“I have the names of the doctors who treated her,” I said. “We need to get statements from all the medical people, including the geneticist, to include in a habeas motion for a new trial. We also need to pull whatever we can find on the original trial. Transcripts, presentencing reports, anything and everything. Her father is in Stockton. We have to pull his prison records as well as anything from his parole hearings. Cassie said he’s had two and was turned down both times because he wouldn’t admit that he hurt his baby daughter. He wouldn’t admit to what he didn’t do.”
That brought a pause. We all knew that the best way to get by the parole board was to admit to your crimes, say you’d found Jesus, and pledge that you would dedicate the rest of your life to serving Him. A refusal of any part of that formula almost guaranteed rejection.
“Mick, you said your guy’s in Stockton,” Cisco said. “That’s a medical facility. What’s he there for?”
“He’s dying,” I said. “Cancer. He’s got nine months to live, and we are going to get him out so he’s with his daughter and his last breath is of free air.”
That not only brought another pause but several eyes looked away from mine. Lorna, always the skeptic in case matters, broke the quiet.
“Mickey, is this OI stuff something you could have known about at the first trial?” she asked. “Because if it was…”
“Then not only was I a bad lawyer then, but I’m dead in the water now,” I said. “You’re right, Lorna. It’s the big question. We need evidence not available then.”
“Did you have a medical expert testify at the trial?” Lorna asked.
“Yes and no,” I said. “I hired a pediatric orthopedic surgeon to review Cassandra’s X-rays and injuries. But ultimately I decided not to put him on the witness stand.”
“Why not?” Lorna asked.
“Because I couldn’t trust him not to say the injuries might have been caused by abuse,” I said. “The fact is, OI was never mentioned by him or the state’s experts or in any reports. What was mentioned at trial was that my client had a prior arrest involving violence. That was a bar fight, and the judge shouldn’t have allowed it, but he did. Add to that, David Snow being the one custodial parent in the home and a victim too young to say how she got hurt, and the jury took less than an hour to bury him with thirteen counts of GBI—end of story.”
Great bodily injury—the top of the child-abuse pyramid.
There was another pause, this one ended by McEvoy.
“I’ll look into OI,” he said. “Maybe nobody knew about it twenty years ago. A lot of shaken-baby cases have been overturned across the country because of new science and new ways of looking at injuries in children. Maybe it’s the same here.”
I nodded.
“That would be good,” I said.
I was impressed by McEvoy’s thinking and willingness to pitch in as part of the team.
“Just don’t let it get in the way of Tidalwaiv,” I said. “That’s the priority this week and into trial. And speaking of which, any news on Challenger?”
It was the code name we were now using for Naomi Kitchens. It was good legal practice to keep her name out of conversations, emails, and documents.
“Nothing yet,” McEvoy said. “I was going to give it the day, then call tomorrow with a final pitch.”
“Okay,” I said. “Have you finished going through the thumb drive?”
“I have,” McEvoy said. “There are some things I want to show you when you have a few minutes.”
I nodded. “Okay,” I said. “Thanks, everybody.”
It was a signal that I wanted to talk to McEvoy alone. Lorna and Cisco got the message and got up. After they went through the copper curtain, I moved over to McEvoy’s workspace.
“What do you have for me?” I asked.
“Nothing as strong as that farewell email,” McEvoy said. “But there is an exchange that followed an early testing of Clair that didn’t go well.”
“They probably did follow-up tests after making corrections, right?”
“Yes, that’s right. But if I’m reading Challenger’s response correctly, it looks like they used a kid to conduct the initial test.”
“You mean they put a kid into a test with Clair and it went sideways?”
“I think so. The emails are between two people who witnessed the test, so they leave out shared knowledge of it. It’s shorthand, so you have to sort of read between the lines. Even if Challenger doesn’t agree to testify, I was planning to ask her to clarify some of the things we’ve found in the documents she provided. Hopefully, she’ll tell me about this test.”
