Disclaimer: Don't own anything except the plot twists and the name of the OC. All else belongs to Dick Wolf and Co., and I'm not making any profit off of this story.
Arthur Gold:
I have been advising my friend Joel Thayer on legal matters for over twenty years- since he was appointed to the bench, as a matter of fact. When he was facing sexual discrimination suits because he refused to hire female clerks, I hand-selected Ms Kincaid to be his very first female clerk. Little did I know that he was going to pursue her sexually! When he first came to me with this shocking revelation, I was stunned. Not because he was stepping out on Barbara, but because he said that he refused to have female clerks so as not to repeat his dalliances with his subordinates like those during his tenure as an EADA! He could've knocked me over with a feather. Sure, Joel's always been pretty open in admiring a nice pair of legs, but Jack McCoy really needs to take some lessons from Joel in being discreet about sleeping with your assistants! I never would have guessed that Joel was "screwing around where he worked," as he so decorously put it.
But Joel's in deep water this time. He'd gotten involved with Janet Rudman, and she dumped him. And he'd taken to threatening her child, for Christ's sake, to keep her with him. To top it off, his ex-lover, Claire Kincaid, is prosecuting. I told Joel the only way he'd have more than a snowball's chance in Hell was to file a report with the Disciplinary Committee on her conflict of interest. Knowing Ben Stone, I'll bet that Claire has already filed to recuse herself, but that he wouldn't listen. Her excuse was probably that she got a glowing recommendation from Joel, which led to her job. And Ben, the naïve man that he is, will not read between the lines and wonder why the recommendation was so fantastic. Yes, Claire's a great worker, but if she really was so great, wouldn't Joel want to keep her for himself? God, is Ben really naïve about human nature.
Well, it's good that Ben is so ridiculously blind, because Joel's going to need all the help he can get to not be convicted for attempted kidnapping. Because without Ben's blindness, Claire Kincaid would be off of the case and be able to remain in the DA's office, and he'd be able to 1) protect the integrity of the DA's office, and 2) have her take over his cases- giving him ample time to dig a deep enough hole to bury Joel in. By this time tomorrow, there will be charges of sexual misconduct and conflict of interest on their way to the Disciplinary committee, effectively ruining Claire Kincaid's career and reputation- and, I hope, preserve some of Joel's.
