“Agreed.”
“So tell me everything I need to know.”
Thirty minutes later lunch was over and I was returned to the courtroom. Cisco, back from Arizona, was standing at the railing. It looked like he had something urgent to say. I spoke to Chan as he was removing my handcuffs.
“All right if I talk to my investigator here?”
“Make it fast. The judge is ready to come out.”
I stepped over to the rail so we could speak confidentially.
“Two things,” Cisco said. “First, we lost Opparizio in Scottsdale.”
“What do you mean?” I said. “I thought your guys were going to stay with him.”
“They were. They set up on his room and were ready to go whenever he made a move but he never did. I just got a call. Housekeeping cleared his room this morning. He’s gone. His car is still there but he’s gone.”
“Damn it.”
“Sorry, Mick.”
“Something’s going on. Tell them to keep looking for him. He might come back for his car.”
“They’re on the car. They’re also trying to figure out how he got out of the room. They had cameras set up in the hallway.”
“Okay, what’s the other thing?”
“Well, you remember Herb Dahl, that sleazeball movie producer who got hooked up with Lisa Trammel back in the day?”
“What about him?”
“He’s sitting out in the hallway by the courtroom door. I think he might be here as a witness.”
I nodded. The picture was becoming clearer.
“They also brought Lisa down from Chowchilla,” I said. “She’s in holding and ready to go too.”
“They weren’t on the wit list,” Cisco said.
“Yeah, it’s an October surprise. Listen, I just thought of something. Step out and call Lorna, tell her to pull the Lisa Trammel file and bring in the letters she’s sent me over the years. Get them to Maggie ASAP. That means you might have to wait out on Spring Street for her.”
“You got it.”
“And let me know as soon as you hear something on Opparizio.”
“Will do.”
Cisco headed out of the courtroom. I got to my seat just as Deputy Chan announced that court was in session and the judge emerged from chambers. Maggie stood up as I sat down, a signal to the judge that there was business to attend to before bringing in the jury. I didn’t get a chance to tell her about Herb Dahl or the hate letters Lisa Trammel had sent me from prison. I looked over at the prosecution table and saw Berg follow Maggie in rising to her feet.
“Back on the record,” Warfield said. “Ms. McPherson, I saw you standing first. Do you wish to address the court?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Maggie said. “It has come to the defense’s attention that the state is going to introduce a witness that is not on any list the defense was given. This witness is a convicted killer who has lied under oath in the past and will do so again today if she is allowed to testify.”
“Well, this is all news to me,” Warfield said. “Ms. Berg, I see you standing as well. Do you wish to address this issue?”
“Yes, Your Honor,” Berg said.
While Berg identified Lisa Trammel as the witness and gave her argument for putting her on the stand, I tugged on Maggie’s sleeve and she bent down to hear me whisper.
“She’s got a backup witness out in the hallway,” I said. “A movie producer named Herb Dahl. Lisa and Dahl were in cahoots against me during the trial.”
Maggie just nodded, then straightened back up and refocused on Berg’s statement to the judge.
“It is pattern evidence, Your Honor,” Berg said. “Evidence of prior bad acts in terms of how the defendant treated his clients, demanding money from them and then making threats and carrying out those threats when no money was exchanged. Additionally, I have a second witness named Herbert Dahl, who has firsthand knowledge of these activities and was threatened over money by Mr. Haller as well.”
“You still have not addressed why these witnesses are suddenly appearing in my courtroom today without notice to the defense or the court,” Warfield said. “I know Ms. McPherson’s next argument — that the defense has been sandbagged by this. I think it is a very valid argument.”
Berg disagreed, saying there was no sandbagging because Trammel and Dahl were not even known to her until Saturday, when she opened a letter Trammel had sent from prison after seeing a television report about the Sam Scales case. The prosecutor offered the letter, including the postmarked envelope, to the judge for examination. She handed a copy to Maggie for us to share.
“Judge, that letter arrived on my desk last Wednesday,” Berg said. “You will see it is postmarked the day before. As you know, we were in trial last week. I had no time to go through the mail. I did that on Saturday and found the letter. I immediately contacted Detective Drucker and we drove up to Chowchilla to talk to Ms. Trammel and gauge her potential as a witness. We heard her story and believed it was something the jury should hear — if we could find a way to back it up. She had given us the name Herbert Dahl. While Ms. Trammel was being transported down here yesterday, Detective Drucker finished his testimony and then went to interview Mr. Dahl. There is no subterfuge here, no sandbagging. We brought these witnesses to the attention of the court as soon as they were determined to be truthful and important for the jury to hear.”
While Maggie pushed back, I studied the letter. It laid out a one-sided story of how badly I supposedly had treated Lisa Trammel. She blamed me for putting her in prison and leaving her penniless. She claimed that I operated on greed and the constant need for media adoration — the two qualities that I believed best described Lisa herself.
In the end, Maggie could not swing the judge. Warfield ruled that Trammel and Dahl could testify and it would be up to the jury to decide whether they were truthful and if their stories had any merit.
“However,” Warfield said, “I will grant the defense ample time to prepare for these witnesses if necessary. Ms. McPherson, how long would you need?”
“May I confer with counsel?” Maggie asked.
“Of course,” the judge said.
Maggie sat down and huddled with me.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I should have been able to stop this.”
“No worries,” I said. “You did your best. But don’t worry. The prosecution just made a big mistake.”
“Really? It seems to me that she just got her way.”
“Yes, but we can use Trammel to open the door to Opparizio. Then we destroy her on the stand.”
“So, how much time to prepare?”
“None. Let’s go right at her.”
“Are you sure?”
“I just told Cisco to get Lorna to pull the file on Lisa Trammel. I think we may be able to counter their October surprise with our own little surprise.”
“Good. Tell me more.”
46
I had heard Lisa Trammel’s voice but had not seen her in courtside holding. She was now walked into the courtroom by Deputy Chan. I saw a woman who was almost unrecognizable to me. Her hair had turned gray and was cropped short in a man’s cut. Her paper-white skin seemed to be stretched over her bones, as she looked to be half the weight of the woman I had known and defended a decade before. She wore a baggy orange jumpsuit and had a blurry blue prison tattoo — a line of stars — arching over her left eyebrow. All eyes from the jury were on this curiosity as she stood to be sworn in.
Once Trammel was seated on the witness stand, Dana Berg moved to the lectern and began to draw out her story.
“Ms. Trammel, where do you currently reside?”
“I’m at the Central California Women’s Prison in Chowchilla.”
“And how long have you been there?”