“Your honor, my client—” The judge lifted his hand when he picked up the file. She had no idea who the attorney was for the Bruces, but so far he was not doing well. Even new attorneys on the scene knew not to speak before him. Judge Wilson ruled the courtroom. “Your honor, I think that this has—”
“I think you should shut up.” Judge Wilson laid down the file he’d been looking over and glared at the younger man. That was another thing that most knew. He did not pretty things up when he spoke to you. It was harsh and to the point. “You’re in my courtroom, buddy, and what I say goes. Now. Sit your butt down there and keep quiet until I say you can talk, or I’ll bring you up on contempt charges. That’s not a way to get on my good side, in the event you didn’t get that.”
When it looked like he was going to talk again, Roger Pratt, a good friend of hers and a shifter, actually laughed. It turned into a harsh cough when Judge Wilson looked at him, but it was funny to see the younger man to his right squirming in his chair. Things might be okay after all.
“It says here that you’re suing Mr. Mitch Riley for loss of wages. That happened nearly ten years ago. You just now figuring out you don’t have a job?” The attorney started to speak, and the judge cut him off. “I’m speaking to this here Bruce person, not you. You can have your turn later. For now, I want to know what he has to say about this.”
“Sir, I assure you I knew I was without funds coming in. At least not as much as I should have been taking in. I think that we’ve been passed over a great deal over the years for the more...long term children because of the lies this man told about me and my wife. And that was a loss of wages we’re talking about. We were on the verge of calling in his social worker when he called in all those lies about us. And the things he told them, sir, are just not true.”
“Things like what?” The judge picked up the file again. When Mark didn’t answer him, he asked him again. “What sort of things did he tell on you about? Here, I have the transcript on what he said when Mr. Riley called in. So how about you tell me what you think he said.”
“Well, we had to ask him to leave because he was trying to have sex with my wife.” Everyone in the room burst out laughing, and that seemed to piss off Mark. “Well, he did. She was a lot thinner back then and much prettier, but he did it.”
“Hey.” His wife, Carol, slapped her husband on the arm. “You’re not right. I’ve still got it. You sure do want it often—”
“Be that as it may, we’re talking about what sort of things that the younger Mr. Riley would have said to the office of child welfare when he called in.” The judge actually shivered a little as he continued. “Please do not bring up any of your domestic issues in my courtroom again. I don’t have the stomach for it, and I’m sure this courtroom doesn’t either. Now how about you answering my question on what sort of things this young man might have said when he supposedly lied about you?”
“Your honor, if I may be permitted to speak, my client is seeking damages not just to his reputation, but loss of wages for all the slander that Mr. Riley has been spewing. There are things said by him, in his comments to the offices, that hurt both my clients when they applied for a larger house loan, as well as on any job application that they tried to fill out to add to their household to help the boys they did manage to care for.” The attorney shuffled around some papers, but never handed anything to the judge or anyone else.
“And again, I ask you what you think this boy said about your client.” The lawyer started to shuffle the papers around in front of him again. “Not the whole thing, Jefferies, but the highlights. Surely, you can do that without a sheet of paper in front of you. Whatever you have written down there, surely you can tell me some of it.”
“He told them that my client beat him and tied him to the bed nightly. It wasn’t the first time that this occurred, but it had happened over a period of months and months.” He handed the bailiff a file finally. “As you can see here, both my clients needed medical attention when the younger Riley fled the house that night, and it was a couple of days before they were able to make the call regarding him and his behavior.”
“They didn’t tell the police this?” Vinnie nearly laughed when the judge asked. “I mean, they were right there, I’m sure. Someone would have called this in, am I right? I think I even saw a police report filed by the Bruces. Only it said that...let me look. Oh, here it is. It says here that they’d been set upon by thieves and that they’d had a break-in. Doesn’t sound like an attempted rape to me. Does it to you?”