The Tumor That Saved Me

 TWO DAYS LATER-

Inside the hospital, Life saving surgery is going on to save Sarita Moreno's life.

Surgeons are operating feverishly to remove a tumor the size of a walnut from her brain...

Bee Bee, Sofia and Judy Romero the entire time....

We arrived in court after the two day continuance was over without our client...and we attempted to defend her in absentia..

It was just Ms Yvette, Myself , Keith Jones and Kahlil..

Special Prosecutor, Maureen Thomas and

Lt. Tragg both visited the hospital and it was confirmed that Sarita Moreno indeed had a brain tumor and that doctors were indeed working around the clock to remove it.

Their presence drew angry glares from Judy Romero..

but Bee Bee and Sofia were there to comfort her and there were no angry outbursts.

They stayed by her side, even though they wished they were in the courtroom with us..

In the courtroom...

It was like the bail hearing again..Special Prosecutor Maureen Thomas argued that despite Ms. Moreno's present medical problems, she did in fact plunge a meat cleaver..

Just as ADA Diane Baronski had argued at the arraignment..Reeny Thomas argued that  Sarita Moreno had plunged a meat cleaver into the chest of William Bradley as witnessed by at least 6 people during a heated argument, concerning his embezzlement of over 100 thousand dollars from the Community Based Collective that they both worked for.. Much needed funds. and because of the extreme violence concerning this case, she should still be held accountable despite her present medical condition.

She argued that the fact she brought a meat cleaver with her in her purse that day showed pre-meditation and she should be held over for trial for First Degree Murder.

Yvette argued that Ms. Moreno had no prior criminal record, not so much as a traffic ticket and if she did commit said crime, she was arguing that it was a clear case of cognitive dissonance and under exreme duress that caused her to act out of charactor.

Reeny Thomas presented six eye witnesses to the murder. We didn't cross examine them. There was nothing to cross examine. They saw what they saw , heard what they heard..

Kahlil and I presented 39 of her fellow employees who testified to her good charactor and the good work she did in the community..

We also presented close to 200 charactor witnesses who said that prior to this incident they had never known Sarita to be violent or even so much as raise her voice until lately as in the past few months.

Dr. Oakley spoke of her present condition, undergoing an operation to remove a rather large brain tumor and the cognitive dissonance it caused.

"Your Honor, I interviewed Ms.Moreno at the womens correctional center...Her right arm twitched uncontrollably and she had trouble signing a simple piece of paper.. She had mood swings and headaches and losses of memory...This has led me to believe there is some cognitive dissonance..Now cognitive dissonance, let me explain-In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort. I believe there is more to her bizzare behavior than this.. I think there is something physiological going on here." said Dr. Oakley.

THREE DAYS LATER-

"I've heard compelling testimony from both sides... I see enough evidence to hold this over for trial. Today is Wednesday, Trial will begin one week from today at 11:00 am sharp..Attorneys ,be on time and be ready for trial." he said.

"YESSSS! Yvette's slick gambit did not work..She's been losing all along, lost in the arraignment.. Pulled this rabbit out of her hat ,thinking she could win in the preliminary..Even had the woman in the hospital getting an actual operation to gain sympathy..failed at that...THIS TIME...THIS TIME WE WIN!" said Lt. Tragg, jubilant and happy.

Reeny looked at him and shook her head... She knew that Yvette hadn't played her whole hand, She knew that with a jury, she could more readily play to their sympathies...She still thought this a brilliant ploy on her part and an excellent opportunity...She was headed back to the law library tonight.

"Come on guys , we got our work cut out for us."said Ms. Yvette.

"I know." I said.

"Here comes Ms. Jade and the girls."said Kahlil.

"I have three experts to testify and The Doctor who did the surgery." said Ms. Jade.

"Sorry we weren't here to help with the trial...The good news is the tumor was removed..The operation was a sucess and Sarita will be in the hospital for a week," said Sofia.

''We were in the courtroom...We heard...Sarita will be being released just in time for the start of the trial."said Bee Bee.

''We've got a week to work.. That's good news....Let's go guys." said Yvette as we all left the courtroom.

Under Lt. Tragg's glare.

II-

Ms. Yvette gave us the rest of the day off and tomorrow as well, which was cool...

We went straight to the hospital to visit Sarita, who was resting....

We didn't know where Jade went....but it was good we all were off for the day....

Ms. Yvette called her husband, Gary and told him," If he wasn't busy , he could meet her at home..She'd be waiting for him..."

She was dressed in a sexy Playboy Bunny outfit...Something she had worn years ago at a Halloween Party at Josie's... She said she was sorry she did....The guys were going berserk, buying her free drinks, trying to get her drunk, passing her their phone numbers, trying to kiss her, grind on her and the like and

Gus had to call her a cab so she could get out of there.. She'd kept it all these years , but never wore it out in public again.. It was a black lace bustier, black booty shorts and black thigh high boots.. It was scandalous..It left nothing to the imagination...

Gary told her that Vice might have arrested her for wearing this outfit.. Gary almost had two accidents getting home..just thinking about her in it! She had sent him a photo of her over the phone.

His eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw her in the doorway....She ran slowly upstairs to their bedroom with him eagerly following..

"You shouldn't be so easy to manipulate." she cooed and giggled as she ran into the bedroom.

They kissed passionately for what seemed like a half an hour..As Gary slowly undressed and hung his clothes up...

"Ohhhhhhhhhh myyyyyyyyy look at you Gary...." she whispered..

As he undressed Yvette

and ever so slowly slipped her panties down...

He lifted Ms. Yvette's petite body up and began to long stroke her..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU GARY YOU FEEL SO DAMN GOOOOOOOD!" she moaned..

"NOT AS GOOD AS YOU DO TO ME BABY...OHHHHHHH MY GODDDD!" he moaned..

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM YOU ARE ALL UP IN THIS!!! AIYIIIII..AIIIII YEEE!!!

"OUUUUUUUAI YI YIIIIIIIIIIIII...UMMMMMMMM!" she cooed..

He sat her on the counter and spread her big legs, and lifted them up and got up under her like a mechanic..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU..WOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

HUSSSSSSSBAND!!!UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..MEOWWWWWWWWW!"purrred

Ms. Yvette..

"VETTTIE.....VETTTIE....VETTTIE GIRRRRRL...I JUST LOVE YOU! I JUST LOVE YOU SO MUCH!" Gary screamed.. He didn't know if he was coming or going..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU....I LOVE YOU TOO!" she moaned.

Soon he had her spun around and was stroking her doggie style...

"OH MY GOD GARY...OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned.

They sat on the side of the bed,, kissing passionately while Ms. Yvette moved up and down on him slowly...

"OUUUU GARY I LOVE YOU SOO MUCH!!! SOO MUCH!" she said..

She rode him like a surfer rides the waves...

Finally making sweet love in the bed for the next NINE TO TEN HOURS.....

We were blocks away , not far from our old apartment complex 

with Judy, 

who was staying with Bee Bee and I tonight in one of our spare rooms.

Enjoying Milk Shakes.

"So You Guys lived in those apartments huh? After Law school." asked Judy.

"Yeah, My dad knew this Private Investigator, whose wife was a realtor..She told me about this place and I hooked Keith up...He told the girls and they moved in at the end of the summer and we lived there for four years...

Our investigator, Jade, who you met, moved right across the street."said Kahlil...

"Lots of good memories at those apartments..." said Sofia..

"Yessss..We used to have cookouts and parties on the rooftop, and invite many of the people we work with and live on the same block with now...Those were so much fun." gushed Bee Bee.

"And the same realtor sold us our homes after we got married." I said.

''Wow...and you work with some pretty cool people...I've met them." said Judy, who came to our building and ate lunch with us..

She had met Jazzy and Dabnis, Kayla and Ray and Jessica and Chip, all who had been in here tonight and gone..

"You know...I wouldn't mind living up this way.. You have three shopping centers with every type of store imaginable, a gym, a hairdresser, that 25 screen multiplex...Four nice clubs... Josie's ,Aqua Bar, Stoleys and The Mermaid Crab Tavern...All kinds of nice restaurants...I mean you got it all, you don't need to go anywhere else..I've been wanting to get out of Fishtown, been there all my life..I need to live somewhere else." said Judy...

"I can set up a meet with our realtor..Maybe you can get in one of the nearby apartments.."said Bee Bee.

"Look at my girls...Ballin...Maybe I'll meet a nice guy too!" said Judy..

''Who knows? We did?" said Sofia, looking lovingly at Kahlil and Me.

We both smiled..

So did Bee Bee.

"Your Boss Lady is sooo cool and so jazzy, dresses to the nines...I like her." said Judy.

III-

ONE WEEK LATER-

The Murder trial of Sarita Moreno began.. 

Kahlil and I were doing Voir Dire..

Jade had given us a breakdown of the entire jury pool and had done a thorough investigation of them all.. So we knew which jurors we wanted.

Special Prosecutor Maureen Thomas, was late for trial first off.. 25 minutes late..

Judge King was obviously pissed, but he didn't say anything..

She knew little to nothing about the jury pool or what kind of jury she would need..

Kahlil and I wound up with 11 out of the 12 jurors we deemed acceptible...

Ms. Yvette, Sarita, Bee Bee, Sofia and Ms. Jade all smiled and nodded their approval.

"WHERE THE HELL HAVE YOU BEEN?" asked a very angry Lt. Tragg, who hadn't seen her since the night they had hooked up. He had stopped by her condo several times only to find the lights off and the condo empty.

"That is none of your business..You're not my husband or boyfriend even." she replied angrilly incensed that he would even ask her a question like that and in that tone.

With a week off before this trial started.

She met a charming Attorney from another firm with an offer of not only employment, but a possible partnership right away...

They flew to Cancun...

where they vacationed on the beach...had many drinks and of course..

They made crazy , crazy love....Seemingly unending sex....

They had just returned to Philadelphia , this very morning.....She had just enough time to get a quick shower, change her clothes and get to court...

She was twenty five minutes late for trial.

"ALRIGHT! WE HAVE A JURY! Trial begins tomorrow at 11:00 AM..Attorneys please be ON TIME and be ready for trial." said Judge King, staring at Reeny Thomas.

The trial began...

Maureen's prosecution was little to no different than what it had been during the preliminaries,

She argued that Sarita Moreno had plunged a meat cleaver into the chest of William Bradley as witnessed by at least 6 people during a heated argument, concerning his embezzlement of over 100 thousand dollars from the Community Based Collective that they both worked for.. Much needed funds.

She presented six eyewitnesses who actually saw the incident. Their story remained the same.

she presented huge photographs of the body of William Baldwin with the meat cleaver plunged into his chest and blood splattered all over the walls...

She had Policemen at the scene and Crime Scene Investigators testify as well as Medical Examiners Office personell...

Within THREE DAYS, she had wrapped up her prosecution and told the jury they could find Sarita guilty of either First Degree Murder or Second Degree Murder.

Yvette began our defense the next day... she didn't try to deny that our client had committed the murder..

That was obvious...She explained that her actions were because of a brain tumor, the size of a walnut in our clients head that affected her behavior, her moods and her actions..

Sofia and Bee Bee presented 39 of her fellow employees who testified to her good charactor and the good work she did in the community...They also testified that up until three months ago, her behavior was not erractic and certainly not violent.

with Kahlil, we presented Prison officials and medical officials who had observed Sarita's recent behavior, her constant shaking, her headaches and vomiting, her mood swings and memory lapses and the fact that she couldn't sign a paper with her right hand...or properly hold a pen.....

we had handwriting experts, who using a 64 inch screen showed examples of her handwriting in June, then in September, then in November and from last week... The Jury saw the deterioation.....

Ms. Yvette brought out Dr. Charles Oakley..

"I interviewed Ms.Moreno at the womens correctional center...Her right arm twitched uncontrollably and she had trouble signing a simple piece of paper.. She had mood swings and headaches and losses of memory...This has led me to believe there is some cognitive dissonance..Now cognitive dissonance, let me explain-In the field of psychology, cognitive dissonance is the perception of contradictory information. Relevant items of information include a person's actions, feelings, ideas, beliefs, values, and things in the environment. Cognitive dissonance is typically experienced as psychological stress when persons participate in an action that goes against one or more of those things. According to this theory, when two actions or ideas are not psychologically consistent with each other, people do all in their power to change them until they become consistent. The discomfort is triggered by the person's belief clashing with new information perceived, wherein the individual tries to find a way to resolve the contradiction to reduce their discomfort. I believe there is more to her bizzare behavior than this.. I think there is something physiological going on here." said Dr. Oakley.

We brought in the surgeon, Benjamin Casey Jr. , who actually removed the tumor.  

He showed the jury an actual x ray of the brain before the operation and a photo of the mass after it had been removed..

He assured the jury that with the tumor gone.. Her mood swings were a thing of the past, that meant the violence was gone, the shaking, the headaches and the vomiting..

Sarita was not a threat to anybody anymore.

She sat with Bee Bee and Sofia looking quite calm and serene.

Yvette called in three Brain specialists who explained to the jury in laymens terms what a Brain Tumor like this can do to a person's personality, how it can alter it and how with it removed, the person returns completely to normal.

We had put the best defense on possible for this situation...There wasn't much more we could do or say...It was up to the jury now..

Yvette closed asking the jury to find our client completely innocent.. "These circumstances were serious and grave , but as you can see, totally out of our client's control." she said.

Maureen thought we had put up a brilliant defense..She was impressed, but she reminded the jury...

"Sarita Moreno did kill this man...her own defense has told you so.."

We had pressed our case in slightly over four days...One day longer that Maureen Thomas's case.

Lt. Tragg was supremely confident that Maureen had "hit the ball out of the park.." he had a toothy grin on his face as we exited the courtroom.

He kept looking at us and pretending to hit a ball out of the park...and laughing.

"HE is such an asshole." said Judy..

"Don't worry about him....Whatever happens, my legal team did as fine a job as could be done..

I'll except whatever the jury decides." said Sarita, who looked very peaceful, very serene...

"Thank you...I want to win, not just for you, but to knock that self serving smirk off of his face and shut him up..."said Ms. Yvette.

"Me too! but it won't shut him up...He'll just whine even more.."said Jade.

Me, Bee Bee, Sofia and Kahlil all agreed.

IV-

THREE HOURS LATER-

"The Jury came back kind of fast...Is that good or bad?" asked Judy..

"It's hard to say...Juries are funny.. It could go either way." said Jade.

Sarita Moreno stood quietly with Ms. Yvette, She looked calmer and more serene than I had seen her in a long while.

Ms Yvette, Sofia, Bee Bee, Myself and Kahlil all held hands...

Lt. Tragg had a pleased as punch look on his face...he attempted to put his hands around Maureen 's waist...His hand slipped down to her butt...

She removed his hands..

"WOULD YOU KNOCK IT OFF PLEASE?" she snapped.

Judge King spoke...

"Has the Jury come to a decision?" he asked.

"Yes your honor we have." said the Jury foreman...

The Bailiff passed the decision to Judge King, who read it...Shook his head and passed it back to the bailiff.

"Read it" he sighed..

"THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA IN THE MATTER OF SARITA MORENO FINDS THE DEFENDENT NOT GUILTY OF MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE.

IN THE MATTER OF MURDER IN THE FIRST DEGREE, WE THE JURY ALSO FIND THE DEFENDENT NOT GUILTY!"

The Jury was polled and each juror said "Not Guilty"

Maureen Thomas looked a little surprised...but then again...Yvette had put on an unusual and very creative defense...She was impressed...

She smiled and took her legal roller and quietly left out the side door.. She could care less, She was headed to a new job, with more money and a partnership....

Lt. Tragg's mouth dropped...He couldn't believe it!!!!  We had gotten an acquittal....She had killed a man and we had gotten her off, scott free using what he considered "one of the most outrageous legal stunts" he had ever seen.

The Press snapped photos of

Sarita and her niece, Judy hugging, crying and holding each other tightly...

They snapped photos of us and interviewed us.....

Lt. Tragg was livid, He pushed in front of us after our interview was over and screamed..

"THIS WAS THE BIGGEST MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE I HAVE EVER SEEN....THESE ACTIVIST LAWYERS PULL THESE STUNTS, AND THEY RELEASE ACTUAL KILLERS TO THE STREET...THIS IS NO LONGER FUNNY, THIS IS FRIGHTENING!" HE BELLOWED.

''What's frightening is that you arrested her and YOU couldn't see that something was wrong with her and yet everybody else, including other cops could, that's what's frightening." said a reporter.

"Admit it Artie..even when the killer actually kills the victim, you can't get a conviction."laughed another.

"LOU...I'M GONNA KNOCK YOUR BLOCK OFF!" screamed an Angry Lt. Tragg, who waded into a sea of reporters...

Fists began to fly, tables were turned over and people began to scream and run....By the time the melee was over, Lt. Tragg had a fat lip and a swollen eye , nearly closed...

Ms. Jade was in the crowd laughing so hard, tears were flowing down her face..

The rest of us slipped out of the side door , along with Sarita and Judy.

EPILOUGE:

At our office...

"I can't thank you guys enough for defending me and getting me off..I was certain and had made peace with the prospect of being incarcerated the rest of my life."said Sarita Moreno..

"Oh nooooooo, never that!" said Yvette.

My Niece Judy has rented an apartment just six blocks from where you guys live

and she's gotten a new job in your area in one of those shopping malls.. She's quite happy..." said Sarita.

"That's good , we are going to have her over for dinner real soon." said Bee Bee.

"Yes , her and another friend of ours.."said Sofia..

''So what's next for you now Sarita?" asked Kahlil.

"Well we have put  McCluskey/Cozen/Connor and Pratt on retainer for future business and we have hired an accounting firm to make sure we don't have any more embezzlement. We are going to continue to try and improve the area." she said.

"WOW! SWEET! " I said.

"That Homicide Detective, Lt. Tragg, He's still very angry about what happened.. I don't go in Sam Mothers anymore...He is just unbearable. He called me a killer the last time I was in there..I was just trying to eat." said Sarita.

"We don't either.. We eat all of our meals right here in our cafeteria.

all three meals..

"He doesn't know we work in this building now.." said Jade.

"If we aren't in court, we go days without seeing him...We like it that way." said Jade.

"If we give you a building pass, you can eat with us...here, whenever you want." said Yvette.

"Thank you sooo much, I owe you guys so much, "said Sarita,,,

Another Happy Customer!

FOR DANYL-