VENTURES: Cracks in the Cement.

Natalie and I were enjoying a sweet early morning kiss in the Judges Chambers...

"Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm you always want to kiss me..." she cooed.

"Because it always feels so damn good!"I said continuing to kiss her..

"Oh my god." I said..

Natalie pulled away from me...

"We've got to stop now...I've got to go to the lobby" she said.. She fixed her hair and applied her lipstick and make up.

"Come on let's go." she said.

I followed her out of the Judges Chambers....

In the courthouse waiting area...all of our team members sat drinking coffee...

Natalie and I walked into the lobby...

Brooke passed us both a steaming tumbler of coffee..

"Good Morning!" she said.

Beverly used a disinfect wipe to wipe Natalie's lipstick smudges off of my lapel and suit jacket...

"Thanks Bev." I said a little self conscious...

Beverly smiled..."Don't be embarrassed.....You love Natalie...Natalie is my sister....That makes you kinda like my brother in law.." she said and smiled.

The Rest of the team was seated... Sean, Brooke, Karen, our supervisor, Olivia, Donnie Ray, who had done a hell of a job investigating for this case, Beverly, her husband, Nelson, Josie and Bresha.

They were going to defend Death Row inmate Mark Williams... He had been rescued just one month prior to his execution by Natalie, Brooke and Sean...They had taken on his case as a favor to Olivia and Beverly who were in the middle of 4 other cases at the time..

To return the favor, They were now working with Natalie, Brooke ,Sean and Karen on the retrial....

I was relieved...I was not involved in this case...Just a week before, working with Jessica Sanchez-Burrows ,Her husband, Charles "Chip Burrows and Yvette Jones Lockwood and her team...We had successfully defended Rufus Haney, a death row prisoner who I saved just 18 minutes before he was scheduled to die. Returning home, Jessica and Chip and Yvette,Keith, Bee Bee, Sofia,Kahlil and Jade had offered assistance on his trial..I greatly appreciated it... The Judge wound up throwing the case completely out and freeing him...

None of them were here today....

And I was here ,only as a spectator...Supporting my wife Natalie, Brooke, Karen and Olivia,Donnie Ray Beverly, Nelson, Josie and Bresha.

Unlike us...They hadn't got a heads up as to who the judge would be...

Lt. Tragg and Detective William Wisdom, the two arresting officers in this case also...walked in...They both looked at us with anger and contempt..

They purely didn't want to be here...This case was closed in their minds...They didn't like to be going over a closed case, especially Lt. Tragg. This case had brought him rare good press headlines...and now, once again, he looked like the goat. This was two cases in two weeks that he and Detective Wisdom had been involved in... They both were getting it in the press and there was calls for an internal investigation into both men and their investigative techniques...They were both red as a beet, but this time at different attorneys.

Assistant District Attorney Alva Simmons walked in... She waved at Olivia...They had worked together on a case a few years ago...She bore her nor her team any personal ill will, She saw this as a job...Same way we felt about her..

Assistant District Attorney Courtland James bore us no ill will either, but he was furious about having to be here for yet the second retrial of a man he had put away and a case he thought was a done deal.. He was livid about that. He secretly blamed both Lt. Tragg and Detective William Wisdom for doing faulty police work that allowed attorneys to find cracks in the cement.

The Judge walked in.... I must admit...I didn't know him....but everyone else did..

"Oh My God...I thought he'd retired." said Natalie.

"I heard he had died..."said Brooke.

"Well whoever he is...There he is..Not retired and certainly not dead.." said Sean, who like me, didn't know who he was either.

"That's Judge Franklin Sacraminti...The Hanging Judge....He was the original judge in this case...He was the one who sentenced him to death." said Karen.

"God! I 'd heard he died..I must have heard wrong."said Olivia.

"Obviously." said Donnie Ray.

"When we were public defenders, he made Jazzy cry one afternoon..."said Beverly...

"I remember that....He was a real son of a bitch...definitely not a defense attorney's friend." said Nelson.

"Oh My God!" said Josie..

"Wow! I wish we had Charlotte or Kelly Ann..." said Bresha.

"Gotta play the hand you're dealt...Come on let's go." said Olivia. She didn't want us to panic...She wanted everybody to be battle ready...

"We got a break...He's a good judge...Tough Judge who doesn't take any guff from defense attorneys...plus he was the original judge in this case." laughed ADA Courtland James.

"Frank Sacramenti.....I've heard of him....I heard he died or had at least retired." said ADA Ava Simmons.

"WOAHHH! We got a Break,. Remember him Billy? He was the Judge in the original case...Frank Sacramenti..The hangin Judge.....He knew my father and my uncle....They used to play poker together some Friday Nights at the old East Coast Club."laughed Lt. Tragg.

"I thought he had died....Glad he hasn't.... He won't take any guff off of those bleeding heart liberal attorneys."laughed Detective William Wisdom.

The Sherrif's bus was a little late this morning..

Their client, Mark Williams had a fresh haircut and a nice even shave...He was wearing a Black jumpsuit and like my former client, Rufus Haney was in handcuffs and shackles.

The deputies brought him in and walked him silently into the courtroom. Where he was seated next to

his nine lawyers.. The team that was going to try and save him.

The trial was about to begin.

II-

Courtroom B-9:00 AM

"ALL RISE FOR THENHONORABLE JUDGE FRANKLIN SACRAMENTI" Yelled the bailiff as we all rose.

"Okay...Okay...Everybody sit down." he said gruffly....He certainly wasn't a Kelly Ann Mercer or Charlotte Petyerson.

"I am Judge Franklin Sacramenti as some of you probably know...Welcome to my courtroom.... Due to courtroom crowding of cases, we are going to bypass a preliminary hearing...This is the retrial of a matter that I thought was long put to bed...I see the decision has been reversed... so we are going to go straight to trial. I expect some of you are tired of hearing this...but it is what it is..We are trying to wind down our case load. We will have Jury selection today. Trial could begin tomorrow morning if we seat a jury today. We'll start with introductions." he said.

"Representing the Commonwealth, Assistant District Attorney Courtland James your honor." he said.

"Representing the Commonwealth, Assistant District Attorney, Alva Simmons your honor." she said.

"Natalie Jean Charles, for the Defense your honor." said Natalie.

You could feel the hot intense hatred Lt. Tragg had for her as she spoke softly....He looked like he wanted to kill her.

"Brooke Marks for the Defense Your Honor." said Brooke.

"Sean Marks for the Defense.." said Sean.

"Karen Page for the Defense your Honor."said Karen..

"Olivia Bennett-Alexander for the defense your honor."said Olivia.

"Beverly West-East for the Defense your honor."said Beverly.

"I remember you two ,Aunt and Niece and that young man there...I guess he's your husband now when you were Public Defenders....I thought you'd moved on from cases like this since you went into private practice."said the Judge.

"Nelson East for the defense your honor." said Nelson.

"Josephine Boyd for the defense your honor." said Josie.

"Bresha Billips for the defense your honor." said Bresha.

Donnie Ray sat quietly next to Mark Williams...

Mark sat with a quiet dignity....

"Well Mr. Williams ,you certainly have enough lawyers and a better class of lawyer than you had five years ago...let's hope you fare better than you did then." said the Judge...Let's begin with the jury selection." he said.

I smiled and crossed my legs and watched the master, Nelson East on Voir Dire.

Nelson had after all taught me the fine art of Voir Dire... Kahlil and Keith were good...but Nelson was even better than them... He had a laser like focus on what jurors he wanted, what questions to ask and the general breakdown of the jury pool..

ADA Courtland James was caught completely off guard again....He didn't know up from down...

with Josie and Bresha on their laptops feeding him questions and information....It was no surprise to me that Nelson got a slam dunk an even dozen!!!

Donnie Ray smiled and looked at Mark..

"You're doing good so far...We have the jury we wanted." he said.

"I certainly hope so Mr. Alexander.." said Mark Williams..

"These guys are good" said Brooke, smiling...

"I know...I am so jazzed to be working side by side with them." said Natalie.

''Alright...We have a jury...Trial begins tomorrow at 10:00 AM sharp , so get a good nights sleep and try to get some breakfast....Jurors and Attorneys, I expect you here on time and ready for trial... Court dismissed." he said.

I walked up behind Natalie and hugged her..

"Well you're about to begin...I'm wishing you all good luck..." I said and kissed her neck...

"Thanks babe, ouuuuuuuuu that gets me hot.....you know that..." she said..

We began kissing.....

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" she moaned.

"Come on let's get out of here." I said.

"Okay!" she said meekly as we followed the others out of the courtroom..

III-

We did as the Judge said and got a good night sleep and we all had breakfast, an early breakfast before coming to court...

and then we were in court...at the trial..

Judge Sacramenti was a tough judge and it was quite obvious that like ADA James, Lt. Tragg and Detective Wisdom...He didn't like rehashing this trial again..

All four men knew the victim...Felisha Hershy, a pretty and vivacious reporter who from time to time had written favorable stories about all of them and who had dated both Lt. Tragg and Detective Wisdom at different times and had the eye of the Judge himself.. This was all reasons none of them should have been involved in this case...but that was besides the point and unknown at the time of the original trial.

ADA Courtland James practically ran his entire playbook from the original trial.. What he had working against him in this trial was the jury for one was not all white..It was 7 African -Americans and 5 Whites this time...they were all younger,college educated and tended not to believe everything a policeman said.

His opposing counsel was a lot smarter and a lot more aggressive than the overworked and aging Public Defender that represented Mark Williams in the last trial and who had since died. His law partner had given Olivia and Beverly this case right at the time they were embroiled in four other cases at the same time.

Natalie, Brooke, Sean, Josie and Bresha challenged the forensics, and the so called witnesses at the scene...

They had Medical Examiners Reports, new witness statements , laws, predicates and simular case laws at their disposal...They came prepared...

ADA Alva Simmons had done much more research on this case than Courtland James. She tried to do damage control..but she didn't fare much better against Natalie, Brooke, Sean, Josie and Bresha.

Courtland brought up Mark Franklin's past convictions of robbery and burglary and his two stints in State Prison..

Olivia and Beverly brought up the fact that he had been an almost model citizen in the 10 years since he had last been incarcerated...Not so much as a parking ticket. Was taking courses at Community College and about to enroll in Temple University and was working a job as a driver for a local bakery at the time of the incident.

They brought in 19 charactor witnesses, former student colleagues, teachers and co-workers to state their case. None of which was done at the original trial. These two were incredible...The way they framed an argument and the way they presented it to the public.

Nelson and Sean brought up the fact that three policemen touched the murder weapon without latex gloves and got their DNA and fingerprints on the murder weapon and that Mr. Williams DNA and prints weren't on the weapon at all..

They brought in an expert from Dr. Goggins lab, The Medical Examiner's Office and The FBI to testify to as much...

This sent Lt. Tragg and Detective Wisdom into hysterics....They were furious about this coming up.

ADA Courtland James looked at the both of them with a white hot anger.... He still had his two witnesses, who with Donnie Ray's help, we had located...

and subpoenaed first....

Natalie , Brooke and Beverly eviserated the first witness comparing what she said in 2019 to what she was now saying amid

ADA Courtland James near hysterical objections.....

Olivia and Karen did the same to the second witness , who described an African-American male who was not the same height or complexion of Mark Williams , who always maintained he was nowhere near the scene of the murder.

There were cracks in the cement of this so called slam dunk case and we had cracked the cement wide open.

Unlike the other judges, Judge Frank Sacramenti refused to drop the charges...He tossed the case to the jury to see what they would have to say about it....

None of us cared...We were certain we had shed enough reasonable doubt to get an acquittal....

That night at home..

''We are supposed to be getting a good nights sleep." laughed Natalie. I had her in my arms.

"We have been, the trial is over now.. It goes to the jury." I laughed.

"You are such a lawyer..."laughed Natalie..

''A Horny one." I said.

"Yes, a very horny one." she laughed.

As we kissed in the corner...

I unsnapped her bra.....

and slipped her panties down....

"UMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...OUUUUUUUUUUU.." I moaned.

"Oh hush up all that moaning.." she laughed..

"Natalie you have the best panties." I said.

"How do you know? Compared to whose?" she asked and then burst out laughing.....

I laughed too!

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU...OHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" she moaned as I slowly entered her.

She was as usual, warm and wet and soft as a newborn baby.

"OH MY GODDDDDD NATALIE!!!" I cried out..I was loosing my mind...

She laughed....

Her body once again began to tremble mightily....Her head turned from side to side and she began to weep like a little girl....My body was shaking too!!!!!

"No guy I know has ever brought me to orgasm as fast or as much as you have David...you're the best..." she cried out..

That was a great boost for my ego...

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!" she moaned loudly..

"AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW LAWWWWWWD! YOU'RE MY SWEET GIRRRRL!"I cried out,

and for the next EIGHT TO NINE HOURS!! we made sweet, sweet love....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU that felt good!" said Natalie ,lying on top of me afterwords..Both of us sweaty, both of us trying to catch our breath!

"YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSS, it certainly did....WOWWWWWWWW!" I said.

Natalie cracked up laughing...

IV-

The Next Morning , we all had breakfast at Sam Mother's Diner.

We got a big table that could seat all of us..

"I want to be the first to say it. I am so proud of how the three of you have run these cases....and thank you too Sean for your help...and of course Liv, you and Beverly and Donnie Ray and Josie and Bree, What could we have done without you guys." said Karen Page

"Awwww shucks mam! Just doin our job!" I chuckled jokingly...

"We appreciate the faith you have in us Karen and this is the law both me and Brookie wanted to be practicing, getting innocent people out of jail...not sending people to jail."said Natalie.

"And hopefully we've now gotten more people out of jail than we've put in." said Brooke.

"Hopefully" laughed Sean.

"Actually I should be thanking you Karen....You guys did me a favor by taking on this case...This was our case..but as you realize, we were bogged down with four cases when I came to you...yopu bought us some time." said Olivia.

"Yeah and gave that poor man some hope by rescuing him from execution." said Donnie Ray.

"Meanwhile we have to hope that that jury bought our argument over ADA James." said Beverly.

"Are you kidding? We made James and Simmons look like first year attorneys...Their case was so full of holes it looked like Swiss Cheese....I polled that jury and every single one of them seemed convinced that this was a travesty of justice." said Nelson.

"Oh My God, the faulty police work, the contamination of the murder weapon, witnesses who couldn't get their stories straight...it was a mess." said Josie.

"It was...but I agree with Nelson...We presented enough reasonable doubt to have swayed that jury." said Bresha.

Olivia and Karen both looked proudly at the young attorneys under them who they trusted with the heavy lifting in this case and the one before it..They were proud...We had all done well and not missed a beat..

Lt. Tragg was without Kelly Ann today......but never the less, he ate his breakfast at the counter and walked past us without acknowledging our presence at all, which was fine with us...It was better than his unhinged bellowing of the past..

But Detective Wisdom was different..He glared at us and snarled.

"I hope one of youse or your love ones is a victim of a crime...Don't call on us..." he said.

"We especially won't call on you..We want the crime solved." said Beverly.

Natalie cracked up laughing.....

Detective Wisdom angrilly stomped his foot and stormed out of the diner.

COURTROOM B- 10:30 AM.

"Has the jury come to a decision?" asked the Judge..

"We have your honor." said the Jury forewoman.

The Bailiff took their decision and passed it to the judge...

He read it and had an angry look on his face... He passed it to the bailiff.

"READ IT! got damn it! he muttered...

"In the matter of COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA VS. MARK WILLIAMS ON THE CHARGE OF FIRST DEGREE MURDER! WE THE JURY FIND THE DEFENDENT, NOT GUILTY!" he read.

"Oh ThanklYou Jesus! Thank you everyone! " said Mark Williams, finally exonerated... His mother, his sister and his fiance , who had waited for him for five years believing in his innocence and begging for his case to be looked at...surrounded him with hugs and kisses and thanked all of his lawyers..

Olivia and Beverly leaped into the air and high fived like they usually do after a victory..

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!" they both yelled..

"We did it! We won!!" said Natalie..

"We did it!" said Brooke.

"Did you have any doubt?" said a jubilant Sean.

"Congratulations guys..." I said congratulating my friends..

"You guys have the day off tomorrow, you know that...and we are all going to celebrate this weekend.."said Karen..

"WE DID IT!!!!! WE DID IT GIRLS!" said a Jubilant Nelson....

"YES WE DID!! I JUST WANT TO GO HOME TAKE OFF MY HEELS AND LOVE MY HUSBAND!" said Josie..

"GIRL YOU AINT NEVER LIED!" said a very happy Bresha.

Donnie Ray smiled.. "Come On let's get out of here." he said...

"Those two dumb bells may have cost me my damn job! We lost both pof these damn cases." scoffed ADA Courtland James angrilly.

"It'll be alright." said Alva Simmons as they both left the courtroom....

"Come on let's go grab a cold one." said Lt. Tragg.

"Yeah I can use something stronger."said Detective Wisdom as they both left the courtroom...

We had saved two men's lives...We felt good.....

EPILOUGE-

To Celebrate, Olivia and Donnie Ray found another new restaurant and bar for us to celebrate in..

It was of course halfway across town, but we were sure we wouldn't run into Lt. Tragg or ADA Courtland James or Detective Wisdom , who I was sure was at Curley's Bar tonight, crying in their beers...

"This is such a nice place to celebrate...We took these two cases practically pro-bono, but they were satisfying cases." said Olivia.

"We got paid...." said Donnie Ray.

"Standard,,,but still below our normal fees." said Beverly with a smile.

Nelson looked around.. "This is the nicest place we've been to." said Nelson.

"It is... and I'm glad it's someplace where we don't have a chance of running into Lt. Tragg or Detective Wisdom or ADA James." said Josie.

"Amen, we can eat and drink totalally in peace."said Paris.

"Well let's enjoy this night by not even bringing them up." said Bresha.

"Yeah... here come the waitresses.." said Tony...

"I love this place.....Ouuuuu the ambience..."said Alfreda.

"Heh, heh heh!"laughed her husband, Rockland.

"I'm so happy the both of us were able to free both of those men." said Yvette.

"I'm glad too..I hate to think of an innocent man going to his death!" said Gary.

"That's why we should get rid of the death penalty." said Keith.

"Another battle for another courtroom." said his wife Bee Bee.

"Until that time...We take it, one victory at a time." said Sofia.

"The war goes on..." said Kahlil..

"Here Here" said Jade raising her glass for a cheer.

"It smells good in here." said her husband, Danny.

"I'm so proud of all of you guys.. and what you did for those two guys." said Virginia.

"Teamwork." said her husband, Jetty.

"Olivia's team certainly helped us out..."said Jazzy...

"Yeah, my team too!" said Dabnis.

"Yeah, we've all cleared a number of high profile cases...We deserve a break."said Kayla.

"We'll get one..We are all going to New Orleans in a few weeks." said Ray...

"Oh I can't wait.."said Jessica.

"Whatever will the world do without us?" joked her husband, Chip.

"I'm proud of my guys...and grateful for all of our friends." said Karen.

"You should be darlin...All you guys work well together." said B.L.

"I know we are going to New Orleans soon, but I'm going to relax right here and right now."said Natalie.

"We all are baby..We all are...We deserve it!"I said.

"We sure do." said Brooke.

"I'll bet Lt. Tragg and Detective Wisdom are in Curleys just steaming right now.." laughed Sean.

"I'm betting you're wrong about that...If he's with Kelly Ann, Lt. Tragg has already forgotten about this case..Maybe Wisdom is angry all by himself."said Zoey.