For the People Chapter 10

"Your Honor, may I have a moment to confer with co-counsel?" Shapiro requests, pushing up from his seat.

"Go ahead, Mr. Shapiro," Judge Willis allows.

Kate returns to the table for a whispered conversation before Shapiro readdresses the court. "Your Honor, in light of Mr. Baird's assertions on the stand, we wish to bring in another rebuttal witness."

Kaplowitz springs to his feet. "Objection! The prosecution had its chance to make its case. I see no reason for continued interference with the normal order of the proceedings."

"The reason," Shapiro responds, "is that this case rests largely on the perceived veracity of Mr. Baird versus Ms. Amell. Mr. Baird has made statements that we have evidence to believe show a pattern of being less than candid with this court. We have a witness that can testify to that evidence."

"Who is that witness, Mr. Shapiro?" Judge Willis queries.

"Mr. Michael Collier, presently an inmate at Rikers Correctional Complex."

"Counsel, in my chambers now," Judge Willis commands.


"All right, now what's going on here?" Willis demands as soon as the door closes behind the lawyers. "Who is Michael Collier and why is he relevant to this case?"

"Your Honor, Michael Collier was Stratford's predecessor as Baird's fixer," Kate explains.

"I object to the characterization as fixer," Kaplowitz grumbles.

"There's no jury here, Mr. Kaplowitz," Willis reminds the defense counsel. "Go on, Ms. Beckett."

"Michael Collier ended up at Rikers for bribery and conspiracy to intimidate witnesses in an attempted suit against Mr. Baird. That's a matter of public record. He testified at the time that he committed those acts on instructions from Mr. Baird. However, it was his word against that of Mr. Baird, and the case against Baird never came to trial. Collier's victims had made sworn depositions for a suit against Mr. Baird and Judson Birdstein. That suit never came to trial either. After interaction with Mr. Collier, the witnesses refused to testify."

"What's the relevance of all of that to this case, Ms. Beckett?" Willis presses.

"Those depositions came from two young women. At the time of the acts described, they were both under seventeen. One, Jane Doe, swore she had non-consensual sex with Mr. Baird. The other, Jane Roe, swore that she played a part in recruiting Doe for Mr. Birdstein's party and witnessed the sex act. They were among the persons that Collier was convicted of intimidating. Mr. Collier can impeach Baird's statements that he never had sex with underage women. The facts have already been determined. Mr. Collier was found guilty. He would merely be presenting that information to the jury to demonstrate that Baird is lying under oath about prior bad acts."

"Your Honor, Ms. Amell was far from underage. Those acts have no relevance to this case," Kaplowitz objects.

"The acts themselves, no," Willis agrees. "But by claiming he'd had sex with many women your client opened the door to the prosecution's line of questioning. And it would appear that your client made a less than truthful response under oath. The prosecution has the right to make that case. If you have further evidence to support Mr. Baird's testimony, you will certainly have the opportunity to introduce it. Now, how long will it take to get Mr. Collier here from Rikers?"

"I'll make sure he's in court first thing in the morning," Shapiro promises.

"Fine. Then we're finished here. I'll adjourn the proceedings until nine am tomorrow."


Rick smiles across one of the three tables in Finelli's Italian Deli. "One thing I wasn't expecting today was the chance for an early dinner with the prosecutor extraordinaire. But until you called, I was digging into that whole travesty of Collier killing the case against Baird for his actions at the Birdstein Mansion. I read the depositions from Jane Doe and Jane Roe. I'd say Baird is an animal, but that would be an undeserved insult to the animal kingdom. Doe was only 13 when that sonofabitch tied her down and raped her. Roe said she watched with tears in her eyes."

Kate nods grimly. "I know. They would both be grown women now, and I'd like to talk to them, but they seem to have disappeared into the woodwork."

"Not quite," Rick offers, "not Roe, anyway. I believe that she's Cassandra Dreesen. Apparently, her family took the money Collier threw at them and sent her out of state to get her degree at Northwestern. While she was there, she wrote a story for the literary magazine. I check that mag out every so often to see what budding writers are up to, and I remembered her effort. So I went back and looked it up. It wasn't hard. You don't see too many first-person stories about getting sucked into what's essentially imprisonment and sex trafficking. She obviously changed names and places to protect the guilty, but the piece looked like a catharsis for her.

"Anyway, once I had a name, I checked out social media. Cassandra's running a nonprofit to help girls and women who suffered sexual abuse – right here in the city, sort of. The group took over an abandoned building on North Brother Island in the South Bronx. They fixed it up and use it as a counseling center slash halfway house slash refuge. Most of the island is so overgrown that I guess it must seem like Sleeping Beauty's Castle or something, a respite from a hostile world."

"You know," Kate considers, "going by what was in those depositions, Jane Doe could still bring charges against Baird if we knew who she is. I'm guessing Cassandra would know."

"And I'm guessing that unless Doe wants to come forward, you couldn't get her identity out of Cassandra with hot pokers and thumbscrews," Rick responds.

"Probably not," Kate agrees. "And we don't need Doe or Cassandra to nail Baird. Collier and the documentation of his crimes should handle that."

"You could try to make contact after you hang Baird out to dry for raping Lauren Amell," Rick suggests. "At least you'd be approaching Cassandra as someone who helped balance Lady Justice's scales. But oh, I found something else out too, from one of Mother's old beaus, Forest Grainger. He and I downed a few beers together back in the day. He does documentaries now, but he used to produce a reality show Baird had, Celebrity Dealmaker."

"I don't remember it," Kate admits.

"Very few people do. It only ran for nine episodes before it was pulled. The matter was hushed up, but Baird couldn't keep his hands off the female contestants. A couple of them threatened to sue the network, so the executive suite decided to settle – with the usual provisions."

"No public disclosure, no admission of guilt," Kate guesses.

"Exactly, but," Rick's eyebrows ripple merrily, "there was video, Kate. Celebrity Dealmaker kept the cameras rolling all the time including behind the scenes when Baird was trying to enter private territory uninvited. Grainger held onto it. He wasn't a party to the settlement, so he wanted to use it in a documentary someday. But he was afraid Baird would try to quash it. Still, now that Baird is devoting his resources to trying to keep out of prison, Grainger thinks the time may have come to tell 'The True Story of 'Celebrity Dealmaker.' He thinks he can get one of the new streaming services to underwrite the production. That way he won't have to worry about distribution to movie theaters. The subscribers can pop the corn for their own private showings. Baird will be coming into homes in a way he never anticipated. But Kate, for Grainger to get a pickup, you've got to win the case."

Kate's eyes flash green. "I'm looking forward to that more and more every minute."