Keeping It Civil by Margaret Klaw

Author:Margaret Klaw
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2013-08-19T16:00:00+00:00

ANATOMY OF A TRIAL PART V:

Brian/Cross Examination

Judge Diamond has already retaken the bench. Getting a nod from the court reporter that she’s ready to go, he turns toward Francis.

“Counsel, we’re running short on time here. It’s two thirty and I need to finish at five. I will not be keeping my staff late. Ms. Monroe here has to pick up her daughter from day care at five thirty and I got in big trouble for making her late once already this week. Right, Ms. Monroe?”

The judge’s clerk, who’s sitting across from the court reporter in front of a computer and a two-foot-high pile of files, smiles at her boss. “Right, Your Honor. They charge me a dollar a minute for being late.”

“So, counsel,” says the judge, turning back to Francis and me, “you can see I have no choice here. If Ms. Monroe isn’t happy I can’t run this courtroom. So we are finishing at five p.m. sharp. I will want to interview both children, separately. I expect those interviews to be brief, so I’ll start them at four. Mr. DiLorenzo, in addition to your client, do you have any other witnesses?”

“I have the Child Protective Services worker, Your Honor.”

“Can counsel stipulate?”

This is good for us. I’m happy to stipulate (to put an agreement on the record in lieu of having Ms. Williams testify) that the report of suspected child abuse was unfounded. The significance of a finding of unfounded by CPS is very limited in scope, and Judge Diamond will know that. It just means that the caseworker could not independently corroborate the report of suspected child abuse made by Marla Peres. We all know exactly what happened: Beth told her what Jimmy said, Brian denied it, Kaitlyn didn’t know anything about it, and Jimmy wouldn’t talk. So she closed her case. It doesn’t mean we can’t successfully prove that Brian caused the bruise in the far more nuanced setting of the courtroom. And if the caseworker doesn’t testify, if we just stipulate to her conclusion and move on, that eliminates the risk of her saying something damaging about Beth (for instance, “Ms. Foster was really upset she couldn’t be in the room with me when I interviewed Jimmy”) or something positive about Brian (“Mr. Foster was so cooperative”). Francis, of course, would prefer to put Ms. Williams on the stand, for the same reasons I would like to exclude her, but he’s in a bind.

If Ms. Williams testifies, even if Francis conducts a very brief direct exam, I can run the clock by stretching out my cross. Francis and I both know that the judge’s schedule is extremely tight; he’s booked months in advance. And as long as the trial isn’t finished, the status quo will continue and the temporary order limiting Brian’s custodial time to alternate weekends and Wednesdays will stay in effect. Is it worth it? Francis is apparently deciding that whatever benefit he can get out of the CPS worker is outweighed by taking time away from Brian or possibly prolonging the trial.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.