Maximum Bob Read Free

hitting a guy? What was I suppose to do? The guy was all over me.”
    The young public defender had his hand on Dale’s arm now as Gibbs asked him, “Who was, Mr. Crowe?”
    “The bouncer, as I was coming out of the bar.”
    “But I’m looking at the original charge, Mr. Crowe. Battery of a police officer, causing injury. That’s what I’m passing sentence on, your indifference to, if not utter disregard of, the law. Further, I’m gonna recommend you be sent to FSP, the Florida State Prison, where your daddy and uncle served their time. You’ll be carrying on the family tradition.”
    Kathy said, “Judge, I’d like to remind the court, the defendant was on probation only two days when he was arrested.”
    “That’s a good point,” Gibbs said. “It confirms what I’m saying. He doesn’t stop and think, does he?”
    “What I meant, he hasn’t reported to the office yet. Find out about all the conditions he has to observe.”
    Gibbs said, “That’s a violation right there, not reporting in.”
    “No, that part’s okay. He still had time.”
    “You haven’t talked to him before this?”
    She began to see where this was going and wished she hadn’t said anything. “I saw him this morning.”
    “Where, in the holding cell?”
    “Yes sir.”
    “So what is it you’re telling the court?”
    “I don’t think it’s in the interest of the state to give him all that DOC time, five years, for something he drew probation on originally.”
    “You don’t?” Gibbs said, frowning, trying to look concerned, then glancing over at his bailiff and his court clerk, his team, before looking this way again. “What would you give him?”
    Playing with her. She should never have opened her mouth.
    “It isn’t my place to say, Judge.”
    “You think Mr. Crowe’s probation should be reinstated?”
    Kathy hesitated. She wasn’t sure that would be a good idea, let him off entirely. “I just think five years—he’ll do about twenty months? That seems like a heavy sentence.”
    “I asked you what you’d give him, you haven’t told us.”
    “I would consider, well, a year and a day, if you think he should do DOC time.”
    “You’re basing this judgment on your appraisal of his character… What else?”
    “Well, his age, the offense…”
    “Having talked to him,” Gibbs said, “what, about ten minutes in the holding cell? Through bars, in all that noise and confusion? I’d be interested to know what you talked about.”
    “I told him his lawyer was right, he should plead guilty.”
    “And what did Mr. Crowe tell you ?”
    “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”
    “If you want I can put it hypothetically,” Gibbs said. “What I’m getting at, how does an offender looking at five years get a pretty little probation officer to sympathize with his plight? What does he say to get you on his side?”
    Kathy started shaking her head before Gibbs had finished. “Judge, I’m not on his side, I even told him that.”
    “He never said a word to you.”
    “Well, yes, he spoke…”
    “I won’t tell the court what I’m thinking and have it go in the record,” Gibbs said. “But if you’re curious—Ms. Baker, is it? If you’d like to know what I suspect, stop in my chambers after we’re through here. In the meantime,” Gibbs said, making a notation in the case file before looking up again, “the decision of the court stands.”
    Kathy kept watching Gibbs. The public defender was requesting Mr. Crowe be allowed time on the street, seven days to get his affairs in order. She watched Gibbs appear to think it over and finally rule okay, as long as the defendant reported to Probation on a daily basis. Now he was looking this way again, asking Kathy if she wouldn’t mind keeping an eye on her boy. She was thinking, You don’t have to smile. You don’t even have to answer. Or she could say, Who do you mean by my boy, Judge, the defendant? She heard Dale’s voice then, raised, and looked over, Dale