Joseph Teller
Overkill
1
Jaywalkers sitting in Part 30 when it happens. Part 30 is one of the Supreme Court arraignment courtrooms they have down at 10 °Centre Street. Its where you go before a judge for the first time after youve been formally charged with a felony. A felony being anything they can give you more than a year for. Like murder, say.
Jaywalkers there for a sentencing. A client of his, a wiseguy-wannabe named Johnny Cantalupo, pleaded guilty to possession six weeks ago, in order to avoid going to prison for sale. It was cocaine, and not that awfully much of it, and Johnnys white and had no record to speak of, so the assistant D.A. and the judge had agreed to probation and time served, specifically the two days Johnny had spent while he was in the system.
In the system.
Whenever he hears the expression, Jaywalker cant help picturing a huge beast, gobbling up the newly arrested, digesting them for a day or two, and then, well, the rest is a bit vague. Spitting them out? Undigesting them into a courtroom? Or even worse, perhaps.
Although he was the first lawyer to show up this morning, and Johnny (under penalty of death by Jaywalker) the first defendant, they have to wait to get their case called. A written probation report first has to complete an arduous journey spanning three entire floors of the building, a feat that can take hours, sometimes days or even weeks. Never mind that the report will have no impact whatsoever on the sentence; its presence is mandated by law. In fact, the appearance before the judge this day promises to be a perfunctory one, the precise details of the sentence having been long ago worked out, recited on the record, and promised to the defendant on the sole condition that he show up today, which Johnny dutifully has. Consequently, Jaywalker will barely speak, having no need to convince the judge to do anything or refrain from doing anything. Hes therefore allowed his attention to wander from the half-finished crossword puzzle in his lap to the defendants who one by one are brought out to face the judge, stand beside their lawyers and hear the charges theyve been indicted on by a grand jury.
The first thing that strikes Jaywalker as out of the ordinary is when the clerk calls a particular case and a lawyer, instead of simply rising from his seat in the audience and quietly making his way up to the defense table, shouts out, Defendant! This immediately brands him as a civil lawyer, unfamiliar with how they do things over here on the criminal side.
The guy even looks like a civil lawyer, Jaywalker decides. Not just that hes short and bald; those descriptors apply to plenty of criminal lawyers. No, its more than that. Theres something decidedly shifty about him, something just a touch too practiced. Something that suggests ambulance chaser, or fixer. The old term shyster even comes to mind, but Jaywalker immediately banishes it, half forgiving himself only because he himself is half Jewish. Sort of like how African Americans are free to call each other nigger, but others need not apply.
They bring the guys client out from the door to the pen, and Jaywalkers attention shifts to him. Hes a kid, a kid who looks no more than sixteen or seventeen. Tall, though, with good posture for a teen, pale skin and closely cropped blond hair. A couple of years older and he could be a marine recruit, thinks Jaywalker, or in his first year at West Point. But the thing that really stands out is how good-looking the kid is. Beautiful, almost. Though having grown up in the homophobic 70s, Jaywalker still has a bit of trouble applying the term to a young man. Handsome, yes. Striking-looking, sure. But beautiful? No need to get carried away. But thats how good-looking the kid is, even after a day or two in the system.
He misses the kids name, but leans forward and is able to catch the word murder as the clerk reads off the charges and asks the young man how he pleads, guilty or not guilty.
Now the thing is, the answer to that question is Not guilty. Always. Even if immediately after the phrase is spoken, the lawyers were to approach the bench, huddle with the judge, work out a plea, and sixty seconds later the not guilty plea were to be withdrawn and replaced by a guilty plea to some lesser charge with a reduced sentence. Precisely as had been the case with Johnny Cantalupo, six weeks ago.
Only thats not what happens now.
Instead, as soon as the clerk asks the question, the civil lawyer answers for the kid. Guilty with an explanation, he says.
Now that may work in traffic court, or in the summons part. But here, what happens is the entire courtroom-and its a big courtroom, pretty much filled to capacity-goes stone-cold quiet.
Excuse me? says the judge, a white-haired old-timer named McGillicuddy.
Guilty, the lawyer repeats, but with an explanation. Its my feeling that probation would be an adequate sen-
He gets no further than that before McGillicuddy waves him and the assistant district attorney to come up. Which, to Jaywalkers way of thinking, is a pretty decent thing on the judges part, deciding not to show the guy up in front of a roomful of onlookers.
Because the thing is, you cant get probation on a murder charge, not even if you have the best explanation in the history of the universe. The ten best explanations. The range of sentencing on a murder count begins with fifteen-to-life, and goes up from there.
Jaywalker cant hear whats being said up at the bench, but he can see that whatever the words are, the judge is saying most of them and is being considerably less charitable than hed been a moment ago. The civil lawyer has been pretty much reduced to gesturing, mostly with upturned palms and shrugging shoulders. Who knew? he seems to be saying.
As for the A.D.A., a prettyish woman with dark hair, dark-rimmed glasses and a thick file under one arm, shes shown the good sense to back away from the two of them as far as she can get, evidently wanting no part of an irate judge chewing out an incompetent defense lawyer. Meanwhile, back at the defense table, the defendant has been given a seat by a thoughtful court officer who must have decided that this sideshow is going to take a while.
Actually, it doesnt.
It ends abruptly, with the judge suddenly standing up and ordering the lawyers back to their places. Mr. Fudderman is relieved, he announces. Then, scanning the front row of the audience, he looks for a replacement.
Jaywalkers instinctive reaction is to break off eye contact. Hes been in the military, been in law enforcement, and learned long ago that you never, ever volunteer for anything. Nothing good can come from it, whereas the potential for disaster is virtually unlimited. So even as he senses colleagues to his left and right straightening up in their seats and subliminally begging the judge to choose them, Jaywalker locks onto his crossword puzzle, focusing all his energy on coming up with a six-letter word for annoy.
Mr. Jaywalker? he hears.
H-A-R-A-S-S, he pencils in, never quite sure how to spell it. It could be two rs or two ss, or even two of both. But if its two of both, it wont-
Mr. Jaywalker? Louder, this time.
He looks up, feigning bewilderment.
Come up, please.
He glances to either side and over both shoulders before looking back at the judge.
Yes, you.
2
It turned out his name was Estrada, Jeremy Estrada. Jaywalker found this out in the pen, sitting across from the kid and conducting what might charitably be called a short-form interview. Judge McGillicuddy hadnt actually ordered him to do it, but up at the bench hed made it pretty clear that in his book Jaywalker owed him as much and more, without spelling it out. As soon as Jaywalker had begun protesting (immediately) that he was much too busy (he wasnt), McGillicuddy had silently mouthed the word Bullshit. The A.D.A. had smiled just the tiniest bit at that but had quickly recovered by adjusting her glasses. No doubt she chalked up the incident as a pair of alpha males squaring off. But the judges drift hadnt been lost on Jaywalker. About six months ago, in the midst of a run-of-the-mill larceny case, McGillicuddy had made a questionable ruling on a piece of evidence, and Jaywalker had muttered Bullshit loudly enough for the jury to hear. The judge had ignored it, even pretended he hadnt heard it, though surely he had. Instead of clearing the courtroom, holding Jaywalker in contempt and maybe even giving him an overnight to reflect upon his outburst, hed simply filed the incident away, evidently determined to save it for a rainy day. And though it was clear and dry this particular May morning, it might as well have been pouring. The debt had been called.
That the kid turned out to have a Latino last name came as something of a surprise to Jaywalker; hed figured from the fair complexion, blond hair and blue-gray eyes that he was dealing with a runaway from Iowa or Minnesota, or someplace like that. But when asked if he spoke English, Jeremy answered softly, Yes, I was born here, without any trace of an accent.
Do you understand what just happened out there in the courtroom? Jaywalker asked him.
No, not really. In a voice so soft that the words were barely audible.
Well, for starters, your lawyer tried to plead you guilty to a life sentence. Whered you manage to dig him up from?
My mother found him. She said he helped her after they shut off the electric in the apartment. And I guess there wasnt a lot of time, you know.
Jaywalker didnt know, and was almost afraid to ask. Hed agreed to spend ten minutes talking with the kid before letting McGillicuddy know if he was willing to represent him at assigned-counsel rates. Jaywalker had tried to explain that he was no longer on the panel of lawyers who took assignments, having been kicked off some time ago for turning in his payment vouchers months after they were due, sometimes years. But the judge had brushed him off. Maybe the family has some money, hed said. Or you could always do it pro bono. It certainly sounds like a manslaughter plea, from what that other clown was saying. In other words, an appearance or two.
That other clown, by which he had to be referring to the civil lawyer, seemed like something of a backhanded slap, but Jaywalker had held his tongue. More to the point, the shutting off of the electricity pretty much answered the question of whether the family had money. And as for pro bono, it was an old Latin phrase that loosely translated as Okay, you get to do the work, but you dont get paid.