Chapter 1041: Small Lawyer Clas.h.i.+ng with the District Attorney
After entering the interrogation room, Luke and Selina simply stood in a corner and silently watched the others interact with Grote.
Mahoney was a capable young detective who, at the age of 26, had just been promoted to sergeant.
More importantly, he was one of the few detectives in the 15th Precinct who wasn’t corrupt, and he had a hard time at the department.
Like Foggy and Matt, he was a local who had grown up in the Clinton area, and had a different kind of affection for the place.
It was also because of this that he could maintain his bottom line and not become a corrupt police officer.
With Foggy and Mahoney working together, Grote quickly lost his composure and revealed a lot of important information.
For example, before this, he hadn’t mentioned that there had been a rumor going around the gang members that the a.s.sailant was acting alone.
Like what Luke said, the person had also attacked other gangs.
This Grote was indeed dishonest.
It made sense that the a.s.sailant wanted to kill him.
After more than ten minutes of questioning, Mahoney went out to answer a call. When he came back, he tossed Grote a prison uniform and threw him into a separate holding cell as a sort of protective custody.
Mahoney then motioned for Foggy and Luke to follow him to a corner, and he whispered, “The a.s.sistant district attorney said he’s coming over to take over the case. You…”
Luke said, “We won’t interfere.”
Mahoney looked at Foggy immediately. “Once he proposes a deal, whatever it is, you should agree; otherwise, they’ll remember it, and things won’t go smoothly for your firm after this.”
Foggy: “Got it. But what do you know about the a.s.sailant?”
Mahoney looked at Luke and Selina.
“We only learned about this case this morning. We don’t know much about the details,” Luke said with a smile.
Both Foggy and Karen had strange looks on their faces when they heard this.
Luke, however, didn’t think it was anything to be embarra.s.sed about.
He didn’t have much of a relations.h.i.+p with Mahoney, so of course, he couldn’t casually reveal important information to Mahoney.
Mahoney sighed. “Initially, the environment in the Clinton area was much better after the community reconstruction. Now that such a b.l.o.o.d.y incident has happened, I’m afraid everyone’s impression of the Clinton area is that it’s still ‘h.e.l.l’s Kitchen’.”
Everyone had nothing to say to that.
Mahoney sighed and continued, “Originally, when people hear the word ‘hero,’ they think of Batman. When they see Batman and the other ‘vigilantes’ beating up the bad guys on the news, they’re as excited as the Yankees. .h.i.tting a home run. Now… Heh, I’m afraid everyone will have some concerns about ‘heroes.’ The streets are flowing with the blood of these b*stards because of this guy. The residents don’t want another bunch of ‘copycats’.”
Foggy grimaced. “Unfortunately, the number of copycats will only increase.”
“Black Mask, Big Daddy, Hit-Girl, Smiley Face, Black Cat – how many of them are there? Although most of the copycats are just cosplayers who are a little nuts, these “vigilantes” aren’t doing anything for peace in New York right now, but are creating more security issues.” Mahoney shook his head.
At that point, he lowered his voice. “We are now divided into two factions. One faction believes that these vigilantes have helped a lot and saved the police force a lot of effort. The other faction feels that they aren’t any different from those criminals and should be arrested.”
When he said that, his enthusiasm waned.
As a police officer, if he wasn’t placing his hopes on these “vigilantes,” then he was out to arrest them. It really made him feel helpless.
At that moment, he saw two people come in, and he pursed his lips. “The people from the D.A. are here. I’ve got work to do. Foggy, you can go talk to them yourself.”
Everyone looked over and saw a man and a woman in standard work attire walking over.
The person in the lead was a Latin American woman in her forties, and a black man in his early thirties was one step behind her.
Foggy’s expression changed, and he turned back to Karen. “How do I look? There’s no problem, right?”
Karen looked him up and down and nodded. “No problem. Why are you suddenly nervous?”
“That’s Samantha Reyes, the D.A. boss.” Luke shook his head. “Foggy, you better prepare yourself. I’m afraid she’s not here to negotiate with you.”
Foggy paused in tidying himself up. “Huh?”
Luke said, “I heard that she’s ruthless at humiliating others. Also, three a.s.sistant district attorneys were replaced in two years; they were all fired after making mistakes.”
Foggy’s face fell. “I’ve heard that too, thank you very much.”
A person with this kind of reputation didn’t sound like someone who was easy to deal with, not to mention that the other party was the district attorney herself.
Even though he said that, Foggy calmed his thoughts and walked over with a smile.
…
Five minutes later, Selina held back her laughter as she whispered into Luke’s ear, “That fatty Foggy is really bold. He even dares to talk back to the district attorney? And he even called the federal prosecutor to ask about it. Haha, Reyes’s face is turning black.”
Luke nodded. “The matter’s still up in the air.”
That was true.
Foggy greeted her with a smile, but Reyes had no interest in listening to him introduce himself. After interrupting him, she instructed her a.s.sistant to take Grote away.
That was right, she had given her a.s.sistant the order, and hadn’t spoken to Foggy, as if she was certain that this small lawyer would never dare oppose her.
In the end… she was slapped in the face.
Foggy sensed that the woman was trying to bypa.s.s him and take Grote away, and immediately fought back.
He raised the legal clause that the D.A. had no right to interfere with witness protection, and threatened to bring up this violation with the federal prosecutor.
Reyes’s expression at the time was extremely interesting. Not only was her face dark, it was also full of confusion.
She didn’t expect that there really would be a lawyer rash enough to dare clash with her.
Her actions were definitely against the rules, but most junior lawyers didn’t dare clash with the D.A., or they would be tormented by the D.A.’s office until they went crazy.
American lawyers, the D.A. and the police tended to be more cooperative than confrontational with each other.
Many big lawyers weren’t just good at defense, but had a close relations.h.i.+p with both sides. They could easily do things that other lawyers couldn’t.
For example, where a small lawyer couldn’t bail someone out of custody, a big lawyer could.
Where a small lawyer couldn’t reach a plea bargain with the D.A., a big lawyer could.
With enough money, a big lawyer could easily get a client out of the police station and scot free after going through the D.A.. And, it was completely legal.
On the contrary, if a lawyer offended the D.A., he would be blacklisted by the district attorney’s office, and the lawyer would have to exhaust all his energy in every case.
Not to mention, most district attorneys had close connections with the police department. After all, one party arrested suspects while the other convicted them; it wasn’t unusual for police officers to switch to working for the D.A..
Foggy acting like this hence didn’t make sense.