CHAPTER 40: PRECINCT BLUES Part 2: GATHERING EVIDENCE

DISTRICT ATTORNEY DARIS LINTON

Ordinarily, I would have a huge problem with a judge carrying a grudge riding my ass to do my job right. I mean, the nerve of some of them! They act as if they hadn’t started off in some law office, and were just born with a gavel and a robe. But when Judge Harold Stone comes to you and lays out your future if you get this wrong, you listen with wide open ears, and no fucking attitude. Unlike most judges, Judge Stone has an impeccable understanding and application of the law. He is always tough but fair. He also happens to be one of the few who actually research each case that comes before him. In short, this one must be special if it has caught his attention, especially since he isn’t presiding over it directly.

When I asked around the office about it, I found out that the victims- if I can even use that word in reference to these men- have a long a varied history with all of the defendants and potential defendants in this case. Not only that, but they have a warped opinion of the judicial system as a whole. The reason for that is one of the most notable judges in Pennsylvania is now indicted, alongside the former Police Chief of Pittsburgh Police Department, for misconduct and accepting bribes. Upon further investigation, I realized that I knew the case which sealed Roy Russo’s fate… that of the State versus Christopher Marc Hobbs. It was originally supposed to be mine, but instead was given to another district attorney who was firmly in the Hobbs’ pocket. It then became clear just who Brian Kinney and Justin Taylor are within this community.

Now, I am not gay. There is nothing I like better than a pair of pillowy tits attached to a woman with a soft, fleshy center, but that doesn’t mean that I’m so homophobic that I won’t meet my friends who are attracted to the same sex at the local gay bar, Woody’s, for a drink. I’ve had more opportunities than I can count or name to watch the Liberty Avenue royal couple in action, and I have to admit that even as a straight man, I was more than a little impressed by their prowess. Ironically, it also gave me a little insight into the group dynamics before this case came about, especially in terms of the man who deemed himself Brian’s best friend.

There were nights when I wanted to pull the man he’s been seeing aside and ask, ‘Hey man, why do you put up with such pining and disrespect?’ On other nights, I just wanted to do Justin Taylor a favor and stuff one of the dick-waving statues into the man’s wide, whiny pie-hole as he spouted bullshit and drivel about his warped view of their relationship. Yes, even I as an outsider know that it is exactly what one would call Brian and Justin’s association… a fucking relationship! I mean, Brian and Justin tricked, indeed, but for the most part they either did it together or did it separately and then went home together. Any idiot, except the one with the jealousy and envy problem he couldn’t cure, could see that!

Then I thought perhaps Michael Novotny needed a psychotherapist to prescribe a years’ worth of drugs in one go to curb his narcissism and obvious delusions about his importance in the grand scheme of Liberty Avenue as a whole. The other viable alternative was that one of his group of friends should look up the Aborigines and adopt their use of darts. They’ve been known to serve as tranquilizers. There were always a million thoughts such as these running through my mind while watching Michael Novotny run from pillar to post in his quest to be the center of Brian Kinney’s universe. But even I would never have believed he would have gone to these lengths to get what he most wanted.

“So where do you want us to start, Daris?” Carl asks me. And the truth is that there is so much evidence to be walked through, there is only way to answer.

“Start at the beginning of what you have. But I need to ask, why there are all these comics spread out on top of the paperwork?”

Joanne answers me, “Because, believe it or not, each piece obtained basically provides a timeline that goes with the journal. You should sit down and get comfortable for this, Daris. It’s going to take awhile.”

I do as she suggests, still overwhelmed by the piles before me. That’s when I notice it. “And the scarf? What is that about?” I have a feeling I already know, but I need to hear it anyway.   

“It was found within a plastic ziploc bag along with other items belonging to Justin Taylor. According to Novotny’s diary, he’d gone in there after he was sure that Kinney was away on business after the infamous Rage party. His goal was to remove every trace ounce that Taylor existed from the loft. It’s quite obvious that he was trying to enact the theory of out of sight, out of mind. However, he never counted on the reverse theory of that, which is, gone but never forgotten. I think Kinney just assumed that Taylor, who still had keys to the loft apartment at the time, just came in and collected the rest of his things.”

“Why do you say assumed?”

“Because the code Justin Taylor used at the time wasn’t activated except twice after the date of the Rage party. Once the day after, and again on a date before the almost-false arrest of Brian Kinney for the alleged molestation of his nephew.” He hands me a sheet full of alarm codes, highlighted in red, yellow, green, and blue. “The ones in red are for Lindsay Peterson; green for Kinney, and blue for Taylor…”

“So the yellow, I assume, is Novotny?”

“Bingo!” Carl says triumphantly. “As you can see, he’s used his code more than the occupants who lived there.”

“Why did he have a code in the first place? Peterson, I can sort of understand since she had his child and all. But why Novotny?”

“It’s something you have to ask Kinney directly, but from what we’ve gathered, it’s because of the lifestyle he was living before meeting Taylor. To say that he was a very wild boy would be an understatement,” Carl says, wryly. I’m tempted to tell him wild indeed, and he wasn’t the only one, but I keep that thought to myself.

I wonder if I should recuse myself from this case as I hear Carl and Joanne detail the earliest of evidence dating back to when Novotny, Kinney, and some guy named Lance Freeman all went to high school together. Knowing what I know of Novotny, I can honestly say that I would love to be the one to hammer the nails in his proverbial coffin. But is that being selfish and using my position to make the asshole pay? I mean, even without all this evidence would I still be gung-ho to try this case? As I sit and listen to piece after piece of this puzzle, including the part where Claire Kinney and Craig Taylor became involved, my answer is a resounding YES! I sat unwillingly on the sidelines and watched Justin Taylor be put on trial for his own attempted murder, instead of the idiot who committed the crime. I couldn’t in good conscience stand idly by and watch it happen all over again.

I also understand now why Judge Stone told me to make sure that every ‘i’ was dotted and every ‘t’ crossed. It was to make sure that when the case was reviewed afterwards if Novotny or his cohorts exercised their rights to their appeals, which we all know they will, the evidence and trial will be thoroughly comprehensive. Too many cases win their appeals based on tactical technicalities alone, so he’s determined this and the other related cases, won’t be one of them.

“So Claire Kinney has been involved with this from the beginning?”

Carl nods. “According to Novotny’s journal, she not only knew about the abuse and found reasons to have Brian beaten by his parents, but she used her knowledge of Michael’s misdeeds to blackmail him.”

“Why didn’t he come to the police?”

“Would you have wanted your best friend to know that you were the root cause of some of the damage inflicted on him? In Novotny’s narrow-minded little world, his friendship with Brian was not only sacrosanct, it was a roadmap to the future he wanted. Even then, both Claire and Michael knew that Brian was going places far beyond their reach; their main goal was to keep that from happening.”

“Which is kinda ironic since it’s happened anyway. And where does Craig Taylor fit into all of this?”

“His ex-fiancee dropped off some key evidence this morning directly linked to his involvement,” Joanne tells me. “Even before Justin met Brian, his father was stealing from the young man’s trust fund. The money was left to Justin by his maternal grandfather, and was more than enough that Justin would have been able to solely live on well into his mid-forties even without being careful. However, once he kicked Justin out of the house, he began using the money that he, as in Craig Taylor, earmarked for Justin to go to Dartmouth College.”

“And therein lies the problem when dealing with the entitled,” I say, disgusted. “Does either of the Taylors know?”

“I honestly don’t know. It was supposed to be presented to Justin upon his eighteenth birthday, but by then the family was estranged. Justin was living with Brian while Jennifer was seeking a divorce from Craig Taylor. As far as I know, although they have been officially divorced for quite some time, there was an injunction filed by Craig Taylor to keep her away from their children’s trust fund accounts.”

“Ahhh… the old ‘whoever controls the purse strings, calls the shots routine’.” They both look at me puzzled for a moment so I explain. “In WASP circles, and I’m cynical enough to believe it also happens in marriages the world over, it is customary to leave the at-home parent with just enough to pay the bills and have a small amount of disposable money at their fingertips. I would imagine that a man like Craig Taylor would have held that principle to its highest standard, thereby trying to force his ex-wife into staying with him. But of course that backfired, and now Jennifer is light-years beyond him when it comes to financial stability. So how are the divorce proceedings now, and more importantly who signed the order?”

“Russo,” Joanne spits his name.

“I should have guessed. Well we can certainly get Craig Taylor on fraud charges, and based on the amount, more than likely grand larceny as well. It helps that all of Russo’s cases are now being reviewed, including those he had no business handling in the first place. I’ll see if they will move this to the top of the list since it is going to involve a co-defendant.”

“Are you thinking about trying them all at the same time?” Carl asks me.

“I could. Since the cases are all related, it’s definitely a possibility. The question comes about where this Lance Freeman person fits in. I know that Harry Donaldson is working the case at the moment, and I have a meeting later this afternoon with him and Melanie Marcus, who is the attorney on record for Brian and Justin. So what is it that I should be looking for really?”

“The Holden Beach police department down in North Carolina sent us their preliminary findings. Although we can’t directly charge Freeman with grand larceny since he paid for the items that once belonged to Brian Kinney, we can charge him as an accessory. There is also the stalking charges, which can be linked to the illegal voyeuristic activities charge. They haven’t even begun to go through his computer files yet.”

“Just have them sent here along with everything else. We’ll have to view it and review it all anyway, regardless of the written account they give us. Might as well kill two birds with one stone.”

“Okay, but I know they are going to want assurances regarding Hunter Montgomery’s claims because the act happened in Holden Beach and not Pittsburgh. They are possibly going to want him tried by their penal code instead of ours. It all depends on how harsh we are willing to be. However, I know that from our end that the forcible rape of a minor child and the recent criminal mischief charges is are the only things that I know for a fact won’t be negotiable. He’ll have no choice but to serve the full sentence on them for him to be able to plead out to anything else.”

“How do you know that?” I’m genuinely curious. I know what Melanie Marcus told Donaldson, who in turn told me. But neither Carl or Joanne was there for that conversation. She said that they were willing to knock off five years on the rape charge, but the criminal mischief had to stand firm. To be honest, I’m more inclined not to make an offer on any of the charges and just threaten to throw his ass into a maximum security prison. But I understand the reasoning behind their request.

“I have met all three of the victims regarding the criminal mischief allegations. Of course, there’s Brian and Justin, but also their attorney and the mother of their young son, Gus, was involved. Due to his failure to report what Novotny was up to, it put all of their integrity as parents and professionals into question, especially the question of drug abuse going on in both homes. Also, his failure to report that the allegations were false, wasted community resources. I can assure you there was no reason to visit either residence on the night in question, but we had to pay them a call and search their homes anyway. Freeman was just as culpable in his crime of silence as Novotny was in deed.”

“Do we have enough to bring Craig Taylor and Claire Kinney in?”

“Will they be officially charged?”

“Yes they will be… and I have a feeling that this is only the beginning of the charges for them.”

“So are you going to try them all together?” Joanne asks me.

“The jury is still out on that one. It all depends on how that meeting goes and what Freeman is willing to accept.” I just know that we’re missing something. Some vital piece… or person, in all of this.

“Why?”

“Because I have a feeling that he knows much more about the connection between all the players than he’s telling.” And my gut instincts are NEVER wrong.