Chapter 39

It was a month later when I was again in the courtroom; but, this time, I was on the other side of the aisle. It would be a combined case against our little town, and without a doubt, it would get dirty. Since the case was against the whole police force of the town, the trial would be held in a city where the investigating force, the state police, had their headquarters. Since I was now healthy, I had to spend some time every week doing my community service in the homeless center. I actually found that I enjoyed the people working with the homeless, and the homeless clients themselves. None of them looked down on me. Almost all the people had a story of their own, and they were more than happy if someone wanted to hear it.

The new trial itself was the boring legal mumbo jumbo in the beginning. When it occurred that the opponents wanted to use my old computer, and my phone, as evidence in the trial; our lawyers were about the object, but I asked them not to. It took some time to convince them, but I had it my way. If they wanted to do the digging all by themselves, who was I to deny them that joy.

Our opponent in fact started their defense by attacking me - by painting me as a child molester and child pornography provider and user. The judge seemed a bit confused when my lawyers didn't object, but explained they would wait to cross-examine the witness. I had to admit that they had built a nice case with some evidence found on my computer. The only point where I felt my anger rising, was when they presented pictures of Lily, naked, and claimed that those had been found on my devices. It was sheer luck that I was aware of those images - or not just luck. It had been our private eye who had first spotted those on the internet, while searching for Lily.

I was quite sure that there were not very many people in the courtroom who believed in my innocence when the cross-examination started. As my aunty had no intention of getting into the spotlight, we had agreed that it would be the Deputy State Prosecutor who would nail the poor guy.

" ... thank you, your honor. Now, let's start with the phone. You are sure it is the phone that belonged to our client?"

"Yes."

"Are you aware of the ramifications of false testimony?"

That was how it started. Yes, they had an identical phone. But I guess that they must have ruined my phone while they were tried to break the encryption on it. So they bought an identical one and inserted my card - which was easier to crack. But the poor guys didn't even know that all the phones have their own identification codes that can be used in tracking them. All the documentations of the hardware I had purchased and used in my business, were stored in a safe inside my aunty's office. Those same codes could be used in tracking when and where the phone presented as mine was sold, and with the retail store's security cameras, to whom.

" ... so, the interesting question is, if the pictures of our clients naked little girl were found on that phone, how did they get there?"

Their lawyer didn't look happy, and their technical guy looked screwed. It was not over, yet. Our guy checked his notes, but I was sure that he had all this memorized. After all, this was HIS moment.

"Now, on to this computer. Can you please tell us what operating system it's running?"

"Windows. Latest version."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, of course."

"So you are also accusing my client of developing software on a computer without a valid license?"

"No, but..."

"How difficult was it to break the encryption?"

"We didn't need to break anything."

"Interesting. Do you happen to know that the machine used a service that automatically backups the contents of the hard drive over the phone line? The latest backup copy from that computer is from the evening the house was raided. I do have here a statement from the company providing this service, that the contents of that backup has not been changed ever since, only read."

This was the only weak point. Yes, there was a company providing that service. It was my company, though it was a subsidiary of the main business I was running. But the other side was so shocked, that they didn't object. Their bluff had been called. Our man spent some more time explaining that I had not been using Windows - I didn't even have valid copy of Windows, as I used Linux. Furthermore the hard drive was encrypted, as there were some important business-related things stored inside the machine. The last nail was a statement from a specialist used by the feds, who had gone through the disk's images and avowed that the files had not been changed, and that there were absolutely no compromising images on that disk. Two - nil to us.

Then the prints of the pictures were shown. They had been taken inside my home, and they also could be found on the internet. The prints were presented and they truly looked bad. Lily had been crying and the pictures had been taken inside our home. At that point our man picked a laptop and showed an image from there to the guy.

"Can we agree that the image I'm showing you is the same you are holding?"

"I do not know, it looks the same; but of course that image can be taken from this photograph."

The guy smiled. Now he was sure that he was right. Our man smiled.

"Yes, of course. Can you please read the digital information stored with that image. Start from the time of taking the image, and go to the camera information. Then check from the other window when the image was downloaded to the internet."

There was silence. As the witness seemed to have lost his capability to speak he turned around.

"To be recorded: The images were taken and downloaded to internet during the time our client was either held against his will in a cell with four convicts who were serving 'life without parole' sentences, or when our client was recovering in the hospital."

Now their lawyers looked screwed. I only wondered how our local media would turn this against me. The rest of the day was half hearted attempts from their side to make me look bad. They even had called Mrs. Fraser to testify. They got from her that before Sara I had been living there with two women and that I supposedly was intimate with both of them. Of course she had not seen a thing, but wasn't that already compromising enough. She didn't meet my gaze while she was there. Our lawyer could have crucified her there but there was no point. With my current reputation, that kind of shadow of doubt was nothing.

Next day was ours. We didn't play the recording we had from Sara's call, but we had video testimony from Carmella. The defense tried to deny it, but they'd had their chance to question her before the trial, and they had not wanted to do that. According to the testimony of the head of the State Police, she was afraid for her life, and with good reason. Then came the facts about my arrest, the illegal raid, and the kidnapping of Lily ... which would be tried separately, as a federal crime. The defense could not deny that it had happened. Then came the big thing: what had happened to me when I was arrested. The agreement between the policemen and the convicts inside the cell was almost touching. I had taken my clothes off myself and had attacked the four convicts - and the two of them were waiting for an opportunity to sue me. A nice piece of fiction, in general.

Then the lights of room were dimmed and a large whiteboard was brought in. Then our lawyer explained how the state police had used the same experts the feds were using, in order to reconstruct the happenings. They had used a reflection from the window that showed the figures inside the cell area and the recordings of the incoming calls, from which the calls themselves had been removed. Even if I knew what was to come, I felt sick. I didn't want to relive that experience.

The thing that surprised me, even from the first time I saw the recording, was that I had been fighting against the two convicts for almost ten minutes before I was hit on my head. My raping was not shown but there was no way of denying what had happened.

When the recording was over, and the lights were back on the judge looked at all the attorneys.

"I want to see all of you, and your clients in my chambers, now!"

Once we all ... my aunty, the Prosecutor, me, and their two lawyers ... were in his office, he turned to the defense.

"This case and all the misuse of public force just makes me sick. I suggest to you that you do your best to agree to this as soon as possible. Getting all this out in public is not doing any good for the image of the local policemen or the jurisdiction."