Sun in our neck of the woods, Carla’s spirits are lifted up.  The Temperature isn’t too bad either, just a nice Fall day, today.

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This suspect was much more intelligent than the one from Chicago, but in many ways they were alike.  Both men were polite and honest.  They were both respectful to me and the other officer, but they were both breaking the law and had to be arrested, especially since these are felonies.

I had pretty well forgotten this case.  It had happened in the summer, can’t remember the date, and once I made an arrest, unless there was a good reason to follow it through the courts I didn’t.  And since this one was from New York there wasn’t any reason to see how it was going.

Then, in late November, I received a phone call from the Prosecuting Attorney of Albany County, Albany, New York.

He went over what I had done and then asked me to come back to Albany and testify since the man was pleading not guilty.

I received the subpoena and plane ticket in the mail.  I was to leave Portland on November 30 and testify in a pretrial hearing on a motion to suppress the evidence I had gathered in The Dalles.

As I was talking with other officers in the department, we decided that I would dress like McCloud, a popular TV series starring Dennis Weaver as a Marshal from New Mexico assigned to a New York precinct.

I had the sheep skin lined jacket, Carla had made all my suits and they were in the western style, I had cowboy boots I wore daily but didn’t have a hat.  One of the guys would let me borrow his, but I decided to get one of my own.  One of them offered to lend me a .44 mag (what McCloud carried) but I thought that was a bit much.

I caught the plane in Portland; I had a short lay over and switched planes in Chicago.  The flight to Chicago had many empty seats.  As it happened, the FBI agent assigned to our area was also flying to Chicago, so we sat together with the middle seat empty.

While I was going from one terminal to another at Chicago, I passed a Chicago PD sergeant with six officers; all of them were well over 6 feet tall, with very serious looks on their faces.

I didn’t have time, but I sure wanted to follow them and see where they were heading and why.

The plane to Albany was full, my seat was the center; not the most comfortable seat in the plane.

I talked with my co-passengers and when asked why I was going to Albany, I told them.  While they didn’t know about the case they did have friends in the prosecutor’s office; it made the flight a bit shorter and more comfortable.

We unloaded at the tarmac, and after I got my suitcase I hopped a taxi.  While I was waiting a couple of young guys were looking me over, one of them, sneering, asked me if I thought I was a cowboy – I said, yep, a real one.  They moved on.

The taxi cab driver was a real fan of the Portland basketball team, the Trail Blazers.  They had won it all the year before; so we had a good discussion on the way to the hotel.

The next morning I called the Prosecuting Attorney’s office and talked with the PA.  He told me to come on in and he would show me around the city.

December 1 and the temperature was zero.  Snow on the ground, I thought about our DA’s comment about how pretty the area was in the Fall – all I saw was fog and icy streets.  I wasn’t planning on hanging around after the trial.

I caught a cab to his office.  He then took me around, showing me the different sights. 

It was an interesting conversation.  He told me about the time he was riding with a State Trooper when they picked up a suspect on a murder charge.

He said they took the suspect back to the barracks and interrogated him.  He watched from behind a two way mirror and the suspect admitted his role in the murder.

He said the crime and arrest took place in an adjoining county.  The defense attorney alleged that the troopers had beaten the suspect into confessing.

He said, sometimes you have to get a little rough on these guys, but the Troopers never laid a hand on him; and he told the county’s PA that.  I could not imagine our District Attorney, or any Oregon District Attorney saying that, ‘twas a bit of a surprise.

He also said that he was prosecuting two officers who had been roughing up prisoners.  He said that the pattern was if they picked up a suspect a second time the suspect always seemed to resist arrest and wound up in the hospital.

He did say that it was unusual for the officers in his county to do that.

I am just a country cop; I had never seen these kinds of tactics among my peers.  Made me glad I was from Oregon and worked with honest, straight forward officers.

After lunch we went back to the office and he introduced me to the Deputy PA who was handling the case I was therefore.  He thanked me for coming and left us together.

The Deputy told me that they were surprised that the man was pleading not guilty, he had been sitting in jail all this time and his prison time wouldn’t be that much longer.

He said that there was a college in Albany that graduated a number of attorneys and many of them stayed in the area and worked for the ACLU.  They could be aggressive with their cross examination.

I took the stand.  The prisoner was brought in, I looked at him and nodded, he nodded back with a smile and then frowned and looked down, he was a bit surprised to see me there.

After testifying on the whole scene, including picking up the stolen items, I was turned over to the defense attorney. 

As he asked questions, one of which was, sarcastically asked, “Do you know everybody in your town?”  I said no, but he was out of place and since neither of us had seen him before I checked him out.

I was reminded of the class on testifying back at the academy.  He indeed was aggressive and condescending.

After a few questions, almost every question from him was objected to by the Deputy.  It got to the point that he would stand to object and the judge hit his gavel and said sustained without even listening to the objection.

The defense attorney became very frustrated.  He finally rested his case.  The judge asked me a couple of questions and then said he would be ruling on the case later that afternoon.

I headed back to the hotel.  I had barely gotten there when I got a phone call.  The judge was allowing the evidence and the suspect was pleading guilty, so I would not be needed.

I took a taxi to the airport and headed home the next morning.

Just wish it could have been in the fall, I think I would have rented a car and driven around the country side for a day or two; but the zero degree weather and snow/icy roads made me decide to come back some other time.

I do have to say it was a real education in many ways.          

Copyright November 12, 2017 Art Labrousse

Later, Art (-: