Trial by Fury (3 page)

“It’s possible we could file a case against the individuals in this video…maybe get a settlement for Ms. Burkhart’s family. The administration though…that’s a much tougher case.”

“Even if they intimidated people into keeping quiet?”

“Intimidated how?”

“Hayley said somebody called her…warned her she could be expelled for making false allegations. And when I went to see Earl Gupton—he’s the chancellor—he’d called in Harwood’s attorney and the chairman of the board of trustees. I got freaked out so I recorded the whole thing on my cell phone, which was probably illegal.” She nodded toward Theo’s computer. “It’s on there too, that second file.”

Considering she’d come to the office in disguise, it wasn’t surprising she’d also made a surreptitious recording. “Actually, you’re in the clear. Georgia’s a one-party permission state. As long as you’re a participant in the discussion, you’re entitled to record it. You don’t need anyone else’s permission.”

“So you should listen to it. I’m telling you, it felt like an ambush. Once I realized they weren’t going to do anything about it, I mentioned maybe talking to Jack Trendall, the basketball coach. But they told me the attorney for the players was threatening a defamation suit, that I could be sued for telling anybody what Hayley said happened to her. They said I’d be personally responsible, that the university wouldn’t support me because they’d determined there was no wrongdoing.”

Theo was familiar with the tactic—a SLAPP suit, short for strategic lawsuit against public participation. Aggressive parties used them to compel someone’s silence under threat of a defamation suit.

“I can assure you their threats don’t legally bind you from talking about the allegations unless you know for certain they’re false,” she said, leaving her desk to return to the chair next to Celia’s. “Unfortunately, rape often comes down to ‘he said, she said.’ That’s a problem here because you have a group of men willing to back up each other’s claims that the sex was consensual against a woman who’s no longer here to speak for herself.”

“But it wasn’t consensual!” Celia’s knuckles turned white as she gripped the arm of her chair. “And now a girl’s dead!”

Theo recognized the righteous indignation. She saw it in the mirror every time she found herself up against a force that wouldn’t move. And it always made her more determined to push harder.

The problems with this case were practical—she had a weak cause of action and virtually no leverage within the jurisdiction. The insular nature of a university campus created barriers at every turn. Any campus police department could deliberately reject criminal complaints, thereby holding its crime rates artificially low so parents would believe their kids were safe. Harwood’s motive in this case was even more suspect—they may have deprived Hayley Burkhart of due process in order to ensure their players would be allowed to compete for a basketball trophy. Now they were protecting not only their reputation but their financial windfall from the championship.

“I get why you’re so angry at the system, Dr. Perone. It seems obvious a young woman you cared about was treated horribly. But I have to ask you…if everything were proven to have occurred exactly as you’ve described it, what would you like to see happen next?”

“I want the rapists in jail. I want the chancellor fired. And the chief of police too.” She pounded out her demands in the palm of her hand. “The chairman of the board of trustees too. They’re animals, every last one. And I want a promise from Harwood University that this will never happen again, that every girl who reports a sexual assault gets a fair hearing with the presumption that she’s telling the truth.”

In other words, she wanted to lay waste to the system and everyone responsible for it—a scorched earth approach. That happened to be Theo’s favorite strategy too, especially when she allowed herself to get emotionally involved in a case.

After a measured silence, she leaned forward and pressed her fingertips together. “I need to be honest with you here. Unless the university changes its position on investigating, I’m afraid it’s doubtful anyone will go to jail. It’s a question of jurisdiction.” With shared frustration, she presented their legal dilemma, which she drew from having represented a group of women two years ago who were arrested during a protest of Harwood’s decision to invite a misogynistic radio personality to speak on campus.

Celia threw up her hands. “But Harwood’s in the city limits of Atlanta. If the campus police won’t do anything, can’t the Atlanta Police Department step in?”

“Technically yes, but they probably won’t. It’s a professional courtesy. Harwood operates under a memorandum of understanding with the city and the county—any crime on campus falls under the university’s domain. If they don’t press charges, the criminal case usually dies there because nobody wants to come in and step on their toes.”

“Their own little fiefdom,” Celia groused.

“I’m afraid so. While we can’t force the police to take action, you could always try your luck with the district attorney’s office.” Though Theo seriously doubted the DA would risk alienating Harwood’s fan base during an election year. “I should warn you however…I believe she too will be reluctant to claim jurisdiction at Harwood unless she’s invited in by law enforcement or the board of trustees.”

The desolation on Celia’s face was crushing.

“As far as the administration goes,” Theo continued, “I’m not sure anyone can legally force a private university to fire its chancellor and board chair. Only the trustees have that power. It just isn’t something we can sue them for.”

“So that’s it? These players lie through their teeth and get away with rape? Those bastards are responsible for her death. All of them.” Celia abruptly collected her belongings as if to storm out.

“No, that doesn’t have to be the end of it,” Theo said, catching her arm and urging her back to her chair. For a case as egregious as this one, she was willing to dig deeper to explore what avenues of retribution might exist. “The video is compelling. It’s difficult to believe anyone could see it and not conclude Hayley was assaulted. But right now we have more questions than answers. I need to have my staff look into it to see what we can do.”

“Does that mean you’re going to take the case?”

There was no case. But Theo couldn’t bear to turn away someone as passionate as Celia Perone. A kindred spirit in the fight for justice and equality.

“Our practice is about women’s civil rights, Dr. Perone. We have experts who can turn this case inside out, people who can get to the bottom of what happened and find a way forward. We can’t make this right for Hayley Burkhart, but if we decide there’s a victory to be won for other women like her, we’ll take your case.”

Hank Maloney had literally hundreds of contacts in law enforcement, from the FBI in Quantico all the way to parking enforcement in Dekalb County. A former detective with the Atlanta Police Department, his ruddy complexion and gray crewcut gave him a veteran’s grizzled look younger cops respected. At sixty-two, he’d been with Constantine and Associates for seven years as their chief investigator. He had a knack for getting insiders to talk off the record, when they were most likely to inadvertently hand over information not available to the general public.

“I got nothing,” he grumbled as he tugged the wingback chair closer to Theo’s desk. One flimsy document was his total booty from a day on campus. “Just a copy of the suicide report. Nothing exceptional about it. The girl bled out in a shower stall sometime after midnight while everybody else was out partying in the street. Real neat-like so all the blood went down the drain. They didn’t find her until three a.m.”

“And nothing on record about the rape? Are you sure you got the date right? February third, the night Vanderbilt played Harwood here in Atlanta.”

“I checked it. I went backward and forward a whole month in case it got entered under the wrong date. Nada.”

As he leaned back in the chair, his bulging belly parted his sport coat, revealing what appeared to be a large coffee stain on his yellow shirt. That hardly bothered Theo as much as his gray stubble—not a fashion statement, but the product of several days without shaving. She preferred a more professional look around the office because the prominence of her cases and clients meant the press could show up at the drop of a hat. He resisted though, arguing that police officers were notoriously put off by slick suits. They had to trust him before they’d open up.

“But there’s definitely something fucked up about it,” he said.

She’d totally given up on policing his workplace language.

“I got this guy on the inside. A black kid, Bobby Hill, a rookie on their force. I worked with his pop at the APD back when Bobby was just a twinkle in his pants.”

And on cleaning up his euphemisms.

“Anyhow, I got Bobby to let me look over some of the other reports for that day. They get filed by number, and two-ninety-two was missing. If I had to guess, I’d say somebody pulled it.”

It wasn’t exactly a smoking gun, but the coincidences were adding up. “Did you notice the time?”

He checked his notes. “They wrote up a burglary in one of the dorms at eight sixteen a.m. and a scuffle over a reserved parking space at ten fifty. And here’s another screwy part—they couldn’t put their hands on the call logs for that day. I know from the reports that got filed which officers were on duty, but there’s no record of what they were doing between the burglary and the scuffle.”

Someone, it seemed, had gone to a lot of trouble to wipe out the paper trail.

He looked at her wearily. “So what’s the next step, chief?”

“Dr. Perone told me Hayley went to student health services as soon as she left the dorm. Apparently they did a rape kit, so we need to find out if they still have it. Since the cops didn’t bother to investigate, it ought to still be there.”

There were strict rules about the chain of custody for rape kits. If the police collected it for evidence to prosecute, they were required to cover the cost and there would be a receipt indicating who picked it up.

Theo scribbled a note and pushed it across the desk. “Take this to Sandy and see if you can pry some petty cash out of her, a thousand dollars. I don’t want that kit destroyed because nobody paid the bill. And make sure they retain it in proper storage.”

When he left, she added the suicide report to the file that contained Celia’s thumb drive and her written statement on everything she could remember about her meetings with Hayley. Now convinced the school had covered up a crime to protect its players, Theo wanted badly to take this case.

Celia had stuck her neck out to right a wrong. Theo responded to that kind of courage, especially women helping other women.

She scrolled through the directory on her computer and opened the audio file Celia had made of her meeting with administration. Sonya Walsh, Harwood’s general counsel, was the one who’d spelled out the risks of a defamation suit, but Chancellor Gupton had added his own threat.

“
Harwood faculty have a contractual obligation to protect the image of the university. Should these allegations result in a defamation suit, it would disparage Harwood’s reputation. The board of trustees might consider that grounds for dismissal.”

Celia hadn’t mentioned they’d also threatened her job.

She slapped the intercom button on her phone. “Penny, where’s Gloria? I haven’t seen her in three days.”

“I heard her arguing with Philip about five minutes ago. I’ll track her down and send her in.”

Arguing with Philip was one of Gloria’s favorite pastimes, and the subject hardly mattered. Their office debates—everything from economic philosophy to the perfect vintage of California red wine—were notorious. His Harvard training as a litigator withered when she buried him in factoids and obscure statistics off the top of her head. She’d have made an excellent attorney because she always played to win.

Two minutes later Gloria swept flamboyantly through the door. Fresh off a color appointment with her stylist, her ginger hair lit up the room like a blazing birthday cake. “I swear, it’s like I can’t step out of your sight without you having a panic attack. What is it this time?”

“Last time I checked, you still work for me, Gloria. I’m entitled to your infinite wisdom whenever I push this little button,” Theo shot back smartly, pointing to her phone. “I need your take on something. What’s the thinking on campus rape these days?”

“You mean, is it one in four or one in forty?” Dressed in flowing linen slacks, Gloria flopped into the upholstered chair and swung her legs over the arm, the pose of an insolent child rather than a sixty-four-year-old woman. “The studies vary, but suffice it to say it’s an unacceptable percentage of women, whether we’re talking inappropriate contact or violent rape. The problem is a lot of those incidents take place in off-campus housing, so the stats are murky. Are you specifically asking about what happens on campus?”

“I’m looking for the number of sexual assaults that fall under the jurisdiction of a typical university’s police force.”

She nonchalantly studied her nails as she answered. “That varies too. I don’t know about typical universities, but Emory reported twenty-six sexual assaults last year. Harwood had four.”

It constantly amazed her how Gloria was able to keep so much information at the ready. Besides her knowledge, she’d have a unique perspective on this potential case as a loyal alum of Harwood who’d taught in their women’s studies department for over thirty years.

“That’s a helluva difference. What do you think is behind it?”

“Hmm…both Southern Ivy, enrollment about the same.” The so-called Southern Ivy schools also included the likes of Duke, Vanderbilt and Tulane, all prestigious and private. “Harwood may have better security, but my guess is it’s tied to their policies prohibiting alcohol parties on campus. And strict enforcement. That’s the largest category, you know. Sexual assault while incapacitated. Some of those date-rape drugs are easier to buy than a bag of M&Ms. Apparently they’re pretty easy to hide in a party drink. But if you don’t have alcohol parties, you don’t have party drinks.”