Day 177 - Upside Down- Chapter 25 - (1410 words)

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UPSIDE DOWN, BACK TO FRONT

By Wayne Webb

CHAPTER 25

After

“You’re not painting a very fair picture to me.” The man was annoyed with the lawyer. It seemed like everything he was saying was being twisted in some way.
“Well let’s be honest, it’s not like this man was very likeable.”
“That’s my point, I thought he was decent. And you make him sound like a thug!”
The prosector looked at the man. The man was indignant, why was he so upset about this? Virtually no one else, including the bulk of his team wanted to do their jobs that well in this case. Everyone felt for the Hansen kid.
They had to do ther jobs though. It wasn’t about liking it, it was about the system. The defence would likely rip this guy apart though, he could not afford to let him take the stand without hos case looking desparate and vulnerable to the other side.
If he ignored this guy, he looked the type to take it to the press and push his side of the story. You just can’t tell with the media, one day Hansen is the darling of the right and the justice seekers and then something happens, maybe this guy swings it for some reason and then it all turns and the people that lose out? The police, the prosecutors and the system. If something goes against what the people want or like, it’s “the Man”’s fault. Blame “the Man” if a sentence is too light or too hard, it’s his fault.
“Tell me again why I should put you on the stand?” He sighed as if talking to the child who would not listen, would not learn.
“This guy, Ivan was a stand up bloke. He saved my son’s life and protected me and him from an actual violent person. Someone actually going to hurt us. He didn’t need to stand up for us, but he did. That does not sound like the guy that everyone says he is. He was a hero, I owe him my child’s life and I don’t want to … I CAN’T let him be this guy that everyone is just painting as evil. He wasn’t evil.”
The man tapered off. “He wasn’t like that.”
“So. Let me get this straight. I don’t want to get this wrong.”
“Fine.”
“Your son, slipped and fell into traffic. Yes?”
“Yes, but…”
“No buts, just let me finish. Because if you go on the stand? WHEN you go on the stand and appear under oath? This? This will be nothing, the cynical and brutal attempts to undermine you painting Ivan as a Hero? They will crush you and your story and you could end up maing Ivan look worse. You could end up having people think that he was even worse than they already think about him. And they’ll think that because you told your story.”
“But if I tell my story they’ll see.”
The prosecutor knew better.
“No. They won’t. The defence team, their job is paint their accused as a hero and your hero as a villain. So they will let you recount your story and then when you have given your version of events they will play it back to you. It won’t sound the same. And they’ll question you, and you won’t be allowed to say what you want, to show them what you see because it will be too late, your story will be told and now you have to answer their questions. Under oath.”
“That’s okay.” The man was starting to doubt himself though he was not yet here in the reality of how his story really sounded without the perspective of personal attendance.
“Your story. Your son, fell in front of a truck, which braked in time and therefore did not hit him. Correct?”
“Yes, and…”
“No, just answer the question please.”
“Really? Is it really like that, don’t you want the truth?” The man was getting annoyed.
“M’lord?” The prosecutor mimed a look of appeal to the judge who was not there.
“The witness will answer the courts questions as directed please.” He deepened his tone to sound judgelike. The man rolled his eyes, but had seen enough courtroom antics on TV and the news to accept that.
“So would it be fair to say that Ivan Maxwell did not save your son’s life, but in fact merely managed NOT to kill him?”
“That’s not fair to say it no.” The man was becoming beligerent, and he knew how that looked. It was depressing, but there must be a way to get them to see what he did.
“Is it true to say that Ivan Maxwell merely managed to not kill your son?”
“That’s hardly…”
“Is it TRUE?”
“Well yes.”
“And is it also true to say that you witnessed Ivan Maxwell assaulting another man?”
“No, well yes, but not assaulting – he was … defending us.”
“Did the man attack you?”
“He was screaming and acting like he was going to.”
“But he did not attack you?”
“No.” Each new answer gets quieter.
“Did this man hit Ivan Maxwell?”
“Well no.”
“Did he threaten to hit Ivan Maxwell?”
“No.”
“So Ivan Maxwell managed to not run over your son, but managed to get so enraged that a single punch from him put this driver, already stressed and upset from being in a car accident into a serious enough concussion that he had to be hospitalised?”
“Well that’s what happened, if you just look at the facts.” The man was searching for a way he could say it better, say it so it could only be true without it being twisted into lies.
“We understand that you feel a debt to Ivan Maxwell. He, in your mind at least, intervened and saved your son. Who in their right mind would not feel gratitude and a debt to somone in that position?” The prosecutor souned caring and reasonable, and the man warmed to him again, he understood what it meant. What the man was trying to say. So why was he making it seem so difficult to understand? “What you fail to see is the objective nature of what happened. That’s understandable that you, as a parent would see things that way. What you saw was your son, with death in front of him but spared but sheer luck. Then the man that you associated with this luck, probably also in a stressed and upset frame of mind from nearly running your boy over, then being rear ended by a man who by all accounts was very, very trying to everyone in that situation. And then you saw him react. You saw him protecting you and your boy. What you saw was him lashing out, in violence. You were in that same situation, you were there, did you defend yourself?”
“No, it all happened so fast.”
“Exactly, it happened very fast. So fast that no reasonable man would think that the right thing to do would be assault someone else in the same situation.”
The man was done. Over time he would probably see it the same way, but right now someone had let the air out of his over inflated hero worship. Of a man he knew for five minutes.
Maybe they were right.
Maybe.
“Do you see how that works? I’d happily add your statement to my case if you really want it on record, but the reality is that you will make their case for them. You will have proved that Ivan Maxwell had a history or unreasonable and unthinking violence.”
More of one, really the defence was going to win, everyone knew that. This was a matter of the system of jurisprudence working to it’s natural conclusion.
No surprises.
The man nodded and stood.
He felt disoriented.
The prosecutor shook the mans hand, clasped it in both to imply the security of understanding and support while ending the interview and cutting off the comeback that may arise.

When the room was empty apart from himself he looked at the file. If it weren’t for the Family Sentencing mob, this would probably have been over weeks ago. Why on earth did they need to drag it out like this?