One More Trial

By Jim Claunch

Jacob Green is a lawyer who has served his clients well for over 50 years. Now he finds himself in a situation where he is defending a young man accused of sexual assault. He has no luck in finding a defense and begins to question his ability. Had he tried one case too many? Would Emmanuel Gutierrez go to prison for decades because Jacob had passed his prime? This question is answered as Jacob Greens years of experience are tested in a case involving a strange course of events. A truly interesting story of an older lawyers last trial.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 11, 2012
• ISBN: 9781475912623

Jim Claunch

JIM CLAUNCH practices law with his two sons, Kyle and Kirk, in Fort Worth, Texas. Jim is a graduate of Texas Wesleyan College and Southern Methodist University School of Law. He writes novels in which he tells the stories of ordinary lawyers who represent everyday people that sometimes face extraordinary circumstances. If you like novels about the law, you will want to read this book.

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ONE MORE

TRIAL

by

JIM CLAUNCH

iUniverse, Inc.

Bloomington

One More Trial

Copyright © 2012 by Jim Claunch.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4759-1137-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4759-1262-3 (ebk)

iUniverse rev. date: 11/17/2012

CONTENTS

Chapter One

Saturday Morning In The Office

Chapter Two

Al’s Appointment

Chapter Three

More About Al

Chapter Four

The Professional Building

Chapter Five

The Paris Café And The Evans Avenue Bunch

Chapter Six

The Hardy Boys

Chapter Seven

Al Mcduff And Don Storm

Chapter Eight

A Strange Death For Don Storm

Chapter Nine

The News People

Chapter Ten

Josh Hardy And Joe Hardy, Attorneys-At-Law

Chapter Eleven

Darvin Smith, A Friend Of Al’s

Chapter Twelve

Jacob And The Hardy Boys Talk To The Judge

Chapter Thirteen

Attempted Murder—The Daniel Wood Matter

Chapter Fourteen

Al Mcduff Meets Ethel Simms

Chapter Fifteen

More About Darvin Smith

Chapter Sixteen

A Dinner Party

Chapter Seventeen

Betty Evans, Court Reporter

Chapter Eighteen

Back To The Courtroom

Chapter Nineteen

The Hardy Boys Visit Judge John Mcguire

Chapter Twenty

Dancing Lessons

Chapter Twenty-One

Finding A Secretary

Chapter Twenty-Two

Jacob At Work

Chapter Twenty-Three

Terri Lavon—Secretary

Chapter Twenty-Four

The Case Against Chester Karper

Chapter Twenty-Five

More Dancing Lessons

Chapter Twenty-Six

Wilbur Kerns’ Trial

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Al And Ethel, And The Pre-Nuptial Agreement

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Three Weddings

Chapter Twenty-Nine

More About Chester Karper

Chapter Thirty

Velma’s Illness

Chapter Thirty-One

The End Of The Dance Club

Chapter Thirty-Two

Court-Appointed Lawyer

Chapter Thirty-Three

Time Passes

Chapter Thirty-Four

A Visit From Judge Stoddard

Chapter Thirty-Five

Jacob Returns To His Office

Chapter Thirty-Six

An Old Man Dreams Of Things Past

Chapter Thirty-Seven

A Chat With The District Attorney

Chapter Thirty-Eight

What Good Is A Polygraph Test?

Chapter Thirty-Nine

Jonathan Heap, The Polygraph Operator

Chapter Forty

The Grand Jury

Chapter Forty-One

The Magistrate—Carlos Puentes

Chapter Forty-Two

The Making Of Dolores Martínez

Chapter Forty-Three

Dolores Meets Emmanuel

Chapter Forty-Four

Roberto Gómez, A Boy Of The Streets

Chapter Forty-Five

Jacob Prepares A Defense

Chapter Forty-Six

The Lull Before The Trial

Chapter Forty-Seven

Man’s Inhumanity To Man: The Probation Officer

Chapter Forty-Eight

Judges

Chapter Forty-Nine

Judge David Morgan

Chapter Fifty

The Trial

Chapter Fifty-One

The Jury

Chapter Fifty-Two

Emmanuel’s Jury

Chapter Fifty-Three

The Trial—The First Witness

Chapter Fifty-Four

The Second Witness—Juanita Martínez

Chapter Fifty-Five

A Chat With The Judge

Chapter Fifty-Six

Jacob Talks With Mrs. Gutiérrez And Emmanuel

Chapter Fifty-Seven

The Second Day Of Trial

Chapter Fifty-Eight

The Third Day Of The Trial

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Roberto Helps His Friend

Chapter Sixty

The Motion For A New Trial

Chapter Sixty-One

Jacob Goes To The Doctor

Chapter Sixty-Two

Jacob Makes Plans To Retire

Chapter Sixty-Three

The Passage

Chapter Sixty-Four

The Funeral For Jacob Green

CHAPTER ONE

Saturday Morning in the Office

It was Saturday morning, and Jacob Green was in his office as he had always been for the past twenty years. Jacob officed in the Professional Building at the corner of Magnolia and Hemphill Streets in the South Side of Fort Worth.

Jacob liked to come to his office on Saturday mornings. This was his time to talk to his clients who could not get in to see him during the week. Most of Jacob’s clients were people of limited means. Kelly, his wife, liked his going to the office because she knew that he would be worrying about his clients if he weren’t there.

That morning when Jacob arrived at the office, Sarah Grimes, his secretary, had told him that Al McDuff, Jacob’s boyhood friend, would be coming by at 11:00 a.m. to talk to him about some problems Al or one of his friends had.

When Jacob saw Al McDuff’s name on the appointment list, he asked Sarah if Al was coming by just to visit or if he had a legal problem. Sarah told him she didn’t know, that Al had just said he wanted to see Jacob Saturday morning.

Jacob had known Al since they were about fourteen years old; they grew up in the same neighborhood, the old Evans Avenue district. That was a rough part of town even then. There was a mixture of blacks, whites, and Hispanics in the neighborhood. A boy growing up in the neighborhood had to learn to use his fists if he wanted to survive without a lot of abuse. Both Al and Jacob had mastered that skill; both were competitive amateur boxers—a tie that made them better friends.

Al’s mother and father were divorced. He was an only child. Neither his mother nor father could take care of him, so he lived with his grandparents. Jacob lived with his mother and stepfather. His father had moved to California after his parents’ divorce. Jacob had very few memories of his father. You could knock on any door in the Evans

Avenue district and the chances were the family history would be much like Al’s or Jacob’s.

The boys met in junior high school. Jacob was always at the top of his class academically. Al was a good student and well liked. They stayed away from dope and alcohol, and the boxing was good for them. They both wanted to stay in good physical condition because they liked to win in the boxing ring, and they had discovered that they needed to be in shape to win the fights.

After junior high school, Al and Jacob went on to Paschal High School. They remained friends in high school, but they were not as close as they had been in junior high school. Al played football and that took a lot of his time. Jacob was more interested in his studies and devoted his time to academic clubs. They were also both dating girls, so they naturally drifted apart.

After high school, Jacob went to college. He knew by this time that he wanted to be a lawyer. He still saw Al, who went to the junior college. Al was not sure what he wanted to do at that time, but he knew he needed a job. His grandparents were getting older, and Al didn’t want to be a burden. Both Al and Jacob had learned to work at an early age. They did not think much about the fact that they were eleven years old and working while they went to school. Most everyone in the neighborhood was doing the same thing. The guys who weren’t working were the dope heads and thugs who had dropped out of school. Al and Jacob didn’t have many problems with the guys who had dropped out and given up on making it through school because they had both acquired a reputation as fighters.

In Jacob’s senior year of college, the Korean War erupted. Jacob knew he was going to be drafted. He had a call from his old friend Al. Al wanted Jacob to join the Marines with him and some other fellows from Fort Worth. Jacob told Al that he was going to try to get a commission in the United States Navy. He passed the test and went into Naval Officers’ School in Newport, Rhode Island.

When Jacob returned from the war four years later, he got a call from Al. Al had done two years in the Marines but did not go to Korea. He was assigned to a unit in the US and did some boxing in the Marine Corps. The two men renewed their friendship. Jacob went on to law school. Al was working and studying business administration at Texas Christian University. He was also thinking about going to law school.

Jacob went to law school in Dallas as Southern Methodist University. He applied himself to his studies and graduated near the top of the class. When he came back to Fort Worth, he and Al got together. Al was about to graduate from college, and Jacob told Al that he admired his determination to get an education. Al asked Jacob about law school, and Jacob encouraged him to apply at all the law schools. Al did and he was accepted at Baylor.

Jacob set up his office in the Professional Building and began practicing law. He had a good friend in Judge Andrew Stoddard, a local district judge. The judge helped Jacob get started by appointing him in civil and criminal cases. He was extremely pleased with Jacob’s work as were Jacob’s clients in these cases. Jacob’s reputation grew quickly in the community, and he was soon an established lawyer.

Al did not fare as well. He was tired of working night and day. After the end of the first year of law school, he quit and took a job with Housing and Urban Development, an agency of the federal government. He was still working with the government agency at the time he telephoned Jacob.

By this time, Jacob was married to a girl he had met in college, whose name was Kelly. Kelly was an Irish girl, and when Jacob first saw her, he thought she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. On that subject he never changed his opinion. After a determined courtship, he persuaded Kelly to marry him.

They now lived comfortably in a house on College Avenue in the South Side. They met José and Alicia Andrade in the neighborhood. The Andrades operated a Mexican Restaurant on Magnolia Street in Fort Worth. The two families became very close. The Andrades had four daughters, Anna, Connie, Delores, and Yolanda.

Jacob and Kelly waited patiently for children, and when none arrived, they eventually saw a doctor. They were disappointed when they were told that Kelly could not have children, but this news bonded Jacob and Kelly even closer.

They were godparents to the Andrade children, who called them Tía and Tío", aunt and uncle. The Andrade children were in their home frequently.

Al had married a girl whom he knew in high school. Jacob knew the girl, but he had not known her very well. Then Al had a terrible thing happen to him. His wife died suddenly. They had only been married two years. Al had not remarried.

Jacob was sorry for Al. He had not had much family. His grandparents were deceased by this time. His father was alive, but he had a drinking problem, and Al had to help him a lot. His mother had remarried a man who was fairly successful in the construction business, but Al never was close to his mother and stepfather. With his wife’s death, he had little family, only a few distant cousins.

Lately, Al had called Jacob often just to say hello. Jacob realized that Al was alone, and he was about as close a friend as Al had. There had been one fellow who was very close to Al in the Marines, but he was killed in a car wreck. Al seemed to be living a lonely life. Jacob had explained all of this to Kelly, and she accepted Al as one of Jacob’s closest friends.

Jacob had worried lately about some of the people with whom Al was running around. Jacob knew that some of them had prison records, and he didn’t want Al to get into any trouble. This thought was on his mind while he waited for Al.

CHAPTER TWO

Al’s Appointment

When Al arrived he was welcomed by Jacob. The two men were good friends and their friendship endured through long separations. Al was about the same size as Jacob, 5'10" tall, and now they both weighed about 170 pounds. When they were boxing, they fought at 140 pounds.

Hello, Al. It’s good to see you, Jacob said.

They embraced for a second, and then Jacob stepped back and looked at Al. Well, you still look like you could go a good three rounds.

Al was a well-built man, with broad shoulders, and a touch of gray in his hair. One could tell that he had done some boxing by his nose, which had been hit once too often.

Al said, I’ve given that up, Jacob. It was fun though, wasn’t it?

It was, Jacob agreed. I think I quit long before you. As I remember, you were still fighting when you were in the Marines.

Yes, I did. They made me an instructor and I boxed here in the States for a couple of years. I met some good fighters in that time.

Jacob laughed, Yes, the Marine Corps does have a lot of good men. Sit down and tell me what brings you here on this Saturday morning. Before we get started, do you want some coffee?

Yes, I’ll have a cup of coffee with you, Jacob. It’s been a long time.

Jacob asked Sarah to bring in some coffee.

Al began his story. He told Jacob that there was a man whom he knew from the old Evans Avenue bunch, who was in serious trouble in Mexico. His name was Donald Storm. Al asked Jacob if he remembered Don. Jacob said that he remembered the name, but he really didn’t remember the person.

What kind of trouble does he have?

The police in Mexico say that he raped and murdered two girls, Al said.

Sounds serious. But how are you involved?

He wrote me a letter and asked me to help him. He lived on Elm Street by my granddad. I knew him and his brother from there.

What kind of person is he? Jacob asked.

Well, he’s a hell raiser. He dropped out of school and joined the navy and then was kicked out. He drinks too much, and he can’t keep a job, Al replied.

Did you ever run around with this guy? Jacob asked.

Not really. I went out with him a couple of times after he got kicked out of the navy. That was before he went to Mexico. He was talking about going down and he asked me if I wanted to go. I told him NO, Al replied.

Why is he writing you? Jacob asked.

He knows that I’m pretty well known in the old Evans Avenue crowd, and he wants me to see if I can set up a fund to help him get a lawyer, Al replied.

Doesn’t he have a brother? Jacob asked.

Yes, he has an older brother, but he is too dumb to be of much help, Al said.

Do you think you want to get involved in this? Jacob asked.

Yes, I want to try to help him. I have checked on the case the best I can, and everybody says that Donald Storm is getting a bad deal. The Mexican police don’t like him. If I don’t help him, Jacob, nobody will, Al said.

Jacob sat for a moment thinking of what to do. His first thought was to tell Al to forget it. It wasn’t his problem, but he realized that Al wasn’t going to drop the matter, and whatever Jacob did wouldn’t change that. He wanted to help Al for old times’ sake. There was a lot to Al; after all, who else would stop to help a man like Donald Storm just because he grew up in the same neighborhood?

I’ll tell you what we can do, Al. Let’s set up a trust fund in the Southside Bank. You write a letter that we can send to everyone we went to school with. We won’t know all the addresses, but I know you know how to contact a lot of the old gang. Tell them what’s happened to Don Storm. Tell them why you think he’s innocent and then ask them to send some money. You can tell them you have $500.00 to start with. I’ll write you a check for that amount.

Thanks, Jacob. I knew I could count on you.

Jacob talked with Al some more before he left. He asked Al where he was working, if he was serious about any woman, and with whom he was running around. Jacob told him to be careful, that some of the old crowd from Evans Avenue had gone down the wrong road. He asked Al to not get mixed up in that crowd.

Al said he would be careful. He thanked Jacob again and left. Sarah came into Jacob’s office. She could tell Jacob was upset. What’s the matter, Jacob? she asked.

I’m afraid my old friend is getting into something that might cause him some trouble, Jacob replied. He’s a good man and people take advantage of his good nature.

Sarah said, I think I know someone like that.

Jacob laughed and said, Yes, Al and I are a lot alike in some ways.

It was almost twelve o’clock and Jacob left for home. He wanted to see Kelly. On Saturday afternoon, she liked to go shopping. Jacob was always pleased to be in the company of his beautiful wife.

CHAPTER THREE

More About Al

Jacob didn’t see Al for about a week after their Saturday morning meeting, but Al was much on Jacob’s mind. If love of fellow man could be a fault, then Al was guilty.

Evans Avenue was just a street in a part of the South side. It ran from Missouri Street to Berry Street, about a three-mile stretch. Near Missouri the neighborhood was mostly black. The Van Zandt addition was one of the city’s oldest.

As Evans crossed Rosedale, the neighborhood was mixed; there were blacks and whites living side by side. Along with the homes, there were the small mom and pop grocery store, the drugstore, and the root beer shop.

About three blocks to the east there was a city park. Al and Jacob had watched movies there in the open air on Friday nights when they were kids. There were never any problems. Just a bunch of hardworking people gathered together on a Friday night to watch a free movie; that was it. Jacob remembered those days with fondness.

Further down Evans toward Berry Street there was a small movie house; the Pix, it was called. The kids hung around outside the theater and sometimes they had fistfights.

Jacob had to walk through this block to reach his home. He had few problems. Occasionally, he would hear some kid make a smart remark, but Jacob knew that the best way to get along was to challenge the kid who had made the remark. The kids soon learned to leave Jacob alone. Most of the guys were just kids trying to grow up and escape the cycle of poverty.

The houses varied in size. Many were older homes with a living room followed by a dining room, and then a kitchen. The other half of the home would be two bedrooms and a bath. It was not fancy, but it was a place to live.

The dads worked as truck drivers, mechanics, construction workers, and bus drivers. They worked hard to make a living for the family. The mothers had to help by working, too. They worked as waitresses, clerks, and cashiers. After working all day, they had to go home and cook a meal for their family. It was a hard life.

Across town, somewhere in the West Side, there was a totally different world, a world of country clubs occupied by doctors, lawyers, CPAs, and businessmen. Jacob knew nothing of that world until many years later.

And, now, Jacob was thinking about Al and his attempt to save Don Storm. This was just Al. Everyone who had lived in the neighborhood was Al’s friend. It didn’t matter that the guy from the neighborhood might have gone bad. Al never seemed to judge his friends. That was good of Al, but it was something that often caused him trouble. He had called Jacob many times to say that a guy from the old neighborhood was in jail. He was always trying to get enough money to make bail for a friend, or hire a lawyer for him.

After Jacob and Al had talked about organizing a trust fund for Don Storm, the man in jail in Mexico, Al opened a trust fund in the Southside State Bank. People from the neighborhood reached into their pockets and came up with enough money to establish a $10,000.00 trust fund.

CHAPTER FOUR

The Professional Building

The Professional Building at Hemphill and Magnolia Streets was beginning to show its age. A family who ran a cleaning establishment on the first floor, which faced Hemphill Street, had built it in the 1920s. On the corner there was an old-fashioned drugstore where one could sit at the counter and order a shake and sandwich, but times had changed that.

The red brick was a little faded on the building. On the Magnolia side there was a set of stairs that led to the second floor, where several offices were located. Jacob’s office was immediately ahead of the stairs and faced the stairway. On each side of his office were two sets of offices. The doors had the old-fashioned transoms above them.

The hallway was a heavy wooden walkway. The doors of the offices had opaque glass on which the tenant would write his name. Jacob’s office door said, Jacob Green, Attorney at Law.

The doorknobs may have been the most impressive things about the building. They were antiques of heavy glass. In each office, a fan hung from the ceiling. If the tenant wanted air conditioning, he had to put in a window unit.

In spite of all this, the building maintained a certain dignity. Jacob was reminded of a beautiful woman who was no longer young. If you looked closely, you could still see the signs of beauty. His clients were happy there. If he had gone to the six-story bank building with the elevators, some of his clients would have been uneasy, and then Jacob would have been uneasy, so he stayed in the Professional Building.

The ownership of the building had changed several times. The family who had built the building had sold it to an insurance company, and that insurance company had sold it to another insurance company. With each sale, less and less money was spent on upkeep.

The area where the building was located suffered more than the building, however. When television came to the average home in the 1940s, the movie theater business suffered, and it was not long before the Tivoli Theater on Magnolia Street, a block to the west of the Professional Building, was closed.

The drugstore changed. The independent pharmacy was under attack by the chains. The drugstore on the first floor changed hands several times. The counter was taken out and now there was a pharmacy at the corner, but that was all. No magazines or candies were sold, only over-the-counter medicine and prescription drugs.

The offices on the second floor began to suffer. No one wanted to walk up a flight of stairs when he could go two blocks to the north and be in the fancy new bank building. There were times when Jacob would be the only tenant on the second floor. He stayed there because he had become a fixture, a legend. Everyone knew that Jacob Green had his office in the Professional Building.

This was the time and the era of suburbia. Everyone wanted to move out of town and drive 30 minutes to work. Their reward was a 75-foot lot with a look-a-like house on each street. But the exodus wreaked havoc on the old neighborhoods.

It seemed that every time a business moved into the South Side, the new tenant was a bar. The streets that Jacob walked on in the evenings with Kelly were no longer safe. There was either a gang or a whore on the corner. The sound of gunshots became frequent.

Jacob believed that at some point the citizens would unite and demand that their neighborhood be safe, free of hookers and hoodlums. He was encouraged when the people began to organize by streets or subdivisions, elected officers, and attended City Council and zoning meetings.

The councilperson for the South Side had been in office for several years. He was a man who was in politics to obtain benefits for himself. As long as he was in office, Jacob had little hope for betterment in the South Side.

At one time, Jacob had thought that he would run for the City Council to see if he could win the office and stop the decline of his beloved neighborhood, but Kelly asked him not to run, and he always honored her requests. She believed that Jacob worked too hard and should not take on more responsibility. She also knew that her health was not good, and although she did tell Jacob that her health was one of the reasons that she did not want him to run for the council, it was only one of many reasons.

CHAPTER FIVE

The Paris Café and the Evans Avenue Bunch

On Saturdays, Jacob would eat brunch at the Paris Café, which was at the corner of Hemphill and Magnolia Streets across the street from the Professional Building. It could have been named the Athens Café because a Greek family operated it, and nothing about the place had anything to do with French cooking.

The café had been there as long as Jacob could remember. The current owner, Mike, a man in his fifties, was the son of the original owner. It was a large place that would seat at least one hundred people. Everyone in town knew it. At lunchtime one had to stand and wait for a place to sit. This time was much like a social hour. Patrons might spend time talking to a judge, a doctor, or an old friend; all were just waiting to get a table.

On Saturday morning, the pace was slower. Al and several other men from the old Evans Avenue district were always there. No invitation was needed; just come and join the table at about 10:00 a.m.

After Al had started working on the trust fund for Don Storm, Jacob met him at the Paris Café. There were several other men from the old Evans Avenue crowd at the table. One of the men was Bill Jones, who had worked for the newspaper in circulation since high school days. They had never been close, but Jacob respected him as a hard working man. Phil Cantor was also there on this day. Jacob knew Phil, but he also knew that Phil had gotten into