‘Mr Freeman, do you know the defendant?’
‘Yes.’
‘For how long?’
‘I’ve known the judge for many years.’ He didn’t so much as glance at Hardy.
‘Would you say you were friends?’
‘We’ve had a courteous professional relationship. We don’t see each other socially. Sort of like me and you.’
He smiled. She smiled. The jury seemed to like it.
‘Last June, did your relationship change?’
‘Yes.’
‘How?’
‘The judge hired me.’
Chomorro: ‘Mr Freeman, we’re all aware that the defendant was a judge in this court. For accuracy’s sake, please refer to Mr Fowler either by his name or as the defendant.’
Freeman said it was a habit, he was sorry.
‘And what did Mr Fowler hire you to do?’
‘To defend May Shinn, who had been charged with killing Owen Nash -’
Chomorro’s gavel came down with a crash. Hardy suppressed a smile. Nice, Dave, he thought.
‘Mr Freeman, restrict your answers to the questions asked.’
‘I’m sorry, Your Honor, I thought that was what was asked.’
But there it was in the record. Pullios could not very well object since she had asked the question. There was nothing to do but press on. ‘Mr Fowler hired you to defend May Shinn, who, as you say, was charged with murder?’
That’s right.‘
‘Were you surprised by his request?’
‘Not at first.’
This was a wrinkle Hardy had not expected. In his deposition Freeman had said he was stunned by it. Now he was not surprised ‘at first.’
Pullios went with it. ‘Why not “at first”?’
‘Sometimes the court will want to check out a couple of defense firms before giving a criminal assignment. See if they might be overloaded, that type of thing.’
‘But that wasn’t the case here?’
‘No.’
‘What was the case here?’
‘Well, the judge – excuse me, the defendant – wanted to hire me as a private person.’
‘To defend Ms Shinn?’
‘Yes.’
‘And was that unusual?’
‘I’d say, yes, it was.’
‘Was there anything else unusual about the arrangements?’
Hardy stood at his table. ‘Objection. Overbroad.’
‘Sustained.’
Pullios tried again. ‘Was Ms Shinn to know about this arrangement?’
Hardy was up again. Conclusion from the witness and hearsay. Pullios might be getting it out, but it was going to be pulling teeth. She smiled tightly. ‘Can you describe to us the conversation you had with the defendant regarding her defense?’
‘Up to a point, yes.’ Freeman said. He spoke directly to the jury. ‘After I accepted the job, of course Mr Fowler became my client and our conversations were privileged.’
Freeman wasn’t giving up a thing. Hardy had been planning on drawing him out on cross, going into the false arrest of May Shinn, all of that. But it seemed Freeman was doing his work for him.
Pullios, however, could read the signs, too – this one said ‘Ambush Ahead.“ Freeman was, in prosecutor’s lingo, going sideways. Witnesses did it all the time. Pullios had seen it before. She got a little less friendly.
‘Mr Freeman, is it a fact that Mr Fowler asked you to keep your relationship with him a secret from Ms Shinn?’
‘Yes.’
‘Is it a fact that bail of five hundred thousand dollars was set for Ms Shinn?’
The facts continued to come out: that Fowler had put up his apartment building as collateral; that Ms Shinn was indicted by the grand jury for murder, putting the case in Superior Court; that Shinn’s trial was assigned to Fowler’s courtroom…
Now Pullios was on a roll and there wasn’t much to do about it. ‘Now, Mr Freeman, knowing as you did the relationship between the defendant and Ms Shinn, what was your reaction to the assignment of Ms Shinn’s trial to Mr Fowler’s courtroom?’
Freeman thought about his answer for a moment. ‘Well, I had mixed feelings. I thought it would be good for my client if the trial went on in Mr Fowler’s court, but I thought there was no chance that would happen.’
An answer Pullios wanted. ‘You expected Mr Fowler to recuse himself?’
Hardy objected, citing relevance. ‘Who cares what Mr Freeman expected?’
Chomorro thought, I do, and said, ‘Overruled.’
Pullios repeated the question, asking whether Freeman expected Fowler to recuse himself.
‘Of course.’
‘But he did not?’
Freeman gave it a second, but there was really no avoiding it. ‘No, he did not.’
Hardy thought he could make a few points.
‘Mr Freeman, Ms Shinn was charged with killing Owen Nash, the same individual the defendant is now charged with killing?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Before you had agreed to defend Ms Shinn on that charge, and hence before you had established an attorney-client relationship with Mr Fowler, did the defendant tell you why he wanted you to defend Ms Shinn?’
‘He wanted an attorney he knew would present a strong defense.’
‘Did he say Ms Shinn would need a strong defense?’
‘Yes.’
‘In your opinion, Mr Freeman, did Mr Fowler think Ms Shinn was guilty?’
‘Objection!’
Hardy rephrased it. ‘Did Mr Fowler tell you he thought Ms Shinn was guilty of murdering Owen Nash?’
‘Yes, he did. He thought so.’
‘You have won acquittals in several murder cases, have you not, Mr Freeman?’
‘Objection, Your Honor. This isn’t relevant here.’
Hardy was matter-of-fact. ‘Your Honor, the prosecution went over Mr Freeman’s credentials at the beginning of his testimony. I want the jury to be aware of Mr Freeman’s reputation not just as a defense attorney but as an excellent defense attorney.’
‘All right,’ Chomorro, as he often did later in the day, was getting surly. ‘But let’s move it along.’ He had the recorder reread the question, and Freeman answered that yes, he had won several acquittals.
‘In fact, wasn’t it through your efforts that the charges against Ms Shinn were dropped?’
‘Yes. Largely.’
‘Now let’s see if we can get this straight. Mr Fowler, knowing your reputation, hired you to represent Ms Shinn, who was subsequently cleared of the murder charge through your efforts?’
‘Yes, true.’
‘And that reopened the investigation, leading to Mr Fowler’s own arrest for the same crime?’
‘Objection,’ Pullios said. ‘Calls for a conclusion.’
‘What’s your question, Mr Hardy?’
Hardy thought he had made his point by inference, at least. Would a man who was guilty of murder hire an attorney whose past record of successes made it likely he could get the case reopened? The most reasonable explanation for hiring Freeman was that, in fact, Fowler did believe May had been guilty. And, of course, if he thought that, then he wasn’t.
‘I’ll leave it, Your Honor,’ he said. Turning back to Freeman, Hardy asked if, at the time he had been hired, he thought there was any chance that May Shinn’s trial would go to Fowler’s courtroom.
‘No, none at all. If I had thought there was at that time, I would not have taken it. But there wasn’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘Well, she was in Department Twenty-two. There were seven trial judges available and I was sure that if Andy got the case he’d recuse himself.’
Pullios was up like a shot, but these were relevant facts and Hardy was able to get Freeman to tell most of the story – how judges were picked for trials, the circuitous route May’s proceedings took before it came before Fowler. It could not have been foreseen…
Finally, Hardy came to the end of it. ‘On the day charges were dropped against Ms Shinn, how many days had she already been on trial? I mean, for example, had you picked a jury? Had the prosecution begun its case?’
‘No. None of that.’
‘Were you aware of any other developments in that case on that day?’
‘Yes. Judge Fowler resigned.’
‘Do you mean he recused himself from the case?’