ROLL CALL ~ A Prison List (True Prison Story) (14 page)

Detective Pincher pointed to the pot and scale on the table. “This is what I found in the master bedroom. It was right there in plain view on the dresser. I also saw pictures of both of you from your wedding and property that I’m assuming is both of yours. All of this makes the warrantless search, and these narcotics, another legit arrest. I’m also betting it’s the same kind of pot we busted you with in your truck last night. Am I right?”

Damon hunched on the couch and moved his arms in the bitingly tight handcuffs. He said the first thing that came to his mind. “You must have pinched some out of what you got last night!”

Jade looked at the phone she had in her hand and thought about her bluff with calling internal affairs. I might not have their phone number, but I know that pot and scale wasn’t in my room, I’m just going to dial 911. “I’m calling to report that you just planted that stuff in our room! We’ve never had any pot in our house!”

Detective Pincher walked right to Jade and tried to take the phone out of her hand. It wasn’t easy and a minor grapple ensued.

Jade struggled for the phone that was now firmly in the detective’s hand and got pushed away with his other hand.

With his other hand free, the detective held her off and yelled, “Stop resisting and interfering with our investigation young lady! I’ll write you up on charges of resisting arrest and battery on a police officer.”

He set the still ringing phone down with a still battling Jade on his arm. He got control of the situation and placed her in cuffs and put her next to Damon on the couch. He looked at Damon, still struggling with how tight the cuffs were.

“Damon… It’s time to deal. You have two choices here so listen carefully. Choice A, is I can make what happened last night, and now today, go away. You’ll still probably plea out to informal probation but that should be it. I can make that happen if you choose to cooperate. You have to set up three dealers that are larger than you in volume. Don’t play any games with me on that score because I’ve spent over a hundred hours watching you. So I know how big you are around here.”

Damon looked at detective Pincher standing there in his Hawaiian print shirt and thought, there isn’t any way I wouldn’t have noticed you watching me. More likely, you found out about me from Bob Prescott.

Detective Pincher continued. “Choice B is I call child protective services and have your kids become wards of the state, I charge you and your wife here for what I found in your room and I’ll do everything in my power to send you to prison for the maximum term allowed under the law.”

Hearing the threat of having her kids taken was too much and tears spilled from Jade’s eyes. She looked at her husband in shock.

Damon looked into her eyes and tried to make sense of what was happening. All he could do was think out loud. “Honey, you know he had to plant that pot in our room. You know that stuff wasn’t on top of our dresser…”

The tears continued to flow down her face. “He’s going to take our kids from us!”

Hearing his Mommy crying, Ryan opened the bedroom door crying also and yelled, “I’m not leaving my Mommy!”

Damon felt all of the pressure of the situation and hated how powerless he felt! Then a thought registered. “I want those bags of pot and that scale finger printed! I guarantee you won’t find mine or my wife’s prints on there, but I bet yours are!”

Detective Pincher decided he’d heard enough, Damon wasn’t going to cooperate and play ball.

“Alright Damon, I guess it’s choice B. for you then.

Let’s get you and your wife in the back of my car so I can call this in. Oh, by the way, the $300 in cash we found in your wallet, along with the $8,000 we saw on your bank statement are both being seized by the government under asset forfeiture laws that I especially like to utilize… Detective Marks, go get the car so we can put these two drug dealers in the back of it.”

Detective Marks came back with the Taurus and detective Pincher decided a little mercy was in order. He took the handcuffs off Jade and let her hold her baby girl and her son in the back of the Taurus with Damon still in cuffs. As Damon got in he asked, “Can you loosen these cuffs a little, my hands are going numb!”

Detective Pincher laughed, shook his head no and shut the door. With that done he walked toward the residence and told detective Marks, “Let’s go back inside and call this in.”

Back inside standing at the counter looking at the bags of pot and the scale, detective Marks asked, “What are we going to do about the fingerprints?”

CHAPTER 33

Detective Maltobano studied the Strand’s parking lot to the beach for Sarah’s Lexus. It still wasn’t there and hadn’t been for all this time. Maltobano thought about how much he wanted to find Sarah and help her. I can almost feel her life sliding into darkness. She’s running from the pain and shock of being raped and is using drugs and hanging out with the wrong people to mask it. He thought about the conversations he’d had with her friend Nicole over the last year. The last one was a couple months ago. Nicole had called to report that she had finally seen Sarah at a gas station for the first time in six months. She said Sarah looked terrible. “She looked impossibly skinny and couldn’t have weighed more than 95 lbs., and she had a lost and spun out look on her face. The once naturally gorgeous blond, now looked like a tweaked out Barbie doll trying to carry all of her accessories in both hands.” Maltobano thought about the rest of Nicole’s words. Sarah was dressed like a stripper, she was living in Newport Beach now, but supposedly she still came to Salt Creek and Strands beaches to lay out occasionally. Nicole said she’d asked all of her friends who were locals at the two beaches if they ever saw her down there. Nobody had. Nicole figured her friend Sarah was so spun out she was delusional and wished she had her old life at the local beaches back, but was lost and couldn’t find her way back to face everything. All of these images filtered through the detective’s mind when the emergency call from dispatch came in.

The emergency broadcast gave the Crystal Lantern address without any information. Detective Maltobano realized he was less than a mile from the address and called in his position and that he’d arrive in less than two minutes as the first responder. Accelerating down P.C.H. the detective manipulated his way through the light traffic. He pulled the Crown Victoria to a stop at the traffic light to Crystal Lantern and looked up the hill toward the address given. He saw narcotic detectives Pincher and Marks walking casually to the front door where they entered the residence. Maltobano looked from the now empty front door to the driveway where the Buick was parked. It rang a bell in the detective’s memory. From there he saw detective Pincher’s brown Ford Taurus parked along the curb.

The light turned green and he accelerated up Crystal Lantern, flipped a U-turn and parked behind the Taurus. He walked up to the Buick driver’s rear door. Maltobano looked through the tinted window half way down and the memory of the Buick flashed through his mind. Damon stared right back. Maltobano looked at the little boy, the baby girl on her mother’s lap and then he realized he knew the mother.

“Jade. What’s going on?”

Jade immediately recognized the man underneath the shoulder holster and white suspenders holding up an otherwise blue outfit. “John Maltobano? You’re a detective now?”

Maltobano nodded his head.

Jade continued in a desperate rush of words. “John those detectives planted pot in my room! I know for a fact it wasn’t there! Now they’re trying to take my kids from me! Please help me!”

Damon added to it. “I know you probably hear: ‘It’s not mine, it’s a set up’ tune all of the time, so it sounds hollow even telling you that, but I know a way to prove our innocence. Run a finger print test to show our prints aren’t on it!”

Detective Maltobano tried to make sense of the situation and couldn’t. “Sit tight. I’ll go check on what’s going on.”

Maltobano stopped at the open front door and overheard detective Pincher explaining something to his partner.

“We don’t have to worry about finger prints. I’ve done a lot of studying on the matter. Through case law examples I’ve learned that finger prints are rarely used as primary evidence in drug cases. Sometimes they are lifted off of scales, jars and other devices that hold finger prints well but hardly ever off of plastic baggies because the plastic doesn’t give a sturdy enough platform to hold a large enough print to identify.”

Detective Pincher thought to himself while he put his gloves on, I should have had these on before, then I wouldn’t have to worry about my prints on anything. He wiped down the digital scale with a dish towel near the sink, turned and saw detective Maltobano standing in the doorway.

Detective Maltobano thought about what he just heard and what it might mean compared with what he heard from Damon and Jade. He thought about how he knew Jade. I grew up on the same street as she did and our families knew each other. I also knew her through high school and she had always shown good character… But it’s been more than four years since then, a lot could have changed. I just can’t jump to the conclusion that narcotic detective Pincher and Marks fabricated evidence against them… But why was Pincher discounting the need for finger prints?

Detective Pincher realized detective Maltobano couldn’t see him wiping the scale for prints. His own body was blocking the view. He continued his summary to his partner to cover up his shock at detective Maltobano’s arrival. “Like I was saying about primary evidence in drug cases, it really comes down to dominion and control. That means ownership of the property where the drugs are found. In this case, the apartment and utility bills are in their names. We use that to show dominion and control over the residence. Now we tighten up the scope on where I found the drugs and scale on the dresser in their room right next to their wedding picture. Then we make an exhibition of clothes, shoes and other things that belong to both of them to show sole and personal control of ownership for everything found in their room.”

Detective Maltobano walked up to the two detectives and shook their hands. “I talked to Jade on the way in and she said you were calling child protective services to take her kids away.”

Detective Pincher responded, “It’s within my authority to do so if I determine their welfare is at risk.”

Detective Maltobano shook his head and said, “I’ve known Jade for twenty years and I don’t think that’s a good call.”

Detective Pincher thought to himself, he just gave me the perfect opportunity to undermine his authority within the department! “First of all detective, I don’t appreciate your involvement in my case. You don’t see me involved in your rape cases do you? Even though I can see better ways for you to do your job, I stay out of your business. Secondly, I’m surprised you’re not professional enough to separate your personal relationships from your duties as a Sheriff to uphold the law! Should I assume you had an intimate relationship with Jade in the past? What are you doing here anyway?”

Detective Maltobano shook his head. “That would be the wrong assumption Pincher! The reason I’m here is I was in the area to respond to the 911 call that came in from this residence.”

All three detectives turned their attention to the front door where a number of Sheriffs came in with guns pointing everywhere. Detective Pincher took immediate control. “STAND DOWN!! CODE 4, CODE 4!!”

Detective Pincher watched the Sheriffs entering the residence lower their guns. One of the Sheriffs turned around to yell a code 4 to those still outside. Pincher thought to himself, I have everything under control and I deserve the respect and control because I make the most arrest and keep the criminals off the streets.

Detective Maltobano broke through detective Pincher’s thoughts. “So you’re going to arrest both Jade and Damon for that small amount of pot on the counter?”

He watched detective Pincher’s expression carefully. It went from smug, to indignant and then irritated.

“Listen carefully detective. I’m arresting both of them so I can pressure Jade into testifying against her husband who hasn’t been willing to admit to the pot we found in the back of his truck last night, or the pot we found in their room today. I have to ensure her testimony. Now for the last time, get out of my investigation! As I promised earlier, I’m reporting your behavior with your problem separating your personal life from your law enforcement duties!”

Maltobano shook his head and responded, “I think you’re overreaching your own law enforcement duties by calling child protective services and taking their kids for that small amount of pot.”

He walked out the door and heard one of the other Sheriffs observing say something.

“Does that pot even weigh over an ounce and qualify as a felony?”

At the Ford Taurus Maltobano leaned down to talk through the window. “Damon, you have to man up and cop to the pot. That’s the only way I can fight for him to drop the charges on Jade and not to call child services to remove the kids.”

CHAPTER 34

I got processed into the county jail and met Damon in the first cell along a line of seven more of them known as “the loop”. I listened to his story carefully and realized something. Bob Prescott was the reason my brother and I got raided! A few weeks back a friend of ours, Vince, brought him over to our house. I remembered how Bob Prescott had run down the same song and dance to us, “I’ve got this friend from Texas that’s big in the business and he moves a lot of product. He wants to get things going from here to Texas and back. This is a gold mine opportunity for you.”