Here And Now

 The true genius of Olivia Bennett-Alexander is that she puts together an argument for her client's innocence with such common sense and so conversational that the average joe , who has never attended a day of law school can understand it..

She also knows her law and is well versed in it ,in case any prosecutor chooses to challenge her...

Bee Bee and I held hands...but we were mesmerized as Olivia laid out our entire defense strategy for all four of our clients... we were absorbing everything like sponges and smiling at each other..

Olivia's niece, Beverly West, her husband, Nelson East and Jasmine Coley, Brilliant Attorneys in their own right had learned everything they knew from Olivia and you could tell by the way they handled themselves  at the hearings...

Attorney Dabnis Coley, who had worked with Ms. Yvette and us and Olivia, Beverly and her crew was equally brilliant....

Josie , the newest attorney amongst us had been with Olivia and Beverly since they started their law firm was soaking up everything like a sponge too...

Having Donnie Ray Alexander and Jade Lee , both ex Homicide Detectives as our investigators was like having two cops working for us...They did an excellent job of rebuilding all four of these cases, including finding witnesses, relooking at autopsy reports, getting new DNA and forensic evidence and finding photographic evidence from Street, Traffic and Business Cams....

My dad, Judge Keith Morrison was hearing our case.... He was quite impressed with all of us and quite proud that I was part of this group and helping to argue these cases...

This morning before the hearing began...He congratulated me and Bee Bee on our engagement..

"Congratulations Beatrice...Welcome to the family....I knew you and my son were going to be married...I knew it all the time..I just wondered how long it was going to take him to realize you were the one.." he said..

Bee Bee smiled....

My father hugged her.....

I smiled.....

There were three people at the hearing who were not smiling...One was Lt. Tragg, one of the two detectives involved in all four arrests..

He was as usual, furious...

Original Assistant District Attorney Josette Krause, now in private practice..,who had updated her original case files and was trying unsuccessfully to defend her actions in the original trial...

She was no longer in a lusty mood...And she removed Lt. Traggs hands from under her skirt constantly...and finally she slapped him hard..

"KNOCK IT OFF!" she said..

"OOOOF!" he said...

Beverly, Josie, Dabnis and Bee Bee didn't even try to contain their laughter...

My dad smirked but said "Okay, Alright...Order...Order..."

ADA Karen Page looked at her friend, Olivia and just shook her head...Olivia smiled that sexy smile of hers..

Donnie Ray, Nelson, Jade, Jazzy and I stood dumb founded..but speechless...

"Let's get on with this." said my father..

The angriest person in the hearing was former Judge Alden Cox, also in private practice...He was thinking about a run for States Attorney in the spring..He had a committee in place looking at his chances...He really didn't want to be here...These four cases...All of which he was a Judge in was a referendum on him....That and the ugly rumors about his having an affair with Josette Krause, who was an Assistant District Attorney in all four of these cases  put him in a position to be censored and possibly disbarred by the Bar association...

II-

TWO NIGHTS BEFORE- Blue Bar...BAYSIDE, PA.

Two Margharitas arrived...

ADA Karen Page smiled..

"This is my sixth drink....Are you trying to get me drunk?" she asked Alden Cox..

Alden Cox smiled..

"Karen...Karen, how long have we known each other? Since you got out of law school...You clerked for my father...remember?  I remember... I was just starting out myself...Had my first job at an up and coming law firm...Helped you study for the bar, remember?" he said softly...

"I remember....You mostly were trying to get in my panties back then...

and you succeeded a time or two.....

"said Karen...remembering a few drunken boozy nights after studying hard for the bar and going out drinking with him and back to his home where they made love for hours on end...

"Good times.... You passed the bar....You and your old Law school friend, Yvette Jones

 began working at McCluskey/Cozen, Connor and Pratt, where she still works..I understand she is now Senior Associate Attorney there and on a fast track to making Partner...She even supervises four other attorneys ,who are also PENN LAW GRADUATES and an investigator, who was a cop from Hong Kong, that they helped get her citizenship and gave a job to.

who are really distinguishing themselves...I hear....Then there is your other PENN LAW SCHOOL friend, 

Olivia Bennett-Alexander, the real go getter among you gals...She started her own practice after stints in the Public Defender's Office and the very distinguished private law firm she worked at...

She now employs her niece..

A brilliant attorney in her own right and her niece's husband..

a very astute young attorney

and has recently added another attorney...

to her staff

and her husband, her own in house Investigator....

"You had a brilliant career yourself as an Assistant District Attorney, you got married and moved out to the West Coast..San-Francisco....Sorry about your husband's murder...

Which brings us to now...Once again you're an Assistant District Attorney and you've done excellent work for Garcetti....You have a seperate office downtown and a budget which you have used to hire your old friends, Olivia and Yvette and their staffs and they have won you a shitload of cases...

But this is as far as you go....Garcetti gets the credit for setting up the Wrongful Conviction Unit...You don't even have an administrative assistant...You do everything yourself...No staff attorneys because it is just much cheaper to hire your friends as consultants and to throw a bone to 

Jasmine Coley, whose firm got you the office I understand...and who allows you and them to use her firms extensive  law library..

from time to time..." he said..

"Wow, you've got some good intel Alden.." said Karen..

"My investigator is very good...

far more thorough than Lt. Tragg...He couldn't find a polar bear in a phone booth."laughed Alden Cox..

"Okay....So what do you want? We've taken this trip down memory lane.."said Karen Page..

"This is about here and now...here and now baby....You are in a dead end job...This I am afraid is as far as your career is going to go...A New D.A. might scrap your unit altogether and you wind up prosecuting cases again or worse...Out on the street... So I'm offering this to you...Shut this thing down, resign and come in with me...I work for a powerful group... I can set you up in an office with an Administrative assistant and a Para-legal...annnnnd....If I become States Attorney....You can come with me and work for me... It'll be way more money, more prestige anddd we can catch up on uh oldddddd times huh baby?" he said.

He ran his hand up her dress...He had been feeling her legs all night...He was softly rubbing her butt and feeling her silky panties..

She removed his hand..

"First off...You're too late...Wayyyy too late on everything ! These attorneys have been working on these cases for weeks...These men have been transferred from four state prisons to CFC...Their families are awaiting justice...and I have contacted two judges...I can't just shut this down and even if I could...I wouldn't...

"If I didn't know you better I'd say you were trying to bribe me...Not a good look Alden...I'm not really after you or your good friend Josette, who I'm certain you've made the same offer to...I'm just trying to clear four men, four forgotten men who have had their live thrown away. "said Karen..

"Good Night Alden" she said.

She plunked some dollars on the table to pay for her drinks...she straightened out her dress and got up and hailed an Uber and went home..

TODAY-

Court had adjourned for lunch and everyone was back...

My Father was ready to make his ruling...

"I have never seen such blatant miscarriages of justice in my life....From the very slapdash and sloppy police work to damn near prosecutional mis conduct...These cases reek of just plain sloppiness and unprofessionalism...I am dropping the charges in all four cases....All four of you men are free to go and I will personally see to it that the city pays you for your suffering..."said Judge Morrison...

The room erupted in cheers and laughter and celebration...All four men...Three African -Americans and one Latino and their families hugged them and us...

"This was something wasn't it?" I said to Bee Bee..

"It was ...I was just glad to be a part of this.."said Bee Bee.

"These are the kind of cases that make me proud to be an Attorney..I'm glad you guys were part of this too...I couldn't have done this without your help...All of you."said Olivia.

"Me too!" said Beverly...

"This was a good case or cases...I'm glad we got those guys off.."said Nelson...

"Ten years, ten years lost...Nothing can make up for that.."sighed Josie..

"True but at least they don't have to spend another day behind bars.."I said.

"This makes me feel good about being an Attorney."said Jazzy....who like all of us was exhausted, but happy.

Dabnis said to the four freed men..

"Here is my card..when you get ready to get your money from the city...I'll represent you.." he said..

An angry Lt. Tragg said..

"Just like you Coley...Chasing ambulances...already trying to get another payday at the city's expense...Whyyyy I oughta knock you the hell out right now!" he said, livid....

Before he could do anything though...

Ms Yvette got in between him and Lt. Tragg and congratulated every one...

"You all did a great job.....I'm sooo proud of everyone.." she said, hugging everyone of us..

Jessica Sanchez-Burrows , the attorney and our friend from the Innocence Project had brought the case to our attention and had overseen it... She was confident with the team Olivia had put together that she didn't need to even take part in it...She could focus her attention to the Immigration case that was to be heard in a few hours..

Lt. Tragg looked at her with a deep hatred...She was the one who brought these cases up, Got Olivia and Karen Page involved in the first place...He was livid!

"Hey Guys...Just a reminder....Dinner at my house tonight!!!! We are using that third floor as an entertainment space..."said Kayla, who worked in the building at Jazzy's firm, but was not involved in the case.

She had been planning this dinner with Alfreda for about two weeks now..And she had invited all of us.

"You made a big mistake Karen." said Alden Cox..

"I don't think so..." said Karen as we all filed out....

Lt. Tragg was fuming....

Josette Krause was in tears..She was in fear of her entire career being in jeopardy....

She sat in her car, crying..

Lt. Tragg opened the door..

"Gee I'm sorry kid...Sorrry you had to go through that circus up there.."

She motioned for him to get in the car...

She kissed him passionately for a few minutes...

and soon they wound up in the back seat of her car...with her panties off, her skirt hiked up and she moving slowly up and down on him..

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW GEEEEEEEEEZ!" he moaned as they went at each other like wild animals...The car bouncing up and down....

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH ARTHUR....UMMMMMMMMM ARTHUR..." she moaned..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU JOSETTTE...OHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he moaned..

Lucky for them both the parking lot was relatively empty and no people were around..

The car bounced up and down furiously... This was the one thing that went right today.

III-

That same afternoon at 3:00 pm ..The second hearing began.. Sofia and Kahlil and Jessica Sanchez-Burrows and her husband, Chip Burrows were the Attorneys on this case...

Judge Percy Reynolds  presided over the hearing..The hearing involved four people, convicted two years ago of killing an ICE Agent..

All four, Three men and one woman were married to American born citizens, had children born here and had been upstanding citizens.. Convicted of a single murder, the Murder of an ICE agent..and facing deportation...

The Innocence Project and the Wrongful Conviction Unit were jointly working on these cases...

Once again, Lt. Tragg was the arresting officer in this case... The original Assistant District Attorney in the case  had died since the case was tried...Breast Cancer and the original Defense Attorneyhad since been disbarred..

He came in, his suit was wrinkled...There was lipstick on his collar and he smelled like a woman's perfume.. He was in a decidedly better mood

Once again his work was being questioned.,.

Private Investigator, Kevin Morris and our Investigator Jade Lee had worked on the investigation...

Much like what she had done with Donnie Ray, she and Kevin found witnesses, both those who were at the original trial, conflicting statements and witnesses who were never called, New DNA and forensic evidence, Street, Traffic ,ATM and Business cam footage to help out...

because this case involved Latinos and Latinas...This case was close to the hearts of Sofia and Jessica and they argued passionately....

Chip and Kahlil also argued passionately in the defense of the three men and one woman....

Lt. Tragg argued that he was going by the evidence that presented itself at the time of the trial...

He was arguing in front of the wrong judge....

Judge Reynolds hated his guts....He couldn't forget that this man had arrested him two different times on fraudulent murder charges...

He swiftly tossed out the murder convictions of all four people...

The families and friends of the four clapped and cheered and hugged their attorneys....

Judge Reynolds glared at Lt. Tragg and smirked, then walked out...

Lt. Tragg was glad of one thing...None of these cases was on the news...He didn't have to face public humiliation over it...He fumed....

"Well Ms. Jessica...You brought me five cases... and they were all good cases..because of you...Eight people, who were wrongfully convicted were freed today...I have a position open as a staff attorney..If you ever wish to make a change...The job is open."said Karen, hugging her..

"Thank you Karen...I think I just like being an Activist Attorney right now.."said Jessica graciously...

"Come on...Let me actively help you out of your clothes...We got a few hours before the dinner at Kaylas house...He laughed...

"You are always sooo horny papi...." laughed Jessica..

Bee Bee and I had already left and were already downstairs in one of the vacant rooms..

Making crazy love....

Kissing like it was no tomorrow...

Kahlil and Sofia were on yet another floor in another empty room...

Making love on an old couch in the empty office...

It was going to be a shame when all of these offices were finished and filled..

Beverly and Nelson,unknown to us were on the same empty floor in the just finished bathroom...Since there were no offices here...No one used it...

They were making passionate love in the bathroom

It was the second time they had attempted this .....

Chip talked Jessica into using one of the empty office rooms on the floor directly under us..

Where they too made crazy love..

and in a corner of the law library...

Jazzy and Dabnis weren't making love. They were in a corner of the law library kissing passionately..

A nice end to a lot of hard work...

IV-

SOME HOURS LATER-

"Hey guys...come in....See , this is the third floor, you have one in your soon to be homes...You can use it for storage or you can use it for entertaining as we do.."said Kayla.

"You know what? That's a good idea."said Bee Bee.

"Yeah....we can use our basement for storage..."said Sofia..

"We can put a TV up there...make it a movie room or entertainment center ." I said. I was so happy seeing the girls so excited about our new lives, being married eventually..

"That looks like what they did."said Kahlil..

"I don't use mine at all...but I'm getting a Washer and dryer for my basement...and there is a little room for storage..This is a great idea.."said Ms. Yvette..

"It is a good idea...I can't wait until I move in and we do this together."said Gary, Holding her hands..

"I can't wait until you all are our new neighbors..We are going to have sooo much fun!"said Kayla.

"You hang out with them almost every weekend!"laughed her husband, Ray.

Jade smiled as she and Danny Ho walked in...

"Your new place looks nice...You guys will all be together again huh?  I can't wait until you move..We'll have more privacy.."said Lt. Danny Ho...

Jade was going to be renting a house at the end of our block.

"Grab some beers guys, right over there.."said Ray..

There was plenty of beers..

"Here comes the food."said ADA Rockland Cambridge, who along with Donnie Ray, Nelson, Paris and Alfreda brought the food trays in and set up two tables..

"We aren't going out of town for Christmas this year...This would be great for a huge Christmas dinner."said Donnie Ray..

''Yeah...Any house on this block could host it.."said Nelson.

"Watch out...Hot stuff."said Paris.

"Set it over here"said Alfreda, who had contacted a caterer she used to date and who had hooked up this entire meal.

They set up two tables..

With all types of foods...Pasta, Fried Chicken,Soul Food , salads,

Mexican foods...and Chinese Cuisine because we were an International Family now!

There was plenty of room for all three tables as well as sodas..

and plenty of people to eat it..

Olivia

Beverly

Josie

Jazzy, who felt so good to be living amongst old friends and new ones...

and her husband, Dabnis, who felt the same way..

Chip

and Jessica, who loved them all and was glad to be living around here amongst them...

Zoey and Lem evened out the crowd..

Good Food, Good Conversation...Good Friends.

 

 EPILOUGE-

There was an inquiry into Attorney Josette Krause....,She was censored...but not disbarred because of the statute of limitations..She resigned from her law firm and moved to New York.

There was also an inquiry into Attorney Alden Cox....He too was censored, but not disbarred because of the statute of limitations, but his inquiry had far graver consequences....It was on the news...and as a result ,it harpooned his quest to run for States Attorney....He was furious....He still works at his downtown law firm...

ADA Karen Page did not open the investigations...This was done by John Garcetti, the District Attorney...The Image of him fighting corruption and his Wrongful Conviction Initiative ,plus his office's prosecution of major criminals helped him win re-election into the District Attorney's Office with a landslide...He was seen as a Progressive District Attorney...

That night...

We returned to our apartments...We hadn't moved yet....That wouldn't be for awhile...

Bee Bee sat on the bed in my room...

"I'm so excited Hot stuff...I haven't been this excited since I was a little girl..The night before Christmas..  We are getting married....Married...Me and You....and we got a house...a new house...Ouuuuuuuuuu..My Mother said she always knew it was going to me and you...Even when we were in law school and I brought you to my house pretending you were my boyfriend...before we even kissed..."she laughed..

"I remember that first time we kissed...In your apartment, right after you and Sofia moved in here."I said, smiling..

"I remember too...Your lips were so soft...You caught me off guard.....And then  that second time when Sofia almost caught us...was like WOW!  I couldn't stop thinking about you.."said Bee Bee..

"I couldn't stop thinking about you either."I said, laughing at the memory.....

"I can imagine.....Like right now....Look at you....Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuu What are we going to do about you? All Hard, All Big....Myyyyyyyy goodness Hot Stuff.." laughed Bee Bee.

I pulled her to me and kissed her slowly and softly.....

Bee Bee straddled me and eased herself down on me, moving up and down slowly.....

"Ummmmmmmmmm Hot Stuff, we are going to be Mr. and Mrs. Hot stuff soon....I can't wait...ummmmmmmmmmmm.."she cooed.

"Neither can I." I moaned..

We were making sweet love soon....We hadn't picked a date yet or sent out any invitations...All that was coming in the near by future...

Me and Bee Bee.. Kahlil and Sofia and Ms. Yvette and Gary...

There was a season of weddings in our future...The future looked bright.