Officers of the Court
by
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Cash Palmer set his brief case on a Spartan, composition topped table in the review area of the Biloxi police records room. He was exhausted. It had been a long two days, but Rader said that finding the no-show record was important. He had checked, to the extent possible, all arrest records occurring on Ginger's sixteenth birthday. Not just for Biloxi, but for Gulfport, Pass Christian and Pascagoula as well. Sifting through each batch, he culled out all but drug arrests and then went through the searching process of the criminal court records, to see which had resulted in a no-show. He had drawn a blank. He had checked Biloxi first. No luck. One Biloxi record was missing. He then covered the other towns on the Gulf Coast. Still no luck. About to give up the ghost, he remembered that one Biloxi arrest on the redlined day had been missing from the records. There had been no way to tell if it had been a drug based collar, so he had opted not to look further for it prior to vetting all drug arrests and examining the records of the other coast towns. It would surely be too much of a coincidence to find the missing Biloxi record to be the one he was looking for. But now, fearful of what Rader's reaction would be upon learning that he had spent so damn much billable time with no results, Cash was going to cover his behind. He wanted no unturned stones. The room was empty except for a female officer who manned the records desk and a typewriter. He approached her. "Miss, this is the name and date of an arrest." He passed a note to her. The name on the note was "Hazel Krower". "We couldn't find it yesterday. Do you think you can help me?" The blonde officer interrupted her typing to pick up the note. She studied it for several seconds and said, "You'll have to wait until I finish typing this report. It'll be about 15 minutes. OK?" "OK." It was 30 minutes. Palmer, after patronizing the nearby snack bar, used the interval to pen the beginning of the report he knew he would need to justify his bill to Rader. With her report finished and tossed into the "out mail" box the blond officer addressed Palmer's note. After visiting the 'records' room with the note clutched in her hand she approached a four-drawer filing cabinet with a set of keys from her desk. She attempted to insert each key into the top drawer of the cabinet. After several failures the drawer unlocked. She finger searched the top of the file folders and finding one to her liking, removed it and returned to her seat to studied it. Apparently satisfied, the officer closed the folder and arose from her desk, and, ignoring Palmer, stepped into an adjacent room. Judging from the semi-opaque glass portion of the wall separating the rooms, it appeared to be the kind of offices generally occupied by supervisors. He could hear what sounded like one side of a muffled conversation. Strange. As the officer reentered the room and returned to the counter, Palmer rose to approach it. At that moment, a muscular uniformed Biloxi police officer came through the front door. The blonde officer, still ignoring Palmer, handed the burly officer what appeared to be Palmer's note. She nodded her head toward Palmer and said, "Him." The officer examined the note and looked at Palmer. "May I see some identification, please?" Palmer, pissed that he, a citizen engaged in a perfectly legal activity, would have to show identification, knew that in the final analysis he would not be given a choice. He produced his driver's license. The officer took the document, produced a small notepad, and proceeded to make notes. He said nothing until he turned back to Palmer. He towered over the latter even though Palmer was not a small man. "Your driver's license gives your occupation as a private investigator." "That's right." "Do you mind telling me what interest you have in Hazel?" "Who?" "Isn't this your handwriting on the note that Officer Green, (nodding toward the blonde officer), just handed me?" "Oh, Yes. That's my note. Hazel Krower-Yes." "You don't seem to be very familiar with the name on the record that you are asking for." "I'm running down some information for a client and the name escaped me for a minute." "Really? Who is this client?" "My principal's identity is confidential." The officer appeared startled. He scrutinized Palmer as if he were a paleontologist studying an unfamiliar rock. Finally he spoke, "I think that you and I better take a walk over to the Chief's office." Palmer, remembering Rader's cautionary comments, didn't want to get involved with police officials. "Look officer, I'm a citizen doing what I have a right to do. I'm just looking at public records. I don't have to tell your chief or you anything." "Maybe not. But you're still going to his office." "Maybe I don't want to." "Want has nothing to do with it. You're going. Voluntarily or not, but you are going." "Am I under arrest?" "Not yet, but you're headed there." # Palmer and the big cop sat in the Biloxi Chief's office for about five minutes before the chief came in. The Chief seated himself at his desk and silently studied the folder that Cash's escort had placed there. Palmer suspected that the Chief had been briefed. The Chief looked up at Palmer and then at the husky officer. "What's up, Charlie?" "Mr. Palmer here, gave this note to Officer Green in the records room," Charlie answered, "yet he didn't seem to know who Hazel Krower was when I asked him what his interest was in her. That struck me as strange, considering that he wrote her name in the note. Now he doesn't seem to want to talk to us at all. That's not being friendly, him being an investigator and all that." "OK. Thanks, Charlie," The chief responded and the giant left.
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About the Book
Apart from media feeding frenzies sparked by celebrity trials and Special Prosecutors, Colin Briggs, until now, hadn't thought much about our criminal justice system. Life for the attractive, high-profile antique entrepreneur changes when federal agents blind-side him with a surprise visit and threat of an indictment for mail fraud. Suddenly the law and the unbridled power of its enforcers envelop his life. One by one, his reputation and business, his relationship with his fiancée Linda, his confidence in his closest associate and former lover Ginger Cook, and his cherished relationship with friend Joyce Fuller, are endangered as the federal lawyers and the media line up a scenario that goes from improbable to bad to worse. And he doesn't know the half of it. But we do. Don Organ, himself a former New Orleans trial lawyer, skillfully takes us behind the scenes. There, prosecutors, investigators, journalists, elected representatives, justice department bureaucrats, and cutthroat competitors in the river city antique world, all seek to fulfill their own dubious ambitions by nailing Briggs on what he says is a bogus case. World famous restaurants, upscale office towers, the historic French Quarter, and a picturesque Mississippi River ferry all provide the backdrop for Briggs' good life, and become, in Organ's hands, scenes of intrigue and betrayal. In attorney Hobart Rader, Colin Briggs finds his potential savior, but the momentum that gathers behind the conspiracy to break his client challenges even the great Rader. He is confronted with the indifference of lawyers both in and outside the government, Officers of the Court every one, to real justice. Apparently it doesn't take movies or television to bring out the best and the worst in the legal profession. Colin Briggs experiences it all when he finally gets his day in court. In tense and dramatic trial scenes, with surprises and reversals of fortune down to the gavel--and after--Donald Organ shows us what could happen to any of us, and does. ***** With this remarkable first novel Don Organ joins the ranks of John Grisham and Scott Turow. Full of twists and turns that will keep you turning pages, OFFICERS OF THE COURT is a must read. ***** Don Organ's white-collar mystery, OFFICERS OF THE COURT, is a winner. As soon as the FBI confronts Colin Briggs in his office, you know you are in for a gripping tale of how ordinary people can get caught up in the web of the criminal law. You immediately empathize with the main character and feel the same fear, anxiety and curiosity that he does when the FBI comes to call. If they are not coming to arrest, should he answer their questions or show them the door? Should he call his lawyer? If he is innocent of wrongdoing, does he have anything to fear? Thoughts like these raced across my mind. The cat and mouse game between the state and the individual will leave the reader thinking and sweating until the heart-stopping climax. This is a thinking person's book. It will interest anyone working or teaching in the area of criminal justice, as well as anyone who wants an excellent, page-turning read. ***** "Officers Of The Court" transports us to the world of Franz Kafka where false accusations meet guilt, and betrayal is commonplace. Don Organ's fascinating insider's view of the antique business alone is worth the price of admission. Law and justice collide in this first novel by someone who knows well and brilliantly the nuances of the legal trade.
-Peggy Webb
Author of WHERE DOLPHINS GO
-Martin L. Needleman, Ph.D.
Department of Criminal Justice
Bloomsburg University
Bloomsburg, PA 17815
-Joan Mellen,
Professor, English Department
Temple University
Author of HELLMAN AND HAMMETT
About the Author
Donald V. Organ was born on a cattle farm in western Kansas in 1925. During WWII, he served as an officer on U.S. Army Transportation Corp's ships in the Southwest Pacific Theatre of War. He arrived in Tokyo harbor on September 12, 1945.
Thereafter, he was assigned to troopships bringing GIs back from Germany to New York. He graduated from Loyola University School of Law (New Orleans) in 1955 and then spent the next forty years as a trial lawyer in New Orleans. He is now retired from law practice and divides his time between homes in Bush, Louisiana, and Northport, Maine.
An ardent sailor he has also earned a commercial pilot's license with instrument and multi-engine ratings. He is currently working on two novels. He and his wife, Joan, have five children.