“Slim” Flanagan rarely handled criminal cases. His courtroom expertise was in complex commercial disputes. But he occasionally helped out when a friend of a friend got into a scrape. As had happened to Stefano Rischelli. Slim’s old law school friend James Bentley was acquainted with the Rischelli family, particularly, one might say, with Stefano’s cousin Tina. Stefano had wanted James to take his case on, but court work was way outside James’ area of expertise, so at Tina’s behest James had got Slim involved.
Slim glanced at his watch, picked up some papers, and looked up at James, who was sitting on the other side of the desk along with Tina and her older sister Anna.
“Time to go,” he said. He didn’t want to raise the family’s hopes, so he said nothing further. But secretly he was thinking that, despite all the factors stacked against Stefano, he just might be able to win.
“Come on Tina,” Anna urged her sister, who had been staring out of the window.
“What?” asked Tina, slowly refocusing her attention on her surroundings.
“It’s time to go,” Anna reiterated Slim’s instruction slowly.
“Oh,” said Tina, and she stood up and headed for the door.
“They should have named you Adelaide,” sighed Anna.
“Why?” Tina asked.
“Because you’re always half an hour behind,” explained Anna, smiling mischievously.
Tina puzzled over the comment for a couple of seconds before remembering the difference in time zones between South Australia’s capital city and anywhere in Victoria, east of the South Australian border, such as their current location in Melbourne. Only then did it occur to her that Anna’s comment had not exactly been flattering. But before she could think of a suitable retort she was bustled out of Slim’s chambers and into the lift with the others, heading to the courtroom.
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It had all started when Stefano and a few friends had gone on a fishing and camping trip on a river in the very south west corner of the State. It had mostly been an idyllic trip, but on Stefano’s last evening there before he had to return to the city they had had an unpleasant altercation with an aggressive local. The incident hadn’t got violent, though it might have done if Stefano’s friends hadn’t held him back from reacting to the threats and taunts of their antagonist. Luckily the offensive individual drove off back towards the nearby town before the situation got out of hand.
All might have been well except that the next morning the man they had argued with was hit from behind and viciously assaulted near the local bus depot. That was unfortunate for Stefano because he had been driven into town by one of his friends to catch the bus, which linked up with the train service to Melbourne. Worse still, some people who had witnessed the assault from a distance said that, although they couldn’t positively identify Stefano, he looked very much like the attacker. Stefano had of course protested his innocence, and had insisted that there was no way that he would ever resort to a coward’s punch from behind. His family and friends believed him, but his denials weren’t enough to have the charges dropped.
Stefano and his friends had also given evidence that they had left the campsite at about 8.30 that morning and had only just made it to the depot in time for Stefano to board the bus, so he wouldn’t possibly have had any time to assault the victim. V/Line had provided security footage of the depot’s surrounds confirming that Stefano had indeed got there only very shortly before the bus departed, and appeared to have gone straight aboard. The problem was that there had been other campers at the site and some of them were adamant that they had seen the car leave while they were listening to the radio and they distinctly remembered the radio announcing the start of the 8.00 am news at that very moment. Regrettably for Stefano, they were the sort of people who police and courts always regard as reliable witnesses.
Slim had agreed to James’ request that he represent Stefano and put the case for Stefano’s proposed “not guilty” plea. However, after he had reviewed all the evidence he decided that there was no chance of getting Stefano off if Stefano and his friends persisted with their story that they hadn’t left the campsite till 8.30. If they were disbelieved on that – and Slim predicted that they would be, given the witnesses against them – they wouldn’t be believed on anything else either. And if that happened, Stefano would almost certainly be found guilty.
Slim had tried to persuade Stefano to drop that part of his story. Slim wanted to run the case solely on the grounds that the witnesses to the assault hadn’t made a proper identification of Stefano, so he should be given the benefit of the doubt. Stefano had asked whether that would guarantee that he would be acquitted. Slim couldn’t give that guarantee of course. So Stefano had steadfastly refused to retract that part of his claim, insisting that telling the truth would get him cleared.
Given the likelihood of disaster if Stefano persisted with that attitude at the trial, Slim had wondered whether it would be best to to negotiate some sort of deal on sentencing in return for pleading guilty. Slim had arranged to meet James for lunch to discuss what type of deal might be feasible. After Slim had explained the position James had agreed to try to talk Stefano into it, but he didn’t hold out much hope that Tina’s stubborn, hotheaded cousin would agree.
Conversation at the lunch had then drifted to other matters, though Slim’s mind tended to wander back to the case.
“You’ve got to be careful relying on numbers the government publishes,” James said. Slim nodded, gazing abstractedly past James.
“Like that time some years ago when the Tax Office said they’d collected an extra two billion in tax,” James continued, and Slim murmured agreement, his thoughts elsewhere.
“What they didn’t say was that they charged the tax in year one and then refunded most of it in year two,” James said. “They didn’t get to keep anywhere near two billion. Most of it was just a timing difference”.
“Yes, … what was that?” Slim demanded, suddenly attentive.
“Just a timing difference,” repeated James, looking curiously at his friend.
“Yes. Yes, of course,” Slim said. The chat continued, and Slim’s temporary attentiveness to the conversation faded away.
************************************
The prosecution ran through its evidence remorselessly. There were witnesses who had seen Stefano’s loss of self control in the confrontation with the victim. Other witnesses confirmed that Stefano looked a lot like the person they saw committing the assault. Then came the campers who had heard the 8.00 am news announced just as they saw the car leave taking Stefano into town. The last of those witnesses in particular was clear and definite in his recollection. He came across as someone careful to be truthful, and clearly had no reason to say anything that wasn’t accurate. He was just the sort of witness that it was hopeless to try to discredit. At the conclusion of his testimony the judge asked Slim whether he wanted to cross examine. Slim stepped up.
“What radio station were you listening to?” he asked.
Slightly dumbfounded, the witness said “I dunno. We just had an old set with us, and we turned the dial till we tuned into a station.”
If the witness had been surprised by Slim’s question, everyone in court was flabbergasted by his next move.
“No further questions your Honour,” he informed the judge.
“What’s he doing?” Tina whispered to James in alarm. James had to whisper back that he had no idea.
The judge was clearly as baffled as anyone else. She asked the prosecutor whether he wanted to re-examine the witness. The prosecutor, after looking across at Slim suspiciously, declined.
Slim then started the defence. He took Stefano and each of his friends through their testimony and, to James’ surprise, made no attempt to downplay their claim that they had left the campsite at 8.30. While they were being cross examined by the prosecutor he made a few minor objections, but mostly seemed content to let them speak for themselves and stubbornly stick to their story.
“Anything else?” asked the judge when the last of Stefano’s friends stepped out of the witness box.
“Just one more witness your Honour,” Slim replied.
“Who’s this? Tina whispered to James, who had to admit that, once again, he had no idea. James then turned his attention back to the proceedings. The witness had been sworn in and Slim had taken her through the formalities.
“How long have you lived in the town?” Slim asked.
“Most of my life. Well over thirty years.”
“Do you listen to the radio much?”
“Yes, quite a lot.”
“Do you ever tune into a Mount Gambier radio station?”
“Yes, sometimes. 5MG.”
“So it’s possible for people in the district to tune into and hear that station?”
“Yes.”
“Including, say, the 8.00 am news?”
“Yes.”
After that it was plain sailing. The most dangerous part of Stefano’s evidence was suddenly the strongest point in his favour. The judge didn’t require evidence that Mount Gambier was across the border in South Australia, or that because of the time zone difference the 8.00 am news in South Australia would start at 8.30 in Victoria. No witness needed to be disbelieved. The campers might have been listening to an announcement that it was 8.00 am in South Australia while Stefano was leaving the campsite at 8.30 am Victorian time. Stefano’s story was perfectly plausible, the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt, and he was found not guilty.
At the subsequent celebrations, amidst all the congratulations and thanks he was being showered with, Slim was asked how he had come up with the winning strategy.
“It was something James said to me, actually,” he said.
“I knew we’d be all right once you were helping,” Tina exclaimed joyfully, flinging her arms round James’ neck.
James started to disclaim responsibility, but Slim interrupted him, grinning.
“James, there’ll be plenty of times in your life when you get criticized unfairly. When you get some credit for a change, just take it.”