The Grand Hoax

The Courtroom was packed and this was just the preliminary, Voir Dire...

While most of the press was kept outside...

Per an arrangement made with the court system and the television network, B.L.Benz's television crew was allowed inside the courtroom to film the precedings.

As you can guess, the Atmosphere was electric..

 Olivia, no stranger to big trials and television coverage was a little nervous...She held my hand for dear life and her palms were unusually moist..

I tried to get her to laugh, I whispered in her ear..

"Your palms are moist....I hope that's not all that is moist.."

It worked...She smiled...

"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu you are so nasty Mr. Alexander...."she said and kissed me..

"Thank you though...You made me laugh...and yes...I am moist there too!!! Just for you.." she said in between the kisses..

Beverly and our client Richard and Josie walked in and sat down ,not even looking at the juror pool.

Nelson, wearing a smartly tailored new suit by Sam The Tailor and sporting a fresh new haircut and some of my new cologne stood in the middle of the courtroom ready to pick jurors...

Attorney James Solis, the former Assistant District Attorney who successfully prosecuted the original trial stood opposite him...Ready for a joust...

Lead Attorney Olivia Bennett-Alexander walked past him and joined her niece, Beverly and Josie with our client..

The stage was set..

B.L. Benz walked over...He smiled at the girls ..

"Thank you so much for this ladies and gents...Everything has worked out just perfectly..."he said.

Sitting on the other side of the courtroom, beet red and seething with anger was Lt. Tragg...No TV show and no bar to hang out in...He felt betrayed...

A Victory by his old friend James Solis today and in general would vindicate him...

James Solis stared at Olivia so balefully that she felt a little uncomfortable..

 Olivia turned to me...

"I'm so glad you're here with me... I'm so glad you're in my life..." she whispered..

"I feel the same way about you.." I said..

We kissed again, slowly and softly....

James Solis kicked the table angrily upon seeing us kissing..

"You're perfect for me.." whispered Olivia in my ear..

I smiled.






II-

The weekend leading up to the trial, saw Olivia, Beverly and Nelson discussing the strategy of the defense..

"We have eyewitnesses up the wazoo, but as Donnie Ray said...90 percent of them have some type of record, DUI, Ex Con on parole, Drug offense...I know James, he is going to try and discredit our eye witnesses..."said Olivia.

''At least we won't be surprised...We know everything about every one..."said Beverly..

"Right...but this case is won on DNA....The fact that his DNA is not a match and we have an independent lab, the Philadelphia Medical Examiner's Office and the FBI all agreeing is irrefutable...We win on DNA..."said Olivia..

''We want as many African-American jurors as we can get...He had none in the last trial...We want young people,urban people who don't trust the system...Young white people who fit the same mold if we can get em."said Nelson...

"You want a miracle jury don't you?" laughed Josie..

I walked in just then....I had acted on a hunch and it had played out...This was Days Before...

I had seen George Mason eating and drinking in Sam Mother's Diner..After he left...I took his plate, knife, fork,spoon and glass...There was enough DNA on these items to get DNA evidence and give to Hazel...

Hazel compared his DNA to the DNA taken from the semen in Wilma Mason's panties and the saliva on her bra strap...

"IT'S A MATCH!" Oh My goodness...Her husband is the rapist?" exclaimed Hazel...

"No ,he's not.... but I think we've all been snookered here..." I said.

I showed Olivia the results.

I whispered in Olivia's ear..

"Oh My God..You just won our case ,beloved.."she said.

and kissed me again...

III-

So here we were in court, picking jurors..

Nelson pulled out all of his tricks and then some...

James Solis was formidable...but a little off his game.. He was busy staring at my wife...

In the end, The jury was made up of 7 African-Americans, 3 males, 4 females, One Asian Woman and one Latina and three whites...all working class...

Olivia and Beverly both smiled at him and nodded their approval...

And so the trial began...

James Solis was a brilliant and articulate orator who wove a story of jealousy and betrayal that led to a brutal rape, assault and robbery on a summer night, three years ago....It was much of the same argument he originally presented.. Just altered slightly..He appeared very satisfied with himself and glared at Olivia and Beverly and smiled...

Olivia ignored him...

Olivia and Beverly argued that our client wasn't even present at the scene and that they had proof that another person was responsible for the attack that night.

James Solis called all of the original people from the first trial, Policemen who processed the crime scene, CSI and Forensic people.. and three eyewitnesses.

Josie passed Olivia and Beverly some notes and some documents...

Olivia smiled and nodded her head...She showed the notes to Beverly...

Olivia and Beverly cross examined them and asked some of them about statements they made afterwords  about this being the work of the Lovers Lane Rapist or a copycat but not likely Richard Allison...

They compared conflicting statements the three eyewitnesses made to Lt. Tragg and later on in the trial..

The Original Public defender had brought up these conflicting statements before but didn't hammer down on them like he should have..

James Stolis vigourously objected, but the judge allowed them to answer that they had.. He was amazed at how well prepared Olivia and Beverly and their Para Legal, Josie were...

They left nothing to chance and weren't surprised by anything he threw at them.. The so called Mountain of Evidence he claimed to have had been reduced to an ant hill.. Plus he wasn't playing to the same type of jury he had before...An all white practically suburban jury of older people...This jury was younger , had more people of color in it and was more critical.

Micheal Morrison, the Actual Lovers Lane Rapist was brought up...While it was acknowledged that his DNA was a match in the four previous cases...it wasn't a match in this case...

Without offering a bit of new evidence...James Solis tried his same weak case from 2016...and gave practically his same closing argument in little under three days..

He looked satisfied..but it was all an act... He knew that through cross examination,

Olivia and Beverly had weakened his case considerably...

Nelson, who was good at reading juries smiled..

"He didn't convince them of one thing...I'm not a betting man, but I think we could get an acquittal right this minute." he said.

I agreed with Nelson.
IV-

We took off two days to further cement our defensive strategy...It was also psychological...To throw James Solis and Lt. Tragg off...

Olivia and Beverly gave a passionate argument about how some people are pre judged because of their race, the way they look or their past and that sometimes the law isn't fair to them...

Lt. Tragg smiled and shook his head..

"They got nothin.." he smirked.. "They're really stretching now, they're playing the race card. They only pull that out when they've run out of ideas.." said Lt. Tragg..

"Look at that Jury...It's different from the one we had two years ago...They know what they're doing.. They did their homework." James Solis was forced to admit.

Josie took notes and passed them to Nelson and Beverly..

Nelson and Beverly called a slew of witnesses from Josies, Aqua Bar and Stoleys  for the next few days...all of whom swore that they were with Richard on the night of the attack and at times when he couldn't have possibly have been at lovers lane..

As expected, James Solis brought up their criminal pasts, DUI's, Drug arrests, Speeding tickets, Unpaid tickets, being an ex con on parole, what have you..He had done his homework too..He had Lt. Tragg check them all out.

Olivia and Beverly and Josie expected as much as soon as I gave them a run down of these people's past.

I had seen many a lawyer suddenly surprised by something a prosecutor brought up and thrown off their game...I made sure that Olivia, Beverly and Nelson weren't surprised..

Olivia countered that their pasts did not make their testimony any less credible...

She produced on a sixty inch monitor, Photos of Credit Card and Debit Card receipts from all three establishments at the time of the attack...

"Now unless he allowed someone to use his cards...or he's Superman...He was nowhere near the attack site. No way he could have been at these bars and half way across town at the same time.." she argued..

She showed video, Time stamped video of Richard and friends actually in the club and the times..

I sat in the courtroom, I smiled.. The best was yet to come...

Both James Solis and Lt. Tragg stared at me balefully... They knew I had done a stellar investigation..

Beverly called George Mason to the stand...

He looked nervous, but Beverly smiled at him and spoke in a soft reassuring tone..

"You were beaten and robbed right.?" she asked..

He looked around...

"Y-Yes. I was knocked unconscious.. He had a blunt instrument." he said.

"And yet you were released from the hospital about an hour after you arrived. and here is the report from that night.. It says no internal wounds or bruises...You weren't even bleeding.. You were released after an hour. I would think that being struck with a blunt instrument and being knocked unconscious would at least leave a bruise...Yet here in these photos from that night..You don't have a bruise, no swelling, no bleeding, nothing...You look unhurt at all...You were released in record time I would say." said Beverly..

"I guess ,I guess I was." he said.

"Your wife identified our client in a line up....but YOU NEVER DID!, Why Is That?" asked Beverly..

"I object...RELEVANCE!" shouted James Solis..

Beverly smiled a devilish grin...

"I withdraw my question....No more questions your honor." she said.

 Olivia showed the jury The DNA report...

"Defense exhibit A.  This was done by an independent lab, the Medical Examiner's Office of Philadelphia and The FBI's lab in Quantico...The findings are conclusive....The DNA IS NOT RICHARD ALLISON'S..He wasn't at the scene and the DNA found in the Semen in Mrs. Mason's panties and saliva on her bra strap is someone other than Richard Allison." she said and passed the report around..

Nelson called Wilma Mason to the stand..

"Mrs. Mason..Did you and my client have a prior relationship?" he asked.

"WHAT?" asked Wilma Mason incredulously..

"Remember...You're under oath and I have three women, three of your girlfriends who are prepared to testify that you two did have a relationship." said Nelson...

Wilma sighed..She glared angrily at her girlfriends, who looked uncomfortable..

"Yes we did. We broke up and I got engaged to George and he couldn't deal with it..He called me constantly and he dropped by my job several times begging me to take him back. she said and smirked..

All of that was true...They even had a loud yelling and shouting match...but after that..Richard obviously moved on.

Nelson continued.

" So you would know if he was the one who attacked you because you knew him, right?....but you didn't mention his name for 48 hours until you saw him in a line up..."said Nelson..

"I-I was traumatized by the rape.." she said..

"Mrs. Mason...You weren't raped....And you know good and well who that semen belongs to....We got a sample of your husband's DNA the other day...and compared it to the DNA in the semen in your panties...It's His....You two made love in the car on that lover's lane , We found traces of semen on the back seat of that car.,it's a match to his DNA also....and one of you or both of you concocted that entire story....There never was a rape or a robbery...You had heard about the Lovers Lane Rapes and you were still angry about your break up with Richard Allison, Especially since you saw him a few nights before with his new girlfriend, who used to be a confidant of yours..You were the one who couldn't deal with the break up..and you convinced your fiance to go along with this crazy plan to frame him for this to exact some kind of crazy revenge...Isn't that right?"asked Olivia.

Wilma Mason laughed..

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about...." she said.

"Oh I think I do."said Olivia.   "I have a record of several calls you made to this woman from a blocked number late at night in the weeks leading up to the so called Rape and robbery..That Blocked number was from your burner phone am I right?" asked Olivia.

"I plead the fifth on the grounds that answering that might incriminate me."said Wilma..

Olivia laughed..

"Okayyyy, but I think you just did incriminate yourself." she said.

Beverly showed her a photo...

''Do you know who that is?" she asked.

She looked at Beverly angrily..

"Of course I know who it is...Yvonne Jenkins..."she said testily..

"Your girlfriend...Your ace boon coon at one time right.? Now Mrs. Yvonne Jenkins-Allison, Richard's wife!" said Beverly...

"She's no friend of mine."snarled Wilma.

"Of course not now...Richard started dating her after that last time you two had that big argument at your job...You were livid and you started seeing George, who had always liked you, but you had ignored all that time didn't you?" said Beverly..

Wilma glared at Beverly with red hot hatred...

"I aint sayin nothin else.." she said and folded her arms..

George looked at Wilma with anger...

Beverly smiled..

"No more questions" she said.

"I OBJECT!!!...THIS IS PREPOSTEROUS, THERE IS NO PROOF OF THIS AT ALL! THIS IS HERE SAY...ALL OF IT!!!" screamed James Solis..

"There is Proof!!It's in this report...The DNA of her husband, then her fiance is a 98.9 percent match...We already know our client wasn't at the scene, we proven that!...We know Micheal Morrison, the real Lovers Lane Rapist's DNA was not a match either.. This was a hoax...A Grand Hoax. You , Lt. Tragg and everybody involved was bamboozled." said Beverly..

The Jury and spectators oooued and ahhed.

"This was the Grand Hoax.... The Lovers Lane Rapes was in the news that summer...Everybody was talking about them...You cooked this whole thing up and blamed Richard....Even if he didn't go to jail, the stench of being suspected would ruin his social life...You sat back and watched him get a 10 year sentence and you said nothing...SHAME ON YOU MRS. MASON...ShAME ON YOU!" said Olivia.

 James Solis stomped his foot in anger...He realized he had been snookered...The whole thing had been a hoax!

Lt. Tragg looked like he'd swallowed a canary...

I smiled...

Wilma  Mason burst into tears...

"You two ought to be ashamed of yourselves." she said.. Still trying to play the victim...

"Oh knock it off...It's over...They got us." said her disgusted husband ,George who stomped his foot and kicked at a chair..

They both were taken into custody by Sherrif's Deputies  and charged with making a false report...

It took the Jury twenty minutes to find Richard Allison NOT GUILTY of RAPE, ROBBERY AND ASSAULT....

His wife , Yvonne was there with his three year old daughter... His daughter had born after he had gone to prison...This was his first time seeing her as a free man.She hugged him and kissed him.

"Oh My God, you two are the truth...Oh My God...I had been screaming for three years that I didn't do any of this...Thank you so much.."said Richard Allison who kissed Olivia, Beverly and Josie.

and bear hugged Nelson and me..

It was satisfying to free an innocent man and expose to reprehensible frauds in the meanwhile... I kept thinking...Richard's alibi could have been discovered right away...Lt. Tragg never tried to alibi him out..Even if I didn't believe him...I would have checked...When the Lover's Lane Rapists DNA didn't match either...I would have started looking elsewhere..I might not have thought to investigate the husband...but I wouldn't have sent an innocent man to prison for three years....Three years they can't give him back.

B.L. Benz was ecstatic, he got the scoop and the ratings he wanted and the surprise ending he could only dream about..He hugged Olivia and Beverly and rocked them back and forth...

"This doesn't happen in every trial B.L."said Olivia ,laughing....

"Most of what we do is pretty main stream, boring stuff.."said Beverly...

"Well this was an exception...Look, I want to take you guys out to dinner...and drinks...My treat.."he said..

Nelson smiled...

"That sounds great..." he said, happy with a win , his first time at bat for his new firm...

 "Wow this was one for the books." said Josie..

"There was something about this whole thing that bothered me from the start...and when Micheal Morrison's DNA didn't match...I was convinced there was a copycat on the loose or this was made up..."I said.

Lt. Tragg shook his head... In little under three weeks ,I had done what he should have done three years ago...Cleared one man and actually found the real perpetrator....He stomped his foot in frustration. He still wanted to punch B.L. Benz's lights out.. Traitor!

The Press ate it up.....They snapped photos of us and gushed over the five of us...

They interviewed a very happy exonerated and vindicated Richard Allison..

Who said because he has a conviction on his record he can't become an attorney, but he intends to become a Para -Legal and an activist for other wrongly accused..

B.L. offered him a co-hosting job on his Podcast-WRONGFULLY CONVICTED!

James Solis tried to avoid the press...

"I have no comment... No comment guys...I think what the Masons did was horrible and I hope they are punished to the full extent of the law...What?  I plan to go back to my law practice..That's all guys." he said and pushed pass them..

They were kinder to him than they were to Lt. Tragg..

"Bamboozled eh Artie..?" asked one reporter...

"These things happen.." said Lt.Tragg..

"They always seem to happen to you." said another reporter, which was met with laughter...

"Knock it off." said a very angry Lt. Tragg..

"Wow...Not your year is it Artie?" jeered another reporter..

"Hey Artie...Why don't you start a show...WRONGFULLY ARRESTED?" said yet another reporter.. which was met with guffaws of laughter....

"THAT'S IT LOU....I'VE HAD IT!" said Lt. Tragg who could take no more..

He tackled Lou and punched him several times in the face...Lou punched him and knocked him over the side of the press table..

Lt. Tragg snatched his camera and smashed it to bits and then punched him in his stomach and then in his jaw..

Lou punched Lt. Tragg in his stomach and then his jaw...

Several Reporters punched Lt. Tragg in his head and face...

Fists began swinging...Punches were thrown...and a near riot broke out...all caught on still running film...

We stood along the side watching the entire thing...

"You know B.L.  Win or lose...Lieutenant Tragg is good for your ratings." I said.

B.L. shook his head..

"He is at that!" he said..

Olivia, Beverly, Nelson, Josie and James cracked up laughing...

Wilma Mason walked by us in handcuffs....She glared at Richard Allison and burst into tears..

"I hate you.." she said..

Richard and his wife Yvonne said nothing...They just stared at her....





EPILOUGE-

Wilma Mason was sentenced to one year in prison, Her Husband got one year probation, but no jail time.

B.L. found a great rooftop bistro....

 With great drinks

and great beers.

 "Your money is no good tonight folks.. It's all on me....Well, the Network...They were pleased with the performance you guys put on...Talk to your friend Yvette Jones

...I'm interested in making her and her team the same deal."said B.L.

 "Vettie told me she prefers working in the background...but you know what? Make her the same deal you made us and she might change her mind..Vettie is like my sister...I know she loves money." laughed Olivia.

 "I must admit...This was different...And I like that you kept your word..You didn't interfere with our planning and strategy or my investigation...You just covered our court appearences..."I said.

 "This Food is delish...and I can't drink another thing."said Beverly...

 "Me neither." said a pleased as punch Nelson...

"I heard that the Masons both got a year a piece in prison.." said Josie.

"They deserved more for what they did..."said B.L.  "A man spent three years in jail for their little stunt and for what?? Because she couldn't completely move on after a break up?  That's crazy!"said B.L.

"I heard Lieutenant Tragg was suspended without pay for two weeks for that brouhaha at the courthouse.." said Olivia.

''What an idiot...Did you know he attacked me a few nights before the trial started for bringing that case to you guys and bumping his segment...The ironic thing is...His segment is running tonight..."said B.L.

''And Nobody is watching." said Nelson...

 "Awwwww mannn."laughed Josie..

 "Poor Guy can't catch a break can he?"said Nelson...

 "He really can't.."said Beverly, laughing her head off.....Tears were running down her cheeks, she was laughing so hard..

 Olivia shook her head and laughed heartedly...

I liked seeing her laughing, Happy, Stress free...All part of the job...

Nice way to spend a night in early fall.


For Monique P.