Chapter 10

The following characters appear in this chapter:

Young Hollie,

Miriam’s daughter, 5’-5’’ tall, 120 pounds, 32C-22-34, 18 years old, long blond hair, green eyes

The Wrongful Death Trial started just over 9 months after Victoria’s death. If she and the child had lived, it would have been something like a month old. CPS had been very uncooperative during this time. They had refused to meet with the parent’s attorneys to even consider a settlement, as they would admit to doing nothing wrong. After the suit was filed, they again refused to even talk to the family’s lawyers. They refused to answer any of the interrogatory questions, or to provide any of the documents related to the case. Requests under the Freedom of Information Act were returned without comment.

At first, representatives of the state government had objected to these highhanded tactics, but after a short time, they had withdrawn their objections. It appeared to be a case of the tail wagging the dog, and CPS continued to stonewall the suit. In fact, their lawyers had at first even refused to show up in court. After the judge had threatened to have them arrested and jailed, they arrived under police supervision.

Their contention was that CPS was a state agency, and that they were immune from prosecution. The judge didn’t find that to be the case, and turned down their motion. Their lawyers still did everything to impede the progress of the trial. Jury selection took over 10 days because they wanted to minutely examine every prospective juror.

When the trial finally got underway, those summoned to testify from CPS wouldn’t show up. The judge finally lost her judicial temper.

“Mr. Attorney, your clients will appear on time, or I will issue a bench warrant for all of those involved in this case, and the police will take them into custody to assure their timely appearance,” she told the CPS attorneys. Following that, those from CPS who were involved in the case managed to be there when necessary.

The trial had been in progress for a couple of weeks, when one morning the judge made a startling announcement.

“Due to unforeseen circumstances, I must recuse myself from this trial for personal reasons. The trial will be in recess until another judge can be appointed and become familiar with the case. The jury will remain sworn-in and await the resumption of the trial,” the judge told us before closing the trial.

The reason for the judge recusing herself quickly became apparent. She was divorced and had a 16-year-old daughter. The daughter had become pregnant, and had refused her mother’s demands that she have an abortion. Not only did she refuse, but she went public about it and appeared on the evening news that night.

“After I got pregnant, my mother demanded that I have an abortion. I will not have one. She is hearing a case about a girl who was forced to have an abortion and subsequently she killed herself. I refuse to have one and will raise my baby myself,” the daughter told the reporters. This created quite a media event, and led to more interest in the trial.

The trial was on hold for two weeks while a new judge was appointed, and he became acquainted with what had already occurred during it. He was even more stern than the previous judge had been and would not put up with any of the shenanigans that CPS had tried previously. He made this very clear on reopening the trial.

During the trial, our lawyers laid out our case point by point and at the conclusion of each point called on the CPS worker who had been involved in that portion of it to question them. They also called on various medical professionals for their professional evaluation of what had occurred. Additionally, there was the minister from the family’s denomination who gave his testimony on their religious beliefs. Lastly, there were the members of the family that Victoria had been assigned to. While nice and considerate people, they were completely out of their depth about the problems that she was having, and what, if anything, to do about them.

The picture painted for the jury was one of an incompetent CPS that rushed in where they had no knowledge, and had failed to consult medical authorities before seizing Victoria and destroying her both mentally and physically by their uncaring treatment of her in pursuit of bureaucratic haste. As one mental health expert put it when testifying, “The end was predictable from the way they, that is CPS, treated her.”

The trial dragged on for a number of weeks, as the lawyers for CPS tried to make excuses for what their clients had done, but in the end, the jury found Child Protective Services, its workers, and the State at fault for Victoria’s death. They awarded her parents seventy million dollars in Pecuniary loss and thirty million dollars in Punitive damages. Both CPS and the state were shocked by these awards. A substantial portion of the awards went to the legal team who had done the work. The money could never replace their lost daughter.

The state legislature was also very upset and created a separate panel to oversee how CPS conducted its business as well as passing new requirements on them in the form of obtaining competent medical assessments of each prospective client before taking action. There were also requirements for semi-annual mental evaluations for all of those employed by CPS, and the evaluation of those under their care at least annually. A number of CPS employees resigned rather than undergo these evaluations. Over the next ten to fifteen years our problems with CPS were minimal.

The story ended there, as there were only a few random notes on the pages of the book following that before the bold handwriting came to an end, though there were still many pages left in the book. On the next page there was just a date from some thirty years ago at the top and the following words:

My Jake was murdered today by someone who is the scum of the earth.

Jacob was 72 years, 1 month, and 23 days old.

How can I go on without him?

The handwriting was very neat, and far different from that proceeding it, and young Hollie recognized it as that of her grandmother.

The next page was just as grim. It also had a date at the top of the page, but it was a much more recent date. Below it in her mother’s neat handwriting were the following words:

Hollie Brady Rust passed away today.

She was 72 years, 1 month, and 22 days old.

She just gave up.

Young Hollie had only closed the book, when her mother, Miriam, entered the room a minute or so later to find her daughter there with tears in her eyes. That was when she also saw the book sitting on the bed.

“Have you read all of it?” I asked in a gentle voice.

“Yes, all of it, mama,” the young woman replied.

“The story doesn’t end there, though no one has written it down ... at least not yet. Perhaps that is something that needs doing, but not yet. It’s much too soon,” I told my daughter.

“Sit here on the bed, and I’ll tell you the rest of the story,” I told her and we sat on the bed, and young Hollie moved up against me for the comfort I provided.

“Daddy, that is Jake, fought long and hard for the concessions that he finally got from the state. The people at Child Protective Services hated him because he had been able to get a number of their regulations changes and more than a few of them fired or quit. A couple of them were sent to jail for the things they had done, or at least had failed to do. He had also managed to get the way they operated changed.

“On that fatal day, he was on his way to a meeting downtown when this drunken and high fool in a stolen car passed out, lost control of the vehicle, and it ran up on the sidewalk. Daddy was killed instantly, and 8 more people were injured, several severely. The scene was a bloody mess. The police and the EMTs arrived quickly, but it was too late for daddy. He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead there.” I stopped there, as I was all choked up and had tears on my cheeks also. After a short time I began again.

“When they called mama, she rushed to the hospital, but there was nothing they could do. When she learned that Jake was dead, she cried, moaned, and screamed for a time. The doctors and the nurses tried to console and calm her down, but her grief was so deep that it did no good.

“Eventually, she quieted down and just cried. I was there with her, as I had been the only one at home at the time. When I learned what had happened, I called your Aunt Hollie and Uncle Josh. They came to the hospital and helped calm her down. Things were quiet for a time until the police arrived. They were detectives and were investigating the accident. When they explained what had happened to her, mama turned into a demon.” I paused here again for what I had to tell my daughter next.

“I had never heard mama cuss, or use bad language in all of the time I grew up,” I started again. “On learning the facts, mama started cussing. She cussed everyone and everything. The words that came from her mouth would have made a sailor blush. She wasn’t just mad, she was insane, and she was determined that everyone within hearing would know it. She ranted, and she raved for a good forty minutes. She turned red with anger. Finally, one of the doctors gave her a shot while two of the big male nurses held her down. Mama was out for a couple of hours.

“When she woke up, she was much calmer, and apologized to everyone for her behavior. Two of her assistants from work had arrived while she was asleep, and they talked to her for a long time as soon as the doctor allowed them to see her.

“She called Mr. Albright then. He was the head of the law firm by then. She told him what had happened, and that she wanted every bit of information that was available about that driver, and that she was going to personally see that he went to jail for life.

“She told him, ‘Spend whatever it takes. There is no limit on this case. He has taken from me all that I cared for. I will take from him everything that he has or will ever have’. I know, as I was in the room and heard her. She was quiet then, but she was still as mad as she had been before. She was just controlling it better,” I finished.

“What did Mr. Albright do?” young Hollie asked.

“Mr. Albright had his people on the case for several months. They traced the driver back to his childhood and found the trouble that he had gotten into then. They followed him through his teen years and obtained a copy of his rap sheet to follow what he had done. He was a bad person. He had been in juvenile detention for burglary and drugs. Later, he had been in prison for the same or similar crimes. There was also a suspicion that he had killed someone, but it couldn’t be proved. His lawyer got him off on a technicality He had only been out of prison for six months at the time of the accident,” I told her before continuing.

“He was driving a stolen car during the accident. His driver’s license had been revoked two months prior to that, so he had no license. He was drunk. His blood alcohol level was several times the legal limit, and he was high on cocaine. He passed out while driving,” I told my daughter.

“Do we know why his license was revoked?” young Hollie asked.

“His license to drive had been revoked because of a similar accident, but again his lawyer had gotten him out of jail. Mama definitely wanted the names of both of those lawyers. She had plans for them, but that was later,” I admitted to her.

“What happened then?” young Hollie asked.

“When Mr. Albright’s people had gathered all of the information, mama made sure that it all went to the District Attorney, as she personally put it in his hands and told him that she wanted justice, and that she had better get it. The DA wasn’t happy about that, but mama had a lot of influence with the people who had supported his election, and he knew it. Mama wasn’t above blackmail, and she wanted her revenge. She eventually got it, and the driver was sentenced to life in prison without parole. It wasn’t enough, but it was the best that she could get,” I finished with a sigh.

“But that wasn’t everything, was it? What else happened? All of that occurred just after Grandfather Jake died. What about all of the years after that?” young Hollie asked.

“Yes, there was a lot that happened over the next thirty years,” I told her before continuing the story. “The woman who was released from the hospital the day that Jake died, wasn’t the same one who had arrived there. She was a wounded and dejected shadow of her former self. She had made sure that daddy received the last rites, but she cried all of the way to the house and all of that night. She was inconsolable.

“When they called the following day about releasing daddy’s body, resolution returned to her. She called the largest funeral parlor in the city and had them pickup daddy’s body. She then went directly to their location nearest our house and arranged for the largest, finest, and most ostentatious funeral that they had. She also called the church that they were attending and arranged for the funeral mass. It too would be large and impressive. She browbeat the pastor until he arranged to have the Bishop himself there to celebrate the mass,” I told her.

“The Bishop, himself?” young Hollie asked, impressed.

“Yes, she had a lot of influential friends and had some of them use their influence to have the Bishop accept the invitation. She also had her people call everyone that she did business with, and many she didn’t, to invite them to pay their respects to daddy and to attend the funeral. She spent money like it had no value, but she was determined to give her Jake the finest sendoff that was possible.

“Daddy looked very good in his coffin, but only the top part was open, because of the injuries he had suffered in the accident. Mama was at the funeral parlor every hour that they were open for the entire time that he was there. She would greet the many people who came to pay their respects, but she refused to wear black. She wore a light blue outfit the entire time.

“A lot of people came as daddy was well known for his work in the community. Little Hollie, Josh, and I were there with her, but not always all three of us together. We needed to take breaks, but mama never did. Some of her people were there with her and us also. They were there to take care of the details and to help answer questions. While there had been an article in the paper and also on the news about the crash, many people still had questions” I told my daughter before continuing.