Due Process (Joe Dillard #9)(20)

He slid a copy of the Kingsport newspaper across the desk. In it, on the editorial page, one of the editors had taken it upon himself to write a scathing, accusatory letter to the football players who were at the party.

“You know,” part of the letter said. “We know you know, and you need to have the courage to come forward and help the police and Mike Armstrong. Stop protecting the rapists among you.”

“Wow,” I said. “This is starting to remind me of the Salem witch hunts. It feels like a frenzy, a lynch mob mentality. The university better get its act together and respond to this stuff forcefully, and they better do it in a hurry. Has the coach said anything publicly?”

“He’s said he believes his players when they say no assault occurred. At the same time, he’s taking responsibility for not maintaining enough control over them and letting this happen in the first place.”

“I wonder if he’ll be the sacrificial lamb,” I said. “The university will be looking for one. They’ll fire somebody, and it’ll probably be him.”

“Probably,” Jack said. “Why don’t you report Armstrong to the board?”

The “board” to which Jack was referring was the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility, an organization in Nashville created to police lawyers across the state. I regarded them as a bunch of ineffective bureaucrats, pencil pushers who’d either never practiced law or had tried it and failed.

“Because I’m not a rat,” I said, “and I can’t stand the BPR. Don’t ever go anywhere near them unless you absolutely have to.”

“How did it go with the Davidsons?” Jack said.

“Went good. I like him. I don’t think he sexually assaulted anyone.”

“So we’re going to represent him?”

“We are.”

“What about your ‘I don’t represent accused rapists’ rule?”

“Rules change sometimes. Where’s Charlie?”

“I think she’s in her office.”

“Sit tight. I’ll be right back.”

I walked down the hall to find Charlie staring at her computer screen, no doubt poring over case law. She was a junkie when it came to law. She loved it.

“Could I borrow you for a few minutes?” I said.

She looked up and flashed a beautiful smile.

“Sure. Your office?”

“Conference room.”

“Be right there.”

I went to the front and asked Beverly and Kelly to come to the conference room.

When everyone was gathered, I sat down at the head of the table. They’d left the seat open for me. I didn’t know whether they did it consciously, but they showed me deference and respect on a regular basis. It made me feel good sometimes, but it also embarrassed me to a degree and it made me feel old.

“I’m sure everybody’s heard about the ETSU rape case,” I said, “and everybody knows I met with Kevin Davidson and his parents. We’re going to take it on, but I want all of you to know that this is going to be difficult. Mike Armstrong wants to be elected district attorney. The primary is in the spring and if he wins the primary, he wins the election because there isn’t a Democrat in this part of the state that can get elected to any public office. There is nothing worse for criminal defense lawyers than an election. People just aren’t themselves when they’re running for office. They make bad decisions, stupid choices, and put themselves and their ambition ahead of everything else. What we have brewing at ETSU is potentially a bombshell. I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but with everything that’s been going on in this country lately, this is the worst possible time for something like a young black man to be accused of raping a young white woman. The nuts will be coming out of the woodwork. And when I say nuts, I mean extremists of many different kinds. We’re going to see feminists going after the administration and the football program and our client, we’ll probably see liberal faculty groups going after the team and our client. We’re going to see white supremacists going after our client and maybe after his lawyers, so I want you to keep your heads up and watch your backs.

“Somebody at the university will be the scapegoat, and I’m guessing they’ll put it on the coaching staff. The head coach will get fired or resign, probably within the week. If this kind of thing runs deep at the university—and I’m talking about accusations of athletes sexually assaulting young women—then a few more heads will roll. But I’ve never heard any rumblings that the athletes at ETSU are thugs who prey on college girls. This case is more than likely an outlier. After talking with Kevin, I don’t think a rape occurred, although just the fact that the football team threw a party with a stripper as entertainment is going to cause a lot of suspicion and a lot of problems for the football team.

“Now, for starters, we need to find out who this woman is that’s making the accusations. Kelly, I need you to call Stony and see if she can get on it right away. I want to know everything about her. I also want her to check out Kevin Davidson’s background. If there are skeletons in his closet, I want to know about them. Tell her to do her best to find out everything the cops have done.

Jack and Charlie, I want you to go to the neighborhood around Kevin’s house and talk to people. Let’s find out what they saw and heard the night of the party. I’m sure the cops are already doing the same thing, so they might be reluctant to talk to you, but we have just as much right to conduct investigations as the police, so suck it up and be persistent. Let’s try to get ahead of the cops if we can. I also want you to find out which cop was the first to have contact with this girl. Find out if a rape kit was done. Find out if they took blood from her, because if they did, we’re entitled to a sample for independent analysis. I’m going to talk to the other two guys that live with Kevin if they haven’t hired lawyers. If they have, I’ll see if I can talk to them with their lawyers. I’m also going to talk to the football coach and the president of the university to see if they’re going to back these guys up or hang them out to dry.”