Chapter 3

The bottom line is the Supremes digested the briefs and ruled that if police behavior is so sloppy they may as well have been purposefully destroying evidence that might in any possible way help a defendant at trial, law enforcement has to forfeit the whole game. Bringing contaminated evidence to trial is like bringing a basketball that fits only through your team’s hoop. The litany is, “Gross Negligence equals Bad Faith.” In other words, no fair. The evidence becomes the fruit of the poison tree, and the judge must dismiss the entire case. Poof. Murder Be Gone.
As I said, it sounds like Mr. Pavao is going to win. We have a monstrous calendar today. The courtroom is packed with attorneys, defendants, in and out of custody, as well as a large group of spectators. It is not often that one of these fruit of the poison tree motions is meritorious, let alone succeeds. The duel lasts 38 minutes. A lot can happen in 38 minutes. It is part of my job to sense what is going to happen next, otherwise I could never keep up, but I didn’t sense what came, and I won’t ever know what dimension it came from.