As Shelby stepped down from the stand, the judge thanked her and Rod for their service to their country, including their dangerous work in espionage. The courtroom applauded.
Hope next took the stand. For the next eight days, using a slide presentation, Hope detailed her time as a daughter of televangelists, and becoming one herself. She provided a line-item accounting of her parent's fraud. She became emotional and even on a couple of occasions broke into tears when she spoke about the money she stole. Finally, she described her brief liaison with Felicity, and her courtship of and marriage to Ruthie.
Hope knew that giving her side of the story to the prosecutor was only half the battle. Now she would be facing not one but two lawyers who would be grilling her on every single point.
The lawyer for Harrison spoke first.
"Reverend Anderson, first of all, congratulations on your pregnancy. I hope everything works out for you and Reverend Camden."
"Given who you represent, counsel," said Hope wryly, "I appreciate it. My wife does too."
"Well, you're welcome. But you have to understand where I and my learned friend are coming from. You're not just the star witness, as it were. You've come here on an immunity deal. Transactional, or blanket immunity as it were. That means you can't be charged for anything you've done; and as long as you haven't perjured yourself here, anything you say at this trial is also protected from prosecution."
"So?" asked Hope.
"Well Reverend, it also means that everything you've said up to this point is also under a cloud of suspicion. By your own admission, you stole one hundred million dollars of your own parents' money for your personal use," the lawyer said.
"Not my parents' money. The ministry's."
"But according to you, the articles of incorporation for Grace is Yours Ministries were such that my client, your father, and my colleague's client, your mother, were the principal officers of the church. They also, by your account, had proxy of the other board members. So in a sense, it was their money that you took."
"Yes," admitted Hope. She looked at the defense desk, ashamed. "I'm not proud of it. But at a subconscious level, I wanted to get back at Mom and Dad for misleading their followers for so long, by giving them a taste of their own medicine. The way I saw it, they kept plowing their viewers to 'sow a seed' to get the hundred-fold blessing that I detailed on Day Two of my testimony. They had so much money - a half a trillion - I figured they'd never miss a mere hundred mill."
"Excuse me for interrupting, Reverend," said the judge, "but you're admitting to filling your own sandbox, making this sound like the slush fund during Watergate. The million dollars stolen from Nixon's reelection to fund illegal espionage. No one noticed anything until a check for a substantial amount ended up in the account of one of the burglars, who as it turns out got it from a committee member who thought he was just giving it to another fundraiser."
"That's exactly what this was, Your Honor," agreed Hope. "The difference, though, is it didn't take Woodward and Bernstein to call me out. When I found out about how connected my parents were to Ed Sanderson, I decided to make a clean break. I gave all of the money back, with interest. And I apologized to my followers. I didn't need it anyway - I made and still make seven figures."
The lawyer demurred to the other defense attorney, who grilled Hope for nearly five hours about the abuse allegations. Hope said she had absolutely no knowledge about any of them, until they were made. She certainly didn't know about the abuse Patrick suffered at the hands of their mother Prudence.
"For the record, Reverend," said the second lawyer, "my client is prepared to admit she is a lesbian."
There was a huge gasp in the courtroom. Even Hope was shocked. She never expected her mother to come out that openly, or at all.
"But in so conceding," continued the lawyer, "she denies she is a child abuser."
"I have never said there is a link between sexual orientation and a proclivity to abuse," Hope said angrily. "I have already said I didn't know about what happened Patrick until the summer of last year."
"But given your estrangement from your brother, why did you suddenly decide to believe him?"
Before the DA could object, Hope snapped, "Because as heartbroken as I was to hear my brother say what he said, I knew he was telling the truth. I could feel it in my heart. Something both Mom and Dad don't have!"
The courtroom burst into applause, which was quickly quieted down by the judge's gavel.
"When I moved down the hall from my parents and my brother at the age of twelve - before then our bedrooms were all next to each other - it was on a matter of principle," she continued.
"Speaking in tongues - yet by your own admission during direct examination, you have spoken in tongues. Three times," the lawyer said.
"Only three times," stressed Hope. "And even now, I don't know why I started speaking in tongues on those occasions. Honestly, even though I had an interpreter, I'm still not quite sure what I really said, either."
"Point of information. What bearing does this have in the case at hand?" asked a perplexed DA.
"This," said Hope, before the defense lawyer could answer. "I really have spoken in tongues. So has my wife, and all my minister colleagues at the Saint Louis Community Church, and most of the children too. I doubt very much Mom and Dad have. If they didn't, but then went on the air and say they did to raise money, that would be wire fraud. One of things they're charged with."
"Why do you doubt your parents, the defendants, have spoken in tongues?" asked the judge.
Hope was hoping someone would ask this question. And she was ready to pounce. Ruthie, her wife, as well as Peter and Felicity, all leaned forward in their seats.
"Your Honor, many people who think they have entered a state of Glossolalia are actually speaking random foreign words they have heard along the way. It's been in their subconscious for so long that when the suggestion is made they just let it rip. I've heard too many 'tonguers' using words like Adonai and Elohim - both words for God - when you're supposed to be speaking in total gibberish.
"But the bigger point is that to truly speak in tongues you need to allow yourself to be immersed in the Word of God, but not expect it to happen. An eight year old girl who's part of the pastoral team at my current church, for example, wasn't expecting it at all. Heck, she's not born again. But it happened, and more importantly the interpretation was compatible with the Bible. Too many of my parents' pronouncements had nothing to do with the Scriptures. It was about benefiting their ministry. That's how I knew that for them it wasn't true. That when they said they spoke in tongues, they really had not. Fraud by any other name, is still fraud. And when you roll in religion to the mix, that makes it insidious."
The courtroom applauded.
"Does that answer your question, counselor?" Hope asked the DA.
"Definitely," said the DA.
The jury, meanwhile, was taking notes at what Hope said. This was something new to all of them, but they knew it was important, especially if she was speaking with authority.
"The only regret I have, Your Honor," said Hope, once the applause died down, "is that I didn't call it for what it was while I was part of their church, on my show. I think I could have shifted the balance of power in my favor if I had."
There was a long pause.
"My cross-examination is complete," Prudence' lawyer said.
Patrick came up next. He was on the verge of tears several occasions as he detailed the abuse his own mother inflicted on him. He said it was absolute torture for him when he was forced to have sex with her. He said he felt driven to suicide but he never gave in because he didn't want his mother to have the satisfaction of knowing that she had won.
But he also admitted that despite the abuse, he was otherwise a longtime and fervent supporter of his parents' ministry, and when he had branched off into his own church they had provided a large amount of seed money.
"Did you funnel money on behalf of your parents?" asked the DA.
"Actually, I offered to do that for them," said Patrick. "To my surprise, they turned me down. They said they had people who dealt with it."
Patrick had never told this to Hope. His sister, seated in the gallery, did a double take. Ruthie and Peter's jaws dropped.
"Are you saying you wanted to be part of the fraud, and your parents turned you down?"
"Yeah," said Patrick in disbelief. "I reckon now the reason why. If I had gotten caught with a ton of money while acting as a mule, the authorities would have come down hard on me unless I offered something in return, in which case I would have then called out my mother for what she did to me. They knew it was a possibility, so they weren't taking any chances."
"Last question," said the DA. "Why did it take you so long to come forward with your allegations?"
"Shame," said Patrick. He would not say any more.
Patrick was expecting a cross-examination where he would be ripped apart at the seams. But there was a surprise in store. The attorney for Prudence approached the DA and offered a sheet of paper.
On it, Prudence said she was willing to admit she molested her son. She was also prepared to admit to her part in wire fraud and would testify against Harrison, to whom she was prepared to file divorce papers on the grounds of her own fraud - that she had always been a lesbian (had been since she was nine) and never wanted to have children in the first place but did so to appease her husband and only pretended to enjoy the sex. In exchange, all the other charges would have to be dropped.
"You expect me to give your client immunity for a hundred and fifty counts of violating the civil rights of a minor?" said the DA. "This jury, this country, is expecting that she will get fifteen hundred years in jail. Because that's what she deserves!"
"You have till the end of the business day," said Prudence' lawyer.
"I have to clear this with the Attorney General," said the DA. "It's a three hour time difference."
"I know, that's why I said five o'clock OUR time!"
"Prove you're flexible on this, and maybe we can talk deal without getting DC involved."
Prudence' lawyer faced the judge. "I have no questions for Reverend Anderson."
Patrick stumbled off the stand, not sure of what had just happened. But when he learned his mother had admitted to what she had done to her own son, but would never have to say that in court, he felt more betrayed than ever. It was only the presence of his wife, the music director Tamara Wilkinson, that prevented him from lunging at the DA, who held him back but too fought back tears of rage when she found out what the deal was.