Directed Verdict (Failed Justice Book 1) by Rick Santini Read Free Book Online Page A

daylight. I knocked and the door was open. I think I should call an ambulance—and the police. You just attacked me. You know, I have rights and I think you just violated them.”
    Anthony was now in severe pain. So was Sugarman, but for far different reasons.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 8
     
     
    The police arrived minutes later. They had no love for former ADAs who switched sides and now represented the scum they had risked their lives to apprehend. They also didn’t like being made to look like idiots or liars on the witness stand by lawyers wearing twenty-five hundred dollar suits and forgetting where they got their start.
    “Let’s see how you like being on the other side of the bars for a change, Mr. Big Shot Shyster.”
    The beat cop had a grin on his face. He was enjoying every last minute of it. Sugarman did not recognize or remember how he had made the cop to look like a fool a few years ago at a Robbery One trial.
    What goes around, etcetera, etcetera.
    Anthony was transported to St. Elizabeth’s for x-rays and probably to have his leg set and put in a cast. He was going nowhere for a good long while. That worried him more than the broken leg.
     
    ***
     
    “Exactly what was stolen, Counselor?”
    The detective was giving Sugarman no slack. Bob was not particularly loved by the Newark PD.
    “Well, nothing actually. It was more like a break and enter.”
    “And what was broken? As I understand it, the door was unlocked, it was during normal business hours, and the complainant was a client—oops, a former client of yours. Wouldn’t it be normal, again during regular business hours, for a client to walk into an unlocked office to see you? You don’t have a secret code or micro-chip that allows non-thieves to see you in your office, do you?”
    Sugarman could see the explanation was going nowhere. Everything seemed to be going in the crapper since Judge K decided he knew better than the jury. He was politely escorted to a temporary holding cell to await arraignment. He was sure there would be no bail.
    Just a whole lot of embarrassment.
    “Own recognizance, Counselor. I suggest you treat your clients with a little more respect. Remember, they’re the ones paying for that new car of yours and the threads you like parading around the courtroom in. Sorta reminds me of a peacock in heat.”
    The arraignment judge was referring to Bob’s custom made suits that cost more than the judge made in a full week. As to being released on his own recognizance, it was a foregone conclusion, though the ADA had given him a rough time just to bust his balls.
    Screw him and the horse he rode in on.
    Jealousy is an ugly shade of green. Your typical high priced criminal trial lawyer makes at least twice, usually three times as much as a politically appointed superior court judge. And the perks are far more delicious.
    The spy cams showed nothing…except the clumsy diving tackle of Sugarman into the knees of a frightened kid whose only crime was knocking, asking if anyone was around, and standing in the waiting room. The stack of files to have been used as bait had not moved an inch.
    Anthony was now hobbled by a thigh to calf cast. One of his first ventures out was to a sleazy negligence lawyer who advertised at least ten times an evening on TV.
    I don’t get paid till you cash your check. Let me help you smile again.
    The polite thing to do was send a letter of representation inviting Mr. Sugarman to notify his insurance company so they could gain access to doctor and hospital records and be given an opportunity to make a fair and just offer. That would have been the right way, the polite way, the easy way, to handle the case.
    It was not the way Angelo DeAngelo did it. He was a first class scumbag. He did what he always did. He had a summons and complaint served on Sugarman, filed a Notice of Action in the Clerk’s Office and let everyone know he was now suing one of the top lawyers in town. It made him feel