"Go Rockland, Go Rockland..Go Rockland..Get ya groove on..Go Rockland..Ut Ut,UtUt Ut Ut ut ut ..OHHHHHH!" the girls were chanting...This brought laughter from the jury..Rockland held his head down..He was purely embarrassed..He and Olivia,Beverly, Myself, Nelson and Josie had come a long way since then...
Another photo she showed to prove that Rockland was some partying ,out of control monster was a photo of him in his boxers, dancing at a local strip club....
They also completely discredited 13 so called witnesses who came forward with bogus testimonies that were completely different from what they said to Lt. Tragg and to Gary and me..
They had witness statements and signed affadavits to prove it.
''Except for the fact he's got a smoking hot girlfriend." said one, refferring to Alfreda.
This brought about laughs from the jury...
This set Special Prosecutor Linda Beavers back on her heels...They were destroying her case and they hadn't really began their defense yet...She was furious with Lt. Tragg's faulty investigation and a little disappointed that her own investigator, Mike Stokes hadn't given her much better.
Without giving away their total strategy, they argued that his relationship to both murder victims, who it could be proven he knew was paramount to their defense...They cited three trials simullar in nature as well as three other such rulings..
He didn't want to, but Judge King was forced to rule in their favor...He had to admire them...They were prepared, they had anticipated all objections raised by the Special Prosecutor and they had predicates up the ying yang, transcripts from simular trials and laws and statutes to back up their arguments..
It was Thursday...He set the trial date for Monday at 10:00 am.
"I've put a BOLO out for him and I've talked to the Stateys (State Police) ..He'll show up."said Lt. Tragg, who wasn't really looking for him..He was just glad he had heeded his warning and backed off of his investigation..He initially thought he was going to have problems with him..
As for us...He had to concede that we were good at what we do...Even though he regarded most of it as "legal mumbo jumbo", which he didn't even bother to understand.
"She's made Rockland look like a fool, bad enough he's the butt of all the jokes in the paper, people running jokes about him in his boxers, being this party animal that went berserk in a haze of drugs..None of that is true." said Alfreda.
''We know that..and when we get him off..we are going to put all of that talk to rest."I said.
Alfreda glared at Lt. Tragg..
"THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT, YOU CORNY KEYSTONE COPPER....I WISH...I WISH YOU HAD BEEN IN YOUR DAMN CAR WHEN IT BLEW UP!!" she blurted out..
Lt. Tragg just laughed and walked away...Since this whole thing began...He had been laughing, having a good time with it and appearing on a late night TV show in which a comedian held up a news paper story with Rockland on the cover..."The A.D.A. caught with his briefs showing." He laughed loud and hardy at Rockland's expense..
We were taking the high road.
Rockland's words hit closer to home..
"I am totally innocent and any detective in the world would have determined my innocence in the first few hours of this thing..Look at who arrested me..Look at how many times he's arrested the wrong person and somebody else has solved the crime..Look at that Queen Village Rapist case recently...Turns out it was two different people...The SVU Detectives caught the actual rapist and an innocent man was on trial for a murder tied to this same case that he didn't commit...Look at that Atwell case that he did get credit for solving..He was given notes by the defense attorneys , who actually interviewed the kids and determined the guilty party...He didn't solve anything..He just took credit for somebody else's work...
Lt. Tragg makes Inspector Cleauseu of the Pink Panther look like a genius..He was wrong then, He'll be wrong again, you'll see." said Rockland.
The Press roared with laughter...
Lt Tragg's nemesis,a Reporter named Lou said- "Considering you got the city's best defense attorneys reppin you , my money is on you Rockland." he shouted.
"Yayyyy Rockland!" shouted another reporter..
The Tide was turning.. Public Opinion was shifting in Rockland's favor.
Lt. Tragg was as red as a beet...He was very embarrassed and slipped out the back door.
II-
In Bayside at this moment in Blue Bar...
''And now....I'd like to give you a nice send off." she said.. she winked and ran her index finger across his lips..
They were kissing passionately and she was stroking his massive penis...
He was running his hands down into her panties...
"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH JULIEEEEEEEEEEEEE! YOU ARE DRIVING ME INSANE!!" he moaned..
"OUUUUUUUUUUU TOMMMY...MMMMMMMMMMMM!" she cooed. She loved the way he felt inside of her...
He unhooked her bra and slipped her panties down and off...
"Ouuuuuuuuu Thomas...you are so fresh...Ouuuuuuuuuuu!" she squealed..
He sat on the side of the bed and she eased down on his massive penis, gasping and beginning to cry like a little girl as she moved up and down on him, kissing him softly and moving up and down as he kissed her neck and her breasts and then her lips, while she continued to move up and down on him...
"OUUUUUUUUUUUWEEEEEEEEEEEe...OHHHHHHHHHH MY GODDDDDDD, YOU FEEL SO DAMN GOOOD THOMAS!!!!WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!" Julie cooed..
"OHHHHHHHH JULIE....UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.." he moaned..
Riding him slowly...slowly like a surfer riding a wave....driving him out of his mind...
"OUUUUUUUUUUUWEEEEEEEEEEEe...OHHHHHHHHHH MY GODDDDDDD, YOU FEEL SO DAMN GOOOD THOMAS!!!!WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE GIVE IT TO ME....GIVE IT TO ME...GIVE IT ALL TO MEEEEEE!!" Julie cooed..
"OHHHHHHHH JULIE....UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM..AWWWWWWWWW LAWDDDDD! he moaned..
She had been obsessed with him since she had first seen him...Two months ago on a rainy day in Sam Mother's Diner.
An otherwise uneventful rainy day...until a man walked in...
A Black man, He was naked!
Three females screamed... a roar went up in the crowd... Sam Mother yelled out..
"HEYYYYYYY, WHOAAAAAA! WHAT THE HELL...MANNNN, WHERE ARE YOUR CLOTHES?" he said.
"I-I-I can't remember what happened to them...Could I just have some coffee? I can pay you...I'm a lawyer." said the naked Black man...
"GEEEEEEZ MANNN, YOU'RE NAKED!" screamed Lt. Tragg...
"And you're stupid! But later on today...I'm gonna have on some clothes.." said the naked Black man..
"ALRIGHT LAUGHING BOY, YOU'RE UNDER ARREST!" said Lt. Tragg, who handcuffed him...
Julie Baisden couldn't stop staring at the man's well endowed physique..
"WOW!" she said ,continuing to stare... "Myyyyy goodness..He's ..he's...WOW! " she said.
"Sorry about this Julie...I gotta take this mope in...Sam , put the meals on my tab, you know I'm good for it."said Lt. Tragg.
"Okay Artie."said Sam.
"WOWWWW!" she said again....Marveling at his girth and size...
She had heard him say he was a lawyer...
After he was released, some hours later..Thanks to his good friends ,Olivia ,Beverly, Donnie Ray, Nelson ,Josie and their intern, Bresha, who represented him in court.. He was contrite and had on clothing this time.
He was all she could think about..She looked him up...
She met with him for coffee in Bayside and found he was very personable and very intelligent and worked at a relatively new, but well known and up and coming law firm..Working on the kind of law she'd like to practice.. They continued to meet in secret for the next few months and talk and have drinks and pretty soon they were sleeping together and making plans..
.
She put in her two weeks and accepted a position at his law firm...She moved from her condo in Philly to Bayside..and purposely didn't leave a forwarding address.
She didn't want to deal with Arthur Tragg..She knew he'd find her eventually...but right now, she was glad to be done with him.
"OUUUUUUUUUUU THOMAS....THOMAS....THOMASSSSSSSSS..OUUUUUUUU!" she cooed..
For The Next EIGHT TO NINE HOURS, they continued Making sweet , sweet Love in the hotel room.
ST. CROIX- U.S. VIRGIN ISLANDS-
At a beautiful beach bar...
and dreaming about Olivia.
the way she looked the last time he saw her...
and her niece ,Beverly, who he was having an equal affinity for.....
He was stunned when a squad of FBI agents surrounded him..
"Michael Stokes....You're under arrest, there is an outstanding warrant for you in the states...Apparently you didn't show up in court for a subpeona...Don't worry pal..we'll have you back in Philly in time to testify.."said the Special Agent in charge..
He could have gone through the floor...He wasn't even aware that he was a fugitive.
III-
Back at our place, I had a pot on, several pots...I was cooking crabs legs...with help from
Tony Billips and Nelson..
ONE WEEK LATER-
"Donnie Ray is from New Orleans, he gives everything tha special touch." said Nelson as we laid everything out on the table and everyone grabbed a plate..
We were going to chow down tonight.
It was Friday and we were cooking up all of that seafood , Olivia and Beverly bought from Pink's seafood place a few weeks ago....
Naturally we had guests...Dabnis and Jazzy, Kayla and Ray and Yvette and Gary..
Josie, Paris and Bresha arrived with beer.
"Heyyy Guys, Sorry we are late." said Josie.
''Better late and with Beer than never.,right?" said Paris.
Bree just laughed and started passing everybody a bottle.
"Nowwww the party has started" laughed Ray.
''Aunt Alfreda is sitting this one out Liv?" asked Kayla.
''Yeah...her and Rockland wanted some alone time at her place , before the second phase of the trial begins Monday." said Olivia.
Even though he wasn't supposed to be, Lt. Tragg sat outside our house in an unmarked police cruiser..
There was a lot better things he could be doing on a Friday Night..
He had seen everybody that entered our building, Jasmine Coley, her husband Dabnis, Kayla Bennett-St. Jacques and her husband, Ray Sr. Jacques. Josie Boyd and the young fellow she was dating...and their intern Bresha and her boyfriend..and finally, Yvette and Gary Lockwood.
He could smell the seafood wafting down in the street and hear talking, laughing and music playing.
He saw Cases of beer being brought in..
It was quite obvious that Olivia, Donnie Ray,Beverly and Nelson were entertaining..
Having some kind of fish fry or seafood dinner....
who had trashed him in the papers and on television...He wanted to shoot them both... He hoped to god, Rockland was convicted next week...He'd pull the switch himself as high and mighty Rockland lie on the table getting a lethal injection he thought.
had resigned from her job at the U.S. Attorney's office and not said a word to him and had moved and not left a forwarding address.. She had changed phones and gotten a new number..He had no way to track her...If something was wrong..He wished she would have told him..He didn't have a clue...His recent struggles with Todd Dellums and Cheryl Drake and Rockland
had taken a lot of his time and cost him a lot more than they should have. Things were certainly different when his Uncle and his dad were running things he mused..Cops were God..High falutin Attorneys towed the line or they got handled. he mused.
IV-
MONDAY- 10:00 AM
We were back in court and beginning our defense..
Judge Michael King was presiding..He personally didn't think the Special Prosecutor had proven her case ,that Rockland was guilty of murder...He himself didn't believe it..To him , this whole thing was an elaborate frame..He kept it to himself..but he was actually rooting for us...Hoping we could prove he was innocent. He liked Rockland.
was innocent..and that she and her colleauges were going to prove it..
She showed the results of the Urinalysis taken the night of the arrest...
Josie and Bresha assisted her by rolling out two 64 inch monitors ,so that the jury could plainly see the results..
"Rockland said that he had been drugged by this girl, calling herself Brenda Rivers, when actually, her name is Brenda Garland...This is her on the video ,taken from Murphy's Law Bar...She has her head turned so that her face will not be seen on the camera...but this is her a day later...being pulled from the river..same dress...same shoes..."said Olivia.
"Look at this dress...It retails at $1750.00...Here is the receipt of the store in which she purchased it...In cash...Where does a workin girl get that kind of cash? She has three convictions for prostitution and she had just gotten out of jail, a month before.Ask yourself , what is her connection to financier, Lowell Carmaichell, the target of an investigation by the D.A.'s office and Willie Tate, the murder victim..? Look at the shoes and pay very close attention to who is in the photo at the shoe shop...where she paid $750.00 for a pair of Manolo Blahniks..That is Private Investigator...Mike Stokes...He'll figure into this story later." said Beverly..
The Jurors gasped..
"The truth is, Rockland told the truth about everything that happened to him that night...but people were busy laughing because he was in his boxer shorts with a pair of panties on his head..."said Nelson.
This drew laughter from the jurors..
"And speaking of the panties..If he had of been having sex with this young lady...wouldn't her panties have had a trace of semen, sweat...some biological fluids from both the male and or the female? These panties didn't , they were brand new and according to the coroner..They were never worn...Here is a photo of Ms. Garland purchasing the panties , again, paying for them in cash...and look who again is in the photo...P.I. Mike Stokes...Interesting huh? Here is a photo of the dead , Brenda Garland...wearing the same dress and shoes she was seen in earlier in the night... and notice..She is wearing very different panties..Hmmmmm!" said Nelson..
Mike Stokes blurted out incredulous..."YOU ARE UN BELIEVABLE", staring at me and boiling with anger.
Mike Stokes blurted out incredulous..."YOU ARE UN BELIEVABLE", staring at me and boiling with anger.
"This is the body of Willie Tate, photographed by crime scene investigators...When they discovered the body at 4:40 am in the morning....He had been dead for 24 hours...This is from the official coroner's report.. Rockland was at the home of his girlfriend ,Alfreda Johnson that time of morning, the day before. He had breakfast at Sam Mothers at 7:30 am...We know that...He was in court from 9:00 am until 12:00 noon...He was in his office and I have three witnesses,plus our own D.A. Mr. Garcetti who will testify to that until 4:00 pm. he was in the office. He received a phone call from what we now know is a burner phone and he got gas at around 5:30 pm and then ate dinner at Mabel Jenkins Soul Food restaurant from 6:00 pm until 7:30 pm.. When did he murder Willie Tate???, who was already dead at this time ,unknown to him..Maybe even unknown to Brenda Garland." said Josie.
According to his credit card bill, they both had about four martinis...and left a little after midnight..
What happened next is anyone's guess..but Rockland is next seen four hours later in his boxers with a brand new pair of panties on his head...Ms. Garland is gone..and so is the Champaigne and the Chocolates.And no one...no one sees Ms. Garland alive again..... Mr. Cambridge is put in custody and Ms. Garland is murdered sometime in the early morning.." said Bresha.
Lt. Tragg was as red as a beet.
She showed the jury a photo of his private plane.
"You Purchased a Private jet a few months ago....You and Lowell Carmaichell are said to be the co-owners..but Lowell Carmaichell told my husband, that he doesn't own that private plane or any private plane, so it's just you.
The jury roared with laughter...
"I plead the fifth on account that my answer may tend to incriminate me." he said.
''Again I plead the fifth on account that my answer may tend to incriminate me.." he said.
"That money has nothing to do with this case." said Mike Stokes.
"I killed Willie Tate, he was going to destroy everything I was working for...I was a cop for years...I used to bust guys who spent more for lunch than I made in three months...Lowell Carmaichel was a thief..he was embezzling and doing insider trading and making a mint...He had already become a millionaire three times over when I got on to him..Long before Rockland Cambridge and his investigator had an inkling of what was going on.
Why couldn't I have some of that? Why couldn't I have nice things? Like a Boat, like a Plane? I worked my whole life and had nothin but a lousy cops pension...Workin for the D.A.'s office in Camden, about to be evicted..IT WAS MY TIME TO SHINE...but Brenda..she was different..I killed her because she's just like you and your niece..Big TEASES....seduce men, with your soft voices, your tight skirts..your peek a boo blouses...just a hint of a bra showing... but when it's time for lovin...she shuts down...just like you shut down....If she had just let me have her that night...She'd still be alive...She was as deep into this as I was...I would of broken her off some serious cash.....but she turned me down...DAMN TEASE....DAMN TEASE.....DAMN IT!!! DAMN IT!" he screamed..shaking and crying..
Deep down , he wanted to unburden himself to tell the world he had been smarter than everybody for awhile....and damn angry we had derailed his gravy train.
"Bailifs, Bailiffs, take that man into custody.." said the Judge..
''Well in lieu of these developments. The .People move to drop all charges against Mr. Rockland Cambridge."said Linda Beavers..
It wasn't a loss, but it certainly wasn't a win.
"Come on baby...let's go back to my place." she whispered in his ear..
"YAYYYYYYYYY!" said Bree, who handled herself very well.
The Press snapped photos of Rockland, now vindicated, Alfreda and the six of us.
whistles and cheers followed...
"It was a pleasure trying a case against such astute attorneys.. Now I can go back to my real job as Senior Associate Attorney at my firm in Cherry Hill and hopefully won't be involved in any criminal trials for awhile..Thank God...I don't have to work with either Lt. Tragg or Mike Stokes ever again...I don't know which one was worse." she said.
"Lieutenant Tragg, trust me.."said ADA Rockland Cambridge, showing he had no hard feelings , at least not toward Linda Beavers..Lieutenant Tragg was another story..
"Lieutenant Arthur Tragg is a disgrace to the police department...He calls himself a detective..Incredible..He never did a property search...he ignored the autopsy reports and the estimated times of death..He never looked into the girl's background at all!...That's Homicide 101...A first year detective would have done those things... A first year detective might have cracked this case sooner...This is a pattern with him...Look how many of his past arrests with that dumb ass partner of his, who is now himself in prison, Dominic Evans have been reversed by the Wrongful Conviction Unit...He's just the worst...He was wrong before and as I told you, He was wrong this time with me."said Rockland.
As the press ate it up!
What began as a hoot, a laugh had now ended with him being disparged on the TV and the press as much as he had disparged Rockland and made him the laughing stock of the city..He slipped out the side door...He didn't want to deal with the press..
He was sick to death that his girlfriend, Julie Baisden had up and quit her job and moved...He had no idea where she was...
He needed to go and get drunk tonight.. Monday Night! How could things go so wrong, so fast? He wondered.
EPILOUGE-
Lowell Carmaichel was indicted and convicted of Insider Trading and Embezzlement..and sentenced to 7-10 years in federal prison. (He'd be paroled in three years)
The courts weren't so kind to Mike Stokes. He had murdered two people and for that he got the death penalty.
We were at our favorite coffee shop today...
Enjoying hot cups of very good coffee.
Rewarding Nelson with a sweet kiss.
My Phone vibrated..,I got a text....It was from Gary Lockwood.
A DAY BEFORE, Captain Cantrell's office.
She's actually some hot shot Attorney at a big firm..She wrote an after action report that simply scours you and the entire Philadelphia Police Department.. She really was not pleased with the way you ran the investigation and your total unprofessionalism and refusal to co-operate." she wrote. The Deputy Of Operations was not pleased at all...Neither was the District Attorney's Office...So here take this...It's a train ticket."said Captain Eddie Cantrell.,
Be on that train tomorrow morning at 8:00 am...This comes from the top!"said Captain Cantrell, shaking his head.
On his way to Quantico....
THIS MORNING AT 8:00 AM.
Lt. Tragg was on the train.
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