"Why, you little…"
Karp and the rest of the courtroom turned to see Big John Porter fuming in his seat. He looked like he was about to say something else, but Clyde Barnhill, who was sitting next to him, put a hand on his shoulder and whispered something. Big John closed his mouth and glared at Dalton.
"Spectators will refrain from making comments, or they will be removed from this courtroom," Allen said. "Am I understood?"
Porter nodded but continued to glare at Dalton. When Dalton was dismissed, Big John began to rise to follow him. However, Fulton saw what was happening and got up to escort the young man. The big detective hesitated at the end of the pew with his eyes on Porter, who swallowed hard and sat down.
"Is there a problem?" Judge Allen asked, looking at the two large men.
Fulton turned to the judge and shook his head. "No, sir. No problem here."
24
"The Defense calls E. Kip Huttington." attorney Karen Welt sounded nervous as she turned to look back at the table where her client, the university president, conferred with her co-counsel, Steve Zusskin.
Sitting at the defense table, Karp almost felt sorry for the young woman, who appeared to be in her early thirties and for the most part had hardly participated in either the pretrial motions hearing or the trial itself. It was obvious that Zusskin was directing traffic for the defense, and even now seemed to be instructing Huttington.
Swallowing hard and nodding to Zusskin, who kept a hand on his arm, Huttington finally rose and crossed the floor to the witness stand to be sworn in.
Karp looked at his watch. Almost one o'clock in the afternoon on Friday. He'd wrapped up the plaintiff's case by calling the former recruit, Michael Mason, to the stand for what was nearly a carbon copy of Dalton's testimony, and then a similar cross-examination by Zusskin, who'd gone through the same exercise of making Mason read from the abbreviated transcript.
Returning from the lunch break, Karp and Meyers told O'Toole that they felt they had a slight edge but not a clear-cut victory. A lot would hinge on whether the jury believed Dalton and Mason, the two lawyers agreed.
"Still, compared to what we were up against before Detective Fulton found and talked to Dalton and Mason, and we learned the truth about their interviews with Larkin," Karp said, "I'll take what we got anytime."
As Welt began by having Huttington introduce himself and wade through his version of the history regarding the O'Toole case, Karp looked again at his watch and wondered how his wife and the 221B Baker Street Irregulars were doing up in Sawtooth. If things went according to plan, she'd said she would know whether their mission would pan out by the time court was finished for the day. Until then, he couldn't expect to hear anything, as there was no cell phone reception in that part of Idaho.
There was little new or unexpected to Huttington's testimony. According to the university president, he'd only been following the rules and regulations of the ACAA when he first turned over Rufus Porter's complaint, and then when he declined O'Toole's request for a name-clearing hearing. "On the advice of counsel, we thought that any such hearing might breach our standing with the ACAA as the final arbiter of such matters," he said, and then repeated what he'd told O'Toole. "And we wanted the university-and Coach O'Toole-to move on and get this terrible business behind us."
Meyers's cross-examination of Huttington contained no fireworks either. Indeed, by the time his co-counsel finished, Karp thought the jury would think Huttington was a witness for the plaintiff. Under Meyers's questioning, Huttington's testimony was largely laudatory of Coach O'Toole. No, there'd never been a complaint lodged against the coach. Yes, the coach had one of the highest graduation rates for schools the size of Northwest Idaho, and yes, his squads had for the past two years been all-American academic teams because of their high grade point averages.
"Thank you, Mr. Huttington," Meyers said, and sat down to see if there would be a redirect.
Glancing over at the defense table, Karp noted that Zusskin was once again giving orders, only this time to Welt. She looked almost frightened as she nodded repeatedly and then stood to approach the witness stand.
"Mr. Huttington, do you like Coach O'Toole?" Welt asked.
Huttington looked at O'Toole and his mouth twisted as if he'd bitten into something sour. "I would have to say that prior to all of this that yes, I liked Coach O'Toole," he replied.
"What do you mean 'prior to all of this'; have you changed your mind?"
"Well, actually, I didn't believe he was capable of this sort of…'mistake,' is what he called it," Huttington said. "Not until the day he came to my office and said something that changed my opinion of him, which until that time was very high."
This is rehearsed, Karp thought, and whispered to Meyers, "Something's coming out of left field. I can feel it."
"And would you tell the jury, please, what it was that he said," Welt asked.
"Yes, it was quite sad, really," Huttington said, shaking his head. "It was after the news stories broke about Rufus Porter's accusations against Coach O'Toole. He called and asked if he could come see me 'as a friend.' As I said, I liked him and was anxious to help if I could, so I said sure. He showed up at my office and immediately broke down and started to cry."
Karp glanced at O'Toole, whose face was turning red. The younger man reached for a glass of water but his hands were trembling so hard that when he brought it to his lips the water sloshed out and splashed on the table.
"Steady, Coach," Karp whispered. "You're at bat, and everybody is watching. You have to shut it out, focus on the pitch."
O'Toole acknowledged that he heard by nodding. And Karp noticed that his hand was steadier when he put the glass back down.
"Did he say why he was crying?" Welt asked, and looked at the jury as if this behavior was strange indeed.
"Yes, he said he'd made a mistake," Huttington replied. He glanced at the jury, too, and then at Zusskin, before turning back to Welt. "He said that he was responsible for the party and planned it because he was anxious to get Mason and Dalton to sign. As everybody knows, he wants to get invited to the College World Series and 'needed the horses.'"
"Was there anything else he said, something to indicate that there were deficiencies on his current team?" Welt asked.
"Yes," Huttington answered. He looked at the jurors and apologized. "I'm sorry about the language here, but he said that he needed Dalton and Mason because they were white, smart, and better team players compared to the 'me-first, dumb-ass blacks' on his team."
"Did he use the term blacks?"
"No, and again my sincere apologies if this offends anyone, but the word he used was 'niggers.'"
Everybody in the courtroom seemed to inhale at once. O'Toole covered his mouth while in the back row, Len Clancy shouted, "That's a lie. He never uses that sort of language."
Judge Allen banged his gavel to restore order as Meyers jumped to his feet. "I object to all of this, Your Honor. None of this was in any deposition of Mr. Huttington by either the plaintiff or the defense."
"Is that true, Ms. Welt?" Allen asked.
"It just was brought to our attention last week," the attorney replied. "I believe Mr. Huttington had his reasons to hide the truth."
Allen turned to the witness. "Mr. Huttington, is there a reason you didn't report this before?"
Huttington shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Yes, Your Honor. As I said, I personally liked Coach O'Toole and didn't believe the accusations against him. Even when he made these admissions, I still saw him as a basically good man who made a mistake and was sincerely apologetic. I am a Christian and believe that when a man asks for forgiveness, it should be given. Also, I felt that he came to me in confidence, as a friend, and that I could not betray that trust."