Apex Predator (59 page)

Judge Denies Defense’s Request

API-Manhattan, New York

By Felix Garcia/New York Chronicle

The judge presiding over the Steven Loomis murder trial has denied the defense’s request to put Harvey Lynch, a well-known defense attorney, on the stand. Loomis is accused of the shooting death of Donald Riche, which took place as Riche was being transported to the central holding jail on January 17. Donald Riche had been arraigned on charges that he abducted and killed nine girls between the ages of six and eight. Tracy Loomis, age six, was one of Donald Riche’s alleged victims. Steven Loomis eventually turned himself in and took responsibility for the shooting. He has since claimed that there is solid science that has classified another species within the same family as humans. His defense team will present a defense where they will argue that Loomis cannot be convicted of murder because Donald Riche could not be scientifically and therefore legally classified as a human being. Drew Willis, lead counsel for the defense, believes the science will prevail, “Mr. Loomis is a senior executive with a global intelligence firm and a highly trained Special Forces officer, he would not make this claim unless there was extensive, solid scientific evidence to support it.” In a preliminary ruling, presiding judge, Lester Newman, allowed the defense to move forward with their argument but limited the evidence of Donald Riche’s alleged crimes to those that involved Steven Loomis’s daughter, Tracy. The defense wanted to put Harvey Lynch, the attorney who represented Riche leading up to his arraignment, on the stand in order to prove Riche was not in a delusional state and had in fact very carefully planned everything he was accused of doing. In his ruling today, the judge stated that attorney-client privilege applied even though Donald Riche is dead. District Attorney David Neill stated that it was a good ruling because it honored the most sacred duty an attorney owes to a client, “We feel it would have been a violation of what should be an inviolate duty, the duty of an attorney to keep every communication in confidence. Had the judge allowed Mr. Lynch to be put on the stand, we would have had a slippery slope where lawyers involved in a host of cases would have tried to claim some exception or another to put an attorney on the stand.” Drew Willis was disappointed in the ruling but remained confident about the defense’s case, “We are disappointed in the ruling, because we feel that Mr. Lynch’s testimony could have provided some context for the jury, but we are confident that even without that Mr. Loomis’s argument will still prevail.” Max Zeidler, another member of the defense team and a well-known member of the New York legal community, was also confident their case was not harmed by today’s ruling, “I don’t understand how the judge came to this conclusion. When the person who can claim the privilege is dead, so is the privilege. Still, the science will be clear and undeniable once we are able to present it.” Asked about Steven Loomis’s defense, the DA reiterated that his office believes it to simply be a move of desperation, “It’s the fourth quarter and they’re down by six, of course they are going for the Hail Mary. We are confident, however, that the jury will be able to see past this and concentrate on the issue at hand: Did Steven Loomis kill Donald Riche with malice and premeditation? The answer is clearly a resounding yes.” Barton Lewis, the deputy district attorney leading the prosecution team, says the jury will be able to keep emotions out of their decision, “We are all aware of the circumstances that brought us here and I think we would not be human if we did not sympathize, but we are also a nation of laws, and the people believe the jury will be able to keep that front and center as they make their decision.” Some legal experts believe that the prosecution may be underestimating the potential effect that public opinion will have on the jury. Frank Mallory, a jury selection consultant, believes the evidence presented will have a powerful effect, “I think the prosecution does not realize just how far public opinion can move a jury. Of course everyone that will make up the jury pool will say that they can be fair and not take any of the other facts surrounding the case into account, but they’re human and some of the evidence they will be looking at is going to move them.” The trial is scheduled to begin in two weeks. Jury selection will begin on May 12 at 8 AM.

Not far from his law offices, Harvey Lynch was sitting on a stool at a greasy-spoon diner, enjoying his lunch, the meatloaf special. ‘You’re damn right I’m not going to testify’ he thought as he took another bite of meatloaf and put down the paper he had been reading. He wanted nothing to do with Riche, Loomis, nothing even remotely linked to the case. He had taken on Riche as a client before his warehouse of horrors and the mutilated bodies of nine little girls had been found. When the shit hit the fan, he had no choice but to represent Riche. He had been almost ecstatic when Riche had been shot. ‘Good riddance’ he thought as he took another bite and shuddered at the memory of the things he had heard from Riche and the pictures he had seen of his client’s exploits. He had not been able to get a good night’s sleep for almost two weeks after that. He was still going to counseling and was only now able to get a few hours of uninterrupted sleep with the aid of a sleeping pill. He would never, not once, repeat what Riche had told him. Never. His law practice, which had been a general practice that included a fair share of personal injury and divorce prior to Riche, was now almost exclusively devoted to criminal defense. Criminals, it seemed, were impressed by the fact that he had represented a monster. They figured, quite correctly in fact, that by comparison their crimes were child’s play. Lynch was thankful for the financial benefit this brought but was more than willing to give it up in order to pick up more cases that had nothing to do with criminal law. Unfortunately for Lynch, the same thing that brought the criminals kept the other clients away. Still, he couldn’t complain. His practice was doing well and his life was just about back to where it had been before all this craziness. Next to him were other patrons also enjoying their lunch fare, burgers, ribs, pot roast, good old American food. Lynch smiled at the fact that this was not a place for vegans or health nuts, this was a true greasy spoon and he enjoyed his food immensely. The long counter where he was sitting accommodated another 20 stools. A refrigerated case at the end of the counter displayed a good variety of pies. Lynch had his heart set on coconut cream. Their coconut cream pie was legendary. Behind the counter waitresses rushed to pick up their orders, urged on by the short-order cooks who rang a small bell with their spatula every time an order was ready. It never ceased to amaze him how each waitress knew when it was her order that was ready, the cooks never called out a name.

Above and to the left of the opening where the cooks put the orders sat a flat-screen television tuned to CNN. There were no baseball games scheduled and the Jets and Giants wouldn’t start their season for another few months, so CNN it was. The din of the lunch crowd drowned out the sound on the television almost completely. Not surprisingly, CNN was completely dedicated to the Steven Loomis case. It had been that way since the day Loomis had turned himself in. At first Lynch himself had hardly been able to go anywhere without someone trying to get a comment or an exclusive interview with him. Once the article that Felix Garcia had written was published, fewer and fewer requests came his way. He had been a part of other cases that had gotten incredible coverage, but this was ridiculous. Late-night talk shows, morning shows on television and radio, even freaking sports shows had something to say. The initial reaction was that Loomis had lost his mind because of what happened to his daughter. Most experts were of the opinion that Loomis’s attorneys were setting up for an eventual temporary insanity defense. That had changed, however, when experts like Tyrone Leonard and others like him were interviewed. They had shared their research and their findings with the world and now public opinion was leaning toward Loomis’s argument. As he sat cleaning the gravy on his plate with a piece of roll, Lynch listened to the two men sitting immediately to his left. “I don’t buy it, you know what I mean. I mean, the guy’s daughter was murdered by that animal, who wouldn’t want to take the piece of shit out, but this, this thing about another species and all that crap is just bullshit. Y’ know? I mean, he should just own up to it, you know what I’m sayin’? Just say, ‘Yeah, I took the piece of shit out because he killed my daughter and what about it’ or somethin’ like that. People would understand that, not all this other happy bullshit they’re sellin’. I bet it’s the lawyers that are tellin’ him to say that. Fucking lawyers, did I tell you about Gina’s fucking lawyer? Alimony! Can you believe that shit?! She fucks Tommy Lagazzio and then has the fucking gall to ask for alimony?” The man sitting next to Mr. Alimony had obviously heard this tirade before, “Yeah, you told me already, like 10 times. And you know what? I don’t believe the guy’s full of shit. Have you heard about this guy? He was in the Navy, one of those SEAL guys, like the ones who killed Osama. I ain’t shittin’ you. Those guys don’t fuck around, y’ know what I mean. They are trained to kill in like a hundred ways without getting caught. They even know how to kill with a paperclip…”

Alimony interrupted, “Get the fuck out a’ hea’! Paperclips!”

“I shit you not. Anyway, you think this guy would have gotten caught if all he wanted to do was to take that piece of shit out? There’s no fuckin’ way he gets caught, no way. No, you know what I think? I think that there’s something to this whole thing about another species and about these new predators and all that crap they’re talking about. Think about it, I mean, we’re always talkin’ about aliens and alien abductions and shit like that, and people go on talking about UFOs and all that crap.”

Alimony guy turned with a look of disgust on his face, “What the fuck does that have to do with this? You’re always bringing in that alien shit. I keep telling you it’s just bullshit, it’s a fact that they’re just weather balloons or some asshole with a remote control. And what does any of that have to do with this anyway?”

Alien guy responded as if he were talking to a child, “What it has to do with it is that we’re talking about something other than human, right? Some other species that looks like us and acts like us, but they’re not us. So, maybe the aliens don’t come from another planet, maybe they’ve always come from here, from earth, and we’ve been thinkin’ they come from outer space, or maybe aliens came to earth a long time ago and they fucked some earth women and made this other species, that’s what.”

Alimony guy shook his head, “You and your freakin’ aliens. But you may have a point, I mean, those scientists they have on the talk shows say that these things have been here a while. I don’t know, I guess maybe they could exist, maybe, but I still think it’s the lawyers that came up with that crap.”

Lynch shook his head, took a sip of his coffee, ate his last bite of pie and went to pay the check, leaving Mr. Alimony and Mr. Alien to continue a new debate on Joe Namath versus Eli Manning they had started on before he got up. He himself didn’t know what to make of Loomis’s defense. He had done some research and knew he was solid. He also knew Max Zeidler, and the man may be a lot of things but stupid wasn’t one of them. There’s no way Zeidler would let his client come up with some bullshit stunt of a defense. No, if Max was going forward with it, Lynch would bet money that there was definitely something to it. As he was walking back to his office, Lynch was approached by a man who looked a little like a thinner Sean Connery. Lynch was ready to give his standard ‘No comment, call my office’ response. He had been hounded by the media, just like anyone else who had been even remotely connected to the case. The man did not have a cameraman tailing him or a recorder in his hand, however, and he also didn’t have the harried and pushy air of a reporter. On closer inspection, Lynch thought the guy looked more like Professor Xavier from The
X-Men
movies. The man stepped closer to Lynch, with one hand outstretched and a business card in the other, “Mr. Lynch?” Lynch, still cautious, held off shaking the man’s hand, “Sorry, do I know you?” The man smiled and, realizing Lynch wasn’t going to shake his hand, simply smiled, “Forgive the intrusion, counselor, my name is Nigel Barlow, Dr. Nigel Barlow.” Lynch took the card from the man. He saw that Barlow was a criminal profiling consultant, “I see. What can I do for you, Dr. Barlow?”

Barlow now took on a conspiratorial tone, something Lynch didn’t particularly care for, “Yes, you see, I am a researcher and criminal profiler. I do work for various police departments as well as the FBI and the department of defense. You are welcome to confirm my engagements with any of those organizations, if you wish.”

Lynch looked at the card again and then back at Barlow, “Well, doctor, I don’t remember coming across your name in any of the reports or profiles I’ve read.” Barlow shook his head, “Forgive me, Mr. Lynch, I did not mean to imply that you should have. I was not involved in the Loomis case, you see. I am speaking to you in the capacity of a researcher. I am doing work for my profiling practice and a book I’m working on, a novel based on the case. I would very much like to speak with you, if you have a moment.” Lynch looked at the card again, something about the guy was just a little hinky. Lynch couldn’t put his finger on it, but his gut instincts were twitching just a bit, maybe it was the guy’s British accent. Lynch distrusted the British just on principle, “Yeah, alright. Can you walk and talk, though, I’m heading back to my office.” Barlow lit up, “Splendid! I truly appreciate it, but why don’t we take my car? We can speak in more comfort and you’ll make better time.” Lynch saw the Town Car Barlow was moving toward and decided that riding back to the office in style did not sound bad at all, the meatloaf was sitting heavy today, “Yeah, alright, let’s go.” Barlow smiled.

In the end, Harvey Lynch did repeat what Riche had told him. He had shared with Barlow everything he could possibly remember, every single word. His last conscious thought was relief, blessed relief. Three days later, Harvey Lynch’s wife filled a missing persons report.