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THE LAW IS A ASS for 11/09/1999
DOCKET ENTRY
"The Law is a Ass" Vigilante Special
Originally published in World Famous Comics
November 9, 1999
Ask and ye shall receive.
Usually, anyway. I mean I'm still asking for that winning Power Ball ticket.
But in this case, you asked and you're receiving. That is, when I mentioned that I had written a fill-in Vigilante story which never saw print, some of you asked me to tell you what the story was about. Nothing easier there, all I had to do was find my old plot and reprint it here.
So I found it and am reprinting it. After you've read it, I'll come back with a few extra comments. But for now read the plot and remember one thing:
I wrote this story as work for hire, even signed the contract and everything. So, while this Docket entry, and the end comments that will come later, are copyright 1999 Bob Ingersoll, the plot below is copyright 1986 DC Comics, Inc. It's all theirs, I'm just reprinting it here for non-commercial and educational purposes.
******
"The Law is a Ass"
Vigilante Special
by
Bob Ingersoll
PLOT FOR VIGILANTE STORY
"CAUGHT IN THE BALANCE"
PROLOGUE -- FOUR MONTHS AGO: ED WESOLOWSKI, a reporter for whatever the Earth-One equivalent of the New York Daily News is, and WILLIE, an orderly at St. Vincent Hospital, have a rendezvous in the theater at Radio City Music Hall. After Ed promises not reveal his source, Willie tells Ed about DR. CARLTON TRENT, one of the staff physicians at St. Vincent.
Recently, Willie was in the drug supply cabinet (he's an addict, who feeds his habit with the hospital's drug supply), when he heard someone coming in. Willie hid. Dr. Trent came in, looked around, filled a syringe, then left. Trent acted suspiciously, so Willie followed him. Trent went into a patient's room. Trent came out and kept the syringe instead of disposing of it in the trash. Minutes later the patient died of an apparent heart attack. Willie was suspicious of what he had witnessed.
Willie noted that Trent had not entered either his visit or the medication on the patient's chart. Later Willie broke into Trent's locker. He knew that Trent kept a diary. Willie read the diary and found his suspicions confirmed. Dr. Trent is secretly murdering patients and making it look like natural deaths.
END PROLOGUE -- CUT TO: THE NEW YORK CRIMINAL COURTS BUILDING TODAY. Judge ADRIAN CHASE is upset. The jury is about to announce its verdict in People v. Carlton Trent, and Adrian knows what it's going to be. Adrian is upset with the system, which has let the people down. And he is very upset with Ed Wesolowski. Ed served the people, when he broke the story about Trent. But he failed them, when he put his position as a reporter above the law or the good of society. The jury returns a not guilty verdict. Adrian snaps a pencil: the only sign of frustration that he can allow himself while on the bench.
After the jury has gone, Adrian speaks harshly with Trent. He knows Trent is guilty, he read Trent's diaries. Adrian's mad that Trent got off, and he's even more mad that he had to have a hand in Trent's getting off. But Adrian will do everything in his power to make sure that Trent loses his license and can never practice medicine again.
Later, the wife of one of Trent's victims asks defense counsel, MASON ROBERTS, how he can defend people like Trent. Roberts replies, "If you have to ask the question, you'll never understand the answer."
Trent, meanwhile, is answering the questions of the press. When asked what he intends to do now, Trent says, "Go back to work."
CUT TO: The office of DR. ANGELA HUDAK, chief of staff at St. Vincent. Trent has come to get his job back. Dr. Hudak tells him he's crazy. She's read his diaries, and he'll never work at St. Vincent, nor, hopefully, at any other hospital, again. Trent threatens to sue. Hudak says, "Fine. Sue us. Maybe you'll even win. But in the meantime, you won't set foot in this hospital." In frustration Trent pulls Hudak out of her chair and pushes her back into it. Trent leaves St. Vincent with one thought: revenge on Ed Wesolowski, the reporter who first printed the articles about him. Trent goes to Mason Roberts' office. He wants to sue St. Vincent, and he wants to sue Ed for libel. Roberts tells him he's crazy. Trent was guilty, and St. Vincent was right in firing him. And he hopes that Trent does sue Ed, because then his diaries will be made public and everyone will know about Trent. But Roberts won't help Trent sue. He represented Trent in his criminal case, because the Constitution guarantees Trent a lawyer. But the Constitution doesn't say he has to take a civil case. Enraged Trent rants, "If you won't help me get Wesolowski, fine! But he took my life from me, and I'm going to take his from him." Trent leaves. But when he gets to the reception room he looks back at Roberts through the sliding glass window. "One more thing, Roberts," he says, then punches his fist through the window, I'm not crazy!" CUT TO: Adrian riding his motorcycle during the lunch hour. His thoughts and a FLASHBACK give us a brief history of his career as the Vigilante. Adrian's problem is that he gave up costume for the robe, because he thought he could do more for justice that way. Now he's not so sure. Adrian hears a call for help and sees a purse snatching. He turns and rides after the thief without thought, instinctively, as if the Vigilante is not and never has been exorcized from his soul. Adrian catches the thief. Two police officers come up to arrest the punk. One says, "That was good work, Your Honor, but don't you think you should leave this sort of thing to us?" But that's the problem: Adrian did leave it to the police in the Trent matter, and watched what seemed to be a perfect case collapse. As Adrian thinks about the trial we FLASHBACK to the pretrial hearing on Trent's motion to suppress evidence. DETECTIVE O'DONNELL testifies that a anonymous source, who had supplied reliable information in the past and whose identity the police are keeping secret, told the police about Dr. Trent and his diaries. O'Donnell took this information to a judge and got a search warrant for Trent's apartment where he found the diaries in which Trent wrote about seven murders. In cross-examination O'Donnell testifies that he doesn't share such evidence with the press, until after a case is over. Roberts calls Dr. Hudak to the stand and she testifies. St. Vincent didn't fire Dr. Trent immediately. They felt the charges were unfounded. Later an outraged Ed Wesolowski showed Dr. Hudak copies of Trent's diaries to substantiate the charges. Ed Wesolowski testifies. At first he refuses to answer Roberts' question, "It was you who got the anonymous tip and you who took the information to the police?" Ed cites First Amendment grounds. But after Adrian orders him to answer and his paper's attorney tells him to answer, Ed admits he got the tip.
District Attorney MITCH WENZEL asks Ed, "Who was your source?" Ed refuses to answer on First Amendment grounds. Adrian tells Ed that, because the police didn't get the tip directly and because they hid that fact from the judge who issued the search warrant, the warrant is defective. Adrian will have to suppress the evidence of the diaries. If the police ever learn who the informant was, then they could get a new search warrant which won't be defective. The police would have been able to search Trent's apartment eventually, and the evidence needn't be suppressed, under the "Inevitable Discovery" rule. Ed refuses to reveal his source. Adrian says he doesn't believe the First Amendment covers this situation and holds Ed in contempt of court. Ed is to be held in jail, until he reveals his source.
Adrian grants the motion to suppress evidence. But, he will entertain a prosecution motion for reconsideration, if Ed reveals his source. Adrian sets the case for trial one month from now. Roberts objects, his client is entitled to a speedy trial and Adrian's ploy is an obvious attempt to pressure Ed into compliance. Adrian overrules the objection.
Later that day Adrian and Wenzel talk in the courthouse Nautilus and Fitness room. Adrian tells Wenzel to dismiss the case and appeal his decision to a higher court. Wenzel asks what for? Adrian is among the more conservative judges on the bench, if they couldn't convince him not to suppress the evidence, how could they ever convince the more liberal court of appeals? "We blew this one, those diaries will never come in. But they've still got a case, albeit a circumstantial one, and they're going to go forward with it. Maybe they'll get a conviction. Maybe they won't. But at least, the prosecution should so damage Trent's career, that he'll never practice again. In the balance, it's the best they can do."
ONE MONTH LATER: the trial goes badly. Ed never reveals his source, so the prosecution goes forward without the diaries. They show that in the bodies of the people mentioned in Trent's diaries, high levels of some drugs were found. But the coroner cannot rule out that the deaths were by natural causes. Nurses did see Trent going into some of the rooms, shortly before the patients died. But they saw other people going in as well. And no one saw Trent do anything. In summation Roberts tells the jury than no one can say for sure that the patients were poisoned. And even if they were, no one can say beyond a reasonable doubt that Carlton Trent poisoned them. As we know, the jury returned a not guilty verdict.
FLASHBACK ENDS with Adrian thinking that he still isn't sure if he did the right thing, when he gave up the Vigilante. Back in his chambers Adrian's bailiff, DAVE WINSTON tells Adrian that Ed is being released. Adrian has lifted the contempt order, as it no longer serves any purpose. Adrian asks what's on the schedule for tomorrow. A pretrial on HANS SCHRECK, the Central Park Vigilante. (Yes, this is a veiled Bernie Goetz reference--don't worry Mr. Schreck doesn't play a big part in this story.) Adrian tells Dave to cancel it, he's thinking of recusing himself from the case. Adrian's not sure if he isn't leaning toward Schreck's point of view and can't guarantee his objectivity.
CUT TO: Ed Wesolowski being released from city jail. His sister, BECKY, and his niece, LAURA, have come to get him. Ed is a bachelor and they are his only family. He loves them. He adores Laura, the most important thing in his life. Ed carries Laura down the steps, as they walk. She asks him if he's coming to her birthday party tomorrow. "After you delayed it for three weeks, until I got out? I wouldn't miss it."
The scene of Ed holding Laura is duplicated, but this time in the cross hairs of a telescopic rifle sight. We pull back to find Trent on the roof across the street looking at Ed through his rifle sight. "Soon," Trent thinks. "Tomorrow at your niece's party, when you're at you happiest. Then it will be time. Then I'll take your life, as you took mine."
THE NEXT MORNING IN CHAMBERS Dave asks Adrian if he's made his mind up about Schreck yet. As Adrian says no, Mason Roberts comes in. He wants to know if Ed has been released yet. Roberts tells Adrian about Trent's visit to his office yesterday, and how Trent said he would take Ed's life. "I didn't think he meant it, at first. I'm not sure if Trent knew that he meant it, when he said it. But when I thought about the look on Trent's face, as he smashed the window, I realized that he meant it." Adrian calls the newspaper to warn Ed, but is told that Ed is at Central Park at his niece's birthday party. Adrian tells Dave to call the police. Adrian is going to warn Ed in person.
Adrian rides his motorcycle to Central Park. Warning Ed isn't the only reason he's going. He feels partially responsible for Trent's being free, because he suppressed the diaries. As Adrian rides he thinks about Trent's threat. Trent said he was going to take Ed's life, as Ed took his. But Trent is alive. Ed only cost Trent his professional life, the thing most important to him. Adrian realizes that Trent isn't going to kill Ed, he's going to take the most important thing in Ed's life: Trent's going to kill Ed's niece, Laura.
CUT TO: the birthday party in Central Park. Laura is framed in the cross hairs of Trent's rifle. And Trent thinks. "Soon. Not quite yet. You're not at your happiest, yet. When your niece blows out the candles of her cake, then you'll be happiest. Then I'll shoot her, so that she falls face first and bloody into the cake." As Trent thinks these thoughts, Laura prepares to blow out the candles.
Suddenly, Adrian dives on Trent, before he can shoot. Trent and Adrian fight. But the fight ends poorly. Trent kicks Adrian off, picks up his rifle and prepares to shoot. First he'll kill Adrian, then he'll shoot the girl.
Except that a police man shoots Trent first. Adrian examines Trent's rifle. It's a ten-year- old rifle, which has had its serial numbers filed away. It's no longer traceable (Trent intended to drop it after shooting Laura), but it's no longer available in the stores either. Adrian knows that they have enough evidence to prosecute Trent for attempted murder, but they can still get more. He suggests that the police find out if Trent has access to any hunting cabins, where he might found this old gun before altering it. If Trent does, the police can get a warrant and search it for evidence about the gun. They may even find a diary talking about Trent's plan to shoot Laura. Who knows, while reading the diaries, they may even come across some mention about some other hospital murders, we didn't know about.
The police ask wouldn't double jeopardy prevent them from prosecuting Trent for these murders? Adrian explains, Trent can't be prosecuted for any murders that they knew about, the ones in the diaries already seized. But if other diaries talk about other murders, that no one knew about, when Trent went on trial, he can be prosecuted for them. That's not double jeopardy and there's no statute of limitations on murder.
BACK IN CHAMBERS AND LATER THAT DAY, Adrian talks with the police. Trent's uncle has a cabin up on Lake George. The local police got a warrant and searched it. Not only did they find the tools Trent used to alter his rifle, they also found diaries talking about his plan to kill Laura and about other murders. Perhaps Dr. Trent hasn't escaped justice at all. Adrian is gratified.
He thinks about his fight with Trent. He lost it and that almost cost both him and Laura their lives. Adrian realizes that when he first became Vigilante, he was obsessed by the death of his family, almost crazy. Back then he never questioned what he was doing; he was sure it was right. Now, however he has doubts about vigilantism. And Vigilante can't have doubts about what he is doing, doubting costs him his edge. Moreover, it was Adrian's knowledge of the law and double jeopardy which provided the state with the evidence it will use to prosecute Trent. Maybe the law isn't so hamstrung, after all. Let the others, who have super powers for their edge or who have no doubts, wear the costumes. For now, Adrian is content to wear the robe not the costume. He calls Dave. "You can schedule the Schreck pretrial. I've settled my feelings about the case."
THE END
CLOSING STATEMENTS
So, how did I come to write a Vigilante story, you ask? Simple, I asked.
There is a longer version.
As those of you who have been following these chronological reprints of my old columns know, I started writing about The Vigilante with its first issue. I wrote about how I didn't like the philosophy of the character. I wrote about how the law was wrong. And, I seemed to write about every issue.
At the same time, I had also offered my services to comic-book creators. In my second column I wrote that any creator who wanted to consult with me about a legal aspect in an upcoming story, was free to do so. I would give the consult and didn't even charge for the service.
Marv Wolfman, the writer and editor of The Vigilante was the first creator to take me up on the offer and I consulted on many a Vigilante story with him. Through the years and through the column, I've gained many friends in the industry, Marv was one of the first.
This was 1983. Two years later, Marv was no longer writing The Vigilante, although he was still editing it. During one of my phone conversations with him, I asked him if he would be interested in having me write a fill-in issue of the book. Marv was intrigued to see what kind of a story I, who was a lawyer and who had so openly criticized the book, would devise so commissioned me to write one. "Caught in the Balance" is the result.
It's a story set in the middle of the run of The Vigilante, at a time when Adrian Chase had become a judge and given up his double identity of the Vigilante. Instead Adrian's bailiff, Dave Winston had become the Vigilante. Marv scheduled the story to appear in the last issue of the book he was to edit, issue # 36, if my memory serves, and had Gene Colan draw it.
Unfortunately, Marv left the book as editor one issue earlier than he had anticipated. The new editor wanted to start a new direction for the book, one in which Dave Winston was killed and Adrian Chase resumed the role as Vigilante. And the editor wanted to start this new direction as quickly as possible. So, unfortunately, he pulled my story off the schedule, put it back into inventory and started the new direction. "Caught in the Balance" never did see print.
I think the story still holds up well, although there are some things in it which, were I to write it now, I wouldn't do. The killer's diaries being the biggest. As the saying goes, they seemed like a good idea at the time, but, upon reflection, I should have found another way; one that didn't use that particular, and not always convincing, cliché.
BOB INGERSOLL
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