not yet. I’ll just tell him myself only what our friends and experts said about his being innocent. Plus I have to blank out our last comments about liabilities and compensation. I don’t want to give him ideas ahead of time. If I do, he’ll become defensive and hostile and delay things.”
“Just say that you have talked to experts informally, in a picnic, after the court case ended, experts that YOY called -not HE or the doctor’s lawyer- and that they ALL feel very strongly that the doctor is innocent. That they are all willing to testify under oath. That Tony did not lie to the ER physicians. That his not having taken his injured daughter to the ER right away or first thing in the morning was simply a judgment call, and furthermore that such judgment call ‘then’ was appropriate.”
“Yes. I think that’s all I need to tell him for now to have Tony released from jail. Then later, we can change the verdict to ‘not guilty’ based on sufficient doubts; AND that the injuries of his child were from an unfortunate home accident, nothing intentional; and her death was not from his negligence or carelessness.”
“Do you think that he will just release him without a chance to talk to ‘our experts’ himself directly and under oath?”
“He better! He and his reputation and career -and the State’s liability- have too much at stake… I’ll talk to him first thing in the morning. Right in his office without phone calls. Though I am sure any call to him by phone -or by e-mail- or a live conversation in his office will be recorded anyway.”
“And for that matter, even if you meet him in the street or for coffee, you -or both of you- will record it. Just like you did here today without anyone knowing.”
“But he won’t refuse. He knows that after talking to him I will call next the doctor’s lawyer who will present himself immediately in my chambers to have an order to release him from jail on the spot… Which I will.”
Yes. The D.A., very apologetic, embarrassed, face to face, agreed with judge Good after he repeated what he had heard his doctors-experts-friends say, to have Tony released that very Monday by early afternoon -based on new ‘sufficient doubt’ of being guilty- and to meet with his lawyer and the judge the next morning to work out the precise change of verdict and the wording to the Press.
He, the young D.A., did not need proof, just ‘sufficient doubt’ as presented by favorable experts reporting to the judge himself. He did not think it was necessary to bring the matter to a Grand Jury again or to jurors in a regular trial. He could get burnt in the process as could the doctor’s defense lawyer, so weak and incompetent, for agreeing to the verdict of ‘negligent homicide’ (or involuntary manslaughter) without a trial and without having, before hand, any experts for the doctor who had just talked to the judge informally far from his court. A trial with those new experts would be messy… The DA and the doctor’s lawyer met in the county jail to release Dr. Lennox.
And yes, Tony Lennox was free, his infant daughter dead, and his private practice gone. The Health Department had suspended his medical license the same day of the initial guilty verdict by the Grand Jury, even though the outcome had been a negotiated settlement later for a lesser charge without a trial.
The doctor AND his lawyer would have harder time to get his license back. Judge Good could not do much to retrieve his suspension once it had been taken in the state Capital by the Medical Board and by the Education Department. It was on their website – even though the original indictment had been wrong..
His lawyer drove the doctor home. No one had called his wife who herself had kept quiet throughout the ordeal and she had not called or visited him in the several days he had been in jail. She did act surprised and gave him a tepid hug when he showed up at the door. Somehow she did not seem happy he had been released and expressed neither surprise nor emotion.
“This is very happy news for you both!” The lawyer said, “for now your husband is back at home and probably for good. You don’t need to worry any more. I will get back to you tomorrow to discuss where we go from here.”
Hurrah!!… Really? The lawyer did not have much to congratulate himself about the work he had done, though his client a day before was a homicidal man and now was clear and free! But obviously it had not been his doing. According to what the D.A. had told him, it was all concocted by the judge as HE had gathered more experts; I should have been the one, instead of the judge, getting all those experts before negotiating the lesser guilty settlement. He admitted to himself. I should not have settled at all if I believed my client was innocent and I should have taken better steps to clear him as the judge has done. Obviously the judge believed him more than I did.
Once at home, Dr. Lennox appeared quiet, depressed, and did not say much to his wife as she herself did not seem happy to see her husband released from jail so unexpectedly early ‘plus that does not mean that you are not guilty; they just have doubts.’ They ate supper in silence. She was obviously grieving for the loss of her daughter and she probably blamed her husband for utter stupidity, even if he had not killed her. She did not seem happy about having him back at home and was not told by the D.A. or by his lawyer if the verdict of Guilty was still hanging over his head.
SHE thought Tony was most likely guilty; well, not perhaps for tossing the crying, sick infant girl against the wall, but for not having awakened her when the girl fell, so both could have taken her to the ER then. Instead of seeing his not having been awakened her in the middle of the night as a sign of consideration and kindness towards her, she was mad about it. She had not given a thought to the possibility that his not having taken their girl to the ER right away may have been HIS judgment call, as was his having kept an eye on her for the rest of the night. She only thought that he had been stupid and careless! She was now distancing herself from him…
Judge Good assumed correctly what would be happening at the doctor’s home. He could not do much at that point even if he gave the doctor all his own mental and heart support from his own home. And he did not credit himself for having won such a victory for the doctor against the D.A., and in spite of the doctor’s lawyer, so inept! Tony needed all the compassion he could get, but he wasn’t getting it from anyone, and definitely not from his wife. Both probably will sob all night in silence, he thought. He doubted they would be trying to have another child any time soon… or ever. And so he chit-chatted with his wife Barbara quietly in their living room over a-couple-of-drinks-a-piece till late hours.
“I imagine I will be meeting tomorrow with both the defense lawyer and the prosecutor to talk about the official conviction wording if there is any,” he said. But I don’t want to make a statement myself to the Press. Perhaps the D.A. will be honest, and kind enough to consult with me before he gives out to them the official version of his current position, accepted by the court, by MY court.”
“I also imagine,” said his wife, “that the hospital, the pediatricians, the ER doctors, will be fuming when they read about his early release from jail with no conviction ‘based on just doubts, on insufficient evidence’.”
“We’ll probably also read a few derisive articles in the papers too, perhaps by advocates against child abuse, especially the SBS expert, blaming my court of incompetence ‘for letting the doctor go scot free’ in spite of so much bloody evidence, without a trial, and without regard for the needs of other children,” Kenneth said.
Part B
A TRAGEDY
(Chapters 8 through 14)
8
Ramifications Of A Wrong Conviction
Dr. Tony Lennox spent most of the whole next day at home, staring without sound at the TV but not really watching anything. His wife Patty had not prepared breakfast, perhaps she was thinking of having a coffee some place else, and she was gone from the house as soon as she was done in the bathroom. Not even a Good Morning, or a Bye, or I’m going to… Nothing.
He also left the house at noon, just to wander by the river edge and perhaps stop for a hot dog. Tony bought the Tuesday paper: He read on the front page a