VENTURES: Carrying A Torch..

"Coffees everyone!" said Lee Phillips, our Para-legal....

"Thank you baby!"said Olivia taking a cup.

"Thank you little lady." said Donnie Ray.

"Thanks Lee, did you enjoy yourself this weekend?" asked Beverly.

"Oh Girrrl , I had so much fun Saturday! And Sunday....Just when I thought it couldn't get any better..

You bring out Super Brunch at Josie's...Oh My God!" said Lee....

"And you're welcome to have dinner with us tonight..."said Nelson.

"Yesssss!" said Josie.

"You guys have made me feel sooo welcome." said Lee Phillips...She was nine weeks away from graduating from Law school.. She had done two years at Middleton Law School in Bayside...Had gotten pregnant, had a miscarriage and sat out a year before having her credits transferred to Drexel's Thomas Klein School of Law ,here in Philadelphia where she was finishing up.. She lived six blocks from us and was working as a para-legal for us and a number of our friends...

"We love you Lee... "said Bresha.

This was exactly how we had felt about Bresha ,when she first joined us as an intern...

"I certainly feel very relaxed and ready for trial."said our client, Murder Suspect and Attorney Douglas

Baldwin..."Dougie Balls" as he was known...

Lt. Tragg walked into the lobby...

"Dougie....I hope there will be no hard feelings...I uh was just doin ,my job." said Lt. Tragg..."Good Luck to you." he said and walked away...

"Did I just hear that? Did Tragg get religion or something? What happened to him?" said an incredulous Nelson..

Judge Kelly Ann entered the courtroom..

"She happened to him....Say it Niecey Poo!"said Olivia.

"The Power of the PAN-TAYS!" said Beverly...

Josie, Bresha and even I laughed..

Jake Ludwig walked past us...He looked at us with a seething hatred...

The husband of the deceased, Jack Connors walked by us too!

Both men had one woman in common...

Hayley Connors... and it was all going to come down to this, in this trial..

II-

COURTROOM D-

Judge Kelly Ann Mercer was holding court once again...It seemed as though she was getting a lot of our cases.

ADA Don Diorgio was making goo goo eyes at her...He couldn't hide the huge erection he had...

Lt. Tragg still had her lipstick smudge on his shirt and the side of his face and also had a huge erection...

He too was looking at her leeringly...

"What a woman!" he thought to himself..

She noticed both men...She felt a little uncomfortable having both men leering at her sexually...and yet a little naughty at the same time...Never the less she carried on..

"Good Morning, Good Morning, Good Morning Attorneys and Jurors...I am Judge Kelly Ann Mercer...We are going to start with introductions of the attorneys in this case..." she said.

"I am Assistant District Attorney Don Diorgio...." he said...His trousers now protruding widely...

"Assistant District Attorney Christopher Garcetti, representing the Commonwealth Your honor." said Chris Garcetti.

"Oh my god, ADA Diorgio has got a boner..."exclaimed Beverly putting her hands over her mouth and giggling..

"Oh my god, I see it!"laughed Josie..

"What is Kelly Ann doing to these men? Look at Lt. Tragg."exclaimed Bresha..

Lee smiled and giggled also...

"Chris is the only one over there without one." she said.

"Olivia Bennett-Alexander-Lead Attorney for the Defense your honor." said Olivia, moving on.

"Beverly West-East-Attorney for the defense your honor."said Beverly.

"Nelson East-Attorney for the Defense." said Nelson...

"Josephine Boyd, Attorney for the Defense your honor."said Josie.

"Bresha Billips, attorney for the Defense your honor."said Bresha.

I sat with the defendant, Doug Baldwin and Para-legal, Lee Phillips at the table next to theirs...

"Alright, we will now have Jury selection.." said Kelly Ann.

As usual, Nelson had an advantage...He had been studying the juror pool for two weeks...He knew the jurors, practically everything about them and he had good questions to ask them...

Lee Helped Beverly, Josie and Bresha set up their laptops behind him..

They had additional information and questions to whisper to him...

ADA Diorgio was no slouch himself...He too had studied the jury pool, though not as extensively as Nelson...and was proving to be a very astute prosecutor..

He was amazed at how prepared Nelson was. They battled to a 7-5 split going our way....

ADA Diorgio whispered something to Chris Garcetti.

He nodded and got up and left the courtroom...

"Alright..we have a jury...Good. Opening arguments will start tomorrow.. At 10:00 AM. Be on time ans be ready for trial...You are dismissed." she said. She quietly slipped out of the side exit...She didn't want to be pawed over by Lt. Tragg this morning or ADA Diorgio...She just wanted some peace and quiet and a nice hot cup of tea.

"Well guys....I'll meet you at Sam Mother's Diner..." said Olivia.

I followed her into the Judges Chambers after everyone cleared out...

We locked the door..

"You and I are too hot.."she whispered and giggled.

"I just have to have you sometimes." I said..

"You want me all the time....That's been a constant since I've known you."said Olivia.

"MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!" I moaned as we kissed passionately....

"YES IT HAS...UMMMMM!" I moaned.

"OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH YOU?" said Olivia.

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU! ANYTHING YOU WANT!" I said.

"OUUUUUUU I LIKE THAT!"she said as our hot kissing continued....

I slipped her panties down....

I lifted her up and entered her.....

"Lt. Tragg and ADA Diorgio weren't the only men in that courtroom with erections." I said.

"I know....I saw yours...OUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"moaned Olivia.

I placed her on the table...spread her legs and entered her again..

"OUUUUU YES....YESSSSSSSS...YESSSSSSSSSSSS...OHHH YESSSSS!" she moaned.

FORTY FIVE MINUTES WENT BY!

It was a good morning.

III-

ONE WEEK LATER-

This trial was going on far longer than it should have. ADA Diorgio was good at stalling and keeping a meaningless argument going on...

He had failed to provide a motive...He had failed to account for the bruise in the back of our client's head ,saying at first that the deceased woman did that during the fight...

Josie, Olivia and Nelson proved that not only was this not true, it was physically impossible..

Beverly and Bresha with assistance from Lee..

Brought up footage from Bottom of the C... and another bar making out...and photo footage from the hotel earlier in the day that caught them making out..Negating his argument that they had an argument because she refused to have sex with him...They were clearly on the verge several times that day..

Still ADA Don Diorgio kept up his inane argumrnt that a refusal of sex led to a major argument that led to a big fight and strangulation at lovers lane.

Olivia ,Beverly and Nelson produced Blood , that was proven to be Doug's blood in the hallway of her condo....Where they theorized the murder and attack occurred and that the bodies were then transferred to the lovers lane.

I watched the jury....They were buying our argument over Diorgio's and what's more.. He knew it.

As he closed his argument, he damn near argued for jury nullification.

Now it was our turn....

Olivia argued that Haley Connors was murdered at her condo and Doug was attacked there...The evidence was in Doug's blood from his head wound being found on the floor and in the hallway leading to the back stairs...

She argued that he was injected with a drug Succinylcholine that was used to paralyze the body temporarily..after he was knocked unconscious, probably by a sap....The drug was found in his body as evisdenced by a urinalysis...

Beverly brought up the fact that the urinalysis also showed that absolutely no alcohol or drugs or any kind were found in Doug's system...That he was a member of AA and where he had once been an alcoholic was now a tee totaler...

Bresha had receipts from everyplace the two had ate and drank that day....Doug had a Coke in the morning, Coffee and A Club Soda at both Bottom of the C. and the second Bar they attended..

"And yet he was found with Jameson's Irish Whiskey spilled all over his clothes and an empty bottle in the car with his fingerprints on it..looks like a frame to me." said Nelson.

Jack Connors, her ex-husband was called to the stand.. He had a very arrogant smirk on his face as he walked to the stand.

"Mr. Connors, you and your wife had a very contentious break up...divorce...and your company...The company that you both started together had to be split up evenly and that led to the very contentious litigations between you two is that right?" asked Olivia.

"That is uh correct!" he said.

"That litigation and it's conclusion didn't exactly end the way you wanted it to did it? And the fact that your ex-wife was now openly dating her attorney really got under your craw didn't it?" asked Beverly..

"I wouldn't say that!" said Jack Connors.

"Oh come on now...I have three eyewitnesses who said they saw you sitting in cars, probably rental outside of her condo...Keeping track of who visited her and on what nights... And we have film footage of you Street Cam Footage and footage from the Condo of you hanging around for seemingly no reason.

Bresha and Lee showed the footage from the monitor to the jury.....

ADA Don Diorgio looked at Lt. Tragg..

"I told you to go over the crime scene, to get me more evidence!" he said angrilly.

"You'd better button it up and Lay off of me." said Lt. Tragg...

"Mr. Connors have you ever heard of Succinylcholine ?" asked Josie.

"Can't say that I have." he responded cooly..

"It's a medication used to cause short-term paralysis as part of general anesthesia....You know about it because it was used in a recent surgery you had....We followed your online purchases and I have a receipt here that shows you ordered this on the Black market six weeks ago. You planned this murder six weeks ago, didn't you?" asked Bresha.

"OBJECTION!!! She's introducing materials not in evidence."screamed ADA Diorgio.

"Your honor...This substance was found in my client's bloodstream on the night of the murder it is relevant."protested Olivia.

"Proceed!" said Judge Kelly Ann.

"You followed Haley and Doug from Bottom of the C. You hit Doug with a sap knocking him unconscious and you injected him with Succinylcholine to make sure he was no problem...You angrilly

strangled Haley to death...and then you left...Didn't you?" said Beverly....

"I don't know what you're talking about." he protested...

Jake Ludwig realized at that moment that Doug Baldwin was not the killer, that it was Jack Connors..

He put his head in his lap....He had been wrong.

Olivia called him next....

"Jake Ludwig...You and Haley Connors, once known as Haley Johnson a high priced call girl...She went for $200.00 a night...You were a beat cop then... You fell in love with her.. Took her off the street...She entered college , got a business degree from Temple and then went to the Wharton School of Business at PENN, and got her masters...She was at the top of her class.. All that time, You were her lover and her biggest supporter. She was very good at Buisness , at leveraging buyouts of big companies...and in time, she became quite wealthy... You wanted to marry her.. but by now the thrill was gone... She left you for wealthy upcoming socialite...John "Jack" Connors, who was just up here..

You never got over that...and you kept the torch for her.....Is what I'm saying true?" asked Olivia.

He was in tears and his entire body was shaking.

"YES....YES...I LOVED HER!!!" he said.

Nelson spoke softly...compassionately...."It must have hurt you when she married Jack Connors..After all you had done for her... You had given her most of your youth...You had moved up the ladder..from Beat cop to Sgt., to Detective, and finally to Lieutenant....You hadn't married and here you were , a middle aged man still carrying a torch for her...You were following her and Doug that night also...You arrived at that condo and discovered the body's... Haley was dead...Doug was still alive..but out cold...

It was you who packed the bodies into the car and drove them to the lovers lane... You who poured Jameson's Whiskey all over him and placed his hands on the body....You wanted to make sure Doug was blamed for this heinious crime.. You believed he was the killer...You didn't know that Connors had killed Haley and knocked Doug out and drugged him...did you?" asked Nelson..

Jake Ludwig was in tears......

"YES...YESSSSS, ALL OF IT IS TRUE....YESSSSSSS!"he cried out....his body shaking....

Dougie, I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry, I thought you killed her..I just wanted to ask you whyyyy!!!!....arghhhhhhhhh!" he cried out..

"The Defense rests your honor."said Olivia.

IV-

THIRTY MINUTES LATER-

''Wow that was quick!"said Olivia.

"The Jury made up it's mind quick...No way they could come back with a guilty verdict...No matter what Diorgio said." I said.

"This had to be one of the most bizzaro cases we have ever had." said Beverly.

"One man kills the victim and leaves...Another man shows up and removes the bodies and tries to frame who he thought killed the victim...Wow.." said Nelson.

"He had no idea he was helping the actual killer.."said Josie.

"This was a bizzare and strange case." said Bresha.

"And to think....I lived it!" said Doug Baldwin...

Lee laughed...

Jazzy, Kayla, Natalie, Brooke and Renee came down to see the ending of the trial and hear the verdict.

They sat together in the visitors section....

COURTROOM D-

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

"We have your honor."said the Foreman who passed the decision to the Bailiff....he passed it to the Judge, who read it and passed it back to the Bailiff.

"Read it" she said quietly...

"IN THE MATTER OF COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA VS DOUGLAS R. BALDWIN ON THE CHARGE OF FIRST DEGREE MURDER..WE FIND THE DEFENDENT...NOT GUILTY!"

"OH MY GOD!!! THANK GOODNESS...MY NIGHTMARE IS OVER, NOW I CAN GET BACK TO WORK!THANK YOU ALL!!!" said Douglas "Dougie Balls" Baldwin...

Beverly and her aunt leaped into the air high fived each other....

and yelled- "WHOOOOOOOOOOOOO WEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"as was their custom after a win....

"I couldn't have done this without you little lady....It was your idea to check the GPS on both of their smartphones...It lead me right to them and what more than likely happened. Thank you...You're going to be a great attorney."I said.

"That's high praise coming from you guys." said a smiling Lee Phillips.

Nelson had his arms around Josie and Bresha.

"My Girls...before my very eyes, I'm watching you both become great lawyers." he said.

It was high praise indeed, Josie beamed with pride..

"Thank you Big Brother." said Josie.

So did Bresha....

"Thank You Nelson." she said.

"This was great...I expected a win here."said Jazzy..

"Cousin Olivia told me their defense strategy Sunday and I knew it was a slam dunk." said Kayla,.

"I knew it too." said Lee.

"This was a wonderful win." said Natalie.

"Truly...." said Brooke.

"I'm relieved... I'm ready to Party." said Doug...

"Oh we are planning to." said Renee.

Across from us, ADA Don Diorgio was not a happy camper.. He had now lost two cases and on both cases , Lt. Trump was the arresting detective,.

"YOU ARE AN INCOMPETANT BOOB! I TOLD YOU TO RECANVASS, I TOLD YOU TO GET ME SOME MORE EVIDENCE...I TOLD YOU SOMETHING WAS OFF ABOUT THIS CASE...BUT NOOOOOOO YOU WERE BUSY TRYING TO GET INTO KELLY ANN'S PANTIES! YOU ARE THE WORST DETECTIVE ON THE FORCE.." he shouted..

"YOU KNOW I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU! AND I'VE HAD IT WITH YOU TRYING TO GET NEXT TO KELLY ANN...THAT'S WHAT THIS IS REALLY ABOUT ISN'T IT? YOU'RE MAD BECAUSE I HAVE KELLY ANN AND YOU DON'T!." said Lt. TRAGG.

Don punched him in the jaw! And now the fight that had been brewing for months was on...

Lt. Tragg hit him with 25 lefts and rights to his face knocking him across a row of seats....

He in turn hit Lt. Tragg with 17 lefts and rights to his face...knocking him backwards...

Visitors scrambled to get out of the way..

Lt. Tragg hit him with 27 lefts and rights and backed him into a wall...He swung wildly at Lt. Tragg and missed...both of his eyes were nearly swollen shut...

He hit Lt. Tragg with 18 lefts and rights....He was dazed and he stumbled a bit...both men swung wildly at each other and missed...

Both men grabbed each other and fell to the courtroom floor....rolling back and forth and swinging at each other, punching each other wildly....

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUU!"moaned Dan Diorgio....

"ARGHHHHHHHHHHH!" moaned Lt. Tragg

Several Policemen and Bailiffs rushed into the fray and separated the two men..

Both men had blackened and swollen eyes...and swollen and discolored faces...

The sleeves of both of their suit jackets had been ripped completely off...Their shirts and ties unloosened and blood flowing profusely from their noses...

"Oh My Goddd!" said Olivia.

"That's the first brawl Lt. Tragg has been in in a lonnnnng time." I said.

"I know....It used to be a weekly thing, remember.?" said Beverly ,laughing.

"I got the whole thing on my phone...Wait until the guys see this."laughed Nelson.

"Wow! Those two were really going at it.." said Josie.

"One woman caused all of this." said Bresha..

"My God, those two were trying to kill each other.."said Doug.

"Oh My God~!" said Lee.

"Let's get out of here." said Jazzy.

"I got this all on my phone, wait until our husbands see this."laughed Jazzy...

"First Brawl Lt. Tragg has been in in awhile.."said Natalie.

Brooke was laughing uncontrollably...

"You're enjoying this too much Brookie..." said Renee.....

In a corner, Kelly Ann was applying a cold towel to Lt. Tragg's face, trying to stop the bleeding..

and quietly walking him out of the courthouse...

The Press was having a field day, covering the "Brawl in the Courtroom"

ADA Don Diorgio was the biggest loser...He had lost the case, appeared to have lost the fight and had lost the girl...

His suit jacket had no sleeves...He took it off and tossed the rest of it into the trash can...He stomped his foot and eased out of the courthouse....It would take a while for this to be lived down...

"Never a dull moment with us..." said Olivia.

"Never Auntay!" said Beverly..

"Never."I said.

EPILOUGE-

Jack Connors was arrested by Lt. Tragg a little while later and charged with the murder of Haley Connors and the abduction of Doug Baldwin.. He was convicted and sentenced to life without parole.

Jake Ludwig was convicted of Obstruction of Justice and sentenced to 1-3 years in prison...He was released after serving a year. He is a security expert at a manufacturing company.

Lt. Tragg was not disciplined at all for the brawl, especially since it was revealed that ADA Diorgio hit him first.,

He returned to Kelly Ann's Loft..

Where they took a nice hot shower together..

"My Guy!" she cooed.

"AWWWWWW KELLY ANNN!" he moaned..

"OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU ARTHUR!" she cooed as they passionately kissed..

"AWWWWWWW LAWWWWD!" he moaned as the kissing continued......

"YESSSSSSSSS! YESSSSSSSSSSSSS! OHHHHHH YESSSSSSS ARTHUR!" she moaned.

and they finished the night together in bed making sweet love for the next NINE TO TEN HOURS!

"Those Hangovers aren't going to feed themselves." said Dougie Balls as we all sat down at a restaurant , not far from his condo..

It was a rare Thursday Night, but we all really hung one on at the No I.D. Bar celebrating his acquittal in court ... We all closed the joint.. and likewise...Everybody took the day off.

Instead we all had breakfast at Doug's neighborhood diner...

Nothing like good hot comfort food...

To soothe the soul...

"Ummmmmmm I'm glad I'm not working today...This is some good food."said Jazzy.

"After we eat I'm going home and go to sleep." said her husband, Dabnis, who had also closed the office.

"You aint never lied Dabnis." said Kayla.

"This is some good eatin." laughed her husband, Ray...

"It's nice that we all could take the day off." said Jessica.

"We don't get that many chances.." said her husband, Chip..

"Unlike you all we are going back to work today, but I'm closing the office at 12:00." said Karen.

"Yeah I have to work too! but I'm enjoying this breakfast."said B.L.

"I wish we had the whole day off."said Natalie.

"Yeah I do too." said her husband, David.

"We'll save those days for when we all go down to Nelson's Beach House." said Brooke.

"Yeah, I hate that I have to work today also."said Sean.

"Well I'm glad we don't."said Zoey.

"You and Me too! I can't wait to hit that bed."said her husband, Lem.

"Me neither." said Renee.

"Ditto that." said her husband,Tyrell.

"Well it's a no work day for us.. Our office is officially closed." said Olivia.

"No courtroom, no law library, no media room, no nothing." I said.

"I guess you look forward to a day of rest too huh Lee?" asked Beverly.

"Yeah it's Friday...I'll sleep a little then I'll go to the laundromat." said Lee.

"Oh Yeah...This Saturday is our laundry day....We pack all of our laundry in big laundry bags and we go to this real nice trendy laundromat across town, all of us and do our laundry..We have a catered breakfast and lunch and sodas...and coffee..It's a good time...If you want to go..Let us know...We'll pick you up." said Nelson..