, Your Honor!’’ replied Vance, who could not believe his luck. Making a show of calmly getting up and walking to the witness box, Vance looked down and smiled to the policeman, hoping to entice that moron into continuing to cut his own throat.

‘’Officer MacIntyre, could you designate to me the so-called ‘fag’ who slugged you and who you then beat up?’’

‘’Yeah! That would be that big queer over there.’’ answered the policeman while pointing at Robert Purnell. Vance then looked at the jurors.

‘’Let the court know that Officer MacIntyre has designated my client by using the term ‘queer’.’’

He then returned his attention on the still oblivious policeman.

‘’Officer MacIntyre, you said earlier that you beat up the dance partner of my client before you got hit yourself. Did that dance partner hit you or tried to hit you before or after you hit him?’’

‘’No! He just happened to be the first in my path, so I started with him.’’

‘’And started what, exactly?’’

‘’But, to beat some morality into those queers, of course!’’

‘’So, that man never hit you, correct?’’

‘’Uh, correct.’’

‘’Did you tell him that he was under arrest, and for what reasons?’’

‘’Why waste time on that?’’ protested MacIntyre, as if his actions had been completely justified. By then, Judge Ritter was shifting in his chair, becoming red with indignation, while the jurors exchanged scandalized looks.

‘’So, you never told him that he was under arrest or why?’’

‘’That’s right, sir!’’

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‘’Did one of your comrades tell that man or my client that they were under arrest, and for what reasons?’’

‘’No! We had over fifty fags filling that bar and we were too busy to talk with them.’’

‘’Busy doing what?’’

‘’But, teaching them a lesson, of course!’’

‘’I see! By the way, did you know that my client, whom you called a ‘queer’, has a girlfriend named Sylvia Thorne?’’

‘’How could a queer have a girlfriend?’’ replied MacIntyre, his diminished intelligence unable to see the trap that was closing on him. Vance smiled at his question.

‘’Exactly! Miss Thorne, could you please stand up?’’

Sylvia stood up at once from her bench, plainly visible in full to the jurors and resplendent with female beauty and sexiness. Vance let the jurors look at Sylvia for a few seconds before speaking again.

‘’Miss Sylvia Thorne, the girlfriend of my client, has been frequenting Mister Purnell for over a year now and knows him intimately. This makes evident the fact that my client is no homosexual, contrary to the assumptions of Officer MacIntyre, who used his assumptions to justify attacking, beating and then arresting my client.’’ Now feeling quite confident about the outcome of the trial, Vance faced directly the jurors as the reporters present in the courtroom were frantically writing down notes in their notepads.

‘’Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I believe that this testimony amply proves the fact that the police acted with reckless and excessive violence towards the patrons and staff of the ‘Surfers’ Karaoke Bar’, assaulting them without legal justifications and making wrongful arrests motivated solely by prejudice, violating in the process their constitutional rights to happiness, liberty, safety and privacy, rights which were added to the State Constitution this year through an amendment voted by the California voters. I thus plead to you to find that the charges of aggravated assault and resisting arrests are baseless and that the police wrongfully arrested my client.’’

‘’The jury will reserve judgment on that until the final testimonies and arguments have been made in this trial.’’ said Judge Ritter, who then looked at William Stone. ‘’Do you wish to counter-interrogate this witness, Mister Stone?’’

‘’No, Your Honor!’’ answered the prosecutor while throwing a dark look at MacIntyre, who still sat in the witness chair, a stupid smile on his face.

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‘’Then, the witness is excused!’’

As the policeman walked out of the courtroom, followed by the eyes of many in the audience, Robert twisted his head to look at Sylvia, who blinked one eye in response. Now much less nervous, Robert concentrated his attention back on the prosecutor, who was now quite at a loss about how to repair the catastrophic damage to his case done by MacIntyre’s testimony.

With Sylvia liberally throwing spells at the witnesses called forward by Stone during the next two hours, the prosecutor’s case was all but cut to shreds by noon hour, with a discouraged Stone uncertain what to do next, having run out of credible witnesses and having possessed from the start little to no actual physical evidence supporting the charges against Robert Purnell. By contrast, Vance Sterling was able to present the photos taken at the police station of the 58 men arrested in the bar, all of whom showed heavily battered faces and bleeding head wounds, while none of the policemen participating in the raid had been truly wounded, thus demonstrating to the jury the extent to which the police had used excessive force during the raid. After a one-hour lunch break, the trial resumed but came quickly to an end when Stone declared that he had no more witnesses or evidence to produce for the prosecution. Vance Sterling, sensing that the time was now perfect to put an end to that farce, motioned for the trial to pass to the phase of the final arguments, to which Judge Ritter agreed, adjourning the trial until the next morning. Robert Purnell was jubilant as he left the courtroom with Sylvia and Vance, pursued by a crowd of reporters who wanted their opinions on what had happened in court.

The television nightly news across the nation and the newspapers on the next day had a field day with the story of the trial, with the L.A.P.D. being trashed for its demonstrated brutality and prejudices. The trial started again at about nine in the morning, at which time both the prosecution and the defense presented their final arguments, followed by the instructions to the jury given by Judge Ritter. The jurors then retired to deliberate, but came back in the courtroom after less than two hours of deliberations. Robert Purnell stood up straight and took a deep breath as Judge Ritter addressed the jurors.

‘’Has the jury come to a verdict?’’

‘’Yes, Your Honor!’’ answered the senior juror.

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‘’And what is your verdict?’’

‘’Not guilty on all counts, Your Honor.’’

Sylvia/Delicia, genuinely happy and relieved, approached at once Robert, hugging and kissing him as Judge Ritter banged his gavel to bring quiet back in the courtroom.

‘’Silence, please! Silence!... I thus declare the accused innocent of all charges laid against him in this case. Court Clerk, let the court’s archives reflect that judgment. Mister Robert Purnell, you are now a free man.’’

As Robert exchanged a happy handshake with Vance Sterling, Ritter made a sign for William Stone to approach his bench. Stone, guessing what was coming, walked gloomily to the bench, where Ritter pointed an accusing finger at him.

‘’Mister Stone, I was expecting a lot more professionalism from both your office and from the Los Angeles Police Department in this case. This trial was a farce and an insult to true justice and the blame is squarely on the prosecution for this. As for those goons from the Vice Squad, they better not be surprised if they are hit in the coming days with legal and political consequences as a result of their excesses. Now, get out of my court!’’

On the sidewalk outside the Hall of Justice Building, Robert and Sylvia exchanged an ultimate handshake with Vance Sterling.

‘’I can’t thank you enough for defending me, Mister Sterling. You did a superb job!’’

‘’Well, to be frank, I was helped quite a lot by the incompetence of the opposing side, Mister Purnell. They mostly dug their own grave early on in the trial.’’

‘’You still were able to fully exploit their mistakes, Mister Sterling.’’ said Sylvia. ‘’I will bring the last part of your fees tomorrow, if that is okay with you.’’

‘’Tomorrow will be just fine, Miss Thorne. Talking of fees, I believe that you forgot about something quite important.’’

‘’Oh, what exactly?’’

‘’Remember that class action suit brought by the patrons and staff of the ‘Surfers’ Karaoke Bar’ against the city? The suit that the city lost, with five million dollars to pay as a punitive cost.’’

‘’What about it?’’

‘’Well, Mister Purnell here happens to be one of the 58 claimants on that suit. Once the legal fees of my associates have been taken from those five million dollars,

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that leaves each individual claimant with about 80,000 dollars. I fully expect the city to appeal that verdict, but I am confident that Mister Purnell will eventually get his part of the settlement.’’

Robert could only stare at him for a moment, joy on his face.

‘’EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS?! But that will allow me to pay for all my studies and to buy both a house and a car.’’

‘’And you amply deserved that, Robert.’’ said softly Sylvia before kissing him on the lips. Vance looked on with approval as the couple embraced each other.

‘’And they called you a homosexual! Mind you, even if you were one, I wouldn’t mind one bit…as long as you wouldn’t try to grab my ass.’’

‘’What if I tried to grab your ass, Vance?’’ said sneakily Sylvia, making the lawyer grin.

‘’Sorry: I would rather not incriminate myself in front of your huge boyfriend.’’ Sylvia and Robert laughed at that.

‘’You are a good man, Mister Sterling.’’ said Sylvia. ‘’It was a pleasure to know you.’’

‘’And it was a pleasure to know you two. Have a good day!’’ The couple watched the lawyer go, then looked at each other, smiling.

‘’So, what’s next?’’ asked Robert.

‘’What’s next is a ride to my apartment, where I will screw you silly. After that, we will go eat in the best restaurant in town, and that will be on me.’’

‘’Where do you get all that money, Sylvia, really?’’

‘’Don’t ask!’’ was Sylvia’s answer.