When Seth arrived at the courthouse, he was nervous, and his nervousness quickly turned into fear of the unknown, and fear that today he could have his freedom taken away.
He knew he was innocent, but if the cards were stacked against him, his life would end. Seth was a business owner. He was making good money. What about the future? Would he be able to just pick up the pieces and continue his business? If not, who would hire him with a record like that hanging over his head?
And relationships? Forget it. Nobody would date a man who was accused of being a paedophile, even if he was found innocent. Seth tried not to over-think anything and just let the evidence—or lack thereof—speak for itself.
He entered the packed courtroom, led by a security guard to his seat at the table. The room was ear-piercingly noisy as everyone impatiently awaited the judge.
The judge’s office door slowly opened. “All rise for the Honourable Judge Arthur Vines!” the bailiff stated loudly.
The courtroom quickly fell silent, and everyone rose as the judge took a seat.
“You may all be seated!” The judge shot a quick, stern look at the Hyssops.
“Before we begin this trial, I want to make one thing very clear. As a judge, it’s not my job to predetermine anyone’s innocence or guilt. I do, however, tend to side in favour of the party who offers the strongest, most reliable evidence. As a judge, it’s my job to make the best decision in pursuit of justice. Now, having said that, lets begin.”
The judge slammed his gavel. “Two weeks ago I asked for a re-examination of the evidence and a search of the Hyssop residence. Did we find anything?”
Mr. Durocher quickly got to his feet. “Your Honour, ladies and gentlemen, good morning. In the past two weeks our teams in the field and in the lab have been working tirelessly around the clock. And what they were looking for was to prove my client’s innocence.”
Mr. Durocher scanned the jurors. “With the new evidence I will present, I know the right decision will be made.”
He paced the floor. “My client, Mr. Zimmer, has been accused of sexual misconduct in the first degree. But thankfully, because of a thorough, second glance of all evidence, these charges should be dropped.”
When Seth heard his lawyer tell the room he was innocent, he was ready to sigh in relief, but he stopped himself as he wanted to hear the new findings.
“The boys in the lab took all Seth’s SD cards from his photography camera and recovered all of the deleted photos and videos.” Mr. Durocher placed his hands behind his back. “Absolutely nothing of a sexual nature or any type of illegal activity was found. Then, the boys took his video camera and recovered thousands of hours of film footage from the hard disk drive, and again, nothing of a pornographic nature or any illegal activity was found.
“The lab then went on to Seth’s computer files and hard drive, recovering deleted photos, videos, audio clips and website addresses.” Mr. Durocher swiftly turned and looked at Seth. “And what the lab found was shocking. What they found was not only shocking but amazing!”
Seth didn’t quite know how to interpret the news thus far. He knew he had nothing to worry about, but he worried anyway.
“What the lab came up with was, well—nothing! Everything from Seth’s SD cards, hard disk drive and computer hard drive was clean. There was absolutely nothing, not a shred or trace of any kind of pornography or the Hyssop children.”
The judge thought for a moment. “What about the photos of the Hyssop children?”
Mr. Durocher looked at the judge. “Interesting question, Your Honour. The first place the investigators went was to the Zimmer home, and I will now confirm what Mrs. Zimmer explained to the court two weeks ago.”
He cleared his throat. “Seth’s bedroom does indeed have white walls, faded and dirty from age. And his bed is queen size, not a single as depicted in the photos.”
The two projection screens slowly descend.
“If everyone would take a look at the screens, in a moment we’ll show you the photos again.”
The projectors switched on and the two images slowly appeared.
Mr. Durocher continued. “My client, the defendant, Seth Zimmer, is being accused of child pornography,” Mr. Durocher pointed at the screens. “These photos cannot be found anywhere. Not on any hard drive or SD card or memory stick owned by my client. Ladies and gentlemen, please carefully study these photos.”
He stepped out of the way of the screens. After an ample amount of time, he continued. “Notice anything different or out of place? Well, I don’t know about you, but the powder blue walls sure stick out like a sore thumb, unless I’m colour blind. And look at the size of the bed—clearly a single bed.”
The room again fills with noise, and the judge slammed his gavel. “Order! Let’s simmer down, please!” The room immediately quieted. “And what of the findings from the Hyssop residence?”
“I was just coming to that, Your Honour.” Mr. Durocher took a deep breath. “Not only did the investigators find piles of illegal weapons and drugs in the Hyssop home, but upon sweeping their digital cameras and computers, they found more than 50 unaltered naked photos of the Hyssop children.”
The room exploded with talk. The judge raised an eyebrow as he stared sternly and disgustedly at the Hyssop parents.
Mr. Durocher continued. “With all this new and compelling evidence brought to light, I think it pretty much speaks for itself. I respectfully request all charges against Mr. Seth Zimmer be dismissed. Thank you, Your Honour.” He walked over to Seth and took a seat.
Seth stared at Durocher for a moment and finally leaned in. “That’s it?”
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t know, but aren’t you missing a bunch of words?”
“No, we have them exactly where we want them. Please don’t worry.”
The judge was quiet.
Mr. Petrillo slowly rose to his feet. “Excuse me, Your Honour.”
The judge looked down at the Hyssops’ lawyer.
“You haven’t allowed me to speak yet.”
“That is correct, Mr. Petrillo. I believe the jury has heard enough to make a final decision. We will now recess until a verdict has been reached.” The judge slammed down his gavel.
“All dismissed until further notice,” the bailiff said.
A security guard took Seth to a little holding room in the back of the courthouse. Seth sat at the edge of a little bed staring at a clock on the wall.
The time seemed to be slowly ticking away, and it drove Seth nuts. He thought things would probably be all right now, as things looked to be stacking nicely in favour of his innocence.
His lawyer would occasionally come in to try and raise his spirits. But then again, life has a sneaky and conniving way of throwing you curve balls. So he wouldn’t be surprised if the final verdict was guilty. Around the two- hour mark, there was a soft knock on the door.
“Mr. Zimmer?” The security guard entered the room. “The verdict is in.”
As Seth made his way back to the courtroom, he kept an empty mind. He didn’t want to fill his head with false hope, and he wasn’t asking God for help as one might do in a situation like this. He just wanted this day to end.
Before Seth sat, he looked at the room full of spectators and spotted his mother. Mrs. Zimmer blew Seth a kiss for good luck.
Seth sat, and all he wanted to do was cry.
“All rise for the Honourable Judge Arthur Vines!”
The courtroom rose as the judge made his way to the bench for the final time.
“You may all be seated.”
The judge turned to the jury. “Has the jury made a decision?”
The foreperson rose. “We have, Your Honour.” The juror reached into her pocket and pulled out a slip of paper. “In the case of Hyssop versus Zimmer, we the jury find the defendant, Seth Zimmer—”
This is it, the final countdown, Seth thought.
“Innocent of all charges.”
Mr. Durocher gave Seth a big pat on the back. Seth couldn’t hold it in any more and started to cry.
Mr. Hyssop leapt to his feet, slid across the table and grabbed his lawyer’s collar. “You stupid asshole! You call yourself a lawyer?” He punched his lawyer in the face.
The room was out of control. The judge smashed his gavel several times, but the room didn’t quiet. This continued for another several moments.
Finally, the judge got to his feet and belted out an overpowering, “Quiet!”
The room immediately simmered down.,
The judge returned to his seat. “Mr. Zimmer, you’ve been found innocent of all charges. When you leave this courthouse, you leave with my blessing and my deepest apologies.”
The judge turned to Mr. Hyssop. “And as for you, Mr. Hyssop. I think you seriously need to re-examine your life!”
“What? This is bullshit, Judge! Bullshit!”
“I’m sentencing you to county jail until an available court date can be arranged!”
The judge slammed his gavel. “That will be all.”
*
When Seth got home later that day, he went up to his bedroom. He stood at the end of his bed, and a wealth of emotions struck him.
Seth got weak in the knees and collapsed on his bed. He began to cry. It felt good, though, like a weight had been lifted. Life could now continue.
After a week, Seth decided to go back to work. He hopped onto his computer and checked his e-mails. His inbox was showing one new message from Brody Williams. He clicked to open it.
Hi Seth,
How’ve you been? I hope all is good considering everything you’ve been going through lately. I’ll get right to my point. I have a business proposition for you. If you’re interested, let’s meet at Will’s Fresh Café at the end of the week? Talk to you soon.
Brody.
For the first time in a very long time, Seth felt a shred of happiness. He thought for a moment and decided to at least go hear what Brody had to say.
On Friday afternoon, they met.
“If you don’t mind my asking, how did this whole legal mess start anyway?”
Seth took a sip of coffee and nodded, explaining the situation: how they were paranoid when he offered their children a part in his film.
“Why did they see you as a threat?”
“They didn’t want me to get too close because they’re growing illegal marijuana. They figured once I found them out, I would contact the police.”
“That makes sense. I guess. ”
They sipped their coffee and remained silent for a moment.
“So, Brody. I’m interested in hearing about this business proposition of yours.”
Brody smiled. “Yes, well, I was going through my mini DV. tape library the other day and came across a few of our films we made in high school. I found our Lego trilogy and our epic Titanic film. And so, I was wondering, as you own a business, would you be interested in giving them a proper editing job and DVD release?”
“Yes, absolutely!”
“Great!”
“So is that it? That’s not really a proposition, Brody. Is there more to this?”
“Of course. That was just something I was curious about. The proposition is, I have a few films going into production in the few remaining months of this year and a few beginning next year. I can’t really afford to pay you anything, but would you be willing to be my creative story consultant, co-writer and film editor? I figure this way you’ll have more experience to put on your resume.”
Seth thought for a moment as he sipped his coffee. “No pay at all?”
“Well, I’ll be entering these films into festivals. So if any of them win any money, I will of course give you a fair share of the winnings.”
Seth thought for another few minutes. He figured it was a good opportunity and would keep his skills nice and sharp. He really didn’t like the fact of no pay, but it was a great opportunity. He lowered the coffee mug. “Sounds awesome, man. Sign me up.”