Judgment Calls Read Online Free PDF Page A

girl said she was attacked. Then our Mr. Derringer turned around and changed his defense. Instead of saying it wasn’t him, he argued the whole thing was consensual rough sex, trying to get the case bumped down to statutory rape. In the end, Derringer pled guilty as part of a plea bargain, but that doesn’t stop him from telling me at every opportunity that the girl consented. Everyone I supervise is innocent, don’t you know.”
    I thanked him profusely for all the information and assured him I’d be calling him as a witness. For now, I had other work to do.
    Renshaw had lodged a detainer against Derringer based on probable cause that he’d had unsupervised contact with a minor, a violation of his parole conditions. Derringer was booked over the weekend, so his case would be called in the Justice Center arraignment court this afternoon for a release hearing. Technically, a parole detainer is enough to hold a parolee for up to sixty days pending a hearing. I would have liked to keep Derringer in custody on the violation and wait for MCT to finish the investigation before I decided what charges to file.
    The problem was that the allegation underlying Derringer’s violation was essentially an allegation of new criminal conduct. In these circumstances, most local judges won’t hold the parolee in custody unless the State actually files new charges. So I needed to have a charging instrument ready in a few hours or the court might cut Derringer loose.
    One alternative was to issue the lowest-level charges, like assault, kidnapping, and rape. That would be enough to hold Derringer until MCT was finished. Once the grand jury heard the complete evidence, I could come back with an indictment for Attempted Aggravated Murder. I’d been burned by this method before, though. A smart defense attorney can convince a defense-oriented judge that upping the charges on a defendant after he has been arraigned on the initial complaint is prosecutorial misconduct. Under the law, it’s not, but that doesn’t stop a court from doing what it wants.
    This case would turn on Kendra Martin. Before I made up my mind about charges, I wanted more than Walker and Johnson’s opinion about her. During my stint in DVD, I’d dealt with a few street girls. Most of what Walker and Johnson said about Kendra sounded right. I wasn’t surprised that she would lie about the work and about her habit. And, if she was street smart, I believed she didn’t get into that car on her own. What bothered me was her initial response to Walker and Johnson. Detectives with their experience are used to the typical rape victim response. It’s normal for rape victims to be defensive and to direct their anger at police. But this girl, a thirteen-year-old, sounded like a nightmare. If I was going to go all out and guarantee myself a tough trial, I didn’t want to spend the next few months fighting with a teenage sociopath.
    I went to the law library and pulled a copy of the Physicians’ Desk Reference. The emergency room had injected Kendra Martin with Narcan to prevent her from overdosing. According to the PDR, the active ingredient in Narcan was naloxone, which reverses the effects of opiates and induces immediate withdrawal. Even for a relatively new user like Kendra Martin, the shock to her system would be enough to create a very unhappy camper.
    The effects of heroin last longer than the effects of naloxone. As a result, once the naloxone wears off, the person might have a short period where they’re still under the influence of the opiates. Those effects gradually wear off, and the person returns to their normal state.
    If Walker and Johnson were right about Kendra Martin essentially being a nice girl, the mix of Narcan and heroin would explain her initial crankiness, followed by a period of indifference.
    Having satisfied my main point of doubt, I decided to go with my gut. Walker was right. Derringer and his buddy got a thirteen-year-old girl to shoot up a