Michael sat back and watched as Maggie interviewed the alleged victim in the LeRoi case. They’d decided that this particular deposition required a gentle touch. Seated at a conference table in the offices of the District Attorney, Maggie smiled kindly at Rebecca Savage, a slight young woman with dark hair and brown eyes.
“I’m Maggie Flynn. Michael and I represent Jean-Luc LeRoi. I need to ask a few questions. May I call you Rebecca?”
The young woman blinked and looked to Rance Stockwell who was representing the citizens of the city in the high-profile case. Rance patted her hand and she nodded slightly, crossing her arms to hold herself around the middle.
Maggie quietly continued. “Tell me how you came to meet Jean-Luc, Rebecca.”
Rebecca cleared her throat. “I went to a hockey game with some friends. I don’t really follow sports, it was just something to do.” Maggie nodded encouragingly. “After the game, we went down to the ice. One of my friends wanted to get some autographs. Well, this player started talking to us. He ended up inviting us to meet him and some of the others at a bar. It was there that I met Jean-Luc, I mean, Mr. LeRoi. He seemed really nice and I thought he was cute.”
“So, on the night of March 8, you met Jean-Luc. You thought he was nice and cute,” Maggie clarified. “When did you go out with him by yourself?”
“That was the next night,” Rebecca said. “We’d spent some time talking and he asked me out.”
“And where did you go?”
Rebecca looked to Rance again, who nodded. “I met him at his hotel. We were supposed to go out for dinner, but we ended up ordering from room service.”
“Why did you do that?”
“He said that going out would be a lot of trouble. Fans are always bothering him. He said we’d have a better time if we stayed in the hotel.”
Maggie smiled kindly. “And what happened from there?”
“Well, after dinner, we... I mean he...” She breathed out deeply and looked down at the table. “He raped me.”
“Rebecca, I’m sorry, you’re going to have to be more specific than that. What exactly are you alleging that Jean-Luc did?”
The young woman blushed deeply and a lone tear rolled down her cheek. “He tore my dress. He bent me over the table. He ripped my underwear. He shoved his penis into my vagina. He didn’t stop until he came.”
Maggie considered her words thoughtfully. Michael silently urged her to ask the right questions. “Okay, Rebecca, moving back in time a little... What happened between dinner and the alleged attack? Before all that... Did you kiss him?” Rebecca nodded silently. “So you did kiss him. Was it willingly that you kissed him?”
“Yes,” the young woman whispered.
Maggie nodded encouragingly. “So on this date, you kissed a man you found attractive. Did you allow him to touch you?”
“Yes,” she said again.
“And where did you let him touch you?”
“He, um, grabbed my breasts,” she answered, blushing again. “And he... he put his hand between my legs.”
Rance patted her hand again. “You’re doing fine,” he whispered.
Maggie nodded. “So just to clarify... You were on a date with a man you liked. You kissed him because you wanted to. You allowed him to fondle your breasts and to touch your vagina with his hand.”
Rebecca nodded, more tears rolling down her face.
“Could it be that Jean-Luc believed that you desired to have intercourse with him? After all, you kissed him, you let him put his hands on you.”
“Okay, that’s enough,” Rance said. “Do we have everything we need here?”
“I have one more matter that I’d like to explore,” Maggie answered. “Now Rebecca, in the lab work from the rape kit, along with various DNA material, there were traces of nonoxynol-9. That’s a spermicide.” Maggie looked expectantly at the young woman. “Can you think of how spermicide came to be there? Did you use some sort of birth control substance? Did Jean-Luc?”
“No. I have no idea why that was there. Maybe there was some mix-up at the lab,” she said, her steady gaze focused on the table in front of her.
Maggie smiled gently. “Alright, Rebecca. Thank you for your cooperation.” She looked to Rance. “Thanks.”
Michael wondered about Maggie’s silence on the way back to the office. “Are you okay, Mags? You’re kind of quiet.”
“That was awful,” she answered. “Everything about that was awful.”
He frowned in surprise. “What do you mean? You were great.”
“I mean,” she turned to look at him, “I feel like I just man-handled that girl.”
“What are you talking about? Just like you said, she was willing the whole way. She probably just changed her mind afterward.”
“I hate the way I feel right now,” Maggie said, shaking her head.
It was the third week of June when the trial finally began, a full two weeks later than originally planned due to scheduling issues. Joining Michael at the defense table were Maggie and Stan. He’d decided against taking Amy due to his client’s tendency to be an ass.
At first, things seemed to be going well, but it soon became clear that Jean- Luc LeRoi did not make a sympathetic defendant. He often slouched in his seat and he smirked during testimony from law enforcement. They’d decided against having him testify, but his demeanor in the courtroom garnered disapproving glances from many of the jurors.
One day after a particularly rough session of testimony, Michael called a brief meeting after court recessed for the day. “We’re missing something,” he said. “If we don’t find it, we’re going to lose this case.”
“Would that be such a tragedy?” Maggie asked quietly.
Michael glared at her. “I’ll pretend I didn’t hear that.”
“Well, as it happens,” Maggie returned, “I’m working on something.”
“Would you care to share with the class?” Michael asked icily.
She shook her head. “I’ll let you know if it pans out.”
Later that week, Maggie knocked on Michael’s door. “I think I have something,” she said.
“Please tell me you have the solution to this cluster-fuck,” he sighed.
Maggie sank into one of the black leather chairs opposite Michael’s desk. “So this spermicide thing has been bothering me. I couldn’t come up with a satisfactory answer to the question of its origin. HIPAA prevents us from gaining access to private medical records. But it doesn’t cover non-prescription items, right? So I started thinking... If Rebecca used birth control before she went to Jean-Luc’s hotel, it would show that she intended to have sex with him. And maybe she used something over-the-counter.”
Michael nodded thoughtfully. “Okay, so what did you find out?”
“I checked into pharmacies within a small radius of her apartment and her work. Then I visited them, showing her photo to the clerks working there. I got a hit on the third one I tried. The guy recognized her, said she’s there all the time.”
Michael leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers together. “And?”
“And, after a little sweet-talk, I got him to show me surveillance footage from March 9. You can clearly see Rebecca Savage enter the store, go the family planning section, browse for a few minutes, then head to the checkout with a box in her hand.” Maggie waited as that sank in.
“I then got the store manager to pull up the register tape to the corresponding time stamp. We have someone using Rebecca’s debit card to purchase contraceptive sponges. And guess what kind of spermicide is in those sponges?”
Michael nodded. “Nonoxynol-9.”
Maggie shrugged. “So... we have her in a sworn deposition saying that she did not use contraception and clear evidence that on that day, she purchased a product with the exact spermicide found in the lab results.” She sighed. “At the very least, it’s reasonable doubt.”
He gave her a radiant smile. “That’s good work, Mags. Very good work.”
“Then why don’t I feel good about it?” she asked.