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witness a question ‘badgering’ him, sir?” Master Josef’s attorney asked the D.A. Before turning to the judge.   “Your Honor,” he chortled, “I am simply trying to help the jury understand out why this young man—this exemplar of adolescent hand-to-hand combat—whose testimony is astoundingly similar to that of the veritable fleet of young men whom the D.A. has paraded before us...”
    He was starting to become overwrought and was getting loud so he paused to collect his thoughts.
    “I’m just trying to figure out,” he continued calmly, “why strapping, young Freddie Maunter, who looks to be at least a few inches over six feet tall, was so dumbstruck when a smaller boy allegedly put his arms around his waist.   Was he really too shocked to do anything about it?”
    Chuckles from the crowd.
    The judge looked back and forth between the attorneys and the audience before him, gauging the mood before announcing, “Objection overruled!”
    The murmuring crowd was pleased.
    The irate D.A. clenched his fists at his sides as he sat down in a huff.
    Master Josef’s lawyer continued.
    “Now I ask you again, Mr. Maunter, are you accustomed to other boys having physical contact with you during a wrestling match?”
    The teen’s face a hateful grimace.   “Yes,” he said flatly.   “But no boy ever touched me in the locker room.   Ever .”
    “And have you, yourself, ever touched another boy in the locker room, Mr. Maunter?”
    The boy didn’t answer.
    “I’m sorry, Mr. Maunter.   Did you not hear my question?”
    Still no response.
    “The witness will answer the question,” the judge ordered.
    “Oh, that’s okay, Your Honor,” Master Josef’s lawyer said as he turned and walked back toward his table.   “I already know the answer to the question—and so does Mr. Maunter.”   He picked up another piece of paper.   “This is a court document with your name on it, Mr. Maunter.   Apparently you were involved in a brawl which you started, according to this report, by harassing some of your classmates.   Harassment that started in the, uh...” he paused and closely inspected the paper for show “...the locker room.”
    He held the paper out to Freddie Maunter but the teen wouldn’t even look at it.
    “Well, no need to for you to read it, is there?” the lawyer said as he lowered his arm.   “After all, this is your signature at the bottom where you pled guilty to having pushed and shoved another boy before wrestling him to the floor, sitting on top of him and punching him repeatedly in the face and upper torso.   Besides, I’m sure you have your own copy at home.”
    The room was silent.
    “Tell me, Mr. Maunter, did you put your arm around that boy’s waist at any time during this attack?”
    Freddie Maunter flinched when the judge barked, “Answer the question!”
    “Yes,” the teen said.
    “Well, then, if one boy putting his arm around the waist of another boy constitutes homosexual behavior, which I vividly recall you defining for us, then it appears that you are, yourself, a homosexual, sir.   Are you not?”
    “Objection, your Honor!” the D.A. yelled.
    Without breaking eye contact with Freddie Maunter, Master Josef’s lawyer quickly added, “Any idiot knows that!”
    “Objection!”
    “I withdraw he question!   No further questions, Your Honor.”
    It was the first and last time Master Josef’s attorney had shown any courage done his job.   After making Freddie Maunter squirm, however, he returned to his usual milquetoast self.

Chapter Six

    The Verdict

    Most people were discussing dinner plans, some not so softly, by the time the door to the judge’s chambers finally opened.   The din died down immediately as the portly old jurist briskly entered the courtroom clutching a black leather binder at his side.
    “All rise!” the bailiff commanded.   Joints had rusted over after hours of sedentariness and the bailiff’s order was greeted with irritated moans and