by Reason of Sanity (15 page)

ow that Vinnie’s case is history I intend to devote my efforts full time to the two remaining really important matters – the Drago case and poor Harold Blitzstien’s defense. I still have no idea what I’m going to do on either one of them, and can’t get rid of the feeling that somehow they’re both connected in some way.

Harold’s prelim is coming up in another week or two and I’ve convinced Drago’s lawyer to give me an extension of time to answer his lawsuit until the murder case is over. If my feelings are right, maybe I can kill two birds with one stone. I certainly hope so, because there’s nothing I’d rather avoid more than flying to Chicago in the winter for federal court appearances.

If I’m going to find anything to work with on Harold’s case, it’s got to be in the pictures of him committing the crime. Where’s Dick Van Dyke’s Doctor Mark Sloan character when you need him?

The time flew by faster than I had expected and it’s now time for Harold’s prelim. It always amazes me how rapidly something you’re not looking forward to comes around. If you’re waiting for something like the results of a medical test, every minute until the doctor calls can seem like a week.

Tomorrow morning I’m going into court with nothing to say. No fax-spammer to roast, no Patty Vogel to knock off her high horse, no law, no facts, no nothing. I feel like a condemned man being walked out to the firing squad. Of course what I feel is probably nothing compared to how Harold must be taking it, but I’m not a cold-blooded killer, so I deserve a little more consideration.

Preliminary hearings are nothing like trials because the defense doesn’t put on a case – it doesn’t have to. The burden of establishing a case rests solely on the prosecution and can be a good chance for the defense to see a preview of almost every card the prosecution will play at the trial.

During the previous century, O.J. Simpson’s case was on every television station and the people were glued to their sets during the entire preliminary hearing. That’s when O.J.’s dream team had a crack at the county’s medical examiner and forensic experts.

I don ’t think they considered for a moment that the case wouldn’t be bound over for trial, but the ammo they got during the prelim was extremely useful in showing them exactly where the prosecution’s weak points were - and they used that ammo in every gun they could find when the case was brought to trial.

Many legal experts fault the distri ct attorney in that case for what they consider to be a whole slew of mistakes, including not getting a grand jury indictment, which would have eliminated the need for a preliminary hearing altogether. If they went the indictment route, the case would have gone from arraignment in the superior court, right to trial, thereby not giving the defense all their ammo on a silver platter. The defense team would never have had a crack at the prosecution’s witnesses in that sideshow they called a preliminary hearing.

Unfortunately, Myra is a lot more experienced than the clown upstairs who tried to micro-manage the Simpson case, so the only opportunity I’m going to get out of this prelim is a chance to see how badly I’m going to lose at the trial. Too bad this isn’t taking place back in the year 1278, when a guy named Hugh de Misyn hanged his daughter in a fit of madness. He was found not guilty by reason of insanity and released to the custody of twelve men, who pledged to keep him under control.

What a great idea. Instead of sending people to jail, each convicted person would be sent to a ‘foster jail,’ where volunteers would keep an eye on him. I’ll have to suggest that to the governor – maybe that way I can get committed to a mental institution and miss this whole prelim and trial.

The court is called to order by the bailiff, Myra and I stand and state our representation for the record, and the prelim begins.

Myra starts out right at the top, establishing that the deceased is actually dead. That probably sounds silly to a non-lawyer, but it’s really the first step in any murder case. She does this by calling in the doctor who was in a group that ran into the hospital room to try and revive Mike Drago. The doctor testifies as to the time that he made his lifesaving attempts and states that he’s the one who officially pronounced Drago dead.

To support his testimony, Myra introduces the death certificate her doctor signed. When Myra finishes with the doctor, the judge gives me the wonderful opportunity to cross-examine. I have nothing to ask, but always look forward to a chance to practice my cross-examination skills, so I take a couple of shots at him.

“Doctor, how long after the patient died did you sign the death certificate?”
He’s a pro. Probably been on the stand many times. “About two hours later, in my office. When I pronounced him dead, I had two nurses make note of the exact time and that’s what I put on the death certificate.”
“Doctor, during the two hours that transpired between your pronouncing him dead and your signing the death certificate, did you see the footage from any of the hospital’s security cameras?”
He thinks about this one for a minute, but has a plausible answer, which I believe is true. “Yes sir. We were told that a person was seen leaving the room, so we checked the cameras, to see what might have happened.”
I guess he didn’t perform an autopsy. Maybe a question or two about the cause of death might be in order here.
“Doctor, would you please tell the court what you listed as cause of death?”
“Yes, we have it down here as asphyxiation.”
I think I’ll quit now. I was waiting for him to say something in addition to his testimony so far but he didn’t, so I might as well not push him any further. It looks like he determined the cause of death by videotape instead of by autopsy. This is a medical breakthrough and certainly a great time-saving device.
Myra is offered the chance to ask him more questions on ‘re-direct,’ but she passes. The witness is excused.
Her next witnesses are several people who work for the hospital’s audio-visual department. They testify to the security camera set-up, how the time codes are synchronized so that all the cameras work off of the same clock, the chain of custody of the security videocassettes and everything else that Myra needs to lock up her case – and my client.
I have very few questions for these witnesses, other than to inquire what clock all the cameras work off of and who tests the accuracy of that clock. My questions are answered. They don’t give me anything I can use, but I was curious to know those answers. It’s interesting to know that the hospital uses the same clock that I do. On the boat’s navigation station, I have a small twenty-dollar clock ordered from a catalog that receives radio signals from the national observatory in Colorado. The signals keep the clock’s digital display accurate to something like a millionth of a second. With accuracy measured in nanoseconds, I wonder why it still takes so long for a nurse to show up after a patient calls for one.
I was given information about Myra’s next witness in the stuff that the prosecution must provide the defense with, including witness lists, statements obtained, evidence to be introduced, etc., etc., but I didn’t know exactly what this guy was going to testify to. He’s a security expert on retainer to most of the casinos in Las Vegas, Nevada. His field of expertise is the operation of a facial recognition software program he designed. He sells this software to the casinos and trains their personnel how to use it, to spot professional crooks, card cheats, and the faces of other unsavory sorts who have been previously scanned into the computers.
In this case, the expert brought his software to the Culver City Police Department’s headquarters, and installed it on their computer, where he used it to compare the face on the videotape with all the photos of men in our Department of Motor Vehicle’s database of drivers’ license photos.
Harold Blitzstien’s face was a match, so he was picked up, arrested, and charged with Drago’s murder. That’s interesting. I was under the impression that they took Harold’s photo off of the videotape and showed it around. I must really be out of touch with the new technology. It’s a good thing the kid backs me up.
Myra goes on to show the two minutes of videotape footage of Harold using the pillow to smother Drago. I try to object, but since she did such a good job of verifying the tape’s chain of custody, I don’t have a chance. The video is admitted into evidence and the judge sees it. For one time in my life, I definitely am not happy to be associated with a video celebrity.
Myra rests her case and I don’t offer any defense. This isn’t only because the prelim is not the place to put one on, but in this instance because there is really no defense I can think of. Harold doesn’t have an alibi for the time of the murder and at this point, the only weakness in the prosecution’s case is the motive. That ordinarily would be a good opening for a defense lawyer, but not with a televised celebrity murderer like Harold. Any decent prosecutor could successfully argue, “we don’t know why he did it, but the evidence shows that he did it, so what’s the difference what his reason was?”
As expected, the judge binds Harold over for arraignment and trial in the Superior court. Myra and I check our calendars and agree upon a date less than a month away.
Harold shows no emotion at the judge’s holding, but that’s not surprising – he hasn’t showed any emotion since the first day I saw him. He seems to look worse every day.
On the way out of court, Myra hands me a stack of statements that the D.A.’s investigator got from the nurses, doctors, technicians, and everyone connected to the case – including people not called at the prelim. Suzi mentioned that she has a program that can scan text documents into the computer, so I toss the paperwork into my briefcase.
All the way back to the Marina, the only thought on my mind isn’t about the witnesses who testified for the prosecution - it was about a particular one who didn’t testify - the county’s medical examiner. Whenever there’s an allegation of murder, the prosecution will usually order an autopsy. Then, the coroner will come into court and testify as to cause of death. In this case it looks like Myra has decided to go with the new ‘autopsy by video.’
I don’t know if all this is important but it sure raises a question. If I really pushed I could probably have the court order the coroner to autopsy Drago’s body, but what’s the use? All it would probably do is be further verification of what was already testified to and would nail Myra’s case even more towards conviction.

Back at the boat, I take all the statements that Myra gave me and leave them in a big folder for Suzi to scan into her computer. Later that day, I see the folder on my desk with a note that because this is not one of the firm’s cases, she doesn’t have time to do the scanning.

I send a message to her by dog-mail that the court has approved the use of minimal office staff and since she’s the most minimal person I know, she’ll receive a stipend of thirty-five bucks an hour for going through the statements and scanning them into her computer program. I then walk over to the Marina del Rey Liquor Store to get the new Playboy. When I return to the boat, I see that the big folder of witness statements is no longer on my desk.

Miraculously, her schedule must have had an opening. For a pre-teen kid, she has the business instincts of a twenty-nine-year-old gold-digger. Not only is she a multi-millionaire because of the lawsuit settlements from two separate accidents that caused the deaths of her mother and stepfather, she’s now working for more money than most adults in this country earn. Her hourly rate is equivalent to a yearly salary of more than seventy thousand dollars – and that doesn’t take into consideration the money she gets as managing partner of her late stepfather’s law firm which she runs, with Jack Bibberman and me as employees… and the interest her trust accounts is probably more than all this other stuff combined. Maybe I should ask for a raise. I’ll talk it over with the dog tonight. Naah. It wouldn’t do any good…he’s on her side.

The su bject of a raise doesn’t come up this evening because instead, there’s a roundtable discussion of Harold’s murder case. The Asian boys delivered a feast that’s now being shared by all six of us including me, Suzi, Jack B. Stuart and Vinnie. The sixth member of the dinner group is at his usual station, waiting for some morsel to be dropped to the floor. Four of us cover the case from all angles but nobody has any suggestions for me. As usual, Suzi just sits and listens to every word.

Stuart complains about a filling that came loose. His dentist is out of town on vacation, so he tells us that he’s going to call the number that’s advertised in all those TV commercials – 1(800) DENTIST. If you’re looking for a dentist, I guess that’s as good a way as any to find one. Their advertising mentions that they carefully screen and select all applicants before putting them onto their listings. I’ll bet that the main qualification is an ability to sign a check, and that their ‘rejection’ list is slim, if at all.

During dinner I mention my concerns about no autopsy having been done on Drago. We hear some electronic beeps and notice that Suzi, who hasn’t said a word yet during the entire dinner, is dialing a number on her cell phone and has the small speakerphone turned on. When the phone number answers, to everyone’s surprise, a recorded announcement plays. “Hello, this is one eight hundred autopsy, we offer private and forensic autopsies to families, mortuaries, and the legal profession…”

I don’t believe it. There’ actually is a rea l 1(800)AUTOPSY. It’s understandable that you could call a 1(800) DENTIST, or 1(800) LAWYER, or even 1(800)PLUMBER, or other service provider, but in a million years I’d never think you could get an autopsy like that too. As serious a subject as it is, we all have a good laugh about it.

While everyone is here, I decide to play a little parlor game. We’ve spent a good deal of time talking about the murder case, so I take a sheet of paper and tear it up into small sections about two inches square. I then pass one section around to each person at the table, asking them to write down what they think is the real verdict on Harold’s case. There is silence in the room. After everyone’s had a chance to write down their verdict, I collect the pieces of paper and tell them that I’ll read each anonymous verdict out loud. No surprises here… two ‘guilty’ verdicts, probably from Vinnie and Stuart. There’s one ‘not guilty by reason of insanity,’ probably from Jack B. It’s the last one that gets to me. I can tell by the almost calligraphic penmanship that it’s from the kid and for someone her age she really knows how to turn a phrase. It only has four words ‘guilty… by reason of sanity.’