Chapter 317: One step at a time

After the court bell had rung nine times, Zhou Ming and the others announced their entrance. Zhou Ming followed Deputy Attorney General Clark and Lawyer Allen into the courtroom. The Brighton City Court was similar to what he had seen in American dramas before. In the front was the judge's seat, directly opposite the plaintiff's and defendant's seats. Behind that were the hearing seats, with seven jury members sitting next to them. Every exit of the courtroom was guarded by at least two bailiffs.

Zhou Ming and Clark Allen sat in the plaintiff's seat, and across the aisle was the defendant's seat. Zhou Ming then saw the barrister, Sapir, who had given the deputy attorney general and future White House legal counsel a headache. He was sitting behind Brooke, next to the elderly man who had approached Zhou Ming before.

Sapir was a tall, thin Jew wearing a pair of black-framed glasses. His small eyes, like those of a poisonous snake, peered back and forth behind the glasses, scanning Zhou Ming and the others.

Through Allen's introduction earlier, Zhou Ming had already remembered this barrister Sapir. He was a gold-medal lawyer at the New York Dream Law Firm, with a wealth of legal knowledge and a quick mind. What Zhou Ming remembered most about him was the O.J. Simpson case a few years later. In that battle between money and the law, Simpson's legal team, led by Sapir, helped Simpson successfully escape conviction.

Since then, Barrister Sapir has become famous and is now the most famous barrister in the United States. However, that is a later story. Although he has not yet reached that level, his abilities are still there and should not be underestimated.

While Zhou Ming was observing Sapir, Sapir was also observing Zhou Ming. When Brook's butler asked him how he was doing, Sapir replied, 'I know Deputy Attorney General Clark and lawyer Alan, and I have dealt with them before, so I can understand their way of thinking and their approach. There shouldn't be any problems. But where did that Chinese guy come from? His eyes are very interesting.'

'That's Zhou Ming, the plaintiff in the class action lawsuit I told you about. He's not a lawyer,' the old man said.

Sapir repeated Zhou Ming's name several times, memorised it, and a few minutes later a 50-year-old judge entered the courtroom. This was the presiding judge of the case, John, who sat in his seat and announced the start of the trial.

First, Deputy Attorney General Clark spoke. He stood up and said, 'Good morning, Your Honour and members of the jury. I am here today to tell you about a vicious incident that happened on campus. We know that the campus should be a peaceful and beautiful place, but today's defendant is a devil who maliciously wants to destroy it. Please forgive me for using this word, but it is the best word to describe it.'

Listening to Clark's speech, Zhou Ming finally gained a new understanding of American justice. Because if it were at home, according to the tradition of the Chinese people, they would be lenient with students no matter what, but here in the United States, the Attorney General used such vicious words to characterise the situation.

After Clark, it was lawyer Alan's turn to speak. He rose and said, 'Your Honour and members of the jury, my client, Mr Ming Zhou, is a student from China studying at Harvard. He came to the United States with his dreams. He started a business at school, which is something the law strongly encourages. However, Brooke has been sabotaging Ming Zhou's business out of jealousy, even resorting to despicable and cunning means!

'If someone like this cannot be convicted, then I can hardly imagine what he will do in the future.' Alan continued, 'Will he go into a school tomorrow with a gun and start shooting? The day after that, will he bomb the Pentagon? This is terrifying!'

Alan's words were largely the same as Clark's, but he placed more emphasis on the need to convict Brooke.

When Clark and Alan had finished speaking, Sapir, with the judge's permission, stood up and said, 'Your Honour and fellow jurors, I believe you all have children, and you all understand that children like to play and get into trouble. I believe that my client and this Mr. Zhou Ming must have had some kind of conflict, and the facts can prove this.'

'According to what my client said, he was beaten by Zhou Ming, so I have every reason to suspect that he is deliberately fabricating facts to maliciously frame my client, because there is no direct evidence to prove that my client planned that disturbance,' said Sapir.

After both parties had made their statements, a student was next called into the courtroom. Clark stood up and questioned the witness: 'You are a student at Harvard University? Were you present during the robbery and riot at the convenience store in the Collander College dormitory? Did you see the student Brook over there? He was also present? And what did that Brook student do, was he applauding the riot?'

The student nodded in response to Clark's barrage of questions. Clark sat back down in his seat, and Sapir stood up and asked, 'I don't have that many questions, just one very important one: did you directly see Brook orchestrate this riot?'

Upon hearing this, Allen immediately stood up and raised his hand to indicate to the judge, 'I object. The witness on the stand is being questioned, and questions that are so obviously misleading should not be asked.'

Sapir said, 'I don't think it's misleading at all, because whether or not you saw it directly is related to the conviction of my client. We can't judge based on speculation and imagination.'

The judge ruled, "The objection is invalid. Witness, please answer the defense attorney's question.'

'I didn't see it directly,'

the student replied. He wanted to say more, but Sapir didn't give him the chance and said directly, "Okay, Your Honor, I think I've finished asking questions.'

The next to be summoned were the two black brothers who caused a scene in front of the dormitory convenience store. This time, Alan got up to ask the questions: 'You are also a student at Harvard University? At that time, your brother got sick after eating an expired sandwich, right?'

In the face of Alan's questioning, the black man answered yes. Alan then asked him, 'So since your brother was already sick, why didn't you take him to the hospital, but instead took him into the Corland Dormitory Building to find the convenience store?'

'I thought since my brother got sick after eating the sandwich here, I could ask them for compensation...'

The black man stammered and stuttered in his reply, and Alan immediately asked again, 'But according to the inspection certificate issued by the hospital, your brother was not sick at all. In other words, your actions that day were nothing but fraud. Let me ask you, did someone ask you to buy a sandwich from the dormitory convenience store and then pretend to be sick to extort money from the dormitory convenience store and cause a disturbance? Is the person behind you the one who is instigating you? Is that Brook over there?'

This time, Sapir objected: 'Your Honour, I believe that Lawyer Allen's question is purely a personal conjecture imposed on the witness, and a distorted understanding of the facts. I demand that the witness be excused from answering this question.'

Alan said, 'I don't think so. These two classmates are directly responsible for this incident, and their testimony will directly affect the characterisation of this case. Whether it was a fraud case that they came up with on the spur of the moment, or a riot and fraud that they had been planning for a long time, depends entirely on the witness's testimony. This is very important and necessary, so the witness must answer.'

The judge ruled, "Witness, please answer Attorney Alan's question directly.'

The black classmate nodded and said, "Yes, I was instructed by classmate Brook to go to the dormitory convenience store and create a fraud and riot.'

'Why did Brook ask you to do this? What was his purpose, and what was your relationship with him?' Allen asked again.

'Brook told us that he really hated Zhou Ming, and that he knew Zhou Ming had opened a dormitory convenience store and knew that he had made a lot of money. He said that Zhou Ming's dormitory convenience store did not have any formalities, and that if we just caused trouble for him and called the police, he would give us a lot of money. Afterwards, he would also give us a lot of money,' the black man replied. 'Our relationship with Brook is that of friends.'

'Can you guarantee that everything you say is true? What evidence do you have to prove what you say?' Alan immediately pursued.

The black man nodded and replied, "I guarantee that everything I say is true and reliable. Brooke and I are members of the rugby team, and all rugby team members can testify to my relationship with Brooke.'

Hearing this answer, Alan said, "Your Honour and members of the jury, I think the situation is now clear. This is a case of premeditated rioting.'

Alan pointed his finger at Brooke over there and continued, 'Classmate Brooke, he has been trying to take revenge on my client because he had a conflict with him before. Now that he sees that my client is very successful, he is jealous and instructs someone to create a disturbance in front of the dormitory convenience store in an attempt to disrupt the normal operation of the store. This kind of behaviour is very shameful and evil. Brooke, the mastermind behind the incident, should be found guilty!'

Sapir stood up again and said, 'I object. I think the witness's testimony is likely to exonerate himself, so his testimony alone is not sufficient to prove my client's guilt.'

'So I have another witness,' Alan said, 'Jela, a female teacher in the Department of Economics at Harvard Business School, who heard Brooke arrange this behind his back. I ask the court to allow Teacher Jela to testify.'

The judge agreed by knocking his hammer, and then Ms. Jela, escorted by the bailiff, walked up to the witness stand. Her appearance dazzled everyone in the courtroom. Ms. Jela stated, 'I was on the balcony of the dormitory at the time, and I happened to hear Brooke and his friends downstairs talking about how he was going to teach Zhou Ming a lesson and mess up Zhou Ming's dormitory convenience store.'

With Jela's testimony complete, the first court session ended. Deputy Attorney General Clark and lawyer Alan walked out of the courtroom and shook hands in celebration. Clark said, 'Alan is worthy of being our most prestigious barrister in Massachusetts. The court today was so pressing that Sapir had no way to defend himself. I believe that Brooke will definitely be found guilty.'

Alan also nodded and said to Ming Zhou, 'Mr. Ming Zhou, after today's trial, I believe there will be at most one or two more court sessions before Brooke is found guilty.'

'I hope so,' Ming Zhou said, obviously a little worried compared to Clark and Alan's certainty. After all, the other party is a super lawyer who won the Simpson case, and his abilities shouldn't just be like that, and as an influential senator in Massachusetts, Brooke's tactics shouldn't just be like that either.