Chewing Rocks (29 page)

Cleasemount sighed, “Continue it is.” She read the warrant stating that Chastity Whyte did verbally and physically attack Randall and James Kramer. It listed the time and date of the incident, named witnesses and stated what evidence, if any, was available. “Okay, said warrant is official, recorded into public record and is now available for download.”

She turned to Sno, “Miss Whyte, I notice this warrant doesn’t list any specific evidence
other than the video evidence that comes from your company’s videos. You do have the right to refuse the viewing of your own videos used as evidence against you. Using your own video is in essence testifying against yourself. That is against our by-laws. Do you wish to press Sheriff Gutierrez with related evidence to prove his warrant is false?”

Sno looked around. Her father and Vittie were s
itting right next to her. Ben was sitting right behind her, but he was facing the crowd and did not turn to look at her. She saw the elder Abramsohn sitting next to her dad. Abramsohn nodded and handed her a packet. Sno said, “Yes, Miss Cleasemount. I do.”

“Carp and goldfish!” Cleasemount exclaimed. “I thought this was going to be the easy warrant, but if every warrant goes this way we are going to be at this forever. Okay, Sheriff Gutierrez
, you had your shot to present the evidence against Miss Whyte, but didn’t list it in the warrant. Miss Whyte, any evidence you bring up on your behalf will then allow the sheriff to present counter-evidence in support of this warrant.”

Sno glanced at the notes Abramsohn had handed her and nodded. “I got that. It is the first thing on my
notes and it is in big letters so the only thing I want to play is the video from the docks.”

Cleasemount shook her head.
“We will have more than enough video before this day is over. I am willing to stipulate the contents of this video. Everyone in Arizona City has seen you whip the tar out of Randall and James. Plus we have all heard you call them names. Do we really need to see it again?”

Sno nodded, “Miss Cleasemount,
I only want to show the part of the video clearly showing this attack on Randy and Jim was at the Whyte Mining Corporation Docks. That is where I work. I would like to show this attack occurred during our normal business hours. Although the Whyte Mining Corporation keeps open docks, it is a place neither of the guys had any business being. I would further like to show the events leading up to defending myself against Randy and Jim. Everybody knows I really whacked them around a bit, I guess there isn’t any sense in denying that.”

Cleasemount looked up and shouted. “Where
are Randall and James Kramer? Get them in here and get them in here fast.”

She looked at Miss Whyte, “I am not in the mood to dally with this minor stuff. I will play the video
if I have to, but let me see if we can find a shortcut.” She saw her nephews coming in the door. “You two morons get your skinny backsides down front. I know you know the topic of this hearing. I want you to know I have seen the raw video footage from the Whyte Mining Company’s dock cameras beginning to end, of Miss Whyte smacking you around and calling you names, so I know the whole story. I know you were where you shouldn’t have been. I know you were there when you shouldn’t have been there. I know that you call each other names much worse than Miss Whyte used that day. And I know you were definitely sexually harassing Miss Whyte when you grabbed her breasts without her permission prior to her understandable actions of self defense. One question to you, boys, and I want Mister James Kramer to answer. What were you thinking?”

James looked at his feet and shrugged his shoulders.

Cleasemount shouted, “That is an unacceptable response, Mister Kramer.” It a calmer tone she said, “You are not in trouble with me, Jimmy. I love you and Randy, and this hearing is not about you, so you can say whatever you want and you won’t get in trouble.” She looked at Sno, but still spoke to the boys. “I can assure you if Miss Whyte had wanted to file a warrant of sexual assault, frottage, groping, harassment or assault, she would have already done so?”

Sno nodded in agreement. She hadn’t even remembered Jim had grabbed her breasts.
She certainly did not know the definition of frottage. She made a mental note to look it up when she wasn’t testifying.

James shrugged again, “Do I really have to say, Aunt Terri…I mean, Miss Cleasemount?”

Cleasemount said, “Yes, you have to say, Jimmy. If you were anything more than a witness I would say no. Look, Jimmy. I can’t even pass judgment against you because, and this may be unfortunate in this case, Miss Whyte didn’t file a warrant against you. If she had, then I might be able to sentence you and your brother to get jobs, quit drinking and get on with your lives. However, I can’t do a thing to you other than compel you to say why you attacked Miss Whyte.”

James shrugged and said, “It was kind of a bet. Randy and I were bagging on each other about things we were afraid of, but wanted to do anyway.”

“And you are afraid of Miss Whyte?” Cleasemount asked.

James shook his head. “Not exactly afraid of, Aunt Terri. I kind of like her and wanted to ask her out. Randy was saying if I was too afraid to ask her out then I would never get to touch her ti…I mean her breasts…and…well…you know…we’d been drinking and one thing led to another.”

Sno blurted, “You just wanted to go out with me?”

James looked at his feet and nodded.

Sno said, “Damn.”

Cleasemount nodded and said, “Damn indeed. Okay. And James, since we have embarrassed
you, I think that turn about is fair play; what were you teasing Mister Randall Kramer about that day?”

James shook his head. “I’m not gonna say. It didn’t have nothin’ to do with what went on with Sno. I promised Randy I wouldn’t ever say and I ain’t gonna.”

Cleasemount looked at Randall. “What do you think of that, Randy? Your younger brother is standing here taking all of the heat for something you pushed him into doing. Do you think I don’t have the right to ask why you attacked Miss Whyte?”

Randall looked up at his aunt. He put his arm around James. “I am as proud of James as I have ever been. I swore I would never tell anyone he has a thing about Sno, but frankly she
does scares the pee-waddling out of both of us. Jim stood here and confessed like a man, but still he is protecting me. The truth is Aunt Terri that I am scared of you. I wanted to tell you I am gay. James knows it. Mom and Dad know it. But, I love you and I guess I am afraid of what you would think of me if you found out.”

Sno said, “Damn.”

Cleasemount nodded “Damn indeed.” She looked at her nephews. “Randy and Jim, I am sorry. None of your testimony was really required. I just let my curiosity get the better of me. As the arbitrator I thank you for your honesty. As your aunt, I love you both. Now get the hell out of here.”

She turned to Sheriff Bob. “Miss Whyte has offered evidence to prove her
statement that your warrant is false because of the time of the attack, the place of the alleged attack and evidence it was self defense, do you wish to refute the evidence?”

Sheriff Bob shook his head, “I will accept the boys were out of line, but she used an inappropriate level of force in her response.”

Cleasemount shook her head, “Sheriff Gutierrez that statement is not on your warrant and is not at issue. It is too late to amend your warrant. And what do you mean inappropriate level of response? You are not a woman and you don’t have breasts. I realize that you are a dawg who will hump anything moving and would be as pleased as punch if anyone grabbed your genitals without an invite, but that doesn’t mean everyone enjoys being groped without permission.”

Cleasemount made
a few notes in her desk pad, but kept it blanked so it wouldn’t be shown on the screen behind her.

“All right, Miss Whyte and Sheriff Gutierrez, do either of you have anything significant to add relative to this warrant?
No? Now I want to review Miss Whyte’s warrant against Sherriff Gutierrez for using his elected position to harass her for personal reasons.”

Sheriff Bob stood, “Question, Miss Cleasemount?” At her nod, he continued, “Will you tell us whether you hold judgment for Miss Whyte or me in the first warrant or will you be holding off on just the punishment phase until all warrants have been heard?”

Cleasemount said, “Keep your britches on, Bob. Sorry, I forgot who I was talking to for a minute. I should know better. You can’t keep your britches on, can you? I will say this to everyone here with warrants to present or defend; I will hold all judgments and penalties until after all related warrants have been heard. I know you are curious. This would drive me crazy to be on your side of the fence and not know what the arbiter was thinking, but I believe this way is the most fair to all involved. I need to hear everything everyone has got to say before I start making final and irreversible decisions.”

Cleasemount looked around the room.
The crowd was silent and looked back at her. “Are there any objections or comments? No? I have a couple of quick announcements to help us all get through this together. I have just received an e-mail. Lottie and Damien Gnode have opened the concession stand at the theater next door for anyone who needs refreshments. My apologies to Carl Wyckoff, our official court recorder today, but I must make it available for refreshments to be brought into the hearing room. Just try to keep the mess at a minimum and clean up after yourselves. Also, the next person who goes over there, please bring me back a large diet cola. If you get up and leave, please do so quietly so as not to disturb the proceedings. Lastly, the only people who can save a seat when they leave and come back are those people who are named in any of these warrants. The rest of you are on your own, so no fighting over the chairs.

“
I have another message, Lottie has finally patched in the video from four different feeds so you can sit in the theater seats and watch these proceedings in comfort next door. Before you rush out of here for those fancy chairs be advised Lottie has said she has to charge a modest entrance fee since she is cancelling today’s movie in favor of this live drama.”

Cleasemount read
more notes on her desk pad and looked out over the room, “No, Mario, I am not doing commercials. I don’t care what you are offering.” The crowd chuckled appreciatively at Mario’s sad face at the news. “We are ready to begin the next warrant.”

She read the wa
rrant out loud. It was longer and contained lists of evidence and proofs to back up Sno’s claim that Sheriff Bob had been out to get her since she beat up his nephews. “This warrant is now official public record with all submitted attendant documents and is now available for public download. Before I ask for a response to Miss Whyte’s warrant, I need to caution Sheriff Gutierrez. I mean, come on, Bob! Everybody in town knows you were after Sno’s hide and most of us thought it was funny. This warrant even lists video evidence of uninvolved citizens who recognized your vendetta against her. It is on the video from Miss Whyte’s bar fight at Mario’s and everyone has seen that. Please be careful how you respond, because I will be very careful in my judgment in this matter. I ask you now, is this warrant true or false.”

Sheriff Bob shook his head, “How can I answer? If my first warrant against her for attacking Randy and Jim is held to be true that adds validity to this warrant, but if you find against me on the first one, then that would impact how I should respond here. But you won’t tell me.”

Cleasemount smiled, “No, Sheriff Gutierrez, I will not tell you how I am going to rule on this or any other warrant until I am ready to do so. But the truth is the truth and a lie is a lie. I require an either/or response to my question. If you Dodge my question again I will hold you in contempt of the proceedings and compel you to respond. The question is, is this warrant true or false?

Chapter 25.0

Cleasemount shouted
over the buzz of the crowd. “What do you mean Mister Cooper is dead? When did this happen? Do we have any additional warrants relating to his death?”

Chapter 25.1

Hunter said, “Sure I was drunk that night. Anyone can see that from the tape. I had too many beers and the pizza hadn’t come yet. But, I swear we didn’t go to Mario’s by accident. I was there when that guy Wallace told Franklin we should go there.”

Chapter 25.2

Larry Wright said, “Of course, it was a rush job to get the Sedona back out into space. It is always a rush job for the Sedona. Sno always wants to get back into space. That was no surprise. I get paid very well to expedite her jobs so why would I complain?”

Cleasemount asked, “Did you know that Sheriff Gutierrez was trying to serve a warrant on Miss Whyte
?”

Wright said, “I say yes and
then he can issue a warrant on me for obstructing justice or complicity after the fact. Sorry, Miss Cleasemount, you may think I am nothing more than a space-going sewage-sucking janitor and a gear-head, but I am not stupid. So, I would have to say that I decline to answer that question because it is not relevant as to what I knew and when I knew it.”

Sheriff Bob asked, “Do you know if Miss Whyte knew that I was trying to serve warrants on her
?”

Wright laughed, “
How am I supposed to know what anyone else knew and when they knew it? The answer is the same as before. You can rephrase that same question a hundred different ways. Come on, Sheriff Gutierrez, that is really a question I am not going to answer for the reasons I have already stated. Besides, everyone knows those warrants are full of more sewage than I suck from a fleet of ship’s plumbing lines in a month of Sundays.”