Page 68 of The Note

“It’s my first appearance in this courtroom, Your Honor.”

“From the city?” he asked.

“Yes, sir, but that’s not my client’s fault.”

She was relieved when he snickered. “Touché. Now, Mr. Nunzio, I’ve seen you lurking over there and now you have a file open in front of you. Have I finally solved the mystery of what brings you to my courtroom today?”

“Yes, Your Honor.”

“Well, let’s do the easy part first. Will the defendant please rise?”

The judge read the two charges aloud and asked if Kelsey was prepared to enter a plea. Without coaching, she said clearly and confidently, “Not guilty.”

“Typically on a misdemeanor, no convictions that I see here, I’d order the defendant released on her own recognizance, but let me take another guess, that’s why you’re here, Mr. Nunzio?”

“That’s correct, Your Honor. The allegations here arise from the defendant’s false statements to East Hampton detective Carter Decker during an ongoing homicide investigation.” Nunzio didn’t name the murder victim, but murders in East Hampton were almost nonexistent. It was obvious which case they were dealing with. “And the defendant was well aware of the severity of the investigation, because her lawyer—Ms. Hanover, in fact—interrupted Detective Decker’s conversation with the defendant to notify her that it was likely a homicide investigation. Our investigation has revealed connections between the defendant and the victim that the defendant went to great lengths to conceal, hence her deception in her conversations with Detective Decker.”

Judge Knoll leaned back in his chair, peering down at Kelsey, as if he was trying to imagine her being responsible for a man getting killed.

May half stood from her chair. “If I may, Your Honor?”

“Yes, May, you may. I’m sorry, I couldn’t resist. Please proceed, Counselor.”

“Just to correct the record, whatever encounter Detective Decker was having with my client terminated at the same moment I intervened for the purpose of facilitating her right to counsel. Therefore, anything I said could not possibly be relevant to Ms. Ellis’s state of mind during any interactions she had with law enforcement.”

“Point taken,” he said. “So what exactly are you requesting, Mr. Nunzio?”

The prosecutor wasted no time laying out the facts in the state’s favor. Kelsey’s lack of ties to the region. Her access to a prominent father’s resources. Her potential involvement in a very serious offense triggering a possible life sentence.

The judge finally cut him off. “I don’t like where this is going. Let me hear from our newcomer, okay? Ms. Hanover?”

May rose to her feet, ignoring the pain of the blister forming at her right heel. “Mr. Nunzio sounds like he’s at a murder arraignment asking for preventative detention. This is a misdemeanor case in a state that reserves even a cash bail requirement for the most serious of charges, and these aren’t that. If the prosecution believes it has probable cause to hold my client over on the kinds of allegations he’s bandying about without evidence—and he surely does not have it,because it does not exist—then let him file a superseding charging instrument and put that to the test. Short of that, it sounds like he is using these threadbare charges and your courtroom as a pretext to obtain presumptive detention without demonstrating probable cause, which is patently unconstitutional.”

Knoll was nodding along as she spoke. “Wow, okay. Not the usual discourse of a misdemeanor arraignment. I’m having flashbacks to my 1L year. You’d be a good professor.”

“I actually am. Well, a professor, Your Honor. I’d leave it to my students to say if I’m any good.”

Another chuckle. “You’d make my job here a lot easier, Ms. Hanover, if you could stipulate to some assurance that your client’s not going to leave the state while this investigation is pending.”

“That’s not a requirement of pre-trial release on a misdemeanor, Your Honor. She lives in Massachusetts but will most certainly return for all court appearances.”

“Take off your law professor hat, Ms. Hanover, and listen carefully again to what I said. You’d make my job here easier if your client weren’t running straight back to Massachusetts.”

“Yes, Your Honor, I understand.” May had almost forgotten that formal law was not how law actually worked in the real world. This judge would have to stretch the law to creative places to detain Kelsey, but May had researched it long enoughto know it was technically possible. Whether this town justice was quick enough to figure it out remained to be seen. But what mattered is that he did not want to be the judge who ROR’d a murderer only to see her jet off to a private island. “She has a brother who lives in New York City,” May said. “She could remain there for now with the possibility of revisiting this issue more completely at her next appearance.”

Kelsey tugged at the edge of her blazer. May leaned down to hear her.

“Not at Nate’s,” Kelsey said. “Plus, his place is in Jersey City. I can get a hotel.”

“I stand corrected, Your Honor,” May said. “He’s located in Jersey City.” She knew that the solution the judge was looking for had to be more reassuring than a well-resourced defendant on her own in a hotel room.

May was about to present her own suggestion when a voice suddenly boomed behind her. “Judge, I’m Kelsey’s father. I’m more than happy to put up whatever bail would put your concerns at ease.”

As the judge squinted toward the source of the courtroom outburst, Nunzio rose to his feet again. “Your Honor, I think this encapsulates the validity of the state’s concerns.”

“Indeed,” Knoll agreed. “That was quite the grand gesture, sir, but I suggest you take a seat, and I suspect your daughter’s lawyer wouldrequest the same. The issue at hand is whether I trust this woman to come back to this courthouse for her trial. Bail is not a panacea. It is about securing the defendant’s presence, not about buying one’s freedom to do as they wish—perhaps even fleeing the country to avoid future law enforcement encounters.”

May took a deep breath, ready to go all in. “Your Honor, as a member of the bar, I assure this court that I will personally ensure Ms. Ellis’s presence at trial. I understand the gravity of this situation and have full faith in my client’s commitment to the legal process.”

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