A Dark and Stormy Night

"So Kelly's phone called Kevin's and a 911 call was made from Kelly's phone, at the correct time. Just like Kevin got through testifying a short time ago. Would that be a correct statement?"

"Yes it would."

"So now the last piece of the puzzle. This piece of tree branch, pretty hefty chunk wouldn't you say?"

"Yes, the piece weights 3.2lbs."

"WOW, that's about the same as a 48oz baseball bat like they use in the major leagues. What would happen if that branch struck a man's head with any kind of power behind it?"

"I haven't had the need to test out the forces required, so I don't have a professional opinion. But it would probably crush his skull and kill him."

"Well, let's move on to what this evidence tells us, what are the facts of this piece?"

"We tested both ends of the branch. One end has skin cells only on it. The other end has skin cells, blood, and cloth fibers on it."

"So the short of it is that one end someone held and the other end hit someone, correct?"

"Yes, that's probably right."

"Well which is which?"

"The end with skin cells only was DNA matched to James Paul Lane. The end with skin cells, blood, and cloth fibers, match up to Kevin David Palmer and the tee shirt he ripped up to use on Kelly Ann Franks."

"So there it is Jimmy Hansen held one end and the other end hit Kevin Palmer. Pretty much a dead on match to what Kevin's statement was."

"No further questions Your Honor."

"Prosecutor Parks any questions?"

"Maybe just one Your Honor."

"Mr. Dunn this tree branch that Mr. Lane is said to have hit Mr. Palmer with, how hard would it have been for Mr. Palmer to hit himself with that branch."

"There was a picture taken of the location where Mr. Palmer was struck. I don't believe that it would be humanly possible to bend ones arms to hit that spot with any kind of power."

"Would the same be said of the knife too? That it wouldn't be possible for Mr. Palmer to say, put the knife in Mr. Lane's hand after he was dead?"

"No I don't believe that it could be done like that by the physical evidence on the knife itself. The only, only, finger prints on the knife were Mr. Lanes, and there were a lot of them. Enough to show that he had used the knife several times. But the finger prints we identified as the ones he put there when he stabbed with it, could only be put on as a stabbing motion. They start on the handle at one place, and then they slide down toward the blade. The same type of action that it took to cut his hand."

"Also the lower ones pushed aside blood of Ms. Franks. But reading into your question, would it be possible to fake the evidence on these items. Sure, nothing is impossible. But as I'm reading the evidence on these pieces, 1+1+1=3 on the knife, 1+1+1=3 on the branch, 1+1+1=3 on the phones. 3+3+3=9 which equals the statement that Kevin Palmer gave. It's just too consistent all around. Are they faked, no I don't think so."

"Thank you very much Mr. Dunn, that answers my question."

"Mr. Chopin do you want another witness?"

"Yes Your Honor, I like to talk to Dr. David Hemming, and he is here too."

"Please state your full name and what you do."

"David Jacob Hemming, Police Department's Chief Medical Examiner."

"So you did the Autopsy on James Paul Lane?"

"Yes I did."

"What can you tell us about it?"

"He was approximately seventeen year old male in good to excellent health. In overall very good physical condition except for the blow that killed him. Direct cause of death was a blunt force blow to the face and skull that resulted in damage directly to the brain from two causes, either would have killed him."

"In my opinion he was struck with a large semi round object of about four inches in diameter. The blow started at the area of the front teeth and proceeded upward breaking the upper jaw bone at the Intermaxillary Nasal Spine and splitting all of the Nasal Cartilage. Further causing an Ethmoid fracture that allowed a lot of bone and cartilage pieces to penetrate the Cruciform plate and enter the brain itself."

"Proceeding upward into the Glabella and again splitting the Metopic Surture line, and on into the bone of the Forehead Proper. The smaller bones of the Glabella and Metopic along with fragments of the Forehead Proper were forced again into the brain itself. Either of these penetrations into the brain would have caused the death of Mr. Lane."

"We also noticed a small cut on the heel of the right hand. This is consistent with the explanation that Mr. Dunn gave of the knife cutting its wielder. In this case the knife was held in a 'point down' fashion, and the blow was also in a downward angle. This caused the knife handle to be pushed backward in the hand and cut the large mass of the heel of the palm."

"You were in the courtroom when Kevin Palmer gave his statement of the conflict between Mr. Lane and himself. Does that explanation coincide with your findings?"

"Yes, I suppose as one could say that they match right down to the letter."

"Here I'll try and preempt our good Prosecutor Parks, and ask what might be his question. The newspapers have made us all aware of Mr. Palmer's karate training. In your medical finding could this have been a deliberate blow intended to kill?"

"That's a brave question for an attorney defending someone."

"Well I have faith in Kevin."

"In my opinion, and in this case it would 'be' an opinion regardless who answered the question. No, I don't believe that it was deliberate, and I'll explain my opinion with an analogy. A karate strike upward to the nose would be like a laser guided Yugo. The blow that killed Mr. Lane was like the head-on collision with a drunk driving a Mack truck."

"Well I would hardly consider a collision with a semi-truck as karate. Thank you Dr. Hemming, no further questions Your Honor."

"Prosecutor Parks any questions?"

"No Your Honor, as Mr. Chopin said, he asked my question."

Mr. Parks said that with a light enough tone that it drew snickers and chuckles from the audience.

"Another witness Mr. Chopin?"

"Yes Your Honor, I believe that we need to hear from one of the central figures in this case. I'd like to call in Detective Benjamin Spalding. I believe that he's being held at the police station as part of a conduct and IAD investigation."

"Well in that case, let's all take a one hour break, and hopefully the Bailiff will have him brought over by then."

Mr. Chopin and I decided to take a small walk outside while we waited. There's a small park just across the street, and that's where we went. It was all cool and green with foot paths that people walked and jogged on.

"Kevin try and hold on and not be too worried; this shouldn't go on for much longer. Then hopefully you'll be able to realize the bigger picture that's happening."

"That's OK Mr. Chopin, I'm not really too worried about this Inquest. At least not with you here, and I've known that there's something big going on 'behind the scenes'. My math has never been bad. But, 1+1 never has equaled 99 before."

"How's that?"

"I'm seventeen and a high school student in what many would consider a small town. You're a highly respected big city attorney, personal friend to Federal Judges and politician's in several states. Who came to help a high school boy in an Inquest, not even a trial yet, for free?"

"(Lol) Yeah, I can see where your math doesn't add up. But seriously Kevin there's a lot of things going on around this trial...er, no Inquest. That maybe I'll be able to let you know about, maybe even before we leave today.

"All rise for the honorable Judge Williamson."

"Please state your full name and what you do."

"Benjamin James Spalding and I am a Detective with the Police Department."

"Well I wonder if you're going to honor the oath you just made?"

"Excuse me Sir, what did you say?"

"Oh never mind Detective, just talking to myself. It says here in your file that your hearing is a little poor. So I'll try to remember to speak up. Here we have two pieces of evidence that are labeled four A and B, are you familiar with them?"

"Yes I am, one is the signed statement that I took from Kevin Palmer the night of the killing. The other is the receipt for his clothes that we had to keep for evidence."

"Well there's a very minor trouble right there. Here's all the evidence that's been presented for this case and there's no clothes here, where are they?"

"I don't know, but it's not unusual for that to happen. Sometimes evidence is taken and not judged important enough to make it to the trial."

"Ah, now I understand, his clothes were not important enough, and this is the receipt for them that both you and Kevin signed. This one is his signed statement that you witnessed him signing, that's what your signature here is for isn't it."

"Yeah, we both signed it."

"But the purpose of your signature is to verify that Mr. Palmer gave his statement. You went and typed it up on this sheet of paper. Then you took it back to Kevin witnessed him reading it for accuracy, then watched him physically sign this piece of paper. After Kevin had done all that, then you signed saying that you watched him do that, is that right Detective?"

"Yeah that's right, he signed it."

"Well there are a couple of problems with that. You know that two arrest warrants were issued from this statement, or as some would call it, confession. But neither of those was allowed to be enforced. Can you tell us why that they weren't enforced?"

"Something about some kind of injunction and dates. Then Judge Lane said something that pissed off other people."

"Here in my hand I have evidence labeled 4-c. It's an injunction signed by a federal judge stopping those two arrest warrants. I'll paraphrase this because it's too long to read out loud. The injunction stopped arrest warrants for Kevin David Palmer, due to questions about the authenticity of the document on which they're based. That's this statement that you watched Kevin Palmer sign, isn't it Detective Spalding?"

"Yeah, that's what it means, but it's BS because I watched him sign that sheet."

"You might find it interesting that we had a gentleman in earlier his name was; Doctor David H. Porter PHD, special instructor, FBI Training Academy, Quantico, Virginia. His PHD is in Criminology, with his specialty is in documents. He's a full professor that teaches FBI agents that specialize in forgery and document fraud."

"He looked at evidence 4-A, the statement that you said you watched Kevin Palmer sign. He said that the statement and your signature are real, the signature that you say you watched Kevin Palmer sign is faked."

"That's BS they're all on the same sheet, how can it be faked?"

"Well he told us how to do that, and told us that trick was done on this statement. Your signature is done in pen and ink by your own hand. Kevin's signature is done by photo-printer in inkjet ink. The way he told us that this could be done. All it takes is a computer, a scanner, and a photo-printer. I looked that the police station, every printer in there is a Cannon Laser Printer, except one. Yours is an Epson All-in one, Copier, scanner, photo-printer."

"That's BS, I didn't fake anything. Maybe someone switched them after I filed them."

"Boy, your pulling straw from the bale now. HA...I keep using that old saying. When I was young an old farmer told me that saying, said that it was the original for the modern one...grasping at straws. That's what you're doing now, but let's leave that for now and move on."

"How did you end up being the Detective on this case anyway?"

"Just my luck I guess."

"Wasn't the duty Sergeant on that night Sergeant Brown? Because when one of my assistants talked to him he said that you came in and demanded that he give you the case, even before it came in to the station. Furthermore when I looked you were scheduled for day shift, but you came in at about ten at night, just to get this case. In fact you came in even before the duty Sergeant even knew there was going to be a case to assign. In fact you got here even before the victim made it to the hospital. Did you realize that Detective Spalding?"

"Well aren't you just mister hot shit lawyer man. You're the one who's building this fairy tale and you don't need me to screw it up for you, so just keep rolling, smart ass."

"You know I think that I just might do that. You're a small town detective with a very narrow view. There are a lot of things going on that you don't know about. So yes De...tec..tive Spa...ld...ing I'll just keep rolling on as you put it."

"The rules for evidence disclosure in a trial and an Inquest are different. So I have a lot of things that haven't been entered yet. But they're all coded and registered with chain of custody authenticated. So De...tec..tive Spa...ld...Inga hang on to your hat."

"One NSA recorded cell phone call between Brothers David and Benjamin Spalding at 10:10pm, David telling Benjamin to 'get his ass down to the station and take control of this cluster fuck before someone else does.' Oops, sorry Your Honor I'll moderate the language. The return from Benjamin was that he'd get there if David didn't have the balls to take care of it in the field. It being one Kevin David Palmer. Here Your Honor one flash drive recording of that cell phone call, bagged, tagged and authenticated by NSA agents."

"How long was Kevin Palmer's interrogation Detective?"

"I'm not sure, I never really kept track."

"You mean that you didn't follow police procedure and post audio-video personal when you had a person in the room?"

"No, it was just supposed to be a friendly meeting to get his statement."

"Really Detective, you're trying to go with 'a friendly meeting'. Should I pull out that flash drive and play it for everyone. The conversation where you tell your brother to grow some balls and take care of it in the field. Between the two of you, Kevin wasn't even supposed to make it 'to' the station."

"But you actually did follow police procedure and set up audio-video people, you just didn't like the movie when it was done, so you deleted the file. At first we thought that you didn't record anything, until we found time cards for hours three officers charged to interrogation room 3 that night. So I had a technician find the deleted file on your computer, all TWENTY AND A HALF HOURS OF IT. Here Your Honor, one flash drive of Kevin David Palmer's nightmare in interrogation room number three."

"Are you even interested in how many times you violated Mr. Palmer's civil rights in that room Detective Spalding? In that 20.5 hour period Mr. Palmer asks for his lawyer 163 times you never even tried to get him one, in fact you didn't want one even near him."

"Any person under the age of eighteen is required to have a parent present while he's under questioning. 97 times he ask for his parents, you never had any intention of getting them. You fed him three and a half six-packs of soda, and then refused him any use of even basic sanitation. It got to the point that he urinated on the floor."

"But you didn't even stop there did you? No, No, I worded that wrong, the worst abuse you heaped on Kevin Palmer started the first minute he got to the police station. Mental abuse so heinous that this young man might have horrible nightmares for the rest of his life. You left a seventeen year old boy sitting in the drying, cracking, peeling, blood of his dear friend, for twenty hours you left him sit in blood."

"Then you just got stupid silly, you left Kevin half naked, just in a pair of jeans covered in dried blood. Then turned the room air conditioner to max cool, just to add a little more points to the tally of physical abuse."

"At hour number fifteen you were given lab reports on the evidence in this case. But you totally disregarded it didn't you. You had the evidence report in your hand that told you that the deceased had finger prints all over the knife that stabbed the girl. By that you knew that he tried to murder her. But he'd been stopped and had gotten what most people would have said were his just deserts."

"But you didn't think that way did you? No you went after what most people would consider the hero of this little drama. You wanted to hang him for stopping a murder rape. Your partner Bert Samuels, when he saw those reports and what you were doing, he just walked off and left didn't he? Couldn't stomach it anymore and just left you in your own mess."

"Why, that's the question that must be on everyone's mind. Well one answer's your father, the ex chief of police. Papa Spalding as I'm told he's called. Here Your Honor, one wire tap recorded telephone conversation between father and son time dated 10:14pm, telling Benjamin Spalding 'to do whatever is necessary to get either a confession or a signature and a falsified confession'. Then to get, well several foul names meaning Kevin Palmer, to Judge Thorn who had paper work ready for a guilty verdict, stamped and off to Highgate prison before anyone else knew. Once in prison there'd be nothing to worry about, because he'd be taken care of in there."

"Again though the question is why, why go to all this trouble because of one seventeen year old boy. Well most people are looking at the wrong boy. It's James Paul Lane aka Jimmy Hansen that we need to be looking at."

"Jolene Hansen the woman who shot up the steps to the police station. Wounding two police officers and almost hitting Mr. Palmer here. Everyone knows that she's Jimmy Hansen's mother. Her marriage to David Lee Hansen is her third marriage isn't it Detective Spalding, and if rumor is to be believed started because he was about her 50th affair. Her second husband was a Lane, one Jeremy Edward Lane."

"But her first husband was a Lane too. One James Robert Lane who divorced her because he caught her messing around with his brother, Jeremy. The thing about James Robert Lane is that he had a son, one James Paul Lane, aka Jimmy Hansen. One of my assistants dug up a marriage license, James Robert Lane married Jolene Marie Spalding. Just who is Jolene Spalding, Detective Spalding?"

"She's my sister."

"Ah yes, Papa Spalding's children, there was four born wasn't there. David is the oldest, Jolene next, then you, and last was Terrance Lee Spalding, who died when he was eight years old. It was from a fall down a set of stairs in the family home. Papa Spalding has a hell of a temper doesn't he?"

"Jolene being the only daughter, and her children being one boy and three girls. David Spalding's fifteen year marriage birthing no children, you yourself having two teenage daughters. James Paul Lane aka Jimmy Hansen was Papa Spalding's only grandson, and likely to stay that way. We all know how the older generations view male children over females."

"But let's get back to this case. Jolene tried to kill Kevin Palmer on the steps of the police station. Her first shot was at Mr. Palmer, her second hit Chief Jansen as he stepped in front of Mr. Palmer. Her third was shot at Officer Glen Ridge who was coming to aid them both. Both Officers shot Jolene Hansen, before she could get off a fourth shot, killing her."

"But an interesting thing was heard by several witnesses and was found on the video tape being shot that day. It came through in audio only as the camera was pointed at the people on the steps, not into the crowd where Jolene was waiting."

"The interesting comment, 'B...you promised me. You promised that he'd go to prison for killing my Jimmy. You promised'. That is the exact quote she said, 'B...you promised'. That was your sister's nickname for her little brother, wasn't it Detective Spalding. It's common knowledge to anyone who was around your family. Big sister always telling little brother B what to do."

"You promised you big sister that her son's killer would go to prison. Even before you questioned Mr. Palmer, even before any evidence was processed. Even before any facts about the incident were known. Here Your Honor one flash drive containing telephone call recorded at 10:17pm from Detective Spalding to Jolene Hansen telling her of her son's death and making that promise to her, that her son's killer would go to prison. That Papa would see to it that Jimmy's killer was taken care of in there. At 10:48pm Kevin David Palmer arrived at the Police Station."