Marine One

29

THANK YOU, YOUR Honor,' I said as I stood and crossed to the lectern. I opened the notebook that contained the outline for my opening statement and looked at the jury. I expected many had already picked sides.

'Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Again, my name is Mike Nolan, and I am here with Rachel Long,' I said, indicating. 'We represent WorldCopter.' I paused and scanned their faces again. No movement.

'Mr. Hackett made a very compelling opening statement. I expect it generated sympathy in you and persuaded you that what he said is exactly right. It may be. But rather than evaluating the case based on sympathy for the families, which we all share, or feeling the loss of our president, which we all feel, let's focus on the facts of what happened in the accident, on what we know. Mr. Hackett said this accident was caused by WorldCopter. That it was the fault of WorldCopter. Was it? Think about what he said and how much he talked about the actual facts. The investigation. What experts are going to say. Who is it that has said that this is WorldCopter's fault? What evidence points to WorldCopter? Essentially, Mr. Hackett points to the fact that several of the workers, including those who worked on balancing the blades and installing the tip weights, did not have the Yankee White security clearance required to work on the presidential helicopter. That is true. And whose fault is that? His implication is that WorldCopter intentionally dodged the security-clearance process so they could hire workers determined to sabotage the president's helicopter. Why didn't he just say that? He tries to impugn the character of the people who worked hard on this helicopter, without explaining how those clearances had anything to do with the balancing of the blade. True, the documentation is not as precise as it should have been. WorldCopter acknowledges that and the evidence will support what Mr. Hackett says. So if you want to award a judgment against them based on poor record keeping, then I can stop now. But I'd rather explore with you what facts Mr. Hackett will put on that will support his theory, and what other things you may conclude based on those facts.'

I turned the page of my notes and looked up at them. They were listening but skeptical. 'There are four other possible causes of this accident I want you to keep in mind. First, the helicopter crashed in the middle of one of the worst thunderstorms we have ever seen. Marine One was flying right through the middle of that storm. It was in what is called a cell. A cell is the part that reflects on radar and shows tremendous turbulence, hail, rain, and the like. It is the real thunderstorm. Could it be that the helicopter simply came apart due to the huge forces inside a thunderstorm? I want you to hold that in mind as a possible cause of this accident.

'A second possibility though is one that is difficult to contemplate. You've been watching the first lady, as we all have since she entered the courtroom. She is admired throughout the country and is a person of great dignity. It is appropriate to notice her and give her the respect she's due. Behind her though, directly behind her in this courtroom, sits Mrs. Collins. She was here this morning during the voir dire process. She also is entitled to tremendous respect. She's also entitled to your sympathy, outside of your role as a juror. But one of the possible causes of this accident must be mentioned. Her husband, Colonel Collins, was the highly decorated and respected pilot of Marine One. You heard his voice on the cockpit voice recorder that was played for you earlier by Mr. Hackett. But he didn't play the first part of that recording. The part before the helicopter took off from the White House.'

I walked over to the console between the counsel tables that had all the electronic equipment on it and pushed PLAY on track two. It played the exchange between Collins and Rudd, the copilot, and the discussion of the president. I watched the faces of the jurors as Collins demonstrated his contempt for the president. They were surprised. 'You undoubtedly have heard a lot of information about this crash; the press has covered it extensively. But this is the first time the cockpit voice recorder has been played anywhere outside of the NTSB headquarters. As you can see, there may be more to this story than a loose tip weight. Not only did Colonel Collins hold the president in contempt for his political views, he didn't even give him the formal respect due to the office. For example, it is well-known that President Adams claimed to be the third Adams president, in the same family line with John Adams and John Quincy Adams. But that claim was thought to be fraudulent by Colonel Collins. I will prove to you that he wrote letters to people about what a fraud the president was.

'That's not all. A couple of months before the accident, Colonel Collins took out a new life insurance policy with the Armed Forces Insurance Association for one million dollars. That was ten times the insurance he had before. What would inspire a Colonel who was approaching retirement to suddenly take out a massive life insurance policy that he had no interest in before, even when he was in combat? The Collinses have no children. Coincidence? Maybe. But the other possibility, the more malignant possibility, is that Collins knew what was coming. He anticipated, or even caused, the accident.' A loud gasp came from the audience and the jurors. 'So do I think that Colonel Collins killed the president and everyone else on board on purpose? That he disagreed with the president's policies so much that he ended it on purpose? Let me give you one additional fact. The evidence will show that the flight data recorder stopped. It stops thirty seconds before impact. In the wreckage we found the panel that has the circuit breakers on the right side of the cockpit by the pilot's knee. The circuit breaker for the flight data recorder was out. Could it have been tripped by an electronic short or other failure? Yes. But you heard the cockpit voice recorder. It was working fine. And there's no indication of other electrical problems. It's possible that he perceived a hydraulic failure and was trying to pull the hydraulic-pump circuit breaker and got the wrong one. It's absolutely possible. But it's also possible that he pulled the circuit breaker for the flight data recorder so that we couldn't know what actually happened. Right after that circuit breaker popped, this aircraft started an immediate descent and crashed into the ground almost inverted. One of the scenarios you're going to have to consider is that Colonel Collins disliked the president and everything he stood for and used this storm as a cover to kill the president. Is that what I think? I don't know, and what I think doesn't matter. The question is, what does the evidence show? And your job is to determine what happened based on the evidence.'

I turned the page. 'Mr. Hackett spent a lot of time discussing the people who balanced the blade, making them look like bad people. But did you notice how little time he spent discussing with you the mechanism of the crash? How it happened? The evidence regarding the tip weights, at least as presented by Mr. Hackett, is nonexistent. All he noted was that the tip weights were not on the blade that was found on the ground next to the crash. That could happen in a number of ways. That blade is spinning almost at the speed of sound, and if the end of the blade hits anything, the tip weights will be thrown off. All the experts will agree with that. But Mr. Hackett would have you believe that somehow the tip weights came loose and flew off the end of the blade. On what is that theory based? The tip weights were not found during the investigation. And of course we know they had to be on the blade, because the helicopter never could have taken off if that blade weren't in balance on takeoff. It would have generated such vibrations as to make the helicopter unflyable. And this helicopter had flown for several weeks with this blade on it. There were no vibration problems whatsoever. So we know the tip weights were on the blade and that it was in balance when flying to the White House. So what happened? We don't know. The lost blade could have been the cause of the accident, or it could have been an effect of the accident. It could have been that the helicopter was already coming apart because of the horrible storm, and the blade hit another part of the helicopter like the tail boom, and the tip weights were thrown off. We don't know. Mr. Hackett doesn't know, nor do his experts. But because there was an irregularity in the documents, he jams his theory of the crash into that one fact. He wants to imply some kind of sabotage or some kind of inappropriate placement of tip weights. He would have you believe that WorldCopter intentionally, or with unbelievably reckless disregard for the safety of the president, caused this accident by misbalancing the tip weights, or by not tightening the nut that held them on.

'Perhaps neither of those three possibilities captures your attention. So if it wasn't the weather, and it wasn't Colonel Collins, and it wasn't the tip weights coming off of the blade, what was it? What caused the accident? There's one other cause, one other way that this helicopter may have been brought down, that is simply hinted at in the evidence that will be presented to you.' I looked at the eyes of the jurors, who had started listening more carefully. 'You will need to be discerning, and you will need to listen very carefully to the testimony. I'm not saying you can't consider the other three possibilities. Perhaps they are the cause. But there's one additional possibility that you're going to have to consider. Rather than tell you what it is now, I will simply ask that you pay very close attention to the evidence all the way through to the end. And at the conclusion of this trial, I will ask you whether you saw that fourth cause. The fourth possibility. Perhaps the real reason that this helicopter crashed.

'That will require that you not decide yet what you're going to do. And not decide after Mr. Hackett's evidence is complete. And not decide midway through my presentation of evidence. It means you'll have to wait till Mr. Hackett and I have an opportunity to stand back up here and tell you what we think the evidence has shown. Then you can make up your mind and go into the jury room and do what's right. Just know this. Mr. Hackett may be wrong, or I may be wrong. Or we both may be wrong. It's up to you to decide what happened. And that will require you to pay very close attention to the evidence and listen very carefully to the witnesses. Thank you for your attention, and I look forward to speaking with you at the conclusion of this trial.'

As I made my way back to the table, I saw Rachel, who looked stunned and somewhat horrified.

I heard the judge say behind me, 'Mr. Hackett, call your first witness.'

I sat down and took a deep but silent breath. Rachel put a Post-it note in front of me: What is this fourth theory?

I wrote, Don't know yet, and handed it back to her.

Hackett stood and said, 'Your Honor, plaintiffs call Mrs. Adams, the first lady.'

The first lady walked to the witness box, took the oath, and sat. She considered crossing her legs but realized there really wasn't room. She sat slightly forward. The jury was mesmerized, and the audience was absolutely silent. I could hear the scratching of the chalk on the paper of the two artists sitting in the front row.

Hackett began his questioning with the usual background information, college-graduate school for him, law school for her-marriage, his political career. Then Hackett asked, 'What was your relationship like when he was the president? Did he ignore you?'

She smiled. It was the first time I had seen her really smile in person. She had a warm, engaging smile. 'No, he included me in almost everything. I sat in on meetings with heads of state, I talked to him about foreign affairs and domestic issues. We were a team, sort of. I mean, I didn't have any real say, or authority, but he cared about what I thought. I think he respected my judgment and liked to have someone as a sounding board who wouldn't call the Washington Post the next day.'

The gallery chuckled. Hackett was smooth. Mrs. Adams was comfortable, relaxed, articulate, and trustworthy. He continued, 'You were in the White House the night the president died, were you not?'

'Yes.' Her face looked suddenly downcast.

'Do you remember the evening?'

'Of course.'

'Do you know what the president was doing before he got aboard the helicopter that ultimately crashed?'

'He was with me.'

Hackett hesitated as if he didn't know the answer to the next question, as if there were some danger in his asking it. 'What were the two of you doing?'

The First Lady gave a wan smile. 'We had dinner together. He had been working late, and we didn't begin eating till after eight o'clock.'

'Where did you eat?'

'In our private quarters.'