Trap (9781476793177) (36 page)

Mendelbaum gave the jurors his best puzzled look. “So how do you justify that admirable desire to protect the community with your admission of assisting Thomas Monroe with the theft of union funds?”

Again, Stone shook her head sadly. “I know it sounds foolish,” she said. “But I separated the two in my head. I'd let myself be convinced by Monroe that the union was on such a sound financial footing that skimming a little off the top wasn't hurting anyone. And I had this wild idea of somehow paying it all back. I realize now that sounds disingenuous, but I thought that even if I kept the money, I'd do such a good job as district attorney, I'd be paying it back in another way.”

Mendelbaum flipped one of the pages of the legal pad, then continued. “What is your opinion of charter schools?”

Stone looked thoughtful. “I think they're great for the students who have the privilege of being accepted to them,” she said. “But I also believe in the public school system where every child is entitled to a free education and the same basic education as his peers. I think of all the brilliant people who have come out of the public school system, and I know that they far outnumber the brilliant people who attended private school, and let's face it, charter schools are just another name for private schools. Just look at the number of white children from urban areas who flock to them because they can; meanwhile, the children who are left behind—minorities, the poor, the disenfranchised—get the short end of the stick. And that stick gets even shorter when funds are siphoned away to support charter schools.”

“Did you oppose charter schools even as a district attorney?”

“Yes, I spoke out against them for the reasons I just mentioned.”

“Was there a time when union opposition, with your participation, was turned against Micah Gallo, who at the time was the founder of a charter school in Brooklyn?”

“Yes. And I'm ashamed I didn't put a stop to it,” Stone said. “Monroe was getting more concerned about the charter school movement and saw Gallo as one of its rising stars. He thought that if he made an example of Gallo, it would put a chilling effect on others. But I have to say I had no idea that Monroe and his associates were harassing him to the degree that they apparently were. I was too busy prosecuting crimes in Kings County.”

“Yet you ended up prosecuting Micah Gallo?”

“I'm not going to pretend that I was a big fan of Gallo,” Stone said. “Back when I was still with Legal Aid, I knew he was a gang member who'd committed violent crimes, though the cops hadn't been able to catch him. I saw him as just someone who was trying to capitalize off the charter school movement by starting his own school, with his own rules. But neither was I determined to do anything about him. However, when it was brought to my attention that he had broken the law—even if those making the allegations had ulterior motives—it was not my place to ignore the facts. I didn't make the laws, I just enforced them.”

“What about afterward? When Gallo was forced to shut his school?”

“To be honest, I was done with him,” Stone said. “He'd been tried and was found not guilty. I didn't agree with the jury's decision, but I respected it. However, Monroe wouldn't let it go; it was a personal thing with him, and as he told me, he was going to show that Gallo was as corrupt as anyone else, as well as keep his eye on him.”

“How did he do that?”

“The same way he corrupted me,” Stone said. “Gallo was broken. He had nothing. But Monroe acted like all was forgiven and that he wanted to help him get back on his feet. He started with small things, a good job, a nice salary, but it wasn't long before he brought Gallo into the fold. And by the time poor Micah started to balk, he was as caught up in Monroe's web as I was.”

Mendelbaum looked down again at the legal pad. “Tell us about Yusef Salaam?”

Stone looked aggrieved. “Yes, or as he was called, Henry Burns. When I first met him, he'd been accused of arson. He was an angry, troubled young teenager not unlike so many others these days. But as I got to know him at the juvenile holding facility, I learned that he'd been bullied because of his skin condition, abandoned by his father, and that his anger was mostly for self-protection and his crimes were a way of acting out against a world he felt had betrayed him. Yet, beneath it all he was an intelligent young man who longed for friends, but had none; I know he was diagnosed with an antisocial personality disorder, but I saw a spark of his good side in the way he cared for his mother.”

“How did your relationship with him change?”

Shaking her head sadly, Stone let out a sigh. “I guess this is one of those cases of ‘no good deed goes unpunished' or,” she said, looking at Karp, “it gets misinterpreted. Yes, I stayed in contact with Henry after I'd seen him through his court case. I even introduced him to Monroe. Whatever else he may be, Thomas Monroe once truly cared for children. I thought he might be able to talk to Henry about continuing with his education and even help him find a productive way to use his computer talents. Instead, Monroe used him for his own ends.”

“I'd like to turn now to Rose Lubinsky,” Mendelbaum said. “What were your feelings toward her?”

Stone shrugged. “Again, I'm not going to kid you. As much as I liked Rose on a personal level, I saw her as a threat—both to the union and public schools, but I confess, I was worried about her insistence that the charter school bill include provisions for an audit of the union. I know now that I deserve to be punished for stealing, but at the time I was badly frightened. I kept imagining what life would be like in prison for a former district attorney.”

Putting the legal pad down on the defense table, Mendelbaum leaned against the table as if tired and crossed his arms. “So Mrs. Stone, you've heard all of this testimony about this conspiracy to murder Rose Lubinsky, these meetings and the flurry of emails. Is any of it true?”

“Not like it's been portrayed,” Stone answered. “At least not from my perspective. For instance, the meeting at my office after hours with Monroe and Gallo did take place.”

“And was Henry Burns, also known as Yusef Salaam, present?”

“Yes, and he arrived first. But I didn't invite him.”

“Who did?”

“Tommy Monroe,” Stone replied. “By this time, Henry knew who ‘buttered his bread,' which as Gallo testified is one of Monroe's sayings.”

“And what was the purpose of the meeting?”

“Well, it wasn't the way Mr. Karp is trying to portray it,” Stone said. “It's true that we were talking about ways we might be able to get Rose Lubinsky to compromise about the bill, or at least delay its passage.”

“Did that include a discussion about blackmailing her?”

Stone pursed her lips, then shrugged. “I admit that it might have seemed that way to Micah Gallo; Monroe was being pretty insistent on finding a way to stop her ‘or else.' But my impression was that we were talking about finding a way to discredit her politically, as well as increasing our lobbying efforts. It wasn't like the charter school bill's passage was a done deal. The voting would have been close and it would have only taken a few votes.”

“What about the notion that a decision was made at the meeting to ‘remove' Rose Lubinsky by killing her?”

Stone scoffed. “Over a state assembly bill vote that wasn't even a sure thing? Yes, we were worried about the audit. But even if the charter school bill passed, we could have held it up with legal appeals; at least long enough to cover our trail. And to think that I'd condone resorting to murder is ludicrous.”

“But what about the emails Yusef Salaam—Henry Burns—and the IP addresses we've heard so much about?” Mendelbaum asked.

“Just more of Monroe's cleverness,” Stone said. “He thought that no one would ever look at my emails and my phone calls. So he insisted that I be the go-between whenever he wanted to set up a meeting with Henry. So he'd call me to set the time and place, then I'd email the information to Henry. But that's it. What they talked about or did at their meetings, I wasn't there.”

“What were you doing on the night Rose Lubinsky was murdered?”

Stone acted as if the question caught her off guard and in a vulnerable state. Her eyes welled with tears and she struggled to speak. “I was having dinner with my husband . . . my ex-husband since all of this,” she said, waving her hand at Karp. She stopped talking and it was a minute before she could go on. “I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I know I made my bed and have to lie in it, but I lost the most important person in my life, as well as all of my hopes and dreams. It doesn't help to know it was my own fault.”

“Did anyone—Monroe—tell you to make sure you had an alibi at eight p.m.?”

“No, that was apparently something Monroe worked out with Gallo. I didn't know anything was going to happen.”

“What was your reaction when you heard about the bombing?”

“Shock.”

“How did you hear about it?”

“When I got home from dinner it was on the news.”

“What was the first thing that came to your mind?”

“Well, they were saying on the television that there'd been a neo-Nazi demonstration and that one of them had been arrested,” Stone said. “I thought that was connected to the bombing. In no way did I think even Monroe would arrange for something like that.”

“Mrs. Stone, did you know Lars Forsling, or was he ever a former client or someone you prosecuted?”

“No, not to my knowledge.”

“Did Monroe or Gallo ever mention him by name?”

“No, I don't remember ever hearing his name until I learned he was a suspect in Lubinsky's murder and was then killed by Mr. Karp's wife,” Stone said pointedly. “However, Tommy Monroe kept a lot of strange bedfellows beyond just Henry Burns.”

Mendelbaum walked over to the defense table and dropped the legal pad. Slowly he strolled back over to the jury box, leaned against the rail, and paused as if he was troubled by his next question. “Mrs. Stone, I don't mean to be indelicate but I have to ask you potentially embarrassing questions about your relationship with Henry Burns.”

Stone blushed but nodded. “I understand.”

“Mrs. Stone, it has been insinuated that you were engaged in an extramarital sexual affair with Mr. Burns. Is it true?”

Stone covered her mouth with her hand and looked past him at the jurors. “I never . . . I mean, I couldn't.” She stopped and caught her breath. “Since he was fourteen years old, I've been one of the only people who cared about him; I was able to look past his physical disfigurement, if that's what you want to call it. To be honest, I've cringed every time one of the prosecution witnesses referred to him as a ‘freak' just because that's something that made him what he was in the end. But that's neither here nor there. Did I have an affair with him? Absolutely not. I was a friend and a mentor, nothing more. Even at that, the more he fell under Monroe's guidance, my influence grew less and less until basically I was just a conduit between the two of them. A messenger.”

“But what about this mysterious woman who would meet him at the Seahorse Motel?”

Stone looked angry. “I have no idea who she is, but it wasn't me. To be honest, I think it was a setup to get to me. I'm not saying who was behind it, whether it was Monroe or . . .” She looked again at Karp. “. . . someone who had an issue with me as the district attorney of Kings County, or as an opponent of the charter school bill. But isn't it funny how the motel owner looked right at me here in court and didn't identify me as the mystery woman?”

“So you did not have a sexual relationship with Henry Burns, aka Yusef Salaam?”

“I did not. I never cheated on my husband with him or anybody else.”

“Mrs. Stone, you've admitted here to having committed grand larceny, a serious felony, as well as official malfeasance, both of which are punishable by substantial time in prison. You're aware of that?”

“Yes, I'm guilty of those crimes and know I'll have to pay for them.”

“Did you also in concert conspire, direct, or have anything to do with the actions that claimed the lives of Mrs. Lubinsky, Mary Calebras, and Tawanna Mohammad?”

“Mr. Mendelbaum,” Stone said, “I am deeply ashamed of what I've done. I am a thief, and I brought dishonor to the position of district attorney of Kings County. But I am not a murderer!” She then burst into tears.

Mendelbaum nodded. “Thank you, Mrs. Stone. Your honor, I have no more questions at this time.”

Rainsford looked at Karp. “Do you intend to cross-examine the witness?”

“Absolutely,” Karp said, rising to his feet. He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked over to the jury box as if deep in thought. Then he looked over at Stone. “Who are the tears for, Mrs. Stone, the deceaseds or yourself?”

Stone looked up but didn't answer, so he went on. “Mrs. Stone, do you believe in free will?”

“What do you mean?”

“Well, you've painted yourself as this poor creature who had no will of her own to say no when the big bad wolf Tommy Monroe began plying you with ill-gotten gains. Were you unable to say no?”

“I was young and like I said I had these loans . . .”

“Like a million other kids in this country, but they don't steal, or abuse power, or murder people to pay them off and make a nice life for themselves.”

“I didn't murder anybody.”

“Didn't you testify that you believed that if you became the district attorney of Kings County, you'd be able to pull away from the evil clutches of Tommy Monroe? That you'd be the one with the power, and the full weight of the law, on your side,” Karp said, “and that you'd be able to then right these wrongs you'd been involved in? How did that work for you?”