May hadn’t worn heels—like, actual, real, non-wedge, non-platform, expected-to-stand-on-the-balls-of-your-toes high heels since March 13, 2020. Her toes were scrunched at the front of her shoes as she clomped, Lauren at her side, toward the criminal arraignments courtroom of the East Hampton Town justice center. She was counting down the steps before she’d get to sit down when she spotted a man, familiar but so much older than she remembered, as they turned the hallway corner.
“Finally.” William Ellis had lost his physically imposing frame, but still carried himself like a man in power, wearing a perfectly tailored suit and Ferragamo tie, hands on hips, waiting for someone to yell at. “What is happening? Nate hasn’t been returning my calls. I chased down your number from a friend,” he said, looking directly at Lauren, “and have left a million messages. And I left messages for you at the law school. Suzanne Kim told me that she couldn’t reach you either. I got up at four in the morning to make it down here. Does my daughter have a fucking lawyer or not?”
May took a deep breath. She knew Kelsey’s father wouldn’t be happy about her handling this court hearing, which is why they’d decided not to tell him, but she didn’t predict that he’d drive down in person. Now that he was here, his presence seemed inevitable. His perfect baby girl’s freedom was at stake, and—if their theory was right—perhaps his, too. What else could be more important?
“Mr. Ellis—Bill—I understand your concern.” May placed a reassuring hand on one of his adamant elbows, and he at least dropped his hands to his sides. It was possibly the second time in her life that she had touched a murderer, the first being a defendant who made it a condition of his guilty plea that she look him in the eye and shake his hand. “I couldn’t call you because I was preparing for the hearing and also driving here, but I assure you, I’ve got this. Nate is here, too. He’s parking the car. But you causing a scene would be the worst possible situation for your daughter, and the judge will be calling the case at any minute. I need you to calm down before we go into the courtroom, okay?”
Ellis’s eyes narrowed, but he followed her lead, taking a seat next to them in the third row, his displeasure still etched across his face. A young female lawyer probably a year out of law school was at the prosecution table, a stack of files in front of her. May recognized the more senior attorney next to her as Mike Nunzio, the Suffolk County DA’s Office go-to ADA for major trials.
A couple of years before she left the DA’s Office, May had coordinated trial strategy with Nunzio for a defendant who’d kidnapped his ex-wife in Manhattan and then taken her to his house in Babylon. Nunzio’s attendance at a misdemeanor arraignment in a town court only confirmed that this hearing was the beginning of what they expected to lead to a murder charge.
While William Ellis had been bombing May’s phone all morning, the man whose voice she wanted to hear still had her on mute. She’d called Josh twice, but he had responded with terse texts, saying he was tied up in meetings and wishing her luck with the hearing. She could accept that he was mad at her in the moment, but this felt bigger. Not anger, but disappointment. Worse yet—disillusionment.
His feelings mattered to her. Of course they did. She cared. She loved him. But she was also angry. What was a marriage if she wasn’t allowed to make choices he might not agree with?
She turned her head at the sound of Nate’s approaching footsteps echoing in the nearly empty room. She and Lauren scooted down to make room for him, but Kelsey’s father remained planted in place. May noticed William Ellis’s lips purse when Nate took a seat in the row behind them.
After arraigning two other defendants on charges of domestic assault and reckless driving, the court clerk called the next case, his voice reverberating in the cavernous space. “People versus Kelsey Ellis.”
Only as May stepped toward the defense counsel table did she realize that the lone person sitting in the front row was Detective Carter Decker. They exchanged a glance before she took her seat. There was a time when May could have handled something as simple as an arraignment and detention hearing after downing two martinis. But it had been well over three years since she’d physically appeared in a courtroom, and almost a year and a half since her last virtual hearing. She kept mentally replaying the words she’d been rehearsing since last night. She couldn’t mess this up.
She felt the weight of the situation all over again as she saw Kelsey being walked in by the correctional officers. Kelsey—hilarious, irreverent, shining, beautiful Kelsey—was haggard and disheveled in yesterday’s clothes, a stark reminder of the night spent in custody. Her eyes searched the courtroom and a glint of her usual spark appeared as they landed on Lauren, her brother, and her father. When she saw May at counsel’s table, her lips parted with a gasp of gratitude. May fought back the urge to break into tears.
As soon as Kelsey’s handcuffs were removed, she turned to give May a hug, but May shook her head subtly. This wasn’t the time.
“Your Honor, May Hanover, appearing for Kelsey Ellis.”
“I’m not familiar with you, Ms. Hanover.” May had looked up the two East Hampton town justices and recognized this one as Dennis Knoll, described in his online bio as “a lifetime East Ender.” He’d had a brief stint as a prosecutor for Suffolk County, followed by fifteen years as a solo practitioner before being elected to the bench.
“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 enough to 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 would request 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.”
“And how precisely would you assure her presence?” he asked.
“She will stay with me, in New York City.”
The judge squinted at May with curiosity. If nothing else, she had surprised him.
“Mr. Nunzio?”
“I have to be honest, Your Honor. I have no idea what Ms. Hanover is even suggesting.”
“Seems fairly clear to me,” Knoll said. “Do you know her, by the way? Do you know Ms. Hanover as a lawyer?”
“Yes, Your Honor. We worked together on a matter when she was an assistant district attorney for the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.”
“And did she handle that matter responsibly?”
“Yes, but that was more than three years ago, and I’ve heard things since then that—”
Knoll held up a hand. “I don’t like the direction you were about to take, Counselor. I’m not interested in what things you may have heard.” His gaze shifted toward Detective Decker, his piercing eyes searching for insight. “Detective Decker, you were the one whose interview was interrupted by Ms. Hanover. Given that interaction, do you have any reason why I should question her good faith? Was there any indication she was attempting to hinder your investigation?”
If Carter noticed Nunzio’s glare, he ignored it as he rose to his feet. “I have no reason to question Ms. Hanover’s representations. While my initial encounter with her client was interrupted, I do not believe it compromises her dedication to upholding her responsibilities as an officer of the court.”
It was a perfect answer.
“So ordered,” the judge announced with a tap of his gavel. “My clerk will figure out a way to write it up. Ms. Ellis, I strongly advise you not to burn your attorney for sticking her neck out for you.”
“Absolutely not, Your Honor.” Kelsey couldn’t help herself and flung her arms around May’s shoulders with the best kind of Kelsey hug.
May glanced back at Kelsey’s father, whose stony expression radiated dissatisfaction. She felt a sense of vindication that both the prosecutor and judge had scolded him for trying to take over the court proceedings. The schadenfreude was satisfying, but more importantly, she hoped his outburst proved to Carter Decker that William Ellis was the kind of man who was used to getting his way and would go to extraordinary lengths to protect his daughter.
As Ellis walked toward the courtroom exit, he did not say a word to either Lauren or Nate. Decker gave a slight nod in May’s direction before following him out the door.