Jail Cell Love Affair - 17. Back to Jerry, A New Boss, and More Appeals

Christmas over, it was back to the grind on Tuesday. Fred met with Percival Martin to talk about Mo's and potentially Burton's lawsuits.

"Hi Percival. Conrad suggested I talk to you about possible wrongful imprisonment lawsuits."

"Yes, he warned me. I understand you have three for sure. Any idea on how many others?"

"Three?"

"You're obviously forgetting yourself."

"Oh. Wow. I guess you're right."

Percival raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, you're definitely right. I'd say between two and maybe five more beyond those."

"That would be excellent. Although you and Wallingford weren't imprisoned very long, that may not be true for others."

"Correct. St. Louis was in for over five years."

"Okay. I'll give Veronica Tate a head's up. Touch base with her after the first and she'll work with you on all your successful appeals, including your release."

"Thank you, Percival."

"Any time. Enough of them come through and it will pay for your time reviewing all those lost cases."

The week passed quietly, lots of work on additional lost cases, Fred spent some time with Leslie on the Grayson case. So, it was business as usual.

Burton Wallingford Senior invited his legal team at the firm to a New Year's Eve party. He included the entire defense team, thinking that more than Fred did the work to get his son released. While true, it wasn't the entire team, but nobody was complaining. They all got plus-one invitations. Kyle was unsure about going, his brother didn't have any plans and he didn't want to abandon Jerry. It worked out alright though, because his wife hated going to firm parties and felt this one would be more boring than if it was just the firm. She stayed home with the kids and a friend and Kyle brought Jerry.

Over the course of the night, Fred, Mo, Kyle, and Jerry mostly mingled with the others from the firm. Kyle became a third wheel after Jerry was introduced to Burton Junior. The topics ranged from work to relationships. Burton commented about wishing he could find someone else after Bradley's death. Jerry latched on to the fact that Burton was gay, and admitted he was as well. Neither Jerry nor Burt were seen for quite some time after that. Later, Fred happened to notice the two of them coming down the stairs. They went their separate ways, and Fred signaled Jerry to rejoin them.

"So, Jerry. Spent some time with our host's son?"

Jerry blushed, "Yeah, a little."

Fred pushed, "Come on, spill the beans, we're all friends here."

Jerry looked into each of their eyes, trying to see if there was any deception present. "Okay, yeah. We made out for a while and did a little bit more."

Kyle grinned, "Are you going to see him again?"

Jerry matched Kyle's grin. "Yeah. Dinner tomorrow. He also wants to take me to the Caribbean for a long weekend starting Friday. He initially said Sint Maarten, but since I don't have a passport, so we're going to Puerto Rico."

Fred smiled back, "Congratulations, man. You owe your sister-in-law big time."

"Yeah, I'll figure something out. Maybe take the kids overnight so Kyle can work on a third, without interruptions by the little ones."

Kyle slapped Jerry on the shoulder, "I know I'd appreciate that. I'd bet a year's salary that Colleen would too."

Fred and Mo left shortly after midnight. They had their own little party planned. Neither one of them drank too much. They wanted to avoid alcohol induced impotency. Not to mention a DWI. They welcomed the new year with a sixty-nine and a slow, passionate lovemaking session.

The wheels spun swiftly at LMG. The new paralegal, Ted Hampton, joined on January second, followed the next week later by Stanford Z. Benson IV, Sebastian's replacement. Stanford was previously in a small partnership with two other attorneys. After not seeing eye-to-eye on one too many things, Stanford abandoned that practice. The opening at LMG was perfect timing for SZB4. Time would tell how perfect it would be for LMG. The first indications of that situation came right after lunch his first day. Another mid-day, mid-week staff meeting. Stanford was pompous, arrogant, pretentious, and an all-around dickhead. He made Thurston Howell III look like a regular guy. Everybody suspected he was asked to leave his previous firm. Nobody liked him. Fortunately, that opinion was quickly shared by Karter and Conrad.

Kirsten made good progress on Bily Mannon's appeal. Fred and Kyle had some suggestions, but she was a smart one. The appeal was filed during the third week of January. Once again, the waiting game begun.

Fred got affidavits from the ADA and DA indicating they had indeed presented a plea bargain to Jesse Wellington. Fred filed that appeal two weeks after Mannon's. Kyle was busy as well. He found a couple mistakes Silas made in the Adams case. Fred wondered how he could have missed them. But he was reviewing multiple cases nearly simultaneously, so he supposed it wasn't that big of a surprise.

Stanford was gone after two weeks. It would be another two months before Karter found someone, at least that he didn't want to kill every day. David (Davey) Cunningham joined mid-March. He met with everybody individually to get a feeling on how things were going inside the firm. A complete opposite of Benson.

Early February, James Grayson's trial took place. Leslie, and Fred, who acted as second chair, were able to plead him down to a third-degree felony from a second-degree felony. His sentence was five to seven years, as opposed to fifteen to twenty. Perhaps not a complete victory, but most people who need a defense lawyer are truly guilty.

Fred worked on the first report to the Appellate Court the last two weeks of March. The team made their goal of reviewing twelve of Silas' cases by the end of the first quarter. Fred reported that Bily Mannon, Paul Adams, Jesse Wellington, and Bruce Lewis all had appeals pending. Seven others were found to be legitimate convictions. An appeal for Steve Parker was in the works. Every single one of the cases Silas left in his file cabinet were foul-ups. Mannon, Lewis, and Wellington were hopeful about getting their sentences reduced. Adams and Parker were going to be candidates for release.

A week later, Fred and Kyle received an email from the A.C. lauding them on the progress and findings. All four appeals that were filed would be heard. They would receive court dates as they were determined. The A.C. hinted that Mannon and Wellington would be heard first, both likely in April.

April came and the results from the appeals started rolling in. Fred and Kyle spent a lot of time going between the office, Rosharon, and Houston. Bily Mannon's case didn't quite turn out as expected. Since the prosecutor didn't include lesser charges, the Appellate Court had no choice but to find him not guilty of felony arson and set him free. Fred kept the details about that one to himself. He saw no reason to annoy Warden Winters. Jesse Wellington got all he could have he hoped for, avoiding the needle. He would serve the sentence that was offered in the plea bargain, murder two, forty years, parole possible after thirty. Again, a minor win, but a satisfied client regardless.

One by one more appeals came through. Paul Adams was released based on time served had he been convicted of a lesser crime. Bruce Lewis' case had a significant error, leading to a not guilty finding based on a technicality. The drugs they found in his possession were discovered outside of a valid search warrant, making them inadmissible. Another little tidbit Fred decided not to share with Warden. As far as Winters was concerned, all the appeals were successful due to innocence. He'd find out differently in the future, but by then, Fred had already gotten the clients out of Rosharon. Finally, Steve Parker's ironclad alibi was not brought up at trial. He also was provided an unconditional discharge. By the time that one came through, Warden Winters was sick of seeing Fred enter his office. Mark Simon's and Wendel Thomas' convictions were upheld. Fred and Kyle weren't overly confident on those anyway.

Epilogue

Time went by, only five more appeals were filed, which made thirteen Silases in all. Turned out pretty close to the guess of fourteen Fred made. Six resulted in releases, three in reduced sentences, and four convictions were upheld. Fred continued to report on twelve to fourteen cases per quarter. Silas did end up with a few additional gay clients that he screwed, figuratively that is. Mo received sixty-seven percent of the two-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars he was due for his five-year stint. Fred wasn't in very long, but two-thirds of eighteen-thousand seven-fifty was nothing to sneeze at. Burton only got slightly more. His father convinced him to gift a piece of it to Fred. He was loaded anyway, so he complied. The total amount of compensation Veronica made for the firm, through Fred and Kyle, was one-point-seven million dollars. A cool five-hundred-sixty-one thousand dollars for the firm. Yeah, it definitely covered Fred's, Kyle's, Kirsten's, and Ted's for the bulk of one-and-a-half years spent reviewing Silases part-time, as Conrad chose to call those cases.

To no-one's surprise, Silas screwed himself, as well. He lost his disbarment hearing. He got a job as a paralegal but was fired from that after two months. One of the partners had a gay nephew. Silas mouthed off at the wrong time. He spent most of the next year flipping burgers, until he got caught spitting on one intended for a customer that he thought was gay. He lucked out and wasn't arrested. His next, and last job was washing dishes at a one-star restaurant. Nobody cared if he spit on the work product there. It got washed anyway. He was sued for his actions but having minimum wage jobs for the rest of his life, not much payment was made. He died of alcohol poisoning, penniless, five years after his disbarment.

When Fred had been with the firm six months, he and Mo moved out of the temporary apartment into an apartment complex on Galveston Island. Mo had gotten a job in his previous career as a chef at one of the mid-range restaurants on the island. He was happier since he at least contributed financially somewhat to their partnership, over and above his compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

Fred and Mo were married on the second anniversary of the day they met at Rosharon. Both being career-minded, they chose not to adopt and remained childless.

Jerry Preston and Burton Wallingford Junior continued their relationship for almost three years before Jerry got frustrated with Burton's alcohol and drug use and left him.

Sebastian DeVore served his ten years. He didn't fare too badly in Rosharon, although he did experience some breaking and entry incidents to his back door. After he was released, he applied for and received reinstatement to the Texas bar. Unfortunately, the only job as a lawyer he was able to obtain was as a real estate lawyer. Ironically, it was with the same group Fred was part of when he was arrested.

The End