I stepped forward and advanced to the witness stand. Again, I found that the chair provided would not support my weight. I set it back and sat on my haunches, being large enough to still see over the "chamber" that was around the witness stand. The bailiff was the first to approach me.
"Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth? So help you God?" the bailiff asked calmly.
"I do," I responded
Jackson Lee then approached with the obvious intent to try and frame Beauregard's arrest as some issue of my dislike of the man.
"Officer Wayne," Jackson Lee began, "you do not like the defendant, am I right?"
"No I do not," I admitted.
"May I ask why?"
"He's a racist pig who thought Molly was nothing more then a dumb animal," I growled at him, "threw away her sentience the moment he met her, because he wanted her to poach wolves for him."
"Poaching is involved?" Judge Bastion Walker asked to Isabelle Perkins.
"It is suspected, unfortunately the evidence we have is not conclusive as to whether or not he actually killed wolves outside of the hunting season," Isabelle answered.
"The witness will sustain from making accusations that can not be proved," Judge Walker said to me.
"It is what he wanted to hire Molly to do," I told him, "I was there at the interview. He wanted her to patrol his grounds and kill any wolf, mountain lion, or bear that came on his land, with the implication that she'd be able to skirt the poaching laws because they would be directly threatening his cattle."
"The fact that he neglected your wife's sentience has already been proved," Judge Walker spoke.
"Yes, sir," I nodded.
Jackson Lee returned to his questioning, "so you believe him to be a racist..."
"I KNOW him to be a racist," I corrected him.
"All the same... do you believe that this belief of yours lead you to wanting to see Beauregard arrested?" Jackson Lee asked.
"Yes, but lots..."
"So you wanted to see Beauregard arrested," Jackson Lee cut me off, "and then when you got the chance you planted the evidence you needed to arrest him..."
"I did nothing of the sort!" I protested.
"I can see no other alternative, you hated him, you wanted to see him arrested, and you were in a position of power," Jackson Lee answered, "what person wouldn't take that opportunity at the first chance he got."
"Many law officers have wanted to arrest the men they are pursuing," I growled, "that has not meant that they decide to plant evidence to support their efforts!"
"Name one!" Jackson Lee challenged.
"Melvin Purvis Junior, the man who hunted down Dillinger," I answered, "or Eliot Ness, the man who brought down Capone."
"Dillinger was never convicted and Capone was only convicted of tax evasion, and was probably a Democrat!" Jackson Lee retorted.
"That doesn't change that Dillinger was a bank robber who had had shootouts with the law, and that Capone was a murderer and bootlegger," I retorted, "and Dillinger was never convicted because he managed to escape jail before being tried... and when he was caught for the last time, he was killed resisting arrest."
"That..."
"Does the defense have any defense beyond turning known gangsters and murderers into heroes for their crimes?" Judge Bastion Walker questioned.
"No your honor... I just wanted to show that it is likely that Officer Wayne planted the evidence that the Prosecution is using," Jackson Lee admitted.
"Which has no possibility, your honor," Isabelle Perkins spoke up, "we took the liberty of asking Beauregard to sign various documents and write various sentences to have something to compare with. The handwriting in the R.A.M. Manual and on the pages was a perfect match."
Judge Walker glared at Jackson Lee.
"No further questions, your honor," Jackson Lee sighed.
"Do you wish to cross examine Officer Wayne?" Judge Walker asked Isabelle Perkins.
"After that line of questioning... no," Isabelle Perkins answered, "but I would like to call him as my next witness to describe for the court the actual arrest of Pierre Beauregard."
"Very well," Judge Walker replied, "the witness will remain on the stand."
Isabelle Perkins then came forward to ask her questions.
"Now, Officer Wayne, your chief has already told us that the gang of Pit Bulls was what lead you to Beauregard," Isabelle began, "can you explain to us the events that occurred at Beauregard's ranch on that day?"
I nodded, "we only had a search warrant when my partner Officer Frederick Barnes and I went out to the property. We couldn't arrest him unless we found something that connected Beauregard to the attack in Peoria or some other crime."
"Did he grant you access to his property?" Isabelle asked, "or was there any force required?"
"Beauregard was in one of his barns at the moment and he did grant my partner and I access to his grounds," I answered, "I had expected him to follow us... to try and tell us what we could and could not look at. He did not. Officer Barnes and I went inside and started with his office. It was there that I found the R.A.M. Manual that seemed to indicate that the attack on Peoria was part of a larger plan by Beauregard to rid Columbia Falls of myself and my wife. My partner also found receipts from transactions taken at his bank that indicated that Beauregard had taken donations that R.A.M. members had made to the organization and pocketed the money himself."
"And this is when you went to arrest him?" Isabelle asked.
"This was when the decision was made to arrest him, and Officer Barnes took the lead," I explained, "however, while we were in the house, Beauregard had recovered a shotgun from somewhere else on his property. He was waiting outside his front door. As soon as it opened, he fired, hitting Officer Barnes at relatively close range... and if he had been using buck-shot instead of bird-shot at the time, he would have died instantly... though not that Officer Barnes didn't come close to death anyway."
"What happened next?"
"He then proceeded to assault me and beat me with the barrel of his weapon, knocking me to the ground," I continued, "he claimed I had no rights as an animal and ranted about he was "king" of the region. With me flat on my back and him standing over me, I was certain he was preparing to finish me off when one of his ranch hands tackled him from behind, knocking the gun away from him. That allowed me to subdue Beauregard and get him to my car... at which point my back up arrived and I went with Officer Barnes to make sure he made it."
"Did he?" Isabelle wondered.
"He is recovering in his home as we speak," I told her.
"That is all that I have your honor," Isabelle answered, "the Prosecution rests its case."
"Does the defense wish to cross examine? Or call a new witness?" Judge Walker asked.
"No your honor," Jackson Lee spoke.
"The witness may step down," Judge Walker told me.
I then stepped down and returned to my seat in the audience. What followed were the closing arguments. Isabelle Perkins spoke briefly about this being a case of a rich man with fanatical views being duped by his own sense of power into believing that he was invincible and more powerful then he was. That this complex lead to one of the worst attacks on Law Enforcement in American history and was all spawned from the racial hatred of people victimized by a different criminal.
Jackson Lee spoke a little longer, but essentially repeated his tangential arguments that the gang misidentified who hired them and that the R.A.M. Manual was written by someone other then Beauregard for merely entertainment purposes. After listening to all the arguments, Judge Walker banged his gavel and declared the session adjourned for the day to allow the Jury to deliberate.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The night went quietly. I decided to hold off on letting Molly know what happened until after the verdict was given. Hopefully it would come as a pleasant surprise. When Officer Howard and I made our way into the courtroom the next morning, we found that there were more sketchers already at work for the various papers that were covering this trial. I shrugged it off as extra attention, and moved to my seat. At nine forty five, the jury began to file in and at ten o'clock, Judge Bastion Walker.
"Did the jury reach a decision?" Judge Walker asked directly, bringing things to business.
"We have your honor," the leading member of the Jury announced, "by a unanimous vote, we find the defendant guilty as charged on all accounts. We recommend that he receive the maximum sentence of life imprisonment and recommend the listing of R.A.M. as a hate group."
"Very well," Judge Walker answered, "those recommendations are accepted and Pierre Beauregard is to serve the rest of natural life in the closest maximum security federal prison. The United States Penitentiary Florence in Fremont County Colorado. And the records of Ranchers Against Molly are to be delivered to the Southern Poverty Law Center to join the list of official hate groups within the United States."
And with that the fight with Beauregard was over. His property was to pass to city of Columbia Falls, just as Ebenezer Smith's did. Beauregard himself was going to prison, and the organization he founded was declared to be nothing more then a hate group, serving no moral or legitimate purpose. Molly and I would get our chance for a happy ending... I hoped.