“As a client, you can demand to see who’s accessed your information. If they refuse, we can get a court order. At that point, I’d say your relationship will be severed, and you’ll get no further cooperation,” Ms. Dixon warned me.
“What should I do?” I asked.
“I would meet with them. If you want me to represent you at the meeting, I’d be willing. I think if they aren’t careful, they’ll have more problems than allowing Mr. Bell to access your information. This is a non-waivable conflict of interest. Mr. Bell should be ‘walled off’ from the rest of the firm,” she said.
“What do you mean by that?”
“In my opinion, Rigby, Thompson should require him to leave the office, remove his access to the computer network and physical files, insist on no contact with any attorneys of the firm, and provide him a separate paralegal who’s also not allowed any access.
“Where I work, we sign a contract that explicitly says that I can be terminated for what it appears Cal has done. The reason they need to do this, from a business perspective, is the serious consequences involved. Failure to protect your interest will result in professional misconduct charges being brought against the firm and/or Mr. Bell. It’s worse for someone who knowingly breached the precautions set in place. I know it’s common sense, but this kind of thing happens more than you think.
“They’re playing with fire here. It’s common to see attorneys who fail to protect their clients’ interests in situations like this suspended, fined or, in the worst cases, permanently disbarred from the practice of law, on top of sanctions such as dismissal of the case. Then the fun begins. Once they’ve been sanctioned, you file the civil suit. Of course, by then you’ve been damaged. It would be better for them to get their house in order,” Ms. Dixon said.
“How should we proceed?” I asked.
“That’s up to you, but I would suggest you let me have a private word with them before we burn any bridges,” she said.
“Can you give them a time frame, so that no more of my information is used against me?” I asked.
Ms. Dixon gave me a smile only a lawyer can. I felt the hairs go up on the back of my neck and was suddenly glad to have her on my side.
“I’ll let you use your best judgment,” I said, and she just nodded.
I gave her Bo’s phone number and address so she could follow up with him and went back to making calls.
◊◊◊
My next calls were to all the schools that had recruited me. I was surprised at how fickle the support was from some programs. Alabama and Kentucky backed me completely. Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State listened to what I had to say and confirmed their offers. USC, Stanford, Oregon, and Northwestern wanted to see how this all played out, but for now, I had a scholarship if I wanted it. Notre Dame pulled back their offer and said that they were worried about my character. Finally, Iowa canceled my weekend trip. They told me that if it all worked out, they’d like me to visit during basketball season. They had a no-tolerance policy against domestic violence. While I agreed with their stance, I felt they should have waited until I was at least charged, instead of just assuming I had done something.
Luckily, my dad had raised me to not burn any bridges, so I didn’t say what I really thought about a couple of schools.
I then stepped through the list of schools that had sent me information and had asked me to visit.
One school I took off my list was Missouri. For several months, black student groups had protested about racial slurs allegedly used by some white students on campus, as well as several other alleged acts of discriminatory behavior. Thirty black football players announced they would not practice or play until their university president was removed from office.
The primary reason I removed Missouri from the list was purely selfish: I was currently in the middle of my own scandal and didn’t feel the need to jump into another potential mess. The second reason was I totally disagreed with players walking off the football team. What floored me was their coach supported them. This whole incident would only destroy the team’s chemistry, and I would bet money their season would go into the toilet because of it.
I didn’t have a problem with them protesting or using other means to show their displeasure. It was the act of walking out on their teammates that bothered me. I felt that if the whole team had walked out, that would have been different. When it was reported that only the black players had taken a stand, that told me they hadn’t talked to any of the other players on the team. If you had an us-against-them attitude on your team, it was ridiculous, and you were doomed as a team. A teammate wasn’t defined by the color of their skin. A teammate was someone you worked with every day to make the team the best it could be. I’d learned that last year when Brad Hope pitted the seniors against the underclassmen.
Two schools I made a point to contact were Florida and Florida State. My mom wasn’t happy after she watched the ESPN show about athletes who committed crimes, and these two schools were the worst offenders of the teams that were looked at. The facts that it didn’t snow there and they had winning traditions were attractive.
Between calls, I read the different schools’ fan/recruiting websites. The common theme was they didn’t want a player who hit and raped the mother of his child. I couldn’t blame them. I admit I’d always assumed the worst when I read reports like mine. I wouldn’t be so quick to judge in the future.
One blog entry on a recruiting website caught my attention, and I immediately sent it to Frank. He then posted it for everyone to see. I was glad someone had some common sense.
‘I would also strongly urge folks to stop inferring anything either way about this situation. It is unseemly and reflects poorly on us as a fan community. It’s just as bad to accuse someone of making false accusations as it is to accuse them of domestic violence. The fear that they will not be believed is the reason many victims back off or don’t come forward at all. Let’s not contribute to that problem. It saddens me to think this might be the case here, and each time something like this happens, it damages women.
I can only speak generally here because I, like all of you, know nothing firsthand about this case. Something to keep in mind is that while it’s hardly unheard of for someone to make false allegations, the motivation is usually to gain the upper hand in a child custody proceeding or inflict revenge on the other party in a contentious relationship. The prosecutor isn’t stupid. He is going to look for independent evidence that can verify what happened outside the framework of he-said/she-said. Maybe an unbiased observer saw how the young woman was injured, or maybe the police can locate surveillance video. Give them the chance to do their job.’
◊◊◊
I rode to the hotel for the afternoon press conference with my mom and dad. As we pulled into the parking lot, there were a lot of reporters and a crowd milling around the entrance.
“Dad, just valet park. I’ll pay for it,” I said.
“I’m not spending money just so you don’t have to walk a hundred feet,” Dad griped.
Boy, was that a mistake! I am David Frickin’ Dawson. Girls like me. Not these! As soon as we stepped out of the car, a large group of women surrounded us.
“Rapist!”
That was probably the nicest thing said. Someone actually spit on me. Dad had to wrestle Mom back into the car. If he hadn’t, she would’ve been on the nightly news in a brawl. I pushed my way through the protesters to draw them away from my parents. I almost had my own Bernie Madoff moment when a photographer pushed me to keep me in the middle of the angry women. I had to cringe because this had national news lead written all over it, especially if I retaliated. I just walked around the jerk, and hotel security stopped the protesters and press from entering the lobby.