Chapter 08

Wednesday morning Shaggy was awakened by the sound of two men screaming at each other in another cell. He rubbed his eyes which were scratchy and red from his crying himself to sleep just a couple of hours before.

Outside, two different lawyers were coming into the building.

One was a public defender. She carried a cardboard box with fifteen different cases which she had on the docket this morning. She had started reading through them last night but fallen asleep halfway through. She had met none of them and needed to squeeze in meetings with them all before 9:00 AM when court began.

She had not even opened the folder marked 'Norville Rogers' but did have him on the list which she handed the deputy for meetings she needed. They gave her an interview room and promised to bring them to her one at a time.

The other was a staff attorney for the Blake family. He had hired two private investigators to go over all aspects of the case including watching the entire video from Norville Rogers' interrogation and ultimate confession. The report had been waiting for him at 6:00 this morning. He did not request time with Norville Rogers. He made an appointment with Sheriff Bronson Stone.

About an hour later, a deputy unlocked the door to Shaggy's cell and led him back to the interrogation room. He whimpered and recoiled on seeing the room again and tried to back out. The deputy pushed him in the back and forced him forward to the table where a woman who didn't look much older than him was writing notes in a yellow pad.

She looked up when he bumped into the table from the deputy's rough shove. "What's your name, please?"

"Norville Rogers."

Her nose crinkled from the smell, but it wasn't the first time that one of her clients had appeared reeking of urine, She maintained her exhausted composure and leaned over and started thumbing through files in a box on the floor. Seeming to find the one she needed, she sat back up and started reading through the few pages contained therein.

"Have a seat, please Norville."

She said nothing further while she concentrated on the papers. Shaggy waited.

After a moment, she put the papers down, and looked at her watch, and grimaced. "Norville, my name is Mary McCormack and I have been appointed to represent you by the court. The DA has offered three years with two of them being probation and only one being a year in a juvenile detention facility. That would probably have you back out in time to start back next school year. Given the signed and videotaped confession they have of you, I don't believe that they are going to offer a better deal."

Shaggy started to cry again. "But I didn't do it!"

After only six months on the job, she was already jaded by such claims. "Be that as it may, you signed a confession. That is going to be hard to fight and, if we go to court, you're probably going to lose. At that point, the sentence will probably be no probation and all three years in the center."

"Can I talk to my mother?"

"Yes. You'll be brought to the courtroom at 9:00. Have your answer by then." She looked up at the camera. "I'm ready for the next one."

xXx

Across the building, the Blake family lawyer was just getting in to see Bronson Stone. He extended his hand. "Hello Sheriff. I'm Ramsay Moore. I'm here representing Norville Rogers."

"Rogers? I thought he was indigent."

"The Blake family has taken an interest in the case and has sent me to provide representation."

Sheriff Stone was not liking the direction of this. He knew that Bucky embarrassing the Blake girl was going to be trouble. "We have a confession."

"And your office was kind enough to provide us with the video of that confession and the interrogation leading up to it."

This was going nowhere good. "Okay."

The attorney smiled. "Do you mind if I point out some items on the videotape?"

"Can I stop you?"

The smile never faltered. "Not without making a bad case even worse."

"Then fire away."

Moore turned on his tablet, queued it to the correct point and then laid it on the Sheriff's desk. "Just to state a few facts. Your Deputy Buckner conducted the interrogation alone without any oversight or assistance?"

"We're not some big city department here. I'm spread a little thin and Deputy Buckner is a trained and experienced officer."

"I understand. During the interview, Norville Rogers asked about his mother five times and Deputy Buckner lied to him five times."

"That's…"

The attorney held up his hand. "I know. That is legally acceptable. But the interrogation lasted fourteen hours. In that time, Norville Rogers never left the room. During that time, he requested water eleven times. He requested food eight times. He requested rest six times. And he requested to go to the bathroom nine times."

"Those are delaying tactics used by suspects and our people are taught to ignore them."

"I assume you mean ignore them within reason?"

"Of course, within reason." The sheriff was watching this case go out the window.

"Let me show you something…" He pressed 'play' on the tablet. Shaggy's voice could be heard. I need to go to the bathroom. Deputy Bucky could be seen standing and disappearing from view. He then returned into view and sat down again. Bucky's interrogation went on as if Shaggy had asked nothing. Did you steal the money? Did you use it to buy drugs?

The lawyer kept going. "It's a little odd—isn't it?—for your deputy to stand up and disappear from view like that. What's even more odd is that he does that exact same thing every time Norville Rogers makes a request for water, food, rest, or to use the restroom. Every. Single. Time. For fourteen hours. It's almost as if he were communicating something via non-verbal communication while he was off camera.

"Another really interesting thing. There is nothing in Norville Rogers' confession that, during the course of the interrogation, Deputy Buckner did not say first. It is almost as if your deputy were dictating the confession to the defendant."

The sheriff leaned back in his chair. "What do you want?"

"I want to make sure that you understand that this confession will not stand. It probably won't even make it to the arraignment in twenty minutes. I have a colleague talking to the judge right now. As a courtesy, I am giving you the chance to call the DA's office and warn them that everything they think they have on Norville Rogers is about to go away. They might appreciate being able to withdraw the case rather than getting publicly chewed out by the judge."

Bronson Stone nodded. "I guess I'll be making a phone call."

"Thank you very much, Sheriff."

The attorney left the office as Sheriff Stone was making the call and planning on exactly what he was going to do to Deputy Elton Buckner.

At 8:55 AM, Ramsay Moore stepped up to the defense table and tapped Mary McCormack's shoulder. "Ms. McCormack, I'm Ramsay Moore, an attorney with the Blake family and I will be handling the Norville Rogers case."

The public defender did not question. She just thanked her lucky stars that she had one less case in her caseload.

Paula Rogers was sitting in the gallery hoping that maybe the public defender would be able to get the bail negotiated down to something they could afford. Every bondsman had wanted collateral of which they had none. She watched as Norville was brought into the courtroom. He now wore an orange jumpsuit and she fought to keep the tears from her eyes. Her son looked terrible.

The judge entered. No one yelled "All rise" like on television but everyone stood up.

The judge motioned with his hand. "Sit down everybody."

Everyone but the assistant district attorney sat. The judge noticed the prosecutor still standing. "Do we have an update on the docket, Ms. Wright?"

"Yes, your honor. The state is requesting that, for now, all charges be dropped against Norville Rogers."

The judge looked around the room. "Does anyone have an objection to this change in docket?"

No one spoke.

"Hearing none, all charges are dropped and the case against Norville Rogers is dismissed without prejudice. Mr. Rogers is free to go." He tapped his gavel once.

Both Shaggy and his mother sat stunned. What had just happened?

A man in a very nice suit appeared next to Shaggy. "Norville, I'm Ramsay Moore. As the judge said, you're free to go. I'm an attorney with the Blake family and I have been asked to tell you that I represented you in this matter at the request of Daphne Blake. And, just so you know, the case was dismissed without prejudice which means they can arrest and charge you again. Please watch what you say and to whom. But the confession you made was clearly and badly coerced and will never stand up in court. You have nothing to worry about from that."

"Like, thank you so much!"

"It's not me you have to thank. I'm a hired hand. Daphne Blake made the request."

"I'll be sure to thank her, too!"

It took nearly an hour for Shaggy to process out and he found his mother waiting for him in the lobby. They hugged for several seconds.

"Where's Dad?"

Paula winced. She had already told her son this, but he had obviously not processed it. "Your father won't be staying with us for a while."