Chapter 21
"The First Witness"
So, for the most part, our opening addresses against the defendants was effective, but now Harry and I both knew along with that of our legal teams that the time had now come for us to push for witnesses. One mistake that I didn't want was to only read off of documentation like Robert Jackson did when he prosecuted the Nazis. To me and my team, these were modern days Nazis and terrorists all rolled into one big monster. The only way that we were going to push for a harsh sentence for most of the defendants was to have people that were affected by them speak out against the defendants. I knew immediately that Ash and Pikachu were going to be witnesses at a later portion of the trial.
So, the very next day, we had our first witness speak out and it was Robert Andrews, a captured Pokemon trainer who was held prisoner by Team Rocket from 2002 until 2004. He was very nervous about being on the stand, but he had to be calm about it. What Harry and I told the witnesses was when they were giving their testimonies to not look at the defendants. This whole trial was modeled after the Nuremberg trials and that the defense would get to speak in the second half with only myself, Harry and our teams doing cross examinations.
"Mr. Andrews," I asked from the podium. "From January 2002 to January 2004, you were a Pokemon trainer in the Kanto region held captive by Team Rocket, is that true?"
"Yes, that is correct," he replied nervously. "I was a trainer seeking out to become a Pokemon master and I had just been given my Charmander, Squirtle and Bulbasaur by Professor Oak. In January of 2002, I was on my way to Pewter City to compete in my first Pokemon gym battle when I was ambushed by two men with the letter "R" imprinted on their shirts."
"Did these two men say anything to you in regards to your Pokemon?" I asked. "Don't be afraid to go into detail."
"They demanded that I hand over my six Pokemon," he replied. "But, I didn't have six Pokemon, I had three. When they didn't get what they wanted, they pushed me to the ground and proceeded to kick me and beat me. It was only then that I fell unconscious and the next thing I knew, I was in a jail cell with captured Pokemon surrounding me in other cells."
The courtroom murmured for a moment and then fell silent again as Robert went about continuing his testimony.
"Then," he continued. "About after a few days, I was brought before Dr. Sakami and I was subjected to nightly beatings from the guards when he demanded that I hand over my Pokemon to him personally. After a few weeks, I finally gave in and he forced me to watch my Pokemon be injected with a substance that made them evil."
He stopped for a moment as a few tears came down his face and then looked back up to me with a puppy dog look on his face.
"Did he then say anything to your Pokemon after they were injected with the substance?" I asked. "Don't be afraid to be specific."
"He then ordered them to attack me," continued Robert. "I begged them to stop and attempt to get them to understand that I was their master and that I would never do anything to hurt them. I was looking forward to building a strong reputation with my Pokemon and that Team Rocket seemed to take that all away from me and they succeeded. Afterwards, for the next two years, I was used as a punching bag for the Pokemon that they had captured."
"Did you ever see your Pokemon again, Mr. Andrews?" I asked.
"No," he replied. "After I was released in exchange for captured Team Rocket agents in the Middle East, I learned that they were killed by American soldiers in Afghanistan. By then, I heard that they were all sold to a terrorist group and they were only purposed to be used for war. My life has never been the same ever since that day."
"During your time with Team Rocket as their prisoner," I continued. "Did you see any experiments that were performed on the Pokemon they had captured aside from your own?"
"They were testing the Pokemon in methods of bringing down buildings and killing people," said Mr. Andrews. "It's seemed like they were doing dog fighting only with Pokemon and that the Pokemon who won the fights were deemed worthy to take part in future attacks. I even saw them throw Pokemon that didn't win the fights into furnaces, even at times when they were not working properly and this would go on every few days. This would go on every day during my captivity and every night, I would be vomiting in my cell from seeing the horrors that took place during my time. Whenever I threw up, they would have me clean up the vomit that I spit up and that it continued for the duration of my tenure."
"In addition to being their prisoner for two years," I asked, taking a sip of water. "We have documentation revealing that even forced you into joining Team Rocket in exchange for your life. Did they do anything on you to make you join them?"
"They had threatened to kill my family if I didn't join them," he replied, his head bowing down in fear. "An agent had warned me that Giovanni was willing to kill them if I didn't join Team Rocket. He even said to me that I was worthless and that my only purpose was to help harm Pokemon instead of helping them grow stronger. In fact, Giovanni personally told me that Pokemon were only to be used for power and not for play. He told me that they were not to be friends with me and that they were only purposed to destroy buildings and kill people for the power and glory of Team Rocket."
A second murmur came throughout the Courtroom upon hearing those words and at that point, Mr. Andrews was nearly going to lose himself to his emotions surrounding his ordeal. At that moment, Judge Avery excused him and Mr. Andrews got off the podium as he began to softly cry following the revelations surrounding his ordeal as Team Rocket's prisoner of war.
It was only one witness, but there were going to be more as the trial proceeded…