False Accusations by Jacobson, Alan (great novels of all time .txt) 📕

Denton; Denton stood and buttoned his suit coat. He had delivered hundreds of opening statements over the years, and was adept at driving home his point by commanding the jury’s undivided attention as he told them with undaunted confidence he was going to prove beyond a reasonable doubt the suspect before them was guilty. Although Madison’s removal as the accused dulled the high-profile nature of the case, it was still rife with controversy; as a result, members of the press filled the courtroom. Denton knew this, and if butterflies could truly be present in one’s stomach, he would have a flock inside his own at the moment.

“That woman—Brittany Harding,” Denton shouted, pointing his finger at her, “is accused of murdering two people. Two innocent people who were unfortunate enough to become unwitting pawns in a plan of cold, calculated revenge. A plan of revenge that was carried out by Brittany Harding against a prominent surgeon, a pillar of the community.

“Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, I’m Timothy Denton, the prosecutor, and I represent the People of the State of California.” Denton strode toward the jury box, his hair freshly trimmed and his face glowing from a recent session at the local tanning salon. His neatly primped appearance, which included a new pinstriped navy blue suit, signaled the importance of this trial to both him and the state. He had begun with intensity chiseled into his brow, but now, as he approached the jurors, his features were softer, his demeanor inviting. They seemed to receive him well, watching him closely as he kept his hands clasped in front of him and focused all of their attention on the content of his opening argument.

He threw a glance at the defendant, then looked back at the jurors. “Brittany Harding,” Denton said, again pointing a short and stubby finger at Harding, who looked away, “is accused of murdering two people. But the story does not begin there. Let’s go back to late August of last year. Miss Harding was a recently hired assistant for a nonprofit organization whose president was Dr. Phillip Madison, a prominent surgeon in the community.

“When the organization’s administrative officer became ill, Miss Harding temporarily took over those duties. Witnesses tell us—as they’ll tell you during this trial—that Miss Harding had difficulty handling these activities. She accused one parent of being responsible for her child’s mental retardation, when in fact it was a genetic defect that was the causative agent. Others reported she was ‘condescending,’ and ‘unwilling to help’ them,” Denton said, reading the witness statements from a legal pad. “But there’s no crime in being ignorant or rude, is there?”

He took a few steps toward the prosecution table, then turned and faced them again. “When Dr. Madison suggested to Miss Harding that she submit an employment application for the administrative officer’s position, a job that she’d taken for granted would automatically become hers, she felt threatened. She thought she was going to be fired, so she manufactured a story in which she claimed that Dr. Madison raped her in his home. And she took this story to the police. She told them he’d raped her. But she didn’t go to the police on the same day that ‘the rape’ allegedly occurred. In fact, she didn’t go a week later.

“Not two weeks later. Not three weeks later. So when did she make this accusation? Five weeks later, ladies and gentlemen. I’m going to show you how she manufactured the entire scenario, and attempted to frame the doctor with rape.

“The police did their work diligently. They repeatedly interviewed Dr. Madison, but they couldn’t gather any evidence to support Miss Harding’s claim. Because no proof of rape existed. But Brittany Harding would not be deterred: she leaked her story to the newspaper, and an article was written without specifically naming Phillip Madison as the accused doctor. The tactic worked. It scared him—if his name had been mentioned, it could’ve destroyed his fine and hard-earned reputation as a top surgeon.

“Miss Harding’s attorney immediately contacted Dr. Madison’s attorney and made a proposal: she would drop the rape complaint against him in exchange for a modest sum of fifty thousand dollars.” Denton strode back toward the jury. “This is called extortion, ladies and gentlemen, and it’s against the law. I’m going to show you how she played this same game of extortion with a former employer of hers two years ago. And you’ll see a video of Brittany Harding admitting to this gentleman that she was extorting him. We’ll hear him testify as well.

“But Brittany Harding,” he said, looking over at her again, pausing, allowing the jurors to follow his gaze to the defendant, “did not succeed with her plan of extortion against Dr. Madison. Yes, he paid the money, because in the long run, sadly, it was cheaper to pay her than go to trial to defend himself, and it was safer than risking damage to his reputation that the public exposure of her false accusations would certainly have caused.

“So why did her plan fail? Because Brittany Harding was not content to take the money and run. She decided she wanted more. Money was not enough. She needed revenge. She wanted to destroy Dr. Madison’s marriage. So she mailed a copy of the payoff check along with a copy of the agreement the two lawyers had drafted, as well as a staged picture that I’ll show you during the trial.

“As a result, Brittany Harding had violated the agreement, and Dr. Madison’s attorney forced Miss Harding to return the money—all of it—to avoid a lawsuit alleging extortion.” Denton chuckled. “She was furious, to say the least. Look at all the trouble she’d gone through. Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll bet she felt that she’d earned this money! After all, she worked hard for it. But then, overnight, it was taken from her. Stolen from her. She was angry, enraged. So angry, in fact, that she confronted Dr. Madison in a supermarket and began screaming at him.” Denton