The Sexy 27

A week later, we were all at Josies ....I was setting in with Symphony Sam and his Jazz Orchestra....I was playing a trumpet solo that was stellar,if I say so myself...Gus, the bar owner and head bartender and the crowd was enjoying it...He was down on the floor snapping his fingers to the music.

The place was packed....Olivia, Beverly and Nelson and Assistant District Attorney ,Nina Rios were sitting in a booth enjoying drinks and having small talk..

"Olivia...All this time I kept thinking you and I were going to clash over Richard Graves and here we are on the same side .."laughed Nina..

"Funny how things work out..."laughed my wife, Olivia...

"I was surprised that the President of the F.O.P. told Garrison that Darin Kozel was the only lawyer that they were going to pay for and that he couldn't fire him.." laughed Beverly...

''Oh man,I'll bet that fried him didn't it?" laughed Nelson...

"He was furious...They told him ...No more press conferences either...He is very close to being fired, regardless of how this turns out....I think the city may settle with your clients Livy.." said Nina..

"Hopefully not before I get a verdict from this jury..." said Olivia..

''Auntay ,you really are taking this personally."said Beverly, surprised..

"I've seen this guy before...The King of spin, defending KKK members, Neo Nazis and all kinds of cops guilty of police brutality....I've seen him defending people who have bombed Planned Parenthood centers, Abortion centers and the like...and he just gives me a bad taste in my mouth..I want to win this one not just for those women, but to beat him.." said Olivia..

I walked over to the table just then and leaned down and kissed Olivia in the lips passionately....

"Amongst her other virtues...Livy is human."I said. "Thank you for last night baby.."I whispered in her ear...

Olivia was surprisingly blushing...

''Anytime...wait til you see what I do for an encore.." she whispered in my ear...Which made me blush!

 Nelson whispered something in Beverly's ear and she blushed...The two of them excused themselves and began dancing...The Band was on break and the D.J. was playing a slow song...

''Damn girl, is it me or do you just feel extra soft tonight?" he asked..

"It's me...I'm just extra soft tonight.." she giggled as she leaned her head into Nelson's shoulders...

"So your civil trial goes to the jury tomorrow Olivia...You worried?" asked Nina...Changing the subject...

"No...If I lose this one...I would really be surprised..." said Olivia..Who sounded surprisingly confident for the first time.

"I've seen him in action before....He might go for Jury Nullification...It's all he's got left...You and Beverly have killed him otherwise.."said Nina...

"That's what I was saying.." I added..

"You did a great job locating those 27 girls...I plan to use them in my criminal trial against him.."said Nina..

"You do understand why I didn't use them, don't you?" asked Olivia..

"Frankly No...I don't..That's like your atom bomb!You could have nuked him."said Nina...

"No, not with this jury....11 White males...One Latina Female...My clients are Three Professional Black women, already stained by drug usage and a horrendous driving record for the one...You have to be practically stainless to get a predominately white jury to take you serious in a case against a cop in the first place...Now can you see me parading strippers and prostitutes who claim they've been assaulted by this cop in there?" said Olivia..

''The jury will say they were whores and you can do anything to a whore...Plus in those guys eyes...They won't be able to tell the difference between what they consider marginal people and professional women.."said Beverly ,who had returned from dancing with Nelson...She sat on his lap...He was blushing something crazy...

Nina and Olivia looked at the two of them and smiled...

"From the mouths of Baby nieces come words of wisdom."said Olivia ,looking at Beverly proudly the way she articulated her point..

"Liv, you've created a monster ." said Nina smiling and looking at Beverly...

"Garrison didn't take the stand did he?" asked Nina..

"He didn't need to....Darin Kozel was smart enough to know that I would have taken him apart had he of chosen to take the stand...He also wouldn't allow us to bring up his military record...He was put out of the Marines for a drunken assault on a female.."said Olivia.."He successfully suppressed that..He's good." she admitted.

"Oh My God...What a piece of crap....How did he become a  cop? Well ,good luck tomorrow.."said Nina...

"Thanks Nina.." said Olivia..

II-

 Nina's instincts had been right on the money...Darin Kozel pulled out all of the stops in his sumnation and attempted to use jury nullification..

Jury nullification occurs when a jury returns a verdict of "Not Guilty" despite its belief that the defendant is guilty of the violation charged. The jury in effect nullifies a law that it believes is either immoral or wrongly applied to the defendant whose fate they are charged with deciding.

Kozel was slyly telling the jury to return a verdict of Not Guilty, even though it was apparent his client had had sex with the women...He was a lonely man...didn't even have a partner and these women tempted him to keep from being charged with a crime...

By now...it was clear that he despised his client and there was purely no love lost...Tom Garrison despised him equally...But Darin Kozel was clearly a professional and he wanted to win more than anything..He gave his client a vigorous defense..

Olivia tore his argument to shreds...She admonished the jury to look at the facts....He used his authority to take sex from these women....against their wills...She showed them the ripped panties and bras of all three defendents ...

"If the sex was consensual...Why did he rip their underwear off? Why was he at one of the defendents apartment month's later??...With an incriminating photo of her buying drugs from a known dealer and why was the dealer never arrested ??"she argued... Finally she asked the men if they had wives,daughters,nieces or girlfriends and if they would feel safe with this man on the streets with them at night???...That seemed to take hold....

Now the decision was with the jury....

I put my arm around Olivia as we stood outside in the hallway....

"You think I got through to that jury?" she asked me..

"I'm certain you did..You got through to me" I said and winked....

Olivia smiled...

"I know I got through to you.." she said..

I hugged her...

"I've got appeals already planned if we lose...and if we get a hung jury...I'm prepared to start all over again....I'm not going to let him off the hook..."said Olivia...

Beverly and Nelson stood quietly with Sherry Warner, Wilma Barksdale and Tiffany Lewis...

"Don't worry ladies..I think we got this."said Beverly.

"I sure hope so."said Sherry Warner...

''I have faith in Liv and Bev..We gonna be alright."said Wilma Barksdale..

"At any rate...I'm certain he's going to be fired ,regardless...and there is still a criminal charge..."said Tiffany Lewis..

Nelson brought them some tumblers of coffee...

Darin Kozel peered at Beverly and Nelson from a distance...He looked exhausted...He looked over at me and Olivia...

He smiled weakly and was about to walk down the hallway to the men's room when a bailiff came back...

"The Jury's in...They've come to a decision!!!..." he said..

"Auntay, that's too quick...You think they acquitted him?" she said.

''When they come back that quick...That's usually what it means.."said Olivia ,looking worried and defeated for the first time since I'd known her..

I had to admit...It had only been thirty minutes...This was awfully quick...I'd been a cop...I'd seen my share of trials..

Darin Kozel looked very confident...He,like Olivia was a veteran trial lawyer...It looked like he may have pulled it out..

The bailiff passed the decision to the Judge...He looked at the decision and then looked at Officer Garrison balefully...

"The jury rules in the favor of plaintiffs ,Velma Barksdale, Tiffany Lewis and Sherry Warner..." he said..

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu ...Thank You Jesus" said Sherry Warner, Tiffany Lewis and Wilma Barksdale in unison.

 "WE WON!! I DON'T BELIEVE IT!!!" said Olivia...

 "We did it yall!!!!..We did it!!!...Now he's going to have to pay..."said Beverly laughing with glee.

Olivia and Beverly jumped up and hugged each other...All three women broke out in tears...and hugged their two lawyers...

Darin Kozel hung his head...He didn't like losing.

Officer Tom Garrison was visibly furious...

"SON OF A BITCH!!!!!....SON OF A BITCH!!!!!I DON'T BELIEVE THIS!!!!....THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!!!...YOUR FAULT!" he screamed at his lawyer...

Darin Kozel gripped Officer Garrison in the collar and snarled...

"You slimy bastard...THIS IS YOUR FAULT!!!Maybe try keeping it in your pants and doing your job the next time.."Darin Kozel screamed at him...

"Why you .." said Tom Garrison ,who punched Darin Kozel in the jaw and knocked him down...Bai;iffs grabbed him and wrestled him to the ground...It was all caught on film and in the newspapers the next day...

III-

The City of Philadelphia settled and paid 3.5 million dollars in damages to each woman.

The Mayor and City Council distanced themselves from the mess and called for the D.A.'s office to prosecute Garrison to the "full extent of the law..."

Within a few weeks...Tom Garrison, now ex-officer Garrison , (he was fired from the Philadelphia Police force immediately) went on trial for Sexual Assault and battery....The fact that he had just lost a civil case was going to weigh heavily against him...

Darin Kozel was no longer representing him...The F.O.P. had paid his fee and he was done...As was them..Yet he stuck around to watch the criminal trial...

Olivia and Beverly were still representing Tiffany Lewis, Wilma Barksdale and Sherry Warner in this trial just as they had in the civil trial....

ADA Nina Rios was prosecuting him on criminal charges... He had a new lawyer...A few friends pitched in and raised money for him to have an Attorney.His new lawyer...a very capable man named Lawrence Truck tried unsuccessfully to get information from the civil trial left out ,but the judge, a female...Wasn't having it...She allowed it to be included...

He did successfully have Garrison's military records suppressed as had Kozel before ...

Olivia and Beverly didn't have to do much arguing...They were just there to represent their clients...and advise Nina, who was proving to be a very good litigator...

Olivia had told me she was...

Nina brought in the 27 girls ...The Sexy 27, they were being called...Who all claimed to have had run ins with Officer Garrison....13 were African-American Females...7 were Latinas, 3 were Asian and four were white...He was an equal opportunity offender..

We had them dress as conservatively as possible...So that they at least didn't look like Strippers...They all looked as if they might have been Attorneys or Corporate CEO's..

Surprisingly...Despite their vocation...most of them spoke very articulately and didn't give off the aroma of being strippers and call girls..

Of course Garrison's lawyer,Lawrence Truck tried to discredit them and show the jury that these were bad women and not to be trusted...but the new jury, six Black men, three white men and three women..one white,one black and one Latina was very different than the one Livy and Bev had had...

Garrison's lawyer used Darin Kozel's playbook with Sherry ,Tiffany and Wilma..saying that they were romantically involved with Garrison and jealous when they found out he had had the same arrangement with another woman...

Beverly went back to her role as the women's friend and asked them if they had known of each other prior to the civil trial and if they had any romantic or sexual feelings for Tom Garrison..She even asked the 27 girls if it hadn't been for the fact that he was a police officer, would they have even given him the time of day...

They all vigorously said "No"

Olivia showed the ripped panties...and bras...and asked the jury why was this officer having sex with these women in the first place??...why was he dropping charges against them, even IF THEY HAD COME ON TO HIM..which they had not???...Why was the drug dealer in two of the cases still on the street,since Officer Garrison was quite familiar with him? she asked the jury..

Nina had more than enough help with the testimonies of all involved... The jury was tiltilated...As was the public...They heard tales of how he had been doing this for years..shaking them down for money and taking sexual favors in return for dropping charges against them...

The Drug dealer,known as "Crazy D." testified that Garrison had been shaking him down for years and that they had an arrangement..He 'd tell him when he had a sexy girl buy some marijuana from him and steer him to them and he'd look the other way to what "Crazy D"was doing.

It took this jury even less time to convict Tom Garrison of 30 counts of sexual assault and battery...and for the Judge to sentence him to nearly 300 years in prison...

He collapsed in the courtroom...Hell, when I heard that sentence I nearly collapsed in court.

"Awwwwwwwwwwwww lawddddddddddddddddddddddd! NOOOOOOOO!!!HOW DID YOU LOSE THIS CASE?  YOU JERK!!!!" he screamed....He kicked his lawyer and slapped him in the face as baillifs dragged him out of court kicking and screaming...

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  Awwwwwwwwwwwww lawddddddddddddddddddddddd! NOOOOOOOO!!!" he screamed.


EPILOUGE: 

 Darin Kozel had a "Come to Jesus moment" after the trial...He stopped defending right wing causes...He began defending Blacks and Latinos and workers and Women and LGBT defendents...He renounced his entire right wing philosphy and became a Progressive-Liberal...He went on MSNBC and Al Jazeera and spoke of his transformation...He even moved to San-Francisco and offered his services to the Innocence Project...

He wrote both Olivia and Beverly often thanking them for their decency and how they helped to transform him into a better man....He wrote to me, apologizing for all of the things he said about me in the press in the past...

Tom Garrison is presently appealing his stiff sentence...He's still in prison, proclaiming his innocence!

I stood in the hallway with the 27 strippers ,smiling sheepishly....

"Are you sure Mr. Donnie Ray?  I'd give you a lap dance on the house...."said one..

"No..No..That's okay..I'm married.."I said.

"Most of our clients are." said another girl..

"I'm HAPPILY MARRIED!" I said..

"Awwww that's so sweet...Big Chicken sends his regards." they said as they all left the courtroom...

Olivia, Beverly and Nina Rios came walking towards me just as the last of the strippers left the courthouse...I was glad those girls had left before they had gotten there...

"Nicely done counselor...I'm usually saying that to my wife...But today...I tip my hat to you.."I said to Nina...

"Thank you...but you and your wife and her niece laid the frame work for my entire argument...I didn't have to do anything..You guys made it easy.." she said.

"I'm just glad that freak is off the streets and we got justice for our clients...and a nice payday for ourselves.."said Beverly...

Olivia smiled at me...

"Donnie Ray, you're blushing...."she said smiling....

"Uh...Ahhhh ...no...it's uh...the heat of the uh day..."I said.

"But it's not hot out..."laughed Olivia...

I whispered in her ear..

"Maybe not....But you are..."I said.

''Well we have to do something about that. Don't we?" she asked me seductively.

We kissed softly.....

While we were kissing...Darin Kozel walked over to Nina...

 "Excuse me...Allow me to introduce myself...I'm Darin Kozel...I'm an Attorney.." he said smiling..

"I know who you are...You handled Mr. Garrison's civil trial...I stopped in a few times...I saw you...

"And I SAW YOU....Yes...It was a very difficult trial...I didn't fare so well.." he said.

"You faired quite well...Your client didn't."said Nina...

"Nice way of looking at it...Say ,I find you very attractive and a very,very good litigator...Could I offer you a drink and perhaps some conversation?" he said.

"The case is over Mr.Kozel...I don't wish to discuss it any longer." said Nina..

"I don't either...There is plenty we can talk about...Over drinks and perhaps some dinner..I know an excellent Steakhouse." he said.

"I am hungry...Okay..lead the way.." said Nina and the two of them walked out...

 Beverly sucked her teeth...

"Unbelievable...and he used the exact same line on me...What an operator."|she said laughing..

"Jealous Bev?" asked Olivia ,laughing...

 "Of What?" asked Beverly...

''Relax...Here comes Nelson.." I said..

''Sorry I missed the end of the trial..I saw them perp walking him...So I can assume he was convicted." said Nelson..

''Yup...He got 300 years." said Beverly...

"WOW!...Well anyway...Wanna go get some drinks, maybe a meal?" he asked..

Beverly took him by the arm...

"Anywhere is okay...as long as it's with you.." she said.

"And on that note...Mr. Alexander..We should go home...Take care of your blushing problem." said Olivia..

"Sounds like a plan Mrs. Alexander..." I said...

And we all walked out of the courtroom into the mid-day sun..

Nina has never told us what happened on her date with Darin Kozel...but he sends her roses at least once a month and she smiles..She gives them away....It's sooo many...I can only speculate...

<