The next morning Olivia felt like crap. After getting back late from Doctor Huang's office she'd cried herself to sleep in the guest room as not to disturb her light sleeping husband. He'd come into the room when he'd woken with Tremaine and climbed in beside her, wrapping her up tight in his arms and rocked her back to sleep.
After a pretty easy morning with the kids and the usual hand over to Molly Olivia went straight to the courthouse looking forward to getting back at her father for his stunt in opening arguments, or at least, try and get back at him.
Casey met her with a coffee and they discussed the morning's events before making their way inside.
Once Judge Donnelly was sitting in her chair the session was underway with the defence witnesses.
"The Defence calls Jose Martinez." Oliver called and Olivia took a deep breath and tapped her pen nervously against her hand, she knew that whatever questions her father asked would determine which questions she would be able to ask even though she knew what her first question would be.
Oliver asked lots of questions that just made Carols Hernandez out to be a good kid who was trying to do right by his sisters, nothing Olivia could use to make her case so as she stood up she glance at Casey who gave her a reassuring nod of the head.
"Mr Martinez have you any criminal record?" Olivia jumped straight in.
"Objection! Relevance!" Oliver called.
"Goes to witness character, reliability." Olivia replied glancing at Donnelly.
"Sidebar!" Oliver called and Olivia supressed a smirk, she had been expecting this.
"Approach." Donnelly replied and Oliver, Olivia and Casey approached the bench. "Ms Ellis?"
"I have knowledge that the witness has a criminal record that reflects him as a character witness for the defence your Honour." Olivia replied.
"Detective Ellis obviously used the ample means she has at the one six to find this out, it's highly prejudicial to my client and witness." Oliver snapped.
"The witness was charged and tried and found guilty within the state of New York your Honour it's a matter of public record." Olivia replied and Donnelly sighed, she'd expected something like this but there was nothing she could do about it because Olivia was right.
"Step back." Donnelly said and Olivia waited with bated breath for Donnelly's ruling.
"Overruled but Councillor…" She looked at Olivia. "Be very careful and keep within the scope."
"Yes your Honour." Olivia replied.
"Answer the question." Donnelly told the witness.
"Yes I have a criminal record." Martinez replied dryly.
"And isn't it also true that Mr Hernandez was a character witness at your trial?" Olivia replied.
"Yes."
"So what's this you returning the favour?"
"Objection!" Oliver was on his feet in seconds.
"Withdrawn!" Olivia yelled quickly, she knew that Donnelly would have sustained it but she just kept remembering 'once you've rang a bell…' "No more questions." Olivia smirked at Casey as she walked back to the desk.
The next three witnesses passed with flying colours because Olivia had very little ammunition to fire off at them but when they finally broke for lunch Olivia was looking forward to the last defence witness who she had a lot of dirt on, hopefully, Donnelly would allow her to present it.
"Olivia!" Oliver called after his daughter who was rushing off down the steps of the courthouse.
"What?" She asked as he caught up to her.
"Did you have to dirty up my witness like that?" He asked.
"What you were expecting me to let you turn your drug selling client into a martyr for his siblings?" Olivia asked with a smirk.
"What else have you got?" Oliver asked.
"You're asking me what I have on your next witness?" Olivia asked in disbelief. "That's none of your business, you should have built a stronger case or pled out your client while you had the chance." Olivia replied.
"Please, let's talk plea deal now." Oliver suggested.
"Dad my case is solid and you're asking for a plea bargain with one witness left to go? Are you insane?" Olivia asked.
"Are you that sure that you can win this Olivia?" Oliver asked. "Plead the kid out, give him a second chance to change his life."
"Have your client meet us in my office in half an hour I'll find where Casey's at." Olivia sighed. "I am going to check with Jack McCoy first though Dad, if he says no plea then no plea ok?"
"Fine." Oliver replied. "See you later."
After talking with Casey and Jack McCoy a plea bargain was drawn up and presented to the defence.
"You plead guilty and I'll give you twelve months of probation with curfew." Olivia informed them.
"I'll take it." Hernandez said before Oliver got the chance to say anything.
"Good, wise kid." Olivia replied. "We'll see you in court this afternoon for the plea change."
That afternoon Hernandez pled guilty as per the terms of the agreement. After court Olivia and Casey were called to Donnelly's chambers which couldn't have been a good thing.
"A plea bargain?" Donnelly asked as she hung up her robe. "You could have won this Olivia."
"I know, but that kid deserved a chance to make things right Liz, his kid sisters would have been handed over to ACS, split up and lost in the system, I wasn't thinking of him when I gave him the deal I was thinking of those kids." Olivia explained. "Jack McCoy agreed with me that's why I gave him the plea."
"I'm surprised it took you this long to get it, I expected it much sooner if I'm honest but don't become a bleeding heart Olivia because otherwise you're going to plead out cases every chance you get and it will keep some real bad guys out of prison."
"I know but in this case …" Olivia sighed. "Dulce et decorum est." Olivia said before walking out, she was too tired and to drained for this discussion.
"It is sweet and right." Casey said after a few minutes.
"I know what it means Casey. I'm just surprised at how good Olivia's Latin is." Donnelly replied honestly.
"Liz, you saw Olivia's result in the state bar exam, what did she get?" Casey asked.
"You know better than to ask me that Councillor, she knows, why don't you ask her?" Donnelly suggested.
"She won't tell me, she just keeps saying the fact that she passed is all that matters but come on Liz you and I both know that exam isn't easy." Casey explained as she didn't want Liz to think she was just asking for the sake of asking.
"Put it this way, she got a lot more than you and I." Donnelly replied with a smirk.
"Really?" Casey asked in surprise.
"Yeah." Liz nodded. "I was shocked when I saw the percentage but she's a good woman and a damn good lawyer too, I wouldn't have gotten her the job here if she didn't deserve it and Mike Cutter agreed with me Casey."
"I thought she got the job here because she just wanted to prosecute the Hammers case." Casey replied with a slight hint of a question.
"The second Mike bought me those results he said and I quote 'there's something on that you really need to see' so I looked and when I saw Olivia's name and her pass rate he smiled and said 'I want her here.' So spare me, she doesn't need to work her way up through appeals like the rest of us Casey because she's that much better than we were when we started out."
Olivia was sitting at her desk in the one six working on her Grand Jury trial about Lee Connors, it was boring but it had to be done because she wanted to make sure that she got an indictment just because Oliver Taft had released him on ROR.
Cragen marched out of his office and sighed when he saw Olivia at her desk, she barely ever went by the one six because she was so busy but he had to admit it was nice to see her even if what he was about to say was going to crush her.
"Ellis, Stabler you've got a case." He said and Olivia looked up from her paperwork.
"Don…"
"No Olivia you're really going to want to take this." He said. "I want you and Elliot to go to Central Park two uni's are holding the perp and the victim is on her way to get a rape kit done I've called Munch and Fin and they're on their way there."
"Why am I going to want this one?" Olivia asked him.
Don sighed and handed her the piece of paper.
"That son of a bitch." Olivia gasped. "I knew it, I fucking knew it! Wait till I get my hands on Oliver Taft I will…." Don cupped his hand over Olivia's mouth to stop her talking.
"You really don't want to finish that sentence." He warned and Olivia flicked her eyes to see Liz Donnelly walking into the bullpen.
"Olivia what are you doing here?" She asked.
"I could ask you the same thing." She replied as Don removed his hand from her mouth.
"Looking for you." Liz replied. "I scheduled you for Grand Jury tomorrow…"
"That won't be necessary." Olivia sighed. "Perp struck again and this time he raped her."
"Oh, well still take it up with the GJ and see what they have to say." Liz smiled.
"You want me to have a GJ trial ready by tomorrow with the Hammers case starting on Monday?" Olivia asked in shock.
"Get him in arraignment today Olivia and skip the GJ if you think you have enough." Liz replied with a reassuring smile.
"Taft is on arraignment this afternoon." Olivia noted.
"Just bite your tongue Ellis, I don't want to be coming to get you from lock up again." Liz warned with a hint of a smile on her lips.
"Olivia go and pick up Connors with Elliot please." Don said and Olivia grabbed her coat and Elliot quickly followed after her.
When they got Lee Connors back to the precinct Olivia stood with Don behind the glass watching Elliot interrogate him.
"Why did you attack Martha Dalton in the park?" Elliot asked calmly but he was slowly losing all his patience.
"I didn't."
"Don't lie to me, I don't like being lied too." Elliot snapped.
"She fell and I didn't see her and fell on top of her." He replied with such a calm demeanour it sent chills down Olivia's spine.
"What you fell on her and your penis just slipped inside of her?" Elliot asked and Lee Connors said nothing, didn't even move when Olivia went inside.
"Mr Connors." Olivia said as she approached the table.
"You're the lawyer." Connors said.
"I am, and I'm going to be the one to put you behind bars for twenty five years." Olivia smirked. "Very stupid thing you did Mr Connors, that very idiotic judge gave you a chance when he let you out on bail and you then go and commit a felony, forcible touching is just a class A misdemeanour and carries six months to a year but Rape… Rape is a whole other kettle of fish and that kettle carries twenty five to life and I am going for the maximum on this but confess and I think we can settle for twenty years." Olivia replied, the last thing she wanted was to take him to court because chances were he'd only get fifteen years.
"You're telling me if I confess I get twenty years?" Connors asked.
"And if you don't you're looking at minimum of twenty five plus the assault against Detective Tutuola which carries five to ten years so that's thirty plus the year for the touching that's thirty one but confess to the rape and you wipe off ten years from your sentence." Olivia explained and she could see Connors thinking it through carefully.
"Ok I did it, I raped that woman, she was just in that short skirt and it was so easy to do!" He explained.
"Good now Detective Stabler will get you some notepaper and you can write out your confession." Olivia replied before walking out.
"Well done councillor." Liz Donnelly smiled.
"It was easy." She shrugged. "The second I mentioned life in prison he panicked so telling him to take the twenty years was quite simple, he's only eighteen so he'll be out before he's forty."
Once the paper work for Lee Connors was submitted Olivia took him to court to articulate his crime and be sentenced. When she walked out of court she was relieved as that was one case less she had to worry about and she could focus on facing Bayard in five days time.
She wasn't worried but she wasn't quite as confident as she thought she should be, she knew she couldn't lose this case because losing this case would admit a lot of things, one was that she wasn't mean to be a prosecutor and two a crook would end up back on the streets who deserved a needle, it was a shame that the death penalty wasn't in New York anymore.
Olivia's biggest worry even though it shouldn't have been was the media. They'd caused a moral panic with Hammers being out on bail on Olivia had already caught the brunt of the blame, to them it didn't matter that she found herself in contempt of court because she'd fought to have him remanded, the fact was she'd lost that and they needed someone to blame and she was the easiest target.
As she left the courthouse reporters hurried to her shouting questions over one and other, luckily there was a couple of uniforms hanging around outside so they helped Olivia clear a path to get to her car and get away with just shouting 'No Comment' while light bulbs flashed in her face.
She met with Casey to finish going over trial prep. Every witness, every piece of evidence and once she was done rather than go home she made what was going to be her daily visit to Federal Plaza.