Cruel Joke

There was a hush in the courtroom on this Monday Morning as the 45 inch video monitor came on and they saw a recording of that fateful night , a few weeks ago when Karen White performed..

Karen came on the stage...She was met by applause...Obviously these people hadn't heard her stand up routine...

"Hello yall...As Symphony Sam Said... I am a practicing Attorney...Yeah, I went back..I practice in the day and do this at night so you better laugh at my jokes or I'll sue your asses..." she said..

That was met with only light laughter...

She told her first joke...Nothing...She then went into another long monolouge that went nowhere...Again nothing...

She then chided the crowd for not laughing...

A pretty young woman sitting in the middle of the audience said-

"Well I guess we all gonna get sued because you aint said nothing yet that was funny.."she said..

This got more laughs than anything the comedian said all night...

"Oh Look, a Heckler.....And it's you...Admit it heiffer , you're a fan....You've heckled me in two clubs and now here..." said Karen..

"I was unfortunate both those nights....I was here for the chicken wings..." said the woman...

Again, More laughter...

''Everybody's a comedian.." said Karen..

"Except you!" said the woman...

The crowd exploded  into laughter....

Karen was obviously perturbed...She couldn't hide it..


"She's funny isn't she?  So funny I forgot to laugh... I forgot how to laugh..."said Karen...

Silence...Nobody was laughing....

"Tough crowd...Tough crowd tonight ."said Karen, who went into another long monolouge that went nowhere and got no laughs....

 "Damn is this story going somewhere...??" The audience exploded into laughter....

 "Maybe they should pay YOU!...I'm the one that's gettin paid to do this.." she said icily at the woman.

"Well you're  just stealin the church's money because you aint funny..." said the woman...

The place exploded in more laughter....

"What's the matter, your mommy and daddy didn't pay enough attention to you as a child?" asked Karen...

"They did...They told me not to be a comedian...What did yours tell you?" said the woman...

The crowd in the video and the jurors howled with laughter...

Karen told about three more lackluster jokes...No response... In fact, the crowd was thinning out, People were ordering drinks, walking around, even leaving...

"Boy this is a rough crowd....What's the matter , you guys drunk or something?" she asked..

.
 "If they aren't they need to be...." said the female heckler...

The crowd busted out laughing at this point...

Mercifully, Symphony Sam walked up on the stage...

"Okay folks..Give your love to Ms. KAREN WHITE yall...KAREN  WHITE!!!"

There was a smattering of applause...Polite Applause...

The jury was thoroughly entertained...

Rockland Cambridge was at his best, laughing along with the jury, High fiving the bailifs ,who were laughing along with the jury at the video...

Then he got dramatic....

"I don't have to say anymore...Our victim was merciless...Mercilessly accurate...Ms. White...I hear you are a very talented Attorney...Really,I've heard your co-workers attest to that all last week..But really...You suck as a comedian..."he said.

The Jury erupted in laughter...

He continued..

"Anybody being gutted like this would be angry....I'D BE ANGRY IF IT HAD OF BEEN ME!  So I understand....I understand...but killing someone is NEVER RIGHT!!! Karen White had been humiliated..and it wasn't the first time...These two had HISTORY!!!  This had happened as you heard on two different occassions..

Karen White couldn't take it...She had had enough...She got a gun and followed Ms. Rogers home and didn't give her time to close her door before she cold bloodedly gunned her down...

You may feel sorry for the way she was heckled....but we live in a civilized society.....We CAN NOT HAVE THIS TYPE OF THING!!!   Perhaps Ms. White if you had stuck to what you do best...You wouldn't have even of been on that stage and this young woman would be alive...This vibrant young woman who had everything to live for...At the prime of her life...Struck down on a night when she was just out ,having fun!! Ladies and Gentlemen of the jury....You must find Karen White guilty.." he said and smiled a superior smirk and sat down...

He was easily Olivia and Beverly's equal, a very eloquent and charismatic man with an electric smile and a cocky demeanor about him that exuded confidence...He was quite impressive...He didn't show any of that indecision or queasiness we had witnessed Friday night...He looked like a champ, like a winner!!!




II-

Olivia smiled at the jury...She was so cute, so sexy ,so petite..She too exuded confidence....She had a way about her that often caught people off guard...Underneath her sweet, sensual and charming vaneer  was one of the most cut throat Attorneys I had ever seen...

"You know..I was there that night...With my husband and my niece...I saw that show....   I laughed too at the late Ms. Rodger's remarks.....Ms. White,my client was visibly upset...It's not easy performing in front of a crowd of people...And then to be humiliated the way she was..While it was funny, it was cruel too...Part of me feels sorry for her now...and I was one of the ones laughing at Ms. Rogers...But my client didn't kill her..She couldn't have...and I'll prove it today and we can all go home."she said..

Several Jurors looked relieved when she said that!  She knew they would...She was hoping they would!

Olivia called the coroner and two detectives...They all gave the time of death as right after three o'clock am..

Olivia called three of the tenants in her loft...including one who discovered the body...They testified that it was in between three and three fifteen they said..when they heard gunshots and discovered the body....None of them saw anyone!

The police dispatcher got the call at 3;30am, he testified..

This was all routine stuff that had already been established, but she wanted the jury to hear it again..

Then Olivia showed time dated footage from the Traffic cam that showed Karen White's car heading in the opposite direction to Jake's Hot Dog Shop...She showed the license plate and produced  DMV files showing beyond a shadow of a doubt the car was Karen's...

She even had a still that clearly showed Karen sitting in the car ,across the street from Jake's.

"2:30 am to 3:00 am...She's at Jake's Hot Dog Stand, sitting in her car...Crying after a humiliating night in Josies..Jake's is in the opposite direction...If she was there at this time.. 2:30am- 3:00am ,She couldn't have possibly been at the scene of the crime...She couldn't cover that much ground in 15 minutes...The facts don't lie...There is the time dated footage."argued Olivia..

Beverly showed footage from the Airport...

"That's her car and that's clearly her at 4:00 AM...Even if she did shoot Latoya at 3:15am, It is impossible for her to be on the other side of this big city, even minus rush hour traffic that fast..."argued Beverly...

The Jury now looked Bewildered.....

Rockland  Cambridge was stunned...He couldn't object...

Judge Turner Freeman smiled...

"Your honor...We have one  last witness to call...and then the defense will pretty much rest..."said Olivia..

"I STRENUOUSLY OBJECT YOUR HONOR...I WAS NOT TOLD OF ANY SURPRISE WITNESS!!!" said Rockland..

"Your honor ,I am asking for the court's indulgence in the name of Justice...This witness will clear this whole mess up.."said Olivia..

Judge Freeman frowned , then said..

"I'll allow it Mrs. Alexander...Just be specific..." he chided..

I brought Beatrice Beasley into the courtroom...I found her and with the help of the State Police and a subpeona...compelled her to come to court and testify...

Beverly planned to question her...

After she was sworn in....Beverly smiled and asked her...

"State Your Name."

"Beatrice Beasley"she said.

Beverly gave her the serious side eye..

"You do know you're under oath don't you?  Perjury is a serious crime....State your real name please." said Beverly...

"I told you..Beatrice Beasley..." she said..

"That's not your name...Isn't your name really Tangerine Joy Huggins and haven't you been thought to be dead for two years???" asked Beverly...

And there it was...That big surprise we had been sitting on...

"WHAT THE HELL IS THIS?   IS THIS SOME KIND OF TRICK??" screamed Rockland..

"Counselor...Sit down....Continue Mrs. Alexander..."said Judge Freeman

The woman was stunned...She didn't know how to react...

"Take your time and answer the questions carefully.....While you are trying to find your tongue let me explain to you how we know who you are...."said Olivia , who showed her a plastic bottle of Bleach....

"We found this in your apartment...The apartment right above Ms. Latoya Rogers.....Now Beatrice Beasley..If you were the last resident of that apartment...Why is the fingerprints of a long thought dead woman...Tangerine Joy Huggins on this bottle?  Your fingerprints led us to your military record...You were a marksman.....Small Firearms...Like the gun you used to shoot and kill Latoya Rogers!'said Olivia..

The Jury gasped...

"You...You crazy...." said the woman...

Beverly produced Newspaper clippings and a Police report from three years ago...

"You caught your husband, Leroy Huggins and Ms. Rodgers in bed, in your North Jersey home didn't you?  You nearly killed her...You were under indictment for Assault With Intent to Kill when you faked your death in the boat explosion in Margate...For two years....Two years you were thought dead...and you reimagined yourself as Beatrice "Honey Bee" Beasely..You got a new social security card,New Credit Cards, New Bank Account and a whole new identity....Except that the real Beatrice Beasely is a little white girl who died in 1965 at the age of five..." she said..

The woman began to cry....

"I was tricked...I was tricked..." she wailed..

"You seethed with hatred for the woman who ruined your marriage and your good name...She had no idea that you were living in the same loft...Just a floor above her....It must have enraged you when you saw your husband slipping over to the loft as he did the week before..Still sleeping with her...That's when you got your gun and you shot and killed her...Ironically enough ,she had called and left a message on your husband's phone..."said Olivia..

"Oh My God!...She broke up my happy home...The Home I thought was happy...She was a man stealing bitch!  I hated her...I hated her...I was in the Comedy Club the night she roasted that poor woman....That's how I knew the bitch was living here in Philly....I followed her..I followed her and found out where she lived...It wasn't hard getting a spot in that loft...They had just recently opened... " said the woman...with tears streaming down her face...

"You disabled the street cam and the back security camera so that you wouldn't be seen disposing of the gun....You used bleach from her apartment to clean the gun...We found your thumb print on that too!The reason why you never showed up on the other street cam is that you were already in the apartment...and when you disposed of the gun, you went out the back, where there was no working camera...Isn't that right?" asked Beverly...

"Yes..Yessssssssssssss!" said the woman, sobbing...

" Don't say anything else....I suggest you get yourself some counsel...The Defense rests your honor...My client was nowhere near the murder scene and this woman appears to have waited two long years to get her revenge..."said Olivia in what was the shortest sumnation of her career.

In a last ditch effort to save a case that had just collapsed before his very eyes...ADA Rockland Cambridge went into a 45 minute sumnation of the night of the murder and his now stale notion that Karen White killed out of rage...He told the jury to ignore Olivia and Beverly's surprise witness and their street cam charts...and find Karen White guilty of First Degree Murder...It was Jury Nullification at it's best...

Judge Freeman admonished him and explained to the Jury that they could only convict Karen White of Manslaughter.....

The Jury was out for a total of 15 minutes before coming back with a verdict of NOT GUILTY!

 "We did it baby girl!!!...We won!! We beat him!!" said a jubilant Olivia..

 "We won! We Won Auntay!!!" said Beverly..hugging her aunt and kissing her cheek!!!!

 "Oh My God...Thank You Both,...Thank You So Much...I knew if anybody could checkmate that guy...It was you two.."said a jubilant Karen White...

"Nice going girls.." I said...

Nelson was there ,smiling...

"Wow...Now I'm no longer the last person to beat him...I'm feeling some kind of way.." he joked..

"We couldn't have done this without you Donnie Ray....I love you.." said Olivia..

 "Just doing my job baby! I love you too!" I said.

We kissed passionately for about 15 minutes...

"Wow you two...come up for air.." laughed Beverly...

"Don't worry about them....Come here and give me some sugar!" said Nelson...

"Your wish is my command!" laughed Beverly....

And soon they were kissing passionately over in the corner..

Josie, who was also there said to Karen...

"Come on,let's you and me go and get some coffee...They'll be joining us soon."

Karen smiled..

"Hmmmmph, doesn't look like it to me..They gone be doin the Hibbity Bibbity soon..." she said..

Josie laughed...

"The Hibbity Bibbity?" she said..and laughed...

"Yeah.."laughed Karen...

As the court emptied...ADA Rockland Cambridge  was having a breakdown...

"I can't believe it...I lost...I lost the damn case...Judge!!!...Judge!!!... Judge!!!! Poll the jury!" he said.

Judge Freeman looked at him...

"The Jury is gone....It's over son....You lost....They'll be other cases.." he said softly....

"NO...NO....I DID NOT LOSE!!!...THEY TRICKED ME!!! I DID NOT LOSE!!   "he screamed and threw his briefcase across the room...

He kicked over several chairs....

"I DID NOT LOSE...THEY TRICKED ME!!! I DID NOT LOSE!!   "he screamed...

"BAILIFF!! BAILLIF....GET HIM THE HELL OUT OF HERE!!!" screamed Judge Freeman..

"NO...NO....I DID NOT LOSE...THEY TRICKED ME!!! I DID NOT LOSE!!   "he screamed...

Bailifs and Police carried him out...

 ''Wow, he really took this hard." said Olivia.

''Did he act like this when he lost to you?" asked Beverly to Nelson...

"He sulked...But nothing like that.." said Nelson...

"He just needs to grow up ,that's all.." I said.

Judge Turner S. Freeman walked out...He smiled at Olivia..

"Mrs. Alexander, Ms. West... I'm wearing the panties we brought from your friend Bridget's store...They are so relaxing..It was the only way I could take that Rockland Cambridge fella...Perhaps we ought to buy him a pair...They are very relaxing....I envy you ladies...My My Myyyyy!"he said.

''Perhaps" laughed Olivia.

"Oh My God!" laughed Beverly....

Nelson looked at me..

"Wait a minute....Hold Up!!!! Did he just say that he's wearing panties?" he asked.

"It's a long story Nelson." was all I would say...

EPILOUGE-

Tangerine Joy Huggins was charged with 2nd Degree Murder...Karen White was true to her word...She and another Attorney defended her ,arguing diminished capacity....She was found guilty with special circumstances and sentenced to 10 years in the State Mental Facility known as "Blue Skies"

 Rockland Cambridge took a leave of absence from the D.A.'s office immediately after the trial...The last we heard, he is in deep therapy......

That night...Olivia, Beverly,Nelson, Josie and I celebrated Karen's freedom with her at the Brewery!...

''Karen, I love a woman who enjoys a good brew...I'm trying to get your two Lawyers over there to appreciate a good brew..."I laughed

as Karen, Nelson and I knocked back beer after beer...

''We are ladies...We like Liquors..." joked Olivia..

as she ,Josie and Beverly enjoyed Margaritas...

Beverly looked at Karen...

"I know...We are bourgie ,aren't we?" she said,laughing...

"Hey, you guys just saved my ass....You're alright with me....I drink Margaritas and Liquors too." joked Karen..  "I can't thank you again....You two saved my life and my career....My law career.." she said.. She then looked at Nelson...

"Mr. East?" she said..

"Yeah Karen..." said Nelson...

"Beverly is a good girl...I like her!! She's a keeper...I better not ever hear of you taking her out and you losing your wallet...You hear.?..And you better make her an honest woman one day!!"she said..

We all roared with laughter...

"Roger that!" laughed Nelson...

"You do that and I promise to do what I do best...the Law...Being an Attorney...I'm officially retiring from being a Stand Up Comedian..."said Karen...

We all clapped and cheered and whistled...

"You know somethin? Yall aint crap!" said Karen and then she busted out laughing!  We all laughed and toasted!..


FOR JULIA