Chapparal County ADA, Chase Murdoch, stepped off the elevator a bit grudgingly. Although it was October, the weather forecast called for a high in the upper sixties and it would have been a perfect day to hike in the Chapparal County State Park with his wife. Instead he would be spending the day staring at the four walls of his office and hoping to find something, anything, that would allow him to at least convince himself that local college student, Kaylee Reynolds was actually a murderess.
As he entered the District Attorney's Office Suite that occupied most of the fourth floor of the Courthouse, Chase was surprised to see lights on. He was more surprised to see fellow prosecutor, Rod Tagglione, pacing in his office as he walked past.
"What are you doing?" Chase asked as he paused in the doorway of his colleague's office.
"Sometimes I think better when in motion. I have an arraignment hearing in two hours and I am anything but prepared."
This surprised Chase. New York State Penal code required arraignment within twenty-four hours of arrest, so Saturday afternoon arraignments were not uncommon for their office. However, he had thought that their colleague Dara Jensen was handling all weekend arraignments. "I thought Dara had this weekend," he said.
"She does, however, apparently I am the only person who didn't have a conflict of interest with the defendant. I never worked with him because I was hired to replace him after he resigned," Rod Tagglione.
"What charges are you trying to arraign Scott Baldwin on?" Chase asked.
"First degree rape."
Chase hadn't expected that. He wasn't sure exactly what he had been expecting, but certainly not that. Scott Baldwin had defended Felicia Jones; he had been one of the first people to realize that Dr. Ryan Collins was anything but an innocent victim. If his grandfather had been a prosecutor's prosecutor, then perhaps Scott Baldwin had been a victim's prosecutor. He had certainly led their office in rape convictions during his three-year tenure.
"So, I'm guessing you're pretty convinced he isn't guilty also?" Rod asked.
"I don't have any knowledge of the case. If you're asking if this seems like something he might do, then, no, it doesn't. I guess that is why we follow the evidence and put our personal feelings aside," Chase said.
"Is that part of your opening in the Kaylee Reynolds trial?" Rod asked.
Chase contemplated that for a moment. Rod could have a point; the blonde-haired college student certainly didn't look like a killer. But looks could be deceiving and he would need to emphasize that with the jury. The only problem with following the evidence was that it was rather limited. Witnesses had recounted hearing Kaylee argue with Dr. Pierce Dorman at a local diner roughly twenty-four hours before his death. Hospital security cameras showed her going into the morgue at PCGH on the day of the murder. She exited only a few minutes later which the ME felt gave her insufficient time to commit the murder. Regardless, that evidence had been enough to get a search warrant though which yielded a scalpel with Pierce Dorman's blood found in the trunk of Kaylee's car.
"Yeah, maybe, speaking of that I still have a lot of trial prep to do so I need to get to that. Good luck with your arraignment!"
XXXXXXXX
Chapparal County Child Protective Case Worker, Maggie Carpenter, took another look at the case file she had been given. It appeared that Family Court Judge Robert Preston had already signed the removal order so there wasn't much for her to do other than tag along with someone from the PCPD or the Chapparal County Sheriff's Department to collect the child. Being that it was only her third day on the job, Maggie genuinely wasn't sure which law enforcement agency they used. With a sigh she realized it was time for another call to her supervisor. Perhaps someone should have considered that having a brand-new caseworker take weekend call before even working a full week was a bad plan.
Chapparal County Social Services Deputy Commissioner, Sarah Abbott O'Connor, informed Maggie that she should call the Chapparal County Sheriff not the Port Charles PD to enforce the pickup order. She also reminded her that all children were triaged through PCGH for medical clearance on weekends and then placed in emergency shelter through Ward House. That was more useful information that had hardly been covered during orientation.
XXXXXXXX
PCPD Detective Allison Jordan stood in the doorway as the crime scene techs finished up their evidence collection. Perhaps they would find something she was missing but executing the search warrant at the Law Firm of Baldwin, Jordan, and Baldwin had been quite anticlimactic. Nothing suggested that a crime had been committed, but Tiffany Peterson had been adamant that Scott Baldwin had required her to work late, plied her with alcohol, and then raped her on his office desk. Her story had been disjointed and at times even in contradiction to itself. There were many explanations for that from memory distortion due to drug and alcohol intoxication, trauma, or even being an adolescent.
Of course, there was also another explanation for the lack of internal validity in Tiffany's words. It was possible that her story was just that, a story. Yet, as a woman, as a mother, and as a victim advocate Allison couldn't let herself go there. She knew that false reports did happen. Statistically for that was around two percent for sexual assaults, according to US Justice Department Statistics. So logically, Allison knew that Scott Baldwin could certainly be part of the persecuted two percent. To be fair that even fit with what she knew of his character, but as someone who was charged with being a voice for the voiceless; it was almost as hard to envision a false reporting of sexual assault as it was to believe that Scott Baldwin could rape a child.