Chapter 30

The court room was on the first floor of the Federal Building - actually the John Philip Burton Federal Building. The building was a beautiful combination of gray aluminum, gray glass, and metropolitan dirt from the Tenderloin. The first floor had the court rooms and the rest of the building held those famous and popular federal government institutions the IRS, ATF, DEA, and the FBI. Linda was brought from San Francisco General Hospital, handcuffed in the back of a Federal Marshal Service Van. She was led to the female prisoner holding area. The fury of the previous day had subsided and she was making a lot more sense. The four guys in blue, now meekly dressed in orange jumpsuits and handcuffs, had spent the night in the San Francisco City Jail and were now handcuffed to a long chain attached to an assortment of drug dealers and bank robbers who had found the Federal Court system because of the nature, not the quality of their crimes. The blue paint, blue jump suits, fish noses, and dart guns were safely in the evidence lockers. The Birkinstock bunch were shadows of their former selves. They were led to a detention cell and all sat down on a well worn bench. The room smelled as all prisons do of fear, sweat, poor personal hygiene, and inadequate plumbing. Finally a bailiff with a key removed the locks to the long common chain for each of the Birkinstock bunch, which gave them more freedom but did not remove their handcuffs. They each got up from their former chain mates and walked through a thick metal door into federal court. Once inside court, the atmosphere while more formal, was a tad bit less oppressive. They were led over to a table in front of the judge's bench. Their attorney was sitting at the table and motioned for them to sit. Linda was already there. She looked like they felt. Washed out, foolish, and wondering what twenty years of eating macaroni and cheese with a spoon while trying to avoid a large cell mate named Bubba, who had a propensity for trying to stand behind people, would be like. They looked around the court. Bob, Harold, and George were sitting in the back taking it all in. The lady from the clock store had been released from Moffit but had not made it today.

The federal prosecutor opened his briefcase and approached the bench. He handed a list of charges to the judge who shook his head and began to read out loud. "The United States Government versus Noah Fisher, Linda Grange, Kensington Parker, Jeremiah Endersby, Robin Wilkinson is now in order. Gentlemen and ladies, this is a preliminary hearing to establish whether there is sufficient evidence to hold you for trial and to set bail. The list of charges is quite long. Attempted kidnapping, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, crossing state borders to commit a felony, use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, possession of controlled substances, administration of a controlled substance without a medical license, assault with intent to commit a felony, assault on a federal officer, entering the United States Congress with intent to commit a felony, resisting arrest by a federal officer, attempted murder, attempted murder of a federal officer. Mr. Jakeson will you present your evidence?"

"Your honor." The federal prosecutor stood up and spoke to the judge. He was dressed in a dark gray suit, tasteful power tie, and uncomfortable leather shoes. He was going places. "The government has video tapes of the defendants stalking the victim in the U.S. Capitol, recordings of cellular telephone conversations to California, videotape of the defendants following the victim to California, testimony of FBI and Secret Service agents who followed the defendants to California and who were present during the actual attempted abduction. The physical evidence includes a collection of home made firearms, disguises, and videotape of the initial phases of the attempted abduction in the U.S. Capitol. We arrested four of the defendants at the scene of the crime and one of the defendants as she fled the scene of the crime in pursuit of the victim." The prosecutor was in seventh heaven. This was a great case. The victim was a national figure. The crime had pizzazz. Fancy weapons, disguises. This was the bungled crime of the decade. It will make the papers. Maybe I'll be on TV tonight. This MacAnish guy is famous. I could be on TV.

The judge looked to the defendants. "Counsel for the defense, would you like to address these charges?" The judge liked to be impartial but this time it was going to be tough. These guys had no chance, no chance at all. Why don't we just send them away, save everybody a lot of time and effort?

The defense attorney could see the complexity of the case, the dollars per hour of defense. A little smile crossed his face. Total futility, but they still wanted to fight. They wanted to pay him to fight. Finally a set of criminals who spoke English and could pay his bill, with non-drug money. "The defense would like to enter a plea."

The judge loved short cases. "How do you plead?"

The five defendants rose each in turn.

Linda Grange, "Not guilty your honor." She was almost weeping as she said it. What was she thinking? What would she have done with Harold if they had caught him? Torture the man into stopping the project? What could they have done to torture him? Force him to eat overcooked Brussels sprouts until he admitted his environmental errors. The taste of creamed herring would force anyone to confess, but they were vegetarians, they couldn't use such strong methods. Three days of high fiber and couscous and he might have broken. She was going to rot in prison for that? How to get out of it? Bob wasn't so bad. They could have a baby, move to the country, she could make a macramé sofa. Now it was women's prison for the rest of her life.

Noah Fisher: "Not guilty your honor." That stupid woman. How could he, the great pacifist environmentalist, be talked into this foolishness? Who cares about some project which probably wouldn't work anyway? Harold- smarold. What a mess!

Kensington Parker: "Not guilty, your honor." Prison. Oh my god. I look terrible in denim. What about my bird watching? That Noah, he fooled me. He told me it was foolproof.

Jeremiah Endersby: "Not guilty your honor." Jesus Christ. I am in deep shit. I wonder if I could turn state's evidence. How do you do that? I could squeal on the rest of them and get a year of probation or a year in one of those tennis camps. My tennis is a bit rusty. Maybe if they have a putting green, no a nine hole course and a tennis court, I'll turn. I have to turn. With whom do I speak?

Robin Wilkinson: "Not guilty, your honor." Prison. Oh wow! I just love those big weight lifters. It won't be so bad. I'll shape up. Meet a nice guy. Get into some serious confinement fantasies.

"The prosecution requests a bail of one million dollars per defendant and a trial date on all charges in three months. The defendants are highly intelligent, well trained, well equipped terrorists, with very serious charges and so pose a very high risk of flight." Jakeson loved this job. He loved to send people away.

"I order the defendants held in the federal penitentiary. Bail is set at one million dollars bail per defendant. Trial will be in three months with preliminary motions in thirty days." The judge cracked his gavel and the attorneys began to close their brief cases. The bailiff motioned for the defendants to return to the holding cells.

Harold was sitting behind the defense attorney and leaned over to him. "Psst." Harold sort of sprayed it out. The defense attorney wiped at his eye. "Psst." Harold didn't get the message and the attorney crinkled his forehead and wiped at it with a handkerchief.

"Harold, what do you want or have you sprung a leak?" The attorney looked quite annoyed.

"How long would they get if all of the charges involving the clock shop lady and I were dropped?" Harold tilted his head to one side and looked directly into the attorney's eyes.

"What do you mean, dropped?" The attorney was obviously interested.

"I mean, what would the sentence be if the only charges were the weapons charges, dropping the tacks to disable the car, and driving recklessly." Harold looked quite serious.

"If they dropped the other charges they might spend a year or less on those or they might drop the whole case since those are peripheral charges based on the conspiracy charges." The attorney was beginning to think Harold might be serious. This was the man who was going to populate Venus. "Why would the government drop the charges Harold?"

"What would the government do if the clock shop lady and I both testified that we knew these guys and we were just playing around. We were making a movie or one of those murder games?" Harold's eyebrows raised and his eyes brightened. "We were all playing cops and robbers and they didn't know that the federal agents weren't part of the game."

"Harold, these guys were trying to kidnap you. They were trying to kidnap and possibly injure you for your ideas, your efforts. They disagreed with your project enough to try to hurt you. Why would you lie to a federal court to save them?" The attorney could see what Harold was up to.

"Linda is the wife of one of my friends. I can't see her spend the rest of her days in prison. This prosecution is a misguided effort and we must get them off. Prison, Prison should be veiwed either as a therapy or a waste repository. Her personality is genetic so therapy won't work. She is only after me, so society doesn't need to be protected at $50,000 a year. Prison would be a total waste. George and I hired you to defend them and I am certainly willing to drop any charges that I can drop. Saves me money and it saves the state money. Figure out what charges we can reduce, because I can't let her go to prison for this."

The attorney was shocked but knew what to do. Three days later the court reconvened. The judge didn't believe it. The prosecutor didn't believe it. But nobody was willing to try a case where the victim refused to admit he was a victim. Bail was reduced to a thousand dollars on the possession of Ketamine without a license and the driving charges against Linda. They were out of jail and on the road again.

Chapter 31

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