The trial began....
Nelson knew exactly what kind of juror we needed, not wanted...but needed for this trial...
Working around the clock... Olivia , Beverly and Nelson worked on
strategizing on how they were going to run the defense...going over witness statements, autopsy reports, street and traffic cam photos and mostly deciding that we needed an unorthodox type of juror, young, quirky , one who thinks outside of the box...
This type of juror would have to think outside the box...We had a married couple in a marriage of convenience in which the man was Gay and the wife was a lesbian and yet who both loved each other deeply...Place your head around that....
Josie spent the night with us...She worked on finding precedents...Legal precedents....
A very nice girl, who had already been subpeonaed by ADA Baronski.
Sasha had loved Aida very much and had loved her for close to five years....right around the time Billy began seeing Byron....She knew him and he knew her and they all were quite fine with it..She told us..that it was Aida who actually wanted the divorce and wanted them to be an open couple..
We asked her if Billy was aware of what she was planning to do and she told us that the day she died, she had planned to talk to him about it...She didn't know if she did..
Beverly and I reported our findings to Olivia.
"She doesn't know....ADA Baronski doesn't know that Billy is Gay!!!....She thinks he killed his wife because she was leaving him for a woman...Oh my god...Diane dropped the ball on this."said Olivia..
Diane didn't know too much about jury science..and that had allowed
Keith Jones and Kahlil Ahmed to get 10 of the 12 jurors they needed for their very successful defense of their client...Diane Baronski's only defeat in court so far...
She won her next 10 cases easily...but she defeated Public Defenders, young ,overworked ,underskilled attorneys...I did some research on her...She made her reputation in Boston feeding off of the same type of attorneys.
Beverly rewarded him with a kiss..
Diane Baronski stared at us....
"They look too damn confident....Too damn smug." she said..
Lt. Tragg sat back and smiled... His hands had been up under her skirt for the past week now..rubbing her legs and her thighs and palming her butt.. They had somewhat made up since she had last slapped him...
He was as red as a beet and had a pleased as punch look on his face...
and resumed making out like teenagers..
and going at each other on the couch...Her sex drive rivaled any man 's....This had been an everyday thing for the past week!
He thought about that as he squeezed her butt and made her jerk a bit..
"Ouuuuuuuuuuuuu cut it out...oh my goddd..." she moaned silently...and softly removed his hands, smiling sheepishly at him.
"Arrrrrthurrr....go over that crime sceeeennne...and find out who their alibi witness is..for me please?" she cooed gently and blew in his ear...
"Anything you want...Ouuuuuuu Anything.." he moaned...
With both Bert Vandenberg and Jumpshot Jim out of the way...The path was clear for him, he thought..
II-
THREE DAYS LATER-
Initial arguments began in the murder case of William "Billy" Gleeson, one half of the Marriage counseling team of Billy and Aida Gleeson...
A crowd of his and Aida's fans and supporters sat in the visitors section...This case was widely talked about and heralded...
It was all over the news...People finding it hard to fathom that one half of the "Perfect couple " would kill the other.. People wanted to know..
Assistant District Attorney Diane Baronski began with what we all thought was a bit over dramatic and over the top summary of the events that led up to the murder and declared that the murder was committed because that day...Billy Gleeson discovered that his wife was Bi-sexual or Lesbian and was planning to leave him for her lesbian lover.
This brought gasps from the crowd and shocked looks..
THEY DIDN'T KNOW THE HALF OF IT!
The Jury was equally disgusted by the photos..
She paraded C.S. I. personell, People from the Medical Examiners Office and cops and detectives at the crime scene..
We didn't question them on cross at all... There was no need to...
On the fourth day of trial She called her big witness..
Sasha Giddings..
As she told us..she and Aida had carried on a relationship for five years...She said that Billy didn't know about it at first, but that he and his gay lover walked in on the two of them in bed and then it was all out in the open..
This revelation stunned everybody ,including Diane Baronski, who didn't know that Billy was Gay...
We knew the whole story and she didn't.....Where was Bert Vandenberg? She should have been apprised of this.
Diane composed herself....She asked Sasha if it were true that Aida was planning to divorce Billy and break up the team..
Her big surprise had faltered out...She went for the bloody shoes next!
Olivia produced a Forensic Specialist , I had known when I was on the New Orleans Police department and who we had flown up from New Orleans to testify...This man was a blood splatter expert.. He testified that the blood drops on the shoes were dried blood and were there earlier from the fresh blood that was on Aida's clothing..
Beverly testified that Aida had had a nosebleed earlier in the afternoon and Billy had given her a tissue..She had witnessed this herself because she and her husband had been at the book signing.
And her investigator, Bert Vandenberg was still missing in action...Not returning her calls and texts and seemingly no longer interested in working for her...Had he of been around she would have had more intell, better intell..She wouldn't have been caught flat footed...
Lt. Tragg sat back and smiled..
Beverly called Billy Gleeson to the stand..She wanted him to talk about he and Aida's relationship...
He sat down, he composed himself and then he took a deep breath..
Who looked stunned..
"People like you Beverly is why we didn't come out of the closet sooner...Your hurt, your disbelief...Your dissapointment..It would have killed you all, our loyal fans...As it is doing now...Let me tell you all a story...I played Football and Basketball, I was all city in both, lettered in both...Girls always liked me.. I mean they were throwing their panties and bras at me...but for some reason, they left me cold..I just wasn't interested...by the time I was 15..I knew...I knew that I was Gay...That I liked boys...Men....My mother thought that I was shy, but my dad knew, He suspected all along and he shunned me..
"Why did you two get married?" asked Josie
"I didn't trust anybody else..and she didn't either..and I uh guess it just seemed right.." he said.
"Did you two uh ever?" asked Nelson.
"Have sex? Yes...of course we did..We were married after all...but it was weird...Never as good as it was when I was with Byron.....Byron and I met five years ago and we just clicked..I took him home to meet Aida..I walked in on her and Sasha..That's her lover....We got it all out in the open...She was uh having an affair with Sasha and I had Byron...It worked for us...for awhile..We started writing the books, the Podcast, The Radio show and the marriage counseling and it all worked out.."said Billy.
"To the tune of millions."said Olivia.
"Yes...We've both made more money than we can ever spend...but we both tired of living a lie..Byron wants to get married and Sasha wanted Aida to move in with her..The Pressure of our relationships was getting to both of us...But we wanted to write one more book and then we talked of calling it quits..ending the Podcast, the radio show and the practice and quietly going our seperate ways..but I guess that's all over with now...I would have liked for this to have been handled quietly and not like this..but..here we are." he said silently...
''You did love her didn't you Billy?" asked Olivia silently..
"Billy arrived at my house at 11:45 pm and was with me until 8:00 am the next morning...That's the honest to god truth..."said Byron...
ADA Diane Baronski took her last shot...She attempted to break Byron down, asking him how he was sure what time his boyfriend got there and asking him if it was dark, did he notice any blood on him? was his boyfriend particularly nervous.. It wasn't getting her anywhere..
Beverly and Olivia argued that the witness was being needlessly badgered and that a lot of the questions had been asked and answered...
The Black wing tips were produced with the dried blood on it..
Without doing hardly anything, we had taken the sails out of ADA Baronski's argument and she knew it... 
Lt. Tragg had given her a case with more holes in it than Swiss Cheese..
She gave a still very brilliant closing summary....but it was all to no avail...She had to now do her best to derail our defense...
To her surprise , We would open our defense the very next day...
III-
Olivia addressed the jury..
"You've been here for a week and you've heard a whole lot of nothing..I plan to not only prove that my client is innocent.. but I plan to give you an idea of who might have committed this crime." said Olivia.
"Yeah right!" he said..He snaked his hand up Diane's skirt...
"NOT NOW! LATER MAYBE!" she said sternly..and removed his hands.
"Did you know your wife had a female lover Billy?" asked Olivia softly..
"Yes!" he said.. He looked straight at Beverly.
Aida....Aida was gorgeous, had a stunning body...Was a cheerleader...We had known each other for years..A lot of guys had thrown themselves at her...but she didn't give too many the time of day...
Her mother and my mother were friends and they fixed us up on a date...A blind date... Well we went to a movie and out to dinner and uh I drove her home and we sat there in the car and she told me..
"Look, before you get started trying to kiss me and trying to take my bra off.. you're a nice guy and all and I'm telling you this ,because I can trust you...but I like girls...I'm sorry, but I do..I'm not into guys sexually...I'm sorry." she said..
I felt soooo relieved...I told her my secret...That I liked boys and we just clicked...We became sooo close...We talked on the phone at night for hours...We went out on fake dates again and no one was the wiser...Everybody thought she was my girl and I was her man...We graduated, went to the same college,had the same major, went to the same grad school.. and carried on this little secret courtship..I had boyfriends and she had girlfriends...but to the world..we were a couple.. My father and I grew closer...He died thinking I was straight... ''Guess you just had to meet the right girl." he said, he had no idea.
''Very much!! Very Much...and she loved me.." he said.
Some of the jurors and spectators were in tears....
Diane had never expected Olivia and Beverly to call him as a witness..
She considered this a gift from heaven!!!..
She went at him hard, asking if he knew that Aida was planning to divorce him...He said over and over that he did not..
She inferred that he hated Sasha and was jealous of their relationship and didn't want her to break up their lucrative relationship..
He held his composure and said that nothing was further from the truth, that Sasha and his boyfriend Byron and he and Aida were like an extended family...
This was the first time she had heard the name Byron..
Olivia and Beverly called their alibi witness...Byron Johnson..
Byron was our alibi witness...he was a perfect witness...He stated that he and Billy had been lovers for five years and that Aida knew about it...Knew him and was good with it..Since she herself was a Lesbian.
He stated that he was about to go out of town on business and that he called Billy or rather texted Billy at 9:59 pm. It was in both of their phones as the jury was shown.
Judge Wong agreed with the girls and cautioned ADA Baronski.
"That's 15 minutes before the time of death stated on this death certificate as 10:30pm-10:35 pm..No way he was headed in the opposite direction and there at the same time killing Aida."stated Nelson...
Rudy Collins, the business manager of Both Billy and Aida Gleeson..
He laughed..
"Not at first...but I uh eventually found out.." he said.
"Yes." he said.
Before you hooked up with those two..You were let go or asked to leave your previous firm because of embezzlement right? You just missed having charges filed against you...Is that not correct? Remember you are under oath!"said Beverly..
He was as red as a beet...
"YES!" he said..
"It was Billy who hired you, saving your skin,....Aida was always suspicious of you...In fact , on three seperate occassions, she hired auditors to go behind you, didn't she? I have all three auditors here , who are willing to testify to that and to the fact that you were very upset about it.." said Olivia.
"YES!" he said.
ADA Baronski removed Lt. Tragg's hands from under her skirt..
"He was a viable suspect...You had your boyfriend Bert on it...Why didn't HE FIND ANYTHING?" said Lt. Tragg defending his once again, shoddy police work.
Nelson showed him papers and then turned the 50 inch monitors on...
"This is the income..Billy and Aida were bringing in....Only they were seeing just a quarter of it..While your bank account was growing fatter by the second...You were skimming from them...Billy didn't know it..But Aida knew..and I believe she confronted you that night after everybody left.....I believe she told you that she was planning to leave Billy , thus breaking up the band, thus ending your meal ticket as well as tell Billy you had been stealing from them...and you killed her didn't you?" asked Nelson...
"Before you answer think about this...This is street cam footage of you getting in your car and tearing out of the bookstore like a bat out of hell at 10:37 pm, just minutes after the time of death...."said Olivia,showing footage , actual street and traffic camera footage of him exiting the bookstore on the 50 inch monitor for the jury to see..
"I uh think I would like to seek the advice of counsel." said Rudy Collins..He was sweaating and nervous..
"That's a good idea..The Defense rests your honor." said Olivia.
"You...You...You have got to be the worst detective on the force!!!...I told you to go over this case.,..You didn't know about his lover...You never looked at any other suspects like the business manager?? You bring me a case with more holes than Swiss Cheese...Ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!" she said Angrily...
Diane stared at Olivia and Beverly...
She had nothing but contempt for Lt. Tragg..
Lt. Tragg was red as a beet, but for a different reason.
"The Jury is back in guys."said Josie.
"My, that was fast.."said Beverly...
"I thought it might take a few days.."said Nelson... "I wished it had." said Nelson, feeling good from kissing Beverly..
She blushed....She whispered to Nelson..."Awwwwwwwwww...I'll take care of you later...you know that Boo."
"With the jury you picked Nelson...No wayy it wouldn't come back fast.!" I laughed.
"With the investigation you launched..That was a stroke of genius...Looking at the books..following the money trail..and landing on Rudy Collins...No one was looking at him..."said Olivia..
"But they should have.." I said. Once I started looking at the money trail I found auditors and close associates willing to talk about Rudy and his shady dealings and disputes with Aida. There really was no reason or little reason to bring up their sexual preferences and relationships...I felt bad about all of that.
''Well, here we go."said Billy Gleeson..
Byron was with him...
"We did it Neicy Poo! We did it again!" said Olivia, high fiving her niece...
"This feels so good...Giving her a defeat...She was so smug, so sure of herself.."said Beverly..
"They all are smug until the verdict is read.."I laughed..
"Yeah, how about that?" said a jubilant Nelson...
"I'm ready to knock back a few cold ones.."said Josie..
"Spoken like a true attorney."said Yvette Jones -Lockwood, who had come to see us work..
"I'm so happy for you Liv, Bev.."said Zoey....
ADA Diane Baronski was furious...Not just because she had lost a second time...but because the case was soo weak to begin with...She was furious at Bert Vanderberg...
for a few minutes..
Lt. Tragg laughed heartedly and hysterically...
"The first round is on me for my girls, Olivia and Beverly, who knocked it out the box in court today.."said Yvette Jones-Lockwoood..
who with her husband, Gary Lockwood toasted us..
"Oh Thank You....I'm soooo glad it's over."said Olivia, who was sitting on my lap.
"It was a satisfying win.."I said.
Beverly was oblivious to the toast,
She was busy kissing Nelson..
who was also oblivious..
Josie was herself busy
Kissing Paris..
who like Nelson was not complaining..
IV-
THIRTY MINUTES LATER-
Beverly and Nelson had been standing in a corner, kissing passionately..They eased out of each other's embrace.
"Bailiff if you have the verdict of the jury, pass it to me.."said Judge Wong...She opened the verdict and read it...Her face did not betray any emotions..
"Read the verdict." she said.
"THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE MATTER OF WILLIAM GLEESON..
COUNT ONE-USE OF AN INSTRUMENT OF CRIME IN THE COMMISSION OF A CRIME-NOT GUILTY!!!"
"COUNT TWO - CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE- NOT GUILTY!"
"COUNT THREE, THE MOST SERIOUS CHARGE, MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE, NOT GUILTY!!"
The Jury was polled and each one said" NOT GUILTY!"
Byron, Billy and Sasha all hugged each other and cried tears of joy....
He was never seeing anything under her skirt again she mused ...and Lt. Tragg,
.what an incompetant boob she thought...He had cost her two trials....
ADA Jim "Jumpshot Jim" Taylor walked by...He took ADA Diane Baronski in his arms..
''Where have you been baby? I've missed you so much." he said and kissed her passionately..
She was upset about losing the case and she slapped him hard again...It was a loud slap that caused heads to turn!
"I'VE TOLD YOU NOT TO ACOST ME IN PUBLIC!!! I LIKE MY PRIVATE LIFE PRIVATE!!" she snapped.
Making it worse....The Press saw the entire thing and snapped photos...
"THAT IS IT!!! THAT IS THE LAST TIME YOU EMBARASS ME IN PUBLIC!" he screamed and stormed out of the courthouse holding his face.... This was definitely going to make the evening news..He was furious....His face was as red as a beat!
"It's going to be a pretty lonely night for you darlin.." he said as he left the courthouse, avoiding the press that usually pilloried him after a big loss..
She had now lost Bert Vandenberg and Jim Taylor...This couldn't have been better if he planned it himself.. He giggled and walked out....
She walked over to a small corner and began to cry profusely.....
We ended our night in the best place for us to party and feel safe from Lt. Tragg, Josie's....our favorite neighborhood spot..
Bed springs would be squeaking tonight..You could make book on that!
Josies was packed...and good times were all around.. The other team that handed Diane Baronski a defeat was there tonight too...Keith Jones, Bee Bee Jones, Kahlil Ahmed, Sofia Garcia Ahmed and Jade Lee, there with her boyfriend, Danny Ho..
It was a Friday Night..A cold Friday night and everybody wanted to be close to home..And Josie's was the best place to be with it's mixture of live music and 10 D.J.'s...
Jazzy and Dabnis, Kayla and Ray and Jessica and Chip rounded out our little extended family...
In a corner, Byron, Sasha Giddings and our former client, Billy Gleeson sat drinking and talking quietly..
I wondered what the three of them would do now... Billy looked over at us and smiled and sent a round of drinks over to our table..
Tonight was a good night..Halfway in and I didn't have to pay for anything.
EPILOUGE-
while later that night at our house..
We started off with a little late night snack for two...I say started off because we never finished..
Never really got started..
I couldn't sit there with Olivia like that for too long..
"Donnie Rayyy stop staring at me like that." Olivia whispered..
"Come here, so I can stop staring.." I said to her...
It started with kissing....
and ended with us on the floor..
"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....UMMMMMMMMMMMMM DONNIE RAYYY!! OUUUUUUUUUUUWEEEEEEEEEE......." she moaned..
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I cried out!
and us in the bed...
And to all a good night!
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