“ Yes.”
“ The two of you speak freely with each other?”
“ I like to think so.”
“ Now, Mr. Socolow, did there come a time when you and the defendant had an occasion to discuss Mr. Cimarron?”
“ Yes. About six months ago, the two men had an altercation in Miami.”
“ Please tell the jury exactly what you said to the defendant and what he said to you.”
Socolow sighed and glanced at me. He didn’t want to be here. He looked as out of place on the witness stand as I did in the client’s chair. We had been adversaries for a long time, but there was always a certain amount of respect. Now he was being asked to tattle. His long, lean frame hunched forward. His complexion was more sallow than usual. He looked as if he hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. Good, that made two of us.
“ Jake…Mr. Lassiter wanted to press charges against Mr. Cimarron for a fight that took place in the home of Josefina Baroso. In fact, Mr. Lassiter swore out an affidavit so that Mr. Cimarron could be arrested for assault and battery. I contacted Mr. Cimarron who said he’d be happy to-”
“ Objection, hearsay!”
“ No!” I tugged at Patterson’s sleeve. “Let him answer.”
“ Why?”
“ Trust me.”
The judge cleared his throat, ah-hem, and looked at us with the same bemusement one might have when watching a dozen clowns tumble out of a car at the circus. “Is there an objection?”
“ Objection withdrawn, Your Honor,” Patterson said, graciously.
“ You may continue, Mr. Socolow,” the judge said.
“ Mr. Cimarron said he’d be happy to return to Miami and face assault charges, or if Mr. Lassiter wanted, the two of them could go another couple of rounds.”
A couple of the jurors looked surprised, and I winked at Patterson.
“ And what did Mr. Lassiter say?”
“ He said, ‘To hell with that. Next time, I’ll just shoot him in the kneecaps.’
Damn, I’d forgotten that.
The lady schoolteacher gasped. The judge shook his head. A reporter for the local fish-wrapper scribbled away in the front row of the gallery. Next to me, Patterson turned, shielding his face from the jury, and gave me a withering look.
“ In the kneecaps,” McBain repeated, as if once weren’t enough.
“ Yes, that’s what he said.”
“ Are you aware of any other verbal threats made by the defendant?”
“ Yes. About two weeks before my conversation, he told Dr. Charles Riggs-”
“ Objection, hearsay.” Patterson rose halfway out of his chair. “In fact, hearsay within hearsay.”
“ Not so,” McBain responded. “Mr. Lassiter is here and can refute the statement if he so wishes. Additionally, he can call the doctor to testify if he denies the statement was made.”
“ You’re both barking up the wrong tree,” the judge said. “Send the jury out for a short break.”
The bailiff escorted the jurors into their little room, and the judge turned to McBain. “I assume your witness is going to testify that the doctor told him Mr. Lassiter threatened Mr. Cimarron.”
“ That’s it, Your Honor. We attempted to serve a subpoena on Dr. Riggs, but he avoided service. In fact, he nearly ran down our process server in his pickup and screamed gibberish at him.”
That wasn’t gibberish. It was Latin, Marcus Ineptus.
“ Mr. Socolow,” the judge said. “Was the defendant present when the doctor told you of his threat?”
“ No, Your Honor. I did repeat the statement to him, however.”
“ And did he respond by denying he made the threat?”
“ No, Your Honor, he did not.”
Patterson was prancing in front of the bench. One of my threats was quite enough for the jury’s ears, and Patterson knew it. Experienced lawyers know what points are worth fighting for, and this was one of them.
“ Your Honor, a man has a right to confront his accusers,” Patterson said, “and when he’s faced with hearsay, he is deprived of that right. This testimony is highly prejudicial, inflammatory, and if I may say so, might well be grounds for reversal if a conviction results.”
Judge Witherspoon narrowed his eyes at my bantamweight lawyer. I’ve never met a judge yet who likes to be reminded of his fallibility. “That’s what we’ve got appellate courts for, Mr. Patterson. Please feel free to appeal me on anything you like.”
“ Your Honor,” McBain began, “the statement is not hearsay…”
“ Yes, it is,” the judge said, “but when it was repeated to the defendant by this witness, who is available for cross-examination, and the defendant did not deny making the statement, it becomes an exception to the hearsay rule as an adoptive admission. Bring in the jury.”
I sunk lower in my chair, and Patterson slowly returned to the defense table. It was the first time I’d ever seen his shoulders slump in a courtroom. Usually, it’s the lawyer who gives pep talks to the client, but just now Patterson was the one who needed cheering up. We had made a big deal out of trying to keep my statement out of evidence, and the jury knew it. We had lost, so my twelve peers would be keenly interested in what we didn’t want them to hear.
The judge turned to the stenographer, a young woman in a pantsuit and cowboy boots. “Please read back Mr. McBain’s last question.”
The stenographer riffled through her accordion stacks of paper and read “‘Are you aware of any other verbal threats made by the defendant?’
Socolow nodded. “About two weeks before the conversation I earlier related, he had a conversation with Dr. Charles Riggs, retired coroner. I wasn’t there, but Dr. Riggs repeated it to me, saying he was worried about Jake, who was acting strangely. I asked what he meant, and he answered that Jake was enraged with Mr. Cimarron and had threatened to tear his heart out.”
“ Tear his heart out,” McBain echoed, shaking his head, sadly. “Were those his exact words?”
“ I don’t know if they were Mr. Lassiter’s exact words, but they were Dr. Riggs’s words, verbatim.”
“ Did you repeat Dr. Riggs’s statement to the defendant?”
“ Yes, in the same conversation I spoke about earlier.”
“ The one in which the defendant threatened to shoot Mr. Cimarron in the kneecaps?” McBain asked, in case the jurors had forgotten.
“ Yes.”
“ And did the defendant deny threatening to tear out Mr. Cimarron’s heart?”
“ No, he did not.”
“ Did he say he was only joking?”
“ No, he did not.”
“ What did he say?”
“ First, he said something about once punching out a tight end for the Jets and drawing a penalty. Then he said he hated Mr. Cimarron.”
“ I see. So in the course of one conversation, the defendant threatened to shoot Mr. Cimarron in the kneecaps, and when reminded of his earlier threat regarding tearing Mr. Cimarron’s heart out, he concluded by saying he hated the man.”
“ Yes, that’s just about it.”
“ And what did you say to him?”
“ I told him I wanted him to come into the office after the grand jury-”
“ Objection!” Patterson pounded the table so hard, it woke up the bailiff. “Your Honor, this is the subject of our motion in limine.”
The judge called the lawyers to the bench for a sidebar conference. He had already indicated he would prohibit any mention of the indictment against me in Miami for Kyle Hornback’s murder. I couldn’t hear the whispers at the side of the bench, but in a moment the two lawyers, the stenographer, and the judge were back to business.
