Act
II Scene 8 - Justice Upheld at Anglemeyer’s Trial
The
Mays Landing court room in the Atlantic County seat of government where Anglemyer's trial took place is old, the same court room that Nucky Johnson’s father and brother
had used before him when the three served as county sheriffs
continuously for almost fifty years. That was the basis of Nucky's
power, and that of the County Executive who handled the tax money,
and the County Court room was where all of the stories eventually
played out.
No
air conditioning, it had huge wood ceiling fans and on the hottest
summer day of the year everyone was sweating and it felt and looked
like the Scopes Trial court room, except there weren’t that many
people in attendance, as the powers that be had kept the matter quiet
and out of the news. But there was Mrs. Somers and a few younger
Copper Kettle Fudge employees and Michael Sherman, the WOND AM radio
news reporter who didn’t listen to his station owner and producer
who both asked him to downplay the matter as it was bad publicity for
the shore.
The
jury was let in and the defendant sat at a table in front of the
judge next to his lawyer, who had made the deal for him to confess
and plead guilty to the crime in exchange for a reduction in time to
be served on his previous conviction and an arrangement that was not
to be made public.
Then
the Sgt. At Arms called for everyone to rise and Judge Edward Helfant
entered the room. Although Helfant was the Somers Point municipal
judge, the powers that be arranged for the regular county judge to
take a vacation and allow Helfant to sit in and run the show for him.
The
prosecutor then announced that Harry Anglemeyer was the victim of a
confidence gang that preyed on rich homosexuals to blackmail them and
they targeted Harry because of his public notoriety and ostantagious
diamond pinky ring.
The
prosecutor then called a witness, the young women who saw the
incident as she was sitting in a parked car making out with her
boyfriend.
She
took the stand and when the prosecutor described the situation she
noted that since last Labor Day she had married the guy, and smiled
at the judge and jury, holding up her ring for all to see.
When
the prosecutor asked her to describe what she saw and heard, she said
that at first heard an argument and then looked up and saw the two
men talking and one of them, a man in a black suit and tie, strike the other man who went down and hit the edge of the jagged concrete
hard. The man who hit him walked away and three other men came along
– who they call the “Good Samaratans,” who dragged him to a car
and placed him in the driver’s seat behind the wheel and closed the
door.
“Is
the man you saw strike Mr. Anglemeyer in this courtroom today,” the
prosecutor said, looking at the man at the table dressed in black
suit and tie who was prepared to plead guilty, and then at his
attorney and both smiled.
“Yes,”
she responded. “He is.”
“Would
you point him out to us please,” the prosecutor asked.
She
hesitated for a moment, looked at the judge and then at the
prosecutor squarely in the eyes, and then glanced to the back of the
courtroom and pointed to a man standing against the wall in a black suit
and tie, a plainclothes Ocean City Police officer.
The
gasps in the room were audible, and as the attorney for the defendant
leaned over and told the prosecutor that his client
was no longer going to plead guilty or testify at all, the prosecutor asked
for a temporary adjournment, but the judge called it a mistrial and
slapped the gavel down hard, dismissing the court.
Next
– Act II Scene 9 – Croce and Brenner at the Anchorage
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