The purple Jerry Garcia tie fit Sabre’s mood this Monday morning as she dressed for her court hearings. It was bright and aggressive—a “fighter” tie. She needed to be strong in the Johnson hearing. The children were still spread all over the county, sibling and mother visits were nearly non-existent, and Cole was still missing. And all this was brought on by a case that she wasn’t sure even warranted filing.
She wondered if she should take one last trip around the park and Cole’s foster parents’ neighborhood. She went twice each day on the weekends but saw no signs of Cole. She and Mama T were becoming buds … well, not exactly buds, but Sabre had spoken to her several times. Recently, when Sabre took her food, she seemed thankful in her own way. She mostly grunted when Sabre gave her something, but sometimes she could see a slight change of expression on her face. It wasn’t really a smile; it was more like a softening of her facial muscles.
The cuckoo on Sabre’s clock in the dining room stuck its head out and tweeted seven times. She was out of time; she needed to go straight to court. She finished dressing, picked up her files, and drove to the courthouse.
Parking was easy, but in fifteen minutes the lot would be packed. She exited her car and walked toward the front door, passing no one along the way. A young, uniformed sheriff greeted her at the metal detector. He was a sub, but she had seen him before. Sabre picked up her files from the belt and walked directly to the lounge/workroom where the new petitions for the detentions were housed for the attorneys. She rummaged through the petitions looking for bizarre cases, even though she wasn’t on the schedule. There were only two new cases. One was a tox baby, and the other was a child who had been purportedly hidden in a closet for over three years. Sabre’s stomach felt queasy and her face turned red with anger. No matter how conditioned she was to cases like these, some of them stirred up deep emotions. She took a deep breath, put the petitions back in the file folder, and checked her mail slot for the reports for her morning hearings. The reports should’ve been there several days ago, but Gillian, the social worker on Johnson and Lecy, had not filed them last week. That had surprised Sabre because although Gillian wasn’t her favorite social worker, she had to admit she was generally efficient and timely with her reports.
She pulled the stack of paperwork out of her mail slot. The Lecy report sat on top. It consisted of only a few pages with a recommendation to continue until the minor, Bailey, was picked up. That was no surprise. Neither were the recommendations on the Johnson case. The social worker wanted to keep the children in foster care. Sabre sat down on one of the metal folding chairs and looked through the rest of her reports.
Several attorneys came and went from the workroom, greeting her, gathering their reports, and then leaving. Sabre separated her reports, placed them in the appropriate folders, and opened the door. She saw Bob, who was ready to enter the room.
“Hi, Sobs,” he said.
“Good morning.” Sabre stepped back and decided to chat with him. “We just received the reports on Johnson and Lecy.”
“Let me guess. The social worker wants to go straight to permanent plans and remove the children forever.”
“She’s not that bad.”
“That Johnson case should be a voluntary,” Bob protested. He picked up his copy of the report and flipped through it.
“You may be right, but the court isn’t going to even consider that until Cole is returned.”
“I know,” Bob said, as he glanced at the report. “Oh, look. It says she’ll consider return if everyone is exorcised.”
Sabre cuffed Bob playfully on the arm and chuckled. “It doesn’t say that, you nitwit.”
“The woman is nuts. Worse than that, she’s evil.”
“She’s not evil. A little off the page, maybe, but not evil.”
“When do you want to do these cases?”
“I’m ready whenever you are.”
“My client’s already here on the Johnson case, but Lecy’s not here yet. Who knows if she’ll even make it.”
“So, do you want to wait for her?”
Bob shook his head. “I don’t care one way or the other. We could wait all day for her, but there’s nothing we can do anyway until Bailey is picked up. I’m here all morning with other stuff.”
“I have a few cases in Department One, and I have one in Five. I’ll go do those and then meet you back in Department Four.”
Sabre walked out into the hallway, which was filled nearly to capacity. She wound her way through the crowd to the end of the hallway and went into Department One. She sat in the back of the courtroom, reading her reports until her cases were called. She pondered over the Johnson report and what to do with that case. It left her uneasy but she wasn’t convinced that there was ritual abuse going on. She certainly didn’t want to return those children to the home if there was, but her investigation hadn’t led to anything except poverty and hunger, both of which could be fixed. The children didn’t seem to know of anything strange in the home, but Sabre hadn’t had a chance to speak to Cole about it before he disappeared. Hayden certainly didn’t indicate anything but he wasn’t the best reporter, either.
Sabre finished reading the report. She shuffled back through the pages again. Nowhere in the report did it indicate that the social worker had spoken to Hammouri, the chicken farmer. So either she hadn’t interviewed him or she deliberately left it out of the report because it didn’t support her recommendation. Both scenarios were unacceptable.
Sabre stepped into Department Four, closing the door quietly behind her. She sat down next to Bob in the front row directly behind the bailiff.
“Hi, snookums,” he whispered. “This hearing is almost over. Watch Wagner’s client. She keeps staring at Mike, the bailiff. She’s practically drooling.”
“Is that the one who keeps flashing her boobs at him?” she whispered back.
“Yeah, Mike’s girlfriend.” Bob spoke just loudly enough for Mike to hear him.
The bailiff turned around, leaned over the railing, and said to Bob, “Hush, or I’ll throw you out of here.”
Bob and Sabre both smiled. They knew he was joking. They teased Mike relentlessly and in turn he did the same. Sabre was certain Bob had been jabbing him all morning about his “girlfriend.” Every time this client came to court she wore low cut dresses and she always made sure Mike saw her. He hated to be on the metal detector when she came to court because she would hang out near it trying to talk to him. She wasn’t particularly unattractive, but her face looked weathered from the sun and when she smiled several gaps appeared in her teeth. Her hair was bleached and she was about thirty pounds overweight. Everything about her seemed extreme. Her skirt was too short, her heels too high, and her makeup too heavy.
Sabre and Bob watched her as the hearing continued. The woman had positioned herself so she was showing Mike plenty of leg. She seemed to be paying little attention to the judge, more interested in Mike than whether or not her children would be returned to her. Sabre glanced at Mike. He tried to look everywhere except at her. The client shifted in her seat, bobbing her head, and swinging her leg in an obvious attempt to catch Mike’s attention. Even the judge saw it and smirked.
When the hearing ended the client wiggled her butt as she pranced out of the courtroom, looking back every few steps at Mike. He just shook his head. When the door closed behind her Mike said to Bob, “Don’t even start, or I’ll throw you in a cell with the other derelicts.”
Bob laughed, “She’s your girlfriend, not mine.”
“Are you ready on your cases? I want you out of here,” Mike said.
Bob went out in the hallway to see if his client on the Lecy case had arrived.
“Did she show?” Sabre asked.
“Naw. Let’s just do it. Anyway, this hearing should’ve been vacated when they issued the Pickup and Detain Order on Bailey.”
“They probably thought she’d be back by now.”
The Lecy case was called and continued without further date until Bailey was picked up.
The Johnson case was called next. Bob brought his client, the mother, Leanne Johnson, into the courtroom. She appeared nervous or anxious. Sabre wasn’t sure which. She felt sorry for the woman who had no idea where her oldest child was and who was unable to visit very often with the rest of her children. But Sabre felt even sorrier for her children. They missed their mother and their siblings terribly. They constantly asked for one another whenever Sabre visited them. Sabre saw the pain on this mother’s face and thought how hard it must be to not see one’s children. Sabre dealt with different cases every day and the hearings seemed to come up quickly to her, but to the parents and the children the waiting must seem like forever.
The mother came to court probably thinking something would actually happen for her today, even though Sabre knew Bob had explained the process to her. The parents always wanted the process to not be prolonged. Instead, another hearing would be set and the parents and children would be required to wait for the wheels of justice to turn. She knew they didn’t understand. Heck, sometimes she didn’t either.
“In the matter of Cole, Hayden, Alexandria, Blake, and Wyatt Johnson …” the court clerk called the case.
Bob stood up. “Your Honor, this will be a trial set on behalf of the mother.”
County Counsel spoke up without standing. “Your Honor, since Cole is still missing we’d like to continue this matter for a couple more weeks.”
Bob said, “The mother would like to have the jurisdictional trial set as soon as possible. Cole was not in his mother’s care but rather in the care of the Department of Social Services when he disappeared. She has no idea where her son is or what has happened to him. The department has neglected to protect Cole and now they want to buy some time to make their case of neglect against the mother. So unless the department is willing to return the other four children to her care while they continue the case, she wants her trial date. These children have been out of the home too long already.”
The judge turned to Sabre, “Counselor, what’s your position on this?”
Sabre stood up. “My investigation is not exactly in sync with DSS so I think a trial needs to be set. Until I hear more evidence or a clarification of the evidence, I’m uncertain what my position will be at trial. Also, today I’d like to obtain a more specific order as to visitation for the mother and for the siblings. The familial ties are very close, but the foster home placements are quite a distance from one another. I’d like to see an order for at least a two-hour visit weekly for the mother and the same for the children. If twice a week is too much for the department, perhaps the social worker can take all of the children to a central place so they can visit their mother. The family can meet as a unit.”
The social worker whispered something to her attorney. The County Counsel spoke up. “The social worker is doing her best to schedule the visits as it is. With so many children it’s a scheduling nightmare, and the department usually only does one-hour visits.”
Sabre remained standing. “It’s a scheduling nightmare because the children are housed in three different foster homes, four if you count Cole’s, and it’s a four-hour bus ride for the mother because of all the stops and transfers. These children need to see their mother and their siblings. Wyatt cries himself to sleep at night and Allie asks to see her brothers every day. It would seem that one regularly scheduled visit for two hours a week would simplify scheduling, not create greater problems. And two hours in one visit is far less time than one hour in four visits. They can all be together as a family, which I believe they need.”
“How many times have the children seen each other since the detention hearing?” the judge asked.
Sabre knew the answer but she waited for County Counsel to respond. He turned to his client, the social worker, spoke quietly, and then said, “There has only been one visit and that was between Allie, Blake, and Wyatt.”
“And Hayden hasn’t seen his siblings at all?”
“No, Your Honor, but the social worker is trying to coordinate the visits between the foster parents.”
The judge didn’t show any emotion. He looked down at his file and said, “Off the record and we’ll pick a trial date.” Once they agreed upon a date several weeks into the future, the judge said, “Back on the record.” He read the trial date into the record and then said, “There’ll be one two-hour visit with mother and all the children each week at a set time. DSS will coordinate the place and time.”
The social worker said something to her attorney but he waved his hand slightly as if to dismiss whatever she was saying. Sabre assumed Gillian had objected to the order. County Counsel knew not to object. This judge always took a strong stand on sibling contact.
After the hearing, Bob and Sabre walked out together. “Are you finished with your calendar?” Bob asked.
“Yup, you?”
Bob nodded affirmatively. “Pho’s?”
“Sure.” Sabre turned her cell phone on as they exited the courthouse and listened to her three messages. Bob checked his as well and made a quick phone call. By the time they reached Bob’s car, they were both off their phones.
Bob said, “JP is joining us for lunch.”
“Good. Then I don’t have to call him. He just left me a message saying he has some information about the old car on the video.”