The Case Against William by Mark Gimenez Read Free Book Online Page B

intentionally break the law? Frank
didn't think so. Neither would this jury.
    "Thank-you
notes, and now she stands before you, a sitting United States senator from
Texas, indicted by a jealous prosecutor. Mr. Dorkin wants you to send her to
prison for thank-you notes. To serve hard time with murderers, rapists, and
drug lords. For thank-you notes."
    Frank
Tucker pointed at the district attorney.
    "He
has wasted your time and your money to seek revenge against his rival. He is a
failed politician taking his political frustrations out on an innocent
defendant. He's like the school bully, using his power to abuse a classmate.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, as American citizens, you are the senator's
classmates. Are you going to stand by and let him bully your friend? Or are
you going to stand up to the bully?"
    Judge
Harold Rooney charged the jury in the matter of The State of Texas versus
Martha Jo Ramsey and sent the jurors to deliberate at 11:04 A.M. After the jury had left the
district courtroom in downtown Austin, the judge motioned counsel to the bench.
    "This
could take a while, gentlemen. I'm thinking Thursday at the earliest."
    He
turned to defense counsel.
    "Frank,
if you want to go home to Houston, I'll hold the verdict until you have time to
drive back up. The senator should stay in Texas."
    "Thank
you, Harold."
    Frank
felt the district attorney's eyes boring holes in his skull. Dick Dorkin and
he had been classmates at UT law school twenty years before. Frank had
graduated number one in their class; Dick had graduated number
two-thirty-three. Out of four hundred. Frank had hired on with a large
Houston firm; Dick had hired on with the district attorney's office. Frank was
a good lawyer; Dick was a good politician. Twenty years later, Frank was a
name partner in the firm; Dick was the elected district attorney of Travis
County. Having failed in his attempt at a Senate seat, word was he now had his
eyes on the Governor's Mansion just a few blocks from this courtroom. A
high-profile conviction could shorten that distance.
    Dick
Dorkin had been Frank's rival in law school; he had never really known why.
Today, Frank Tucker had made him an enemy for life. But that is what a lawyer
must do when an innocent defendant faces the loss of her freedom. A lawyer
must fight for his client, even if that means making enemies. A lawyer must be
able to live with himself. With his own verdict. Of himself.
    "So,
Frank," the judge said, "I hear your son's quite the football player
down there in Houston."
    "He's
twelve."
    "Only
six years till he's playing for the Longhorns."
    The
judge was also a UT law grad.
    "Well,
that's a long—"
    "Excuse
me, Judge Rooney."
    The
bailiff had walked up to the bench.
    "Yes?"
    "The
jury has a verdict."
    "A verdict ?" He looked at the clock. It was 11:19. "In fifteen
minutes?"
    The
bailiff shrugged. "Yes, sir."
    The
judge looked at counsel. His eyebrows arched. He turned back to the bailiff.
    "Well,
bring them in."
    The
jury acquitted the senator on all counts.

Chapter 6
    The
first college scout showed up when William was fourteen.
    "He's
the best I've ever seen, Frank."
    The
last two years had been a blur. The case against Kobe in Colorado had been
dismissed; the case against Enron in Houston had not. Kobe paid the desk clerk
a reported $5 million to go away; the Enron chairman of the board and CEO were
going away to prison. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously overturned the
obstruction of justice conviction of Arthur Anderson, Enron's accounting firm,
but it was too late to save the company or its eighty-five thousand employees.
Martha Stewart served prison time for insider trading; the speaker of the House
of Representatives did not. George W. Bush won reelection, and then Hurricane
Katrina inundated New Orleans and Bush's presidency. Tom Brady and the
Patriots won their third Super Bowl. Major League Baseball instituted a
steroid testing program after most of the record-breaking home run hitters