“What are you saying, Mr. Haller?” she asked.
“I’m saying we were running a test,” I said. “Ms. Aronson recorded the call and that recording is available to the court right now.”
The air momentarily went out of the room while Berg recalculated.
“Your Honor, I am going to object to any playing of a tape,” she said. “There is no way to validate its legitimacy.”
“I disagree, Judge,” I said. “The tape begins with the jail system’s collect call announcement, and more importantly, you will hear the exact words and story Ms. Berg just revealed to the court. Now, if I were to make a phony tape, how would I know exactly what she was going to say in court?”
Warfield registered that for a few moments before responding.
“Let’s hear the tape,” she said.
“Your Honor,” Berg said, panic creeping into her voice, “the People ob—”
“Objection overruled,” Warfield said. “I said, let’s hear the tape.”
Jennifer came forward with her cell phone, placed it on the lectern, and bent the stem microphone down to it before pushing the play button on the recording app.
Without my instruction Jennifer had been smart enough to record the call from the start, including the electronic voice saying she was receiving a collect call from the L.A. County jail. After the call was over, she had also added her own tag, announcing that the call had been a test to see if L.A. County authorities were violating my privilege rights.
The call was convincing. I wanted to see Berg’s reaction but could not pull my eyes away from the judge. Her face seemed to grow darker as she heard the parts of the conversation that Berg had said came from an informant.
When the tape ended with Jennifer’s tag, I asked the judge if she wished to hear it again. She said no, then took a moment to compose herself and her verbal response. As a former defense attorney, she had probably always had reason to be suspicious about the monitoring of calls from jailed clients to their lawyers.
“May I address the court?” Berg said. “I did not listen to that call. What I represented to the court earlier was the truth as it was told to me. The sheriff’s jail intelligence unit provided a report that gave me the information and said it came from an informant. I did not knowingly lie to or mislead the court.”
“Whether or not I believe you doesn’t matter,” Warfield said. “A serious intrusion upon the rights of this defendant has occurred, and there are consequences for that. There will be an investigation, and the truth will come out. In the meantime, I’m ready to rule on the defense motion on bail. Any other argument, Ms. Berg?”
“No, Your Honor,” Berg said.
“I didn’t think so,” the judge said.
“May I be heard, Your Honor?” I asked.
“There is no need, Mr. Haller. No need.”
12
A small group of friends, colleagues, and loved ones were there to greet me when I stepped through the inmate release door at Twin Towers. They erupted in cheers and applause as I came through. The media was there too, and they filmed me as I went down the line, hugging and hand shaking. It was embarrassing but felt good at the same time. I was breathing free air again and wanted to revel in it. One of my Lincolns was there at the curb, ready to go — obviously not the one Sam Scales had been murdered in.
Harry Bosch and Andre La Cosse were last in the well-wishers line. I thanked them both for being willing to stand up for me and put up their money as well.
“We got off cheap,” Bosch said.
“You played that perfectly in court,” La Cosse added. “As usual.”
“Well,” I said. “Twenty-five K apiece is still a lot of money in my book, and I will pay you guys back sooner than you think.”
Both men had generously agreed to put up as much as $200,000 each to pay for a 10 percent bond. But Judge Warfield was so enraged by the obvious eavesdropping on my jail calls that she dropped bail from $5 million to $500,000 as punishment for the wrongdoing. Unfortunately, she also ordered me to wear an ankle monitor, but this did not dampen the news that my two sponsors only had to put up a fraction of what they had offered.
It was a good day all around. I was free.
I took Andre aside for a private moment.
“Andre, you didn’t need to do this, man,” I said. “I mean, Harry’s my brother. There’s blood there, but you’re a client, and I hate like hell taking any of the money you earned with your own blood.”
“Yes, I did,” he said. “I had to do it. I wanted to do it.”
I nodded my thanks again and shook his hand. As I did so, Fernando Valenzuela walked up. He had missed the cheering section.
“So, don’t burn me on this, Haller,” he said.
“Val, my man,” I said.
We bumped fists.
“When I first heard that shit in court about Mexico, I thought, What the fuck?” Valenzuela said. “But then, man, you had it wired. Good show.”
“Ain’t no show, Val,” I said. “I had to get out.”
“And now you are. I’ll be monitoring you.”
“I’m sure you will.”
Valenzuela moved off and the others crowded around me again. I looked for Maggie but didn’t see her. Lorna asked what I wanted to do.
“Meet with the team? Be by yourself? What?” she asked.
“You know what I want?” I said. “I want to get in that Lincoln, open all the windows, and just drive out to the beach.”
“Can I go?” Hayley asked.
“Me too?” Kendall added.
“Of course,” I said. “Who’s got the keys?”
Lorna put the keys into my hand. Then she handed me a phone.
“The police still have yours,” she said. “But we think we have all your contacts and email on this.”
“Perfect,” I said.
Then I leaned down and whispered to her.
“Let’s get the team together later,” I said. “Call Christian at Dan Tana’s and see if we can get in. I’ve been eating baloney for six weeks. Tonight I want steak.”
“You got it,” Lorna said.
“And ask Harry to come,” I added. “Maybe he’s had a chance to look at the discovery file and will have something to say.”
“Will do.”
“One other thing: Did you talk to Maggie in court? She kind of disappeared, and I’m wondering if she’s pissed off at us for bringing her there as a character witness.”
“No, she’s not mad. Once the judge said she didn’t need any testimonials, she told me she had to get back to work. But she was there for you.”
I nodded. It was good to know.
I unlocked the Lincoln with the remote and walked around to the driver’s side.
“Fall in, ladies,” I said.
Kendall gave up the front seat to Hayley and took the back. That was nice of her and I smiled at her in the rearview.
“Eyes on the road, Dad,” Hayley said.
“Right,” I said.
We pulled away from the curb. I worked my way down to the 10 freeway and headed west. At that point it was time to put up the windows so we could hear one another talk.
“How do you feel?” Kendall asked.
“Pretty good for a guy still charged with murder,” I said.
“But you’re going to win, right, Dad?” Hayley asked urgently.
“Don’t worry, Hay, I’m going to win,” I said. “And that’s when I’ll go from feeling pretty good to feeling pretty great. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said.
We rode in silence for a few moments.
“Can I ask a dumb question?” Kendall said.
“There are no dumb questions when it comes to the law,” I said. “Only dumb answers.”
“What happens next?” she said. “Now that you’re out on bail, will the trial get delayed?”