Chapter 193

“Knock knock ……”

A knock came from outside the mediation room.

The black cop said, “Come in.”

“Creak,” the door opened.

Luke and Daisy walked in from outside.

The black cop asked, “What can I do for you?”

Daisy said, “My name is Daisy Miller and I am Mr. Val Sullivan’s attorney.”

Val froze.

Linda looked at Daisy and then at Luke with a thoughtful look.

The Asian policewoman said, “Good timing, we were just about to broker a settlement, but the parties are not talking pleasantly, so you’d better advise your client.”

Daisy said, “I will, I wish to speak to my client alone.”

“No problem.”

The Asian policewoman stood up and said to the injured black man off to the side, “Harbot Ross, come out here first and I’ll take you to get your wounds treated.”

The black man stood up and glared at Val and said, “It doesn’t matter who’s here, assholes like you will definitely be sent to jail.”

The policeman left with the black man and only Luke and the others were left in the room.

Luke pointed to Daisy and introduced, “This is my girlfriend Daisy.”

Pointing again to Linda and Val, “My mom, and my uncle.”

Linda smiled a little awkwardly, “I’ve always heard Luke mention you, I just didn’t expect it to be on an occasion like this, thanks for coming over to help.”

Daisy gestured with a smile.

Val looked a little rushed, “Daisy, it’s good to see you …… It would be better if it wasn’t on this occasion.”

Daisy squared her shoulders, “Val, you don’t have to be polite, I’m your lawyer from now on, I hope you can trust me so I can help you.”

“I will.”

“You describe the situation.”

Val recalled, “The black man just now was named Harbottle Ross, a scoundrel.

It’s the third time in half a month that he’s robbed our supermarket.

Every time he robs, he messes up the supermarket, I have to re-count, restock, and report insurance, and every time I have to work overtime because of this kind of thing.”

Val sighed and said helplessly, “But we can’t do anything about it, we can only watch him rob the supermarket of its items, and it’s hard to describe the suffocating feeling.

I’ve had enough of it.

So, this time I want to stop him.

This morning, he came back to the supermarket to rob it again and pushed his shopping cart out the door without checking out.

I tried to stop him.

He gave me the middle finger and cursed me.

I held back my anger and just grabbed the shopping cart to keep him away.

Then he grabbed me by the neck and choked me so hard that I felt like I was going to choke before I pushed him away.

He fell to the ground.

I walked over to see what was going on and he was cursing at me and spitting on me.

It spit right in my face before I lost my mind and got on top of him and punched him.

He deserved it.”

Daisy pressed on, “If it was according to what you said, you would have been in self-defense, or at best, assault and battery, so why would he be suing you for intentional injury?”

Val said somewhat glumly, “It’s all that damn surveillance.

Harbottle Ross is a repeat offender, he knows where the blind spots of the surveillance are, and he pushed the shopping cart towards the blind spots of the surveillance.

He was right in the surveillance blind spot when he choked me.

This asshole won’t even admit it.

And when I hit him, he was there yelling and screaming, and quite a few passersby saw it.

So this asshole framed me for intentional injury.

He was definitely premeditated.”

Daisy asked, “How much did he steal in merchandise?”

“Ninety-four dollars.”

Daisy jotted it down in her notebook, “What’s the attitude at the supermarket where you work?”

Val shook her head, “It had nothing to do with the supermarket, it was my personal behavior.”

“It’s not just you saying it’s okay, what was the attitude of the supermarket.”

“After the accident, the supervisor of the supermarket approached me and said that the supermarket is not convenient to come forward, but the supermarket will support me and is willing to bear my lawyer’s fee to help me get rid of the charge.”

Linda was concerned, “Daisy, do you think the settlement will work?”

Daisy thought for a moment, “That depends on what the other party wants, only by figuring out his purpose can we take the initiative in the settlement.”

Ten minutes later.

At Daisy’s suggestion, a second mediation was conducted.

The black police officer and the Asian policewoman walked into the mediation room with Harbot Ross, the suspect in the supermarket robbery.

The difference was that this time Val and Linda were not present, replaced by Daisy and Luke.

Harbot Ross questioned, “Isn’t there a settlement? Why didn’t the asshole who hit me show up?”

Daisy said, “Mr. Val entrusted me to settle on his behalf, just talk to me.”

The Asian policewoman nodded, “That’s good, saves you two guys a fight.”

Harbottle Ross grunted, “Insincere guy, he’s definitely going to jail.”

Daisy asked, “Mr. Harbot Ross, why must you put my client in jail.”

“Because he beat me and did something illegal and criminal, shouldn’t he go to jail?”

“What about you?

Robbing a supermarket is just as illegal, do you think you should go to jail?”

“I didn’t rob it, I just forgot to check out.”

“But according to my client, he reminded you at the time and asked you to go back to the checkout.”

“No, he didn’t. At least not as far as I remember.”

“Harbot Ross, you two weren’t the only ones outside the supermarket, are you sure no one else heard?”

Harbottle Ross tapped his head, “I was too confused by him to remember.”

“OK, even if you can’t remember this time, what about the first two times. According to my client, this is the third time you’ve come to the supermarket to rob, you can’t forget to pay the bill all three times.”

Harbottle Ross was silent for a moment and sighed, “I’ve hated lawyers all my life.

You’re right, I wasn’t thinking about paying because I don’t have any money, I’m poor, and I’m hungry.

I was about to starve to death, so I went to the supermarket to get some food, I didn’t rob any money or valuables, just some food and household items.

I was simply trying to stay alive.

If you guys think that what I did was wrong and that I deserve to starve to death, then you guys can arrest me.

I am willing to confess.”

This rhetoric may not work in China, but it is very damaging in the U.S., and judges and juries will use their discretion to impose lighter sentences.

Many people rumor that robbery is not a crime in the U.S., but in fact no law says so.

It’s just that California is divided into misdemeanors and felonies. Misdemeanors are generally punishable by less than a year in prison, and felonies are punishable by three to ten years in prison.

Robbery in California of no more than $950 is a misdemeanor and carries a one-year sentence.

Before trial, if the suspect is willing to sign a ‘plea agreement’ the charge can be reduced to a direct sentence of a thousand dollar fine.

It’s like an indirect exoneration.

Some people may think this isn’t condoning criminals?

No way.

The law in the U.S. stipulates that the court may not sentence anyone without a jury, originally for the protection of human rights, but I didn’t realize that there are too many people committing crimes, the court is overwhelmed, and the cost of law enforcement is too high.

Americans are economically rational, and in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency, a plea bargain was created.

As long as the suspect signed a plea agreement, the judge directly reduce the sentence belongs to the judicial deal.

California has the worst zero-dollar purchases, and in addition to court factors, prisons are also a reason for not having enough cells.

It costs $81,000 a year to hold a suspect in California, so if a person spends ten years in prison, the government will have to come up with $810,000 to keep him.

Of course these costs are more the cost of prison administration than the cost of the inmates themselves.

Californians are rich, but the government is poorer, and overwhelmed, they have no choice but to compromise.

Usually zero-dollar buyers who sign a plea deal are sentenced to probation plus a fine and go home to serve their time.

Indirectly, this leads to a worsening social climate.

Harbottle-Rose continued, “I admit I robbed the supermarket, but that’s no reason for him to hurt me, I’m going to sue him!”

“According to my client, you choked him first and he was only acting in self-defense.”

“No, he’s lying, I didn’t choke him, he’s framing me.”

“Mr. Harbottle Ross, I’m sure you know in your heart exactly how it happened.

There were other people outside the supermarket besides you and my client, are you sure no one else saw it?

So, I suggest that you reconcile, it’s for everyone’s benefit.”

Harbottle Ross was silent for a moment, “How are you going to reconcile?”

“You can make an offer.”

“Give me a hundred thousand dollars and I will agree to a settlement.”

“Mr. Ross, I’m talking to you in good faith, my client is just a trainee employee of the supermarket, do you think he can come up with a hundred thousand dollars?”

Harbottle Ross shrugged, “He can’t come up with it, but the supermarket has the money, so you can have someone from the supermarket talk to me.”

Daisy said, “My client said that the behavior at the time was his own decision nothing to do with the supermarket.”

“How can it have nothing to do with it, I was beaten by a supermarket employee and they are responsible for the injuries I sustained at the supermarket.” Harbottle Ross said in a cold voice.

“I’ve already made it clear, either compensate me one hundred thousand dollars, or let the supermarket head talk to me, or let that bastard go to jail.”

Harbot Ross stood up, “Officers, I don’t think there’s any need for mediation, let’s go sign the plea agreement.”

After the police left with Harbottle Ross, Luke said, “It looks like this guy’s real agenda is the supermarket.”

Daisy nodded, “He knows very well that there is no oil on Val, but the supermarket is different, if he wins the case, he can get a large sum of compensation from the supermarket.” Daisy continued her analysis.

“In my experience, he is trying to file a civil claim against the supermarket by convicting Val on the basis that a supermarket employee intentionally injured him.

The second possibility is that he is hoping that the supermarket side will come forward to settle with him so that he can get a large settlement.

Whichever way it ends up, it could be a huge gain.”

“How can we help Val?” Luke, although he had his own opinion, was a specialist in his field and wanted to hear what Daisy had to say.

It was a minimum of respect, otherwise why would you approach someone?

Daisy said, “I’ll talk to the person in charge of the supermarket, they’re definitely not off the hook for this.

If they are willing to take money out to settle the case, I believe that Harbottle Ross will agree, and Val will be able to get off the hook.

Of course, if they do that, Val’s job may not be saved.

The other option would be to find new leads or witnesses to prove that Val was acting in self-defense.

If this could be proven, all problems would be solved.

Val’s job can be saved too.”

This coincided with Luke’s thoughts, “You take care of talking to the supermarket side, and I’ll take care of the rest.”