The Home Court Advantage

“Yes sir.” Mr. Oberman and Judge Channing shared a moment. Adam could barely contain his mirth. I hoped that he peed himself.

“What happened then?” Adam asked, looking immensely pleased. Oh great! There was more! Why did I always get the scholars?

“I said, hey buddy I can’t tell if this is you or not with that mask on.”

“What did he do?”

“Well, he ripped off the mask he was wearing and held the driver’s license up to his face so I could compare.” What a freaking rocket scientist this kid was.

“And then?”

“I said, okay I guess that’s you and you’re eighteen. I asked what kind of cigarettes he wanted and he told me. It so happens that the cigarette company is doing a contest for a thousand bucks and I told him about it and gave him an entry form to fill out. He wrote down his e-mail address and cell phone number.” I sighed deeply. I wanted to leave.

“I said, okay and then I gave him the smokes. When he left I called the cops and gave them his name and address.”

“No more questions.” Adam sat down looking very smug indeed.

“Ms. Ginsberg, any questions?” Judge Channing looked like he expected me to say ‘no’ so when I got up to question the witness, he shot me an annoyed look. Jeez! So sorry to be a pain by, you know, trying to defend my client.

“He was holding a gun to you and you refused to give him the cigarettes? Pretty dangerous decision, wasn’t it?”

“Probably, when I look back on it, but something about him just didn’t seem like he knew what he was doing. For example, he was holding the gun wrong. If he would have shot it like that, he would have blown his fingers off.” I heard Adam cough behind me to cover a laugh. I was so glad that he was entertained.

“No further questions,” I said and sat down.

“Prosecution rests,” Adam said merrily.

“Defense rests,” I said irritably.

“Are you actually going to bother to argue, Ms. Ginsberg?” the judge asked. Somehow I didn’t think that question boded well for my client.

“I’ll reserve argument, Your Honor.”

“Uh huh,” he said dubiously. “I find that the Commonwealth has made out all of the charges listed in the complaint. Schedule it, Wayne. Mr. Pierce, call the next case.” Braden stood up and got the case he and Jessica had together started.

I went over and picked up a copy of the court order. Adam wasn’t as thoughtful as Braden was about walking the order over to me. While Braden and Jessica started in on their own preliminary hearing, I went over to talk to Adam.

“Make me an offer.”

“Are you kidding? He did everything but fingerprint himself and give a blood sample to the clerk. How the hell could I lose that case at trial?”

“Oh come on, Adam. The kid is harmless.”

“Harmless?! He held up a convenience store. With a gun.”

“He couldn’t even hold the gun right.”

“That’s right! He could have shot somebody by accident. I should have added reckless endangerment on there. He showed the clerk his driver’s license, Gabrielle. This guy is too stupid to be on the streets. He should be kept out of the breeding pool.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

“Do you hear yourself? I should give your client a break because he’s an idiot? What is that, ‘the dumbass defense’?”

“Fine, at least consider the fact that if you make a fair offer you won’t have to try this case and a jury won’t have to be empaneled.”

“I think I would enjoy trying it and you can always elect to go non-jury.”

“Adam, you need to work with me and we both know it, so stop screwing around!”

“I’m not screwing around with you. You want a deal, you should only try cases against the guy who is screwing around with you.”

“Are you saying you think Braden goes easy on me?”

“No. I think he’s a pro, but I think you’re used to trying cases with him and you forget that other prosecutors do things their own way. I also think, though, that the two of you are going to have to stop facing each other in court soon or some people may say that.” God, he pissed me off, even though I knew he was probably right.

That was my last hearing of the morning and I went over to get my files together. When his case was done, Braden came over and leaned against the defense table. I looked up at him and sighed. I was still totally in lust with him. I just happened to be in love with him now, too. Before I could say anything, though, I saw Jack Davis, one of the senior defenders from my office, approaching me.

“Gabrielle, I’ve got some news on that West Six Ten thing,” Jack began. “Turns out your guy’s a shooter.” This was the case that Mark had offered to take for me. The West Six Ten was a West Philly street gang and it sounded like the young guy I had been assigned wasn’t as uninvolved as they originally thought.

“They’re charging him with homicide? So, are you here to tell me that the office is taking the case away from me and transferring it upstairs?”

“That’s just it. No word yet on if or when they’re going to add the homicide charges. It’s your case until they do, unless you want somebody else to take him.”

“I’ll only have him for the preliminary hearing. If he’s really a shooter they’ll charge him and then our office will transfer it up to you homicide guys anyway.”

“Okay, I just wanted you to be aware.”

“Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it.” Jack patted me on the arm and left. I knew immediately that Braden was upset. Very upset.

“Gabrielle, let someone else take it,” he said immediately and he sounded deadly serious and very tense. He started pacing and raking his fingers through his hair and this time I knew it didn’t have anything to do with sexual tension.

“Braden, I’ll only have him for the preliminary. I’ve represented lots of shooters in prelims before. I’m a criminal defense attorney. That’s what I do – defend criminals.”

“Not gang members charged with homicide.” He paused in his effort to wear a hole in the carpet long enough to give me a look announcing that he was very serious about this.

“He’s not charged with homicide,” I reminded him carefully. I knew that I had to tread lightly here because we were close to having this escalate.

“Not yet!” Now, Braden sounded angry. This was it. The moment of truth. Did I dig in and tell him that I would make my own decisions when it came to my career choices, or did I try to understand where he was coming from and figure out if I could honor his request? Suddenly, it was like time slowed down and I saw the two paths ahead that I could take. I had a decision to make and after a few moments of thoughtful analysis and searching my feelings, I made it.