The Reform Artists: A Legal Suspense, Spy Thriller (The Reform Artists Series Book 1) (25 page)

“Glad it went so well,” Brooks said. “Will you be traveling with us again, soon?”

“God, I hope not!” Martin laughed, “Although I’m beginning to realize just how helpful your tour services can be. I was probably headed ‘down the river’ without your expert guidance and support.”

“Our pleasure,” Brooks said, “The saddest part is that you needed our help in the first place! The system still has a long way to go, Marty. Well, good night.”

“Good night—and thanks!” Martin said.

Martin looked at his right arm, just below the elbow, where Brooks had injected the tracking device several days earlier. He could no longer see any traces of it. Then, he watched his children playing together in front of the television set, while the dog tried to get in on the action.

“Someday, Brooks,” he said softly to himself, “I expect to hear that phone ring again. And when it does, I want you to give me the chance to make this kind of difference in someone else’s life.”

Montgomery County, MD, District Courthouse, 8:35 a.m., three months later.

A line of television station vans with their satellite dishes fully deployed, hugged the curb alongside the district courthouse, on East Jefferson Street, in downtown Rockville.

Jennifer Vale, cub TV reporter for WWMD, Channel 9 News, tucked her blonde, streaked, cheerleader bangs behind her left ear, turned to face the street and smiled into the camera. Behind her, a placard-wielding crowd of women began chanting, as if on cue, “Protect defenseless women! Protect defenseless women! Protect defenseless women! …” Their red and blue signs, many of which sported the National Organization for Women (NOW) official logo, declared, “Stop this CRAP!”, “Farnsworth’s Folly!” and “TROs Save Lives!”

Jennifer raised the microphone to her lips. “Enraged women, including local attorneys and many former victims of domestic violence, have descended upon the Montgomery County District Courthouse today, to oppose Judge Michael Farnsworth’s anticipated announcement of a new program designed to protect the rights of men accused, in civil cases, of spousal abuse and domestic violence.

“The judge’s program, which he will formally unveil at a nine o’clock press conference here, twenty-five minutes from now, is nicknamed ‘RAP’, which stands for ‘Respondent Advocate Program.’ It guarantees that a court-appointed lawyer will represent the interests of the accused during secret, ex-parte or ‘one-sided’ hearings, where women can currently seek the court’s protection against their allegedly abusive husbands.

“As you can see from their signs,” she said, as the camera zoomed in on one of the placards that read, ‘Stop this CRAP!’ protesters have renamed the judge’s initiative by adding the word ‘Court’s” in front of it.

“I am joined by Ms. Gloria Cheswick, local attorney and president of NOW’s Montgomery County chapter. Gloria, what’s the big deal? Why shouldn’t men be represented at these hearings, where they formerly had no one looking out for their interests?”

Gloria Cheswick’s shoulder-length, kinky jet-black hair framed her slightly elongated, pale face and oval, tortoise-shell glasses. She was dressed in a dark-blue pinstriped dress suit—her typical courtroom attire—and appeared ready for battle. She frowned and shook her head as a look of disgust flashed across her face. “It’s all so wrong, Jennifer! These are emergency, civil proceedings designed to give vulnerable women much-needed protection. The judge’s program, as I understand it, will assign the equivalent of ‘public defenders’ to stand in for the accused men and to cross-examine these battered women, who are courageously seeking a way to protect themselves, and their children, from violent spouses. Where’s the money going to come from to pay for all of this?

“And it’s so unnecessary, too,” she added, “because the accused men are guaranteed a full hearing in court, within seven days, if the court issues a temporary protective order against them.”

Jennifer momentarily knitted her brow in thought. “Well,” she said, smiling once more, as the camera moved in for a close up, “this is obviously a complex and emotionally-charged issue that is creating a storm of controversy. We’ll be covering the judge’s press conference at nine and will have more on the program’s pros and cons afterward.

“For now, this is Jennifer Vale, reporting for Channel 9 News, on the scene at the district courthouse, in Rockville.”

Reporters from every local newspaper, television channel, radio station and online news outlet crammed into a public hearing room on the second floor of the district courthouse, waiting for Judge Farnsworth to make his appearance. Most of the print and online reporters were still milling around the tables set up in the back, engaging in small talk as they helped themselves to free coffee, orange juice, and trays of donuts. They were dressed modestly, and informally, while the much better dressed and immaculately groomed TV reporters stood toward the front of the room. Between them, camera men and women stood at the ready behind their hand-held cameras and tripods. The dais, at the front, was top heavy with a Gordian knot of logoed microphones, representing various news outlets.

A small, frail, gray-haired woman, dressed in a drab, gray silk blouse, silver-and-turquoise necklace and blue skirt, stepped toward the dais and slipped on a pair of black reading glasses that hung from a band around her neck. She tapped lightly on the nondescript microphone at the center of the knot and the sound reverberated through the room. She appeared to be in her early sixties and looked like a small-town librarian. When everyone quieted down, she continued.

“May I have your attention, please?” she said in a soft, grandmotherly voice. “I’m Gertie Styles, the judge’s administrative aid. Thank you for coming today. If you didn’t find a copy of the press release lying on your seat, please raise your hand now, and we will get you one. And now,” she added, gesturing toward the door at her left, “it is my pleasure to give you, his honor, Judge Michael J. Farnsworth, chief administrative judge of The Maryland District Court.”

Gertie stepped aside as Judge Farnsworth walked into the room, caught in the sudden glare of dozens of video camera lights. The judge was dressed in a charcoal-gray business suit, a blue power tie and crisp white shirt and he sported a recent tan. He looked around the room, into the glaring lights, smiled and squinted.

Behind him, Gertie turned over a white sign that was perched on an easel. Large, dark-green print announced the “Respondent Advocate Program” and then, a much smaller line of black text under it read, “A Maryland District Court Initiative.” This was followed by an image of the Maryland District Court seal.

Judge Farnsworth slipped on a pair of reading glasses and took several folded sheets of paper from his vest pocket. “Ladies and gentlemen of the press,” he began. “Thank you for coming. We don’t hold press conferences here all that often, so I didn’t know if I was going to feel like the proverbial high school nerd—I was one once—who threw a party to which no one came!” (Laughter.)

“Fortunately, Gertie knows a thing or two about filling a room, and she insisted that we invest in a generous assortment of donuts. From the look of things, it appears that did the trick!

“I’m going to read from a prepared statement and then, I’ll take your questions. When I finish, I will introduce you to a few people who will be playing key roles in helping us roll out and expand this new initiative.”

The judge paused, fidgeted with his papers and then cleared his throat. “It has been said that ‘the road to hell is paved with good intentions.’ I have had ample proof, recently, of the accuracy of that observation.

“The ‘good intentions’ paving our latest ‘road to ruin’ are among the noblest and purest imaginable: our collective desire to protect women and children, some of the most vulnerable among us, from the dangers of domestic violence and abuse….

“Unfortunately, when emotion and ‘righteous indignation’ fuel reform efforts, those in charge often seem to take temporary leave of their senses and completely ignore the possibility that anyone would ever attempt to ‘game’ their newly reformed system. But, of course, people do try to game it. And when they do, the cure for one social ill—in this case, domestic violence—creates a whole new group of victims: innocent spouses (men, for the most part), who find themselves falsely accused of what only can be described as despicable acts: domestic violence and child abuse.

“Such charges can be personally devastating to the accused. No decent, upstanding person would ever want to be associated with them.

“Merely raising these allegations, whether true or not, can give the accuser a huge advantage in a pending divorce case. The protective orders sought in district court often come with requests for temporary awards of child custody and child support, use of the family home, the family car, and much more. And these temporary awards can quickly become permanent in divorce court.

“How does this happen and, more importantly, what’s the ‘big deal’ that has led me to propose changes to the way we currently do business?

“My own experience on the bench has convinced me that some attorneys are now routinely using domestic violence charges as a strategy to help their clients gain the upper hand in divorce proceedings.

“Studies that I’ve read suggest that, nationally, men who have been falsely accused of domestic violence now number, not in the thousands or even the tens of thousands, but in the millions. That’s millions of people, tried each year, in absentia, on trumped up charges and exposed to public ridicule. And it’s happening, here, in America, not in some faraway country that doesn’t claim to operate under the rule of law.

“As a judge, I find injustice, on such a scale, to be intolerable and personally repugnant. I cannot, in good conscience, continue to be associated with it. So, I felt compelled to find a way to make the current system and its practices work better.

“Spouses, who legitimately fear for their safety and the safety of their children, must always be able to come forward and seek protection from the court, but we also need safeguards on the courts to protect the integrity of our judicial system and the innocent.

“My solution,” the judge said, pointing toward the sign behind him and to his right, “is to make sure those accused, in absentia, of domestic violence, (those we call ‘respondents’) have someone present in the courtroom, during those ex-parte hearings, to represent their interests.

“The district court will randomly select and assign family law attorneys, from local bar association lists, to serve as pro-bono respondent advocates on a rotating basis. The Advocates will serve for one day at a time and must be present for all ex-parte hearings held on those days. They will listen to each petitioner’s testimony and then cross-examine the petitioner in order to make sure their allegations hold up under questioning. If the charges don’t hold up, then, hopefully, the court will not grant the requested protective order, and a record of sworn testimony, including the cross examination of the petitioner, will be available for the respondent’s counsel to review and for prosecutors to use in future perjury cases. Perjury, as you may know, is the only penalty that petitioners currently face if they make false accusations in these ex-parte proceedings.”

“We will launch the RAP program here, in Montgomery County, immediately, for an initial sixty-day trial period. Then, we will expand the program to include all Maryland District Courts.

The judge folded up his papers and returned them to his vest pocket. “That concludes my prepared statement,” he said. “Now, let me introduce you to two, prominent family law attorneys who have agreed to help advance this program.”

He looked at the doorway located on his left. “Beverly, Chester, will you please join me?”

Beverly West, who was wearing one of her signature herring-bone dress suits, stepped forward, followed closely behind by a tall, tan Chester Swindell.

Judge Farnsworth stepped to his right to make room, behind the rostrum, for his two colleagues. “During the sixty-day trial period for this program, Beverly West has generously agreed to serve as First Advocate,” Judge Farnsworth said. “She will personally be on hand for the first two weeks, representing respondents in all ex-parte cases brought before district court judges and commissioners. Bev will administer the launch of the program here, in Montgomery County. She will establish procedures, standards, and guidelines, which she will then teach to her successor advocates.

“Should an advocate fail to report for duty during the trial period, Bev also will fill in.

“She has donated $50,000 in seed money to cover any administrative costs required to get this program up and running. Isn’t that right, counselor?” he asked, looking at West. She smiled and seemed to blanch, slightly, under her already copious, pale makeup.

“I’d also like to introduce you to Chester Swindell, who is standing to Beverly’s left. Chester has, at my request, accepted the post of community liaison for the RAP program. As such, he will be receiving a small stipend to underwrite the costs for him to travel the state, speaking to men’s groups about the program, answering their questions and making them aware of their rights and responsibilities under it.

“Now,” Judge Farnsworth said, “I will briefly open the floor to questions. Please wait to be recognized.”

Hands immediately flew up and the judge quickly pointed to a reporter standing in the front row.

“Hi, Your Honor. Tom Purdy, the Maryland Independent. It sounds like this program will hinge on your ability to get buy-in and support from family law trial lawyers. As someone who covered the courts for a number of years, I’ve seen pro bono work become rarer and rarer. In fact, most attorneys can now avoid it entirely just by making a small annual donation to Legal Aid. How do you expect to gain their support for this new initiative under the circumstances?”

“Excellent question, Tom,” Judge Farnsworth said. “I think I’ll let our First Advocate answer that one for me. Bev?”

West smiled. “You’ve raised an interesting point, Tom. In recent years, many of us have been paying the legal equivalent of ‘indulgences’ to sidestep the time-honored tradition of providing free assistance to the needy. But this is not a voluntary program. Judge Farnsworth, as chief administrative judge for the state’s district court system, is making participation in the RAP program mandatory for all lawyers who wish to practice family law in The State of Maryland. I guess you could say that, going forward, it will be a cost of doing business.”