The Lincoln Lawyer

Roo-
lay
.”
    “Roooo-
lay.
Got it. So, let’s see, I have some things for you here.”
    He swiveled his seat to turn back to his desk. He picked up a thin file and turned back to hand it to me.
    “I want to play fair. That’s the up-to-the-minute discovery for you. I know I don’t have to give it to you until after the arraignment but, hell, let’s be cordial.”
    My experience is that when prosecutors tell you they are playing fair or better than fair, then you better watch your back. I fanned through the discovery file but didn’t really read anything. The file Levin had gathered for me was at least four times as thick. I wasn’t thrilled because Minton had so little. I was suspicious that he was holding back on me. Most prosecutors made you work for the discovery by having to demand it repeatedly, to the point of going to court to complain to the judge about it. But Minton had just casually handed at least some of it over. Either he had more to learn than I imagined about felony prosecutions or there was some sort of play here.
    “This is everything?” I asked.
    “Everything I’ve gotten.”
    That was always the way. If the prosecutor didn’t have it, then he could stall its release to the defense. I knew for a fact-as in having been married to a prosecutor-that it was not out of the ordinary for a prosecutor to tell the police investigators on a case to take their time getting all the paperwork in. They could then turn around and tell the defense lawyer they wanted to play fair and hand over practically nothing. The rules of discovery were often referred to by defense pros as the rules of dishonesty. This of course went both ways. Discovery was supposed to be a two-way street.
    “And you’re going to trial with this?”
    I waved the file as if to say its thin contents were as thin as the case.
    “I’m not worried about it. But if you want to talk about a disposition, I’ll listen.”
    “No, no disposition on this. We’re going balls out. We’re going to waive the prelim and go right to trial. No delays.”
    “He won’t waive speedy?”
    “Nope. You’ve got sixty days from Monday to put up or shut up.”
    Minton pursed his lips as though what I had just told him were only a minor inconvenience and surprise. It was a good cover-up. I knew I had landed a solid punch.
    “Well, then, I guess we ought to talk about unilateral discovery. What do you have for me?”
    He had dropped the pleasant tone.
    “I’m still putting it together,” I said. “But I’ll have it at the arraignment Monday. But most of what I’ve got is probably already in this file you gave me, don’t you think?”
    “Most likely.”
    “You have that the supposed victim is a prostitute who had solicited my client in here, right? And that she has continued that line of work since the alleged incident, right?”
    Minton’s mouth opened maybe a half inch and then closed, but it was a good tell. I had hit him with another solid shot. But then he recovered quickly.
    “As a matter of fact,” he said, “I am aware of her occupation. But what surprises me is that you know this already. I hope you aren’t sniffing around my victim, Mr. Haller?”
    “Call me Mickey. And what I am doing is the least of your problems. You better take a good look at this case, Ted. I know you’re new to felony trials and you don’t want to come out of the box with a loser like this. Especially after the Blake fiasco. But this one’s a dog and it’s going to bite you on the ass.”
    “Really? How so?”
    I looked past his shoulder at the computer on his desk.
    “Does that thing play DVDs?”
    Minton looked back at the computer. It looked ancient.
    “It should. What have you got?”
    I realized that showing him the surveillance video from the bar at Morgan’s would be giving an early reveal of the biggest ace that I held, but I was confident that once he saw it, there would be no arraignment Monday and no case. My job was to neutralize the case and get my client out from under the government’s weight. This was the way to do it.
    “I don’t have all my discovery together but I do have this,” I said.
    I handed Minton the DVD I had gotten earlier from Levin. The prosecutor put it into his computer.
    “This is from the bar at Morgan’s,” I told him as he tried to get it playing. “Your guys never went there but my guy did. This is the Sunday night of the supposed attack.”
    “And this could have been doctored.”
    “It could