Bronx Justice (16 page)

Jaywalker had told Pope about the incident, in the hope of convincing him that not only was Darren innocent, but also that the real rapist was still at large in the Castle Hill area. Why Pope was now choosing to go into the incident puzzled Jaywalker. Perhaps he anticipated that Jaywalker himself would, and was making a preemptive move to blunt the impact. Actually, Jaywalker had thought about going into it, but doubted that the rules of evidence would permit him to do so. But now, by “opening the door” to the subject, Pope was inadvertently giving Jaywalker an opportunity to explore it in detail. Jaywalker scribbled
himself a note to get in touch with Yvette Monroe as soon as he could.

Whatever Pope's true interest in the matter had been, he succeeded in making little of it. He asked Delroid a few questions about it and got nowhere. With that, he gave up. As Delroid stepped down from the witness stand, Jaywalker had to suppress an urge to rush over to him and hug him. This out-of-work man, literally dependent upon others for the food on his plate and a roof over his head, who'd caused Jaywalker such great concern, had come through with flying colors.

 

Jaywalker called Darren's mother, Inez Kingston, to the stand. She entered the courtroom from the corridor immediately outside, where, as a defense witness, she'd been banished until that moment. As she came in, her husband, Marlin, suddenly sobbed audibly, rose from his seat and rushed out through the same doorway Inez had just entered. He would explain later that the prospect of seeing his wife testifying on behalf of their falsely accused son was simply too much for him to bear.

Inez walked slowly to the witness stand. As she stood and took the oath, her calm, warm voice belied what he knew was the boiling of her blood pressure.

Jaywalker had her identify herself immediately as Darren's mother. He questioned her about the evening of her son's arrest. She recounted how two detectives had come to her home looking for Darren. One of them was named Rendell. She'd given them Darren's address. As soon as they'd left, she'd phoned Darren, to find out what was wrong. What Jaywalker wasn't allowed to bring out was Darren's response, that he had absolutely no idea. That
would have been hearsay, and inadmissible. But he'd at least established the existence of the conversation, which he would be able to use later to show that Darren, alerted that the police were looking for him, had made no attempt to flee.

Before his next series of questions, Jaywalker had Darren stand at the defense table.

Jaywalker motioned to Darren that he could resume his seat.

Jaywalker asked her whether any attempt had ever been made to convert Darren to being right-handed. She replied that there had indeed been attempts, as had been commonplace years ago, with people trying to “cure” children of their left-handedness, much the way some modern-day do-gooders try to “cure” individuals of their homosexuality. Some evidence had even shown that tampering with left-handedness could produce stuttering, because the portion of the brain responsible for speech is situated in the left hemisphere. In fact, Jaywalker had briefly considered trying to find an expert to bring into court to discuss it, but because the theory was at best a controversial one, he'd decided against it. It was enough that Darren was left-handed, and that he stuttered. Cause and effect, if indeed there was one, was irrelevant.

Jaywalker next brought out that, as far as Inez was aware, Darren neither owned a car nor knew how to drive.
He wanted to dispel any notion the jurors might have that Darren had the mobility to zip around from the post office to his apartment to the Castle Hill area.

Then he moved on to the subject of Darren's speech.

It seemed a pretty good note to stop on, so Jaywalker thanked the witness and sat down.

Pope began on a low key, careful not to antagonize the jury by attacking Inez head-on. He established that years earlier the Kingstons had lived some twenty blocks from Castle Hill, that they still had relatives there, and that Darren was familiar with the area. From there he brought out that back in August, Inez had taken care of Darren and Charlene's son while Charlene worked, an arrangement that would have left Darren alone in his apartment when he came home from his job each morning.

Little by little, Pope managed to chip away at Inez Kingston's direct testimony. Darren, though left-handed, could certainly do some things with his right hand. Inez wasn't really familiar with her son's exact weight. In a situation where Darren felt in control, his stutter was less noticeable. And Inez couldn't say where her son had been on the afternoon of August 16th, the date of the two rapes.

These were standard cross-examination questions for an alibi witness who claimed to recall with specificity a date long ago. By showing that the witness couldn't remember the day before or the day after nearly as well, the questioner could cast doubt on the legitimacy of the alibi.

But something was wrong here. True, as required, Jaywalker had listed Inez as a potential alibi witness. But that had been with regard to the September 5th incident, the one she recalled because Darren had phoned her to say he could hear his son crying next door. That incident had been severed out by the judge and wasn't part of this trial. And Inez had just conceded that she couldn't account for Darren's whereabouts on August 16th, the date of the Cerami and Kenarden rapes. Even as Inez began her answer regarding August 16th, alarm bells were going off in Jaywalker's mind.

Jaywalker was on his feet objecting, even as Inez tried to say she knew Darren had been home that day. Up at the bench, out of the hearing of the jury, he pointed out to Justice Davidoff that while Pope might have selected August 15th and 17th at random, to believe so was actually giving Pope the benefit of the doubt. The 17th, after all, was the date of the attack on Tania Maldonado. As to September 5th, there could be no doubt whatsoever. Pope had obviously picked it purely because it was the date of the attack on Elvira Caldwell. Pope was doing one of two things, Jaywalker told the judge. Either he was fishing around to see if the defense had alibis for the other two incidents, or he was suggesting to the jury that something of significance had occurred on those dates, and inviting them to speculate and imagine the worst. Whether it was the former, the latter or both, Pope's attempts were improper.

Defending himself, Pope pointed out that Jaywalker had brought out a number of dates during his questioning of various witnesses, giving him the right to do the same. Furthermore, he argued, he had every right to test Inez Kingston's credibility by asking her about her son's whereabouts on September 5th.

Pope was flat-out lying there. The first of his stated reasons—that he could ask about dates because Jaywalker had—was utter nonsense. The second—that his question about September 5th went to the witness's credibility—
was totally dishonest. In fact, what Pope was doing was setting up a “straw man,” even as he hid his true intentions with evasive explanations. The full scope of his plan wouldn't become clear until later on in the trial.

In hindsight, Jaywalker should have seen it coming. But you know what they say about hindsight. All he could do at the time was object, and hope the judge would see it his way and sustain the objection. But Justice Davidoff permitted the question. He did suggest to Pope that he ask the witness about September 6th, 7th or 8th, as well, in order to disguise the fact that the 5th was, as he put it, a “red letter day.”

Finally given a chance to respond to the question about September 5th, Inez stated that she knew Darren had been home on that date. It had been the first day of school for his son, and consequently the first day Inez no longer had to look after him. She also recalled having spoken with Darren on the phone sometime that morning.

Pope asked her about September 4th. That had been Labor Day, she recalled, and Darren, Charlene and their son had come over to his parents' house to visit. To wind up his cross-examination, Pope succeeded in getting Inez to admit that she couldn't say for a fact whether Darren had been in the Castle Hill Houses during August and September.

There was no way Jaywalker was going to let Pope have the last word with Inez. On redirect, he had her recount an incident in which Darren had once tried to change a lightbulb for her. The fixture was in a hard-to-reach place, and Darren, on a stepladder, had been required to unscrew the burned-out bulb with his right hand. Unable to do it, he'd been forced to call upon his brother for help.

Pope, on recross, sought to show that Inez had fabricated the entire incident.

After a few more questions, Pope was finished with Inez, and this time Jaywalker left well enough alone. As she took a seat in the courtroom—where she was now permitted to observe the rest of the trial—Jaywalker had to wonder about the jurors' reactions to her. On the plus side, she'd established Darren's left-handedness, his stutter and several other matters. But underlying her testimony was the fact that she was the defendant's mother. To the jury, that no doubt raised a caution flag over everything she'd said.

 

Jaywalker called Charlene Kingston, Darren's wife, to the stand. He knew full well that the same caveat attached to Inez's testimony would apply to Charlene's. But Charlene had a few points of her own to contribute. Besides, Jaywalker wanted the jurors to hear her. And as she was entering her ninth month of pregnancy by this time, he wanted them to see her, as well.

He established that Charlene was Darren's wife, that they lived together, and that they already had a three-year-old son. He asked her about Darren's appearance back in August, and she replied that it had been the same as it was now. He asked
her if Darren owned or had ever owned a tan V-neck shirt. She replied that he never had, but that she could recall Detective Rendell asking her about such a shirt. He asked her if Darren ever drank, and she said he did, on social occasions. Did he drink wine? No, he drank Seagram's V.O. Did he ever carry a knife? No, never. Did he stutter? Yes, he did. And with that, Jaywalker thanked her and sat down.

In Jaywalker's book, less was often better. If you asked your witness only a few questions, you left your adversary with little to pick apart. If he then chose to open up new areas to explore, he did so at his peril.

As he had with Inez, Pope began gently with Charlene.

Pope asked Charlene if she knew where Darren had been on August 16th. She replied that he'd been home. But when Pope pressed her to explain how she knew that, Charlene could only say that that was where he always was during the day. Although she'd been in the habit of speaking with Darren on the phone while he was home and she was at work, it was usually her husband who made the calls. On top of that, he usually called in the morning,
before falling asleep. So Charlene, too, was unable to specifically account for Darren's whereabouts in the early afternoon hours of August 16th or, for that matter, any other afternoon of that month.

These days, computer technology captures every phone call we make or receive, and it would be possible to subpoena printouts that would show whether calls had been made to or from Darren and Charlene's apartment—as well as the exact times and the length of any conversations—around the times the rapes were being committed. But none of that was possible back in 1980.