A Class Action (7 page)

Jack checks in from New Jersey. He’s done everything I asked him to do and he’s returning late this afternoon, so I make arrangements to have him picked up at the airport. Olive has her learner’s permit and she’s desperate for places to drive, so she and Vinnie will be at LAX when Jack’s plane lands. I’m looking forward to getting his reports, so they’ll all be stopping by for dinner on their way back from the airport. Stuart must have gotten a tip from the kid that the Asian boys are bringing Chinese food over tonight, so he’ll be here too… about the same time that the food gets delivered. Suzi’s already made arrangements for plenty of extra portions to be included in the delivery.

While the Asian boys are spreading out the food, we’re all spreading out Jack’s reports. The boat’s a hub of activity, with ten people aboard. The dog is watching dog food commercials on television. Suzi grabs the remote and turns up the volume because she sees Myra on the screen.

The reporter is interviewing her about an arrest that was made of a suspect in the double homicide caused by that exploding Suburban. It’s Joe Morgan. I knew he was going to get busted sooner or later, but I didn’t think it would be this soon.

Myra was asked about any information they may have learned from Morgan as to his motive. Her answer was a surprise to all of us. “We haven’t interrogated Mister Morgan because he has counsel - the law firm of Charles Indovine, the same firm that represents the dealership where Mister Morgan is employed. They have informed this office that we are not to question him until his attorney is present. They intend to assign this criminal case to an associate of theirs, attorney Peter Sharp, who I’m sure you all know is familiar to this office.”

It looks like I’m back in business. I had a hunch that Morgan was involved, but I didn’t think that Myra would go after him just because he’s a Muslim. I can’t imagine what else she has on him, but I’m sure I’ll find out soon enough. Rather than break protocol by calling her at home this evening, I think it best to meet at her office tomorrow morning. I want to play this one strictly by the book, because it may turn into a high-profile case.

This meeting is the first one I’ve had here on a case since Myra got elected. I don’t know how much she knows, so instead of trying to convince her that my client is innocent, I decide to let her talk. A long time ago I was told that you can’t learn anything while you’re talking – only when you’re listening. Besides, I haven’t even had a chance to interview my client.

Indovine called first thing this morning, assigned the case to me, and messengered over a retainer check for over ten thousand dollars, which is just the beginning on a case that might lead to the prosecutor going for the death penalty. Before the call got to me, the kid let him know about the investigation expenses, so that was added to the check too.

Myra explains to me that Morgan was arrested for the usual reasons – motive, means, and opportunity, along with the fact that they found explosive devices in his house.

I already knew about his capability and opportunity, but was curious as to what she considered to be his motive for these crimes.

Myra explains that two of the owners of the vehicles have been customers at the dealership for over twenty years. During that period of time they were always bringing their cars in for service, and if there was a decision to be made as to whether or not a repair is covered by the factory warranty, it was always made by Joe Morgan.

The owners admitted to a long-running scheme of bribing Morgan to make decisions to have the warranty cover many unauthorized repairs. After the successful prosecution of a warranty service manager in Orange County for running the same scheme, the car owners got scared and told Morgan they didn’t want any part of the plan – and that they’d pay for their repairs, rather then go to jail.

The prosecution’s argument on motive is that Morgan wanted to scare them into realizing that they should keep on paying for him to authorize repairs. Each owner has agreed to testify.

“
Okay, I can see where you’ve got something to hang your hat on for the first two non-lethal explosions, but how’s your office planning to tie in the third explosion - the one that killed the two women? That vehicle was owned by the dealership, not the general manager. He didn’t have to pay for repairs, so he couldn’t have been involved in a bribery scheme with my client.”

Myra admits that I have a point there, but she promises that her office is working on another angle with the general manager – some other reason why Morgan wanted to scare him too.

“
Fine, but if you admit that all he wanted to do is scare these people, then I won’t expect you to be looking to stick a needle in his arm.”

She tells me that the results of the investigation aren’t in yet, so no decision has been made on whether they’ll be going for the death penalty.

I have only one more question to ask her, and I think I already know the answer to it. “Just one more thing, Myra, what turned you on to Morgan in the first place?”

She tells me that they received an anonymous tip from an informant. Just what I thought. Criminal defense attorneys have been dealing with the prosecution’s confidential informants and anonymous tipsters since the judicial system was created. Judges are very cooperative with prosecutors, so defense attorneys find it almost impossible to discover the identity of a confidential informant. Actually, that might be a good thing, but we all know that it’s terribly misused too often. There are countless times when police don’t really have good enough probable cause to break in somewhere, so they might ‘drop their own dime’ and phone in an anonymous tip that they then get to act upon.

Confidential informants are usually criminals who’ve made some deal with the prosecution to get their own cases or sentences reduced in some way, so they’re not that reliable. Too many stories about lying jailhouse snitches have been exposed. True, there’s the rare undercover police agent who must be protected, but it’s too rare to consider.

I think that this case falls into the category of misdirection - a type of case where the real culprit makes an anonymous tip to lead the authorities away from him and instead to a more convenient suspect who the police can then hang a case on. But it doesn’t make any difference now, other than to confirm a theory of mine. I did get some information out of her today, but most of it was the bad news. The good news isn’t what she told me – it was what she didn’t tell me. Her office obviously has no idea that Joe is a Muslim.

I’ve got a lot of questions to ask my new criminal client, so while I’m downtown I might as well stop in to say hello.

The County’s new twin tower facility is not a fun place to visit. When Joe Morgan is brought into the attorney interview room I introduce myself and we sit down to go over some of the things that Myra told me.

After about a half hour of conversation, I come to the conclusion that this guy did not plant those bombs and had no intention of killing anyone. It’s rare to find an innocent criminal client, but when you do, they’re not too difficult to spot.

We discuss the bribe accusation, and he readily admits to it, but claims that when those two owners decided to stop paying, he was happy with their decision. It had been going on long enough, and he felt that pushing it any further might result in his getting caught and the loss of his job. Evidently there’s some bad blood between the dealership’s general manager and his assistant, and if the assistant gets fired, Joe thought he might have been in line for a promotion.

This conflicts with what I was told, but I haven’t had a chance to talk to those owners yet, and I’m sure that their feelings about Joe wanting to scare them were merely the result of aggressive questioning by the D.A.’s investigator. Once I get them on the witness stand, I’m sure they’ll fold like a deck of cards.

Another thing that I’m curious about is why he removed that picture from the wall in his service bay.

“
Mister Sharp, everyone knows I was a Navy Seal. I’m proud of it. It’s just that after those first two Suburbans exploded, I figured that it wouldn’t be too smart to advertise the fact that I was trained in how to use explosives, so I took the picture down in case some strangers came snooping around.”

I’m convinced he’s innocent of the murder charge. I keep going over the facts All the way back to the Marina, but all I can see him guilty of is some larceny of the manufacturer’s money by authorizing warranty repairs to those owners’ vehicles over the years – certainly not murder or trying to scare anyone.

The explosive devices they found in his house were some things he claims to have been putting together for a fourth of July fireworks display, not to murder someone. The matter of his religion didn’t come up in the conversation. He didn’t ask me about my religious preference, so I didn’t ask him about his.

The District Attorney didn’t go for a grand jury indictment in Joe’s case, so he’ll be arraigned in the municipal court next week and a date will be set for his preliminary hearing.

In most cases, time is a criminal defense’s ally, because there’s always the possibility that prosecution witnesses will be hard to locate and forget things. In this case, Joe agrees that we shouldn’t waive any time. The prosecution doesn’t have that strong of a case and we don’t want to give them a lot of time to try and make it stronger.

Back at the boat, I make out a full report for Indovine’s office. He tells me that I shouldn’t spare any expense on this case, because clearing Morgan will also be clearing the dealership. That’ll leave only the automobile manufacturer holding the bag for any design defect, and since Uniman is his client, and not the manufacturer, Indovine doesn’t care what happens to GM.

They still don’t get it. They probably will never get it. This may only become a class action because two law firms want it to be a class action. The legal fees for a class action plaintiff’s firm can be astronomical, and the defense will also wind up with seven figures by the time it’s all over. This part of the system stinks - and I’m a part of it - a sworn officer of the court. It makes me sick to see the way some of these firms play the system like a jukebox. But who am I to complain? I’ve already accepted a ten thousand dollar retainer, and if this case goes to trial, my fee will probably be more than five times that amount. I guess I’m no different than the rest of them; I take the money and keep my mouth shut. But if everything goes okay, sometimes I try to minimize the large amounts that the others try to extort out of the system and their deep pocket clients.

Olive’s Court appearance is coming up soon and Stuart has asked me to handle it. She’s still facing charges for driving without a license when she drove into that police car in the market’s parking lot. I go to the courthouse, and to my unpleasant surprise, the deputy city attorney is the same one I dealt with on the federal agent’s drunk driving charge; Miss Seymour. She’s as happy to see me as I am to see her. Our conversation is not exactly cordial, but she agrees to go into the judge’s chambers with me to discuss the case. The only reason she’d like to dispose of it is because she knows that if it goes to trial I’ll be sending out subpoenas to every one of the cops there that night, and that will take at least seven or eight peace officers off the street and cost the City a lot of overtime that they can’t afford.

We’re buzzed into chambers. It’s Judge Parker, and he remembers me.

“
What can I do for you today Mister Sharp? Are you looking for a dismissal, with a five thousand dollar court cost? You know, we call that bribery around here.”

Good. He’s got a sense of humor. Unfortunately I’m the butt of it, but I can work with that. I’ve got a lot to do in preparation for Joe Morgan’s preliminary hearing, so I decide to try and wrap this thing up right here and now.

“
Your Honor, I don’t think they’ve got a case here.” This brings the Deputy City Attorney to her feet, loudly protesting. The judge knows that I must have something in mind, because he remembers I’m a clever dealmaker. He waives off the prosecutor’s argument and signals for her to sit down and for me to continue.

“
First, we all know how much time it will take for all those police officers to be brought in off the street. They include members of the Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles Sheriffs, Culver City Police, and California Highway Patrol. It’ll be one pain in the rear for them all to get served and brought in here.

“
Added to that, the entire incident took place in the market’s parking lot, on private property, and not on the public street.

“
Furthermore, the car entered the parking lot almost two hundred yards away from where the collision occurred, and not one of your officers can place her behind the wheel before the car pulled into the parking lot. For all we know, this is probably a simple case of a guy using a large parking lot on private property, at night, to give his girlfriend a driving lesson.

“
And lastly, I’ve been authorized by the driver’s employer to offer full restitution to the City for all repairs to the damaged squad car. If we can make a deal to plead no contest to this charge, and allow for a retroactive expunging of the record upon her showing proof of a valid driver’s license, I’d like to wrap this thing up today and prepare for a murder case I’m working on.”

No comment from the prosecutor. Judge Parker breaks the silence. “If the City Attorney’s office will go along with it, it’s okay with me. Mister Sharp, you’ve raised some good points here today and the offer of full reimbursement to the City and no need to bring in a lot of cops off the street works for me.”