Presumed Innocent

Judge Lyttle was a defense lawyer for 20 years before becoming a judge, but his views remain more sympathetic to the defense. He, Sandy, Nico, and Tommy meet for a status hearing. Lyttle schedules the trial to begin in three weeks and won’t listen to Nico’s attempts to delay. Lyttle then asks about the status of the fingerprinted glass. The defense has asked to examine it, but the prosecution can’t produce it, and Lyttle admonishes them. Lyttle agrees to let the defense team examine Carolyn’s apartment.

There is bad blood between Lyttle and Tommy, who both worked at the North Branch at the same time. Lyttle says that Tommy can either be on the prosecution team or testify, but he can’t do both. Tommy agrees not to testify.

Every Wednesday night during the trial process, Lip calls Rusty and asks if he needs anything. Rusty never takes him up on the offer, but he knows that Lip is having a hard time at work because of his allegiance to Rusty.

This week, however, Rusty asks Lip to find Leon Wells, the subject of Carolyn’s B file. He thinks that if they can find out how Tommy is involved with the B file, they might be able to argue that he was obstructing Rusty’s investigation. Lip agrees to try to find Leon.

Rusty goes to Nat’s tee ball game, but afterward, he and Nat go directly home because everyone knows about the murder trial. Nat doesn’t complain, even though Rusty knows he must be bullied in school. Barbara has explained what is happening to Nat, and Rusty is overwhelmed at how they are standing with him.

Rusty and Jamie go to Carolyn’s apartment with a police officer. They are surprised to see Marty, Carolyn’s son, there, and realize that he was notified by the court. While the officer stays outside the door, Rusty and Jamie examine the apartment, and Marty wanders around.

Rusty sees the bar glasses that match the fingerprinted one and counts 12. They search for the contraceptive jelly everywhere but don’t find it. He finds Carolyn’s telephone book, with many names, including Judge Lyttle’s. As they are leaving, Rusty talks to Marty. Marty tells Rusty that the police questioned him, and Rusty realizes that he told Marty about his affair with Carolyn. For a moment, Rusty feels sick—Nico could use Marty’s testimony to prove the affair. However, after another look at Marty, he realizes the boy is innocent, and he is being paranoid.

Rusty wakes up from a nightmare about his sick mother. As a child, he adored his mother, who was agoraphobic. When his mother was dying, Rusty and Barbara took her in, and Rusty was surprised at how Barbara and his mother bonded.

At the root of Rusty’s nightmares is the worry about what would happen to Nat if he went to prison. He has thought about running, especially considering how many men he has put into prison.

On the first day of Rusty’s trial, before official proceedings begin, Jamie points out that the defense team still hasn’t examined the fingerprinted glass. Tommy promises to get them the glass after court today. They call the prospective jurors in for screening. Lyttle makes sure that the jury understands that they must be presuming Rusty is innocent. Nico looks upset, and Rusty is reminded of how much is riding on this trial for him. Jury selection ends at lunch on the second day, with the trial due to begin in the afternoon.

That afternoon, the defense and prosecution give their opening statements. Nico gives his opening statement first, and Rusty is surprised to discover that he is uncharismatic. However, Nico is aggressive: Lyttle reprimands Nico for beginning to build the argument that Rusty was jealous of Raymond’s relationship with Carolyn, offering a motive for her murder. Sandy keeps his opening statement short, focusing on Rusty’s career as a prosecuting attorney, including his work on the Night Saints case. He also works to poke holes in the prosecution’s case, reminding the jury of the concept of reasonable doubt.

On the third morning, Nico admits to Sandy that they cannot find the fingerprinted glass. They all know that it is common for the police to lose evidence that usually turns up. As Nico and Sandy talk about it, Rusty watches Tommy, who looks nervous and exhausted. When Lyttle finds out, he gives Nico a warning. The missing glass, however, upsets the prosecution’s case, as the first witness was supposed to be an expert testifying about the fingerprints.

Nico calls the prosecution’s first witness, Detective Harold Greer, to the stand. Tommy questions Greer, the third officer to arrive at the crime scene. When Tommy puts the crime scene photos into evidence, the jurors examine them: Rusty can feel their attitude toward him changing. When Sandy cross-examines Greer, he asks about the fingerprinted glass, and the detective is forced to admit that it is missing. He also admits that they didn’t find Carolyn’s diaphragm or contraceptive jelly in the apartment. Rusty can tell from Nico and Tommy’s reactions that they hadn’t considered this point.

Rusty asks Sandy to bring one of the photos to him and points out that there is a full set of 12 bar glasses at Carolyn’s apartment. Sandy questions the detective about the fact that the missing fingerprinted glass would make it a set of 13, a strange number. After morning trial, Sandy reprimands Rusty for bringing it to his attention so late, but Rusty claims to have just noticed.

The prosecutors have a bad afternoon. They question Eugenia, Rusty’s former assistant, who reports overhearing a phone call between Rusty and Carolyn. She says she heard him call Carolyn “my angel” and discuss going to her house that evening. Rusty knows this isn’t true. On cross-examination, Sandy established Eugenia is biased because Nico and Tommy are her bosses now. Rusty realizes that Sandy is also starting to establish part of his defense: Nico and Tommy are going after him because of a rivalry. Sandy also forces Eugenia to admit that she perjured herself: Rusty never said, “my angel,” and when she overheard the call, Rusty and Carolyn were working on the McGaffen case together.

The next witness is Mrs. Krapotnik, Carolyn’s neighbor. Nico called her to establish that she has seen Rusty outside Carolyn’s apartment. However, when Nico asks who in the courtroom she has seen at Carolyn’s apartment, she points at the judge, and then at Tommy. She leaves the stand amidst laughter, and court ends for the day.

That night, Rusty reflects that going home after court feels the same. He sits in the dark, too wired to go to sleep, and thinks about his relationships with the people in his life.

The next day, Raymond is due to testify, and the atmosphere of the courtroom is intense. The jury knows of Raymond from his work as PA; although Nico is the PA now, they don’t know him yet.

Tommy examines Raymond first. Raymond tells the court that he doesn’t remember who suggested Rusty take Carolyn’s case. Sandy doesn’t object to anything but observes Raymond closely. Raymond testifies that Rusty knew about his affair with Carolyn but never told Raymond about his own affair. Raymond claims that if he’d known, he wouldn’t have assigned Rusty the case.

In the cross-examination, Sandy establishes that Raymond is emotional about the case, and is “taking shots” at Rusty. Raymond is now one of the leading defense attorneys in the county, and it will hurt Sandy if he makes an enemy of Raymond. Rusty told Sandy ahead of time that he has no problem if Sandy takes it easy on Raymond to preserve the relationship.

Sandy, however, surprises Rusty by going after Raymond for not telling Rusty about the B file, and for removing it from Carolyn’s office after her death. Judge Lyttle surprises everyone by breaching protocol to deem the line of questioning irrelevant, but Nico says he has no problem with the line of questioning.

Sandy points out that Carolyn specifically asked to investigate the B file, even though it was outside her purview in the Rape Section. She did so while she had a personal relationship with Raymond. Sandy then points out that although Raymond claims he could be professional despite his affair with Carolyn, he doesn’t seem to believe the same of Rusty, who was his second-in-command for years. By the end of cross-examination, Rusty realizes that Raymond’s testimony has shifted the jury toward the defense.

During the lunch break, Sandy and Rusty discuss the case—they still have the challenge of Dr. Kumagai’s testimony. The physical evidence is the prosecution’s main strategy, and Kumagai’s cross-examination is their only real opportunity to push back against it. Sandy doesn’t have a specific strategy yet, beyond the fact that Kumagai is generally seen as an unpleasant person, hopefully by the jury as well.

Rusty tells Sandy how he met Raymond, who defended his father against tax evasion charges, although his father later went to jail. After his father was sent to prison, he had fallen back into old patterns established in a Nazi labor camp and then an Allied camp during World War II. He died three years later.

In the afternoon, Sandy’s cross-examination of Raymond continues. Sandy points out that, without being asked, in their final meeting Rusty said he wasn’t at Carolyn’s house that night. He points out how strange it was for a seasoned prosecutor to do such a thing, especially if he was planning to get away with murder. Sandy also points out that Raymond trusted Rusty enough to make him chief deputy rather than Nico, and Nico looks chagrined. As Raymond’s responses shift, Rusty realizes that Sandy’s questions have caused Raymond to doubt Rusty’s guilt.

In the judge’s chambers later, Sandy admits that the defense’s theory is that Rusty was framed for Carolyn’s murder. Rusty hadn’t known this was what Sandy had in mind and doesn’t understand. He realizes that Sandy is going to use Tommy’s participation in the B file to show that the case against Rusty was “manufactured.” When Rusty confronts Sandy about his change in tactic, asking for an explanation, Sandy sidesteps the question.

That night, Rusty meets Lionel Kenneally at a bar. Lionel tells him that the police department believes that Rusty will be acquitted because Nico rushed the case at Tommy’s behest. Rusty asks what was happening at North Branch when Carolyn and Tommy were there, eight or nine years earlier. Lionel tells him that he heard things but was sure that Tommy Molto wasn’t involved. When Rusty asks him if Carolyn was implicated in the rumors, Lionel doesn’t answer.

Finally, Lionel tells Rusty that Carolyn was sleeping with Lyttle, who was a judge in North Branch at the time. Carolyn often acted as referee when Tommy and Lyttle disagreed. Rusty realizes that “something’s not right” (296) and knows that the B file is at the center of it.