companion ghost

Shen Lie looked at Stephen, who was sitting quietly on the witness stand with no expression on his face, closed his eyes and opened them again, covering up the original emotion in his eyes, and asked, "Stephen, what do you mean, you and the defendant Vincent O. Was the sexual relationship between Sterry consensual?"

"Yes."

"Really? That's not what you wrote in your testimony to Officer Barron and Officer Esposito." Shen Lie walked back to the table, picked up a folder from the table, and handed it to Stephen, "Please give the jury Group read the highlights."

Stephen took the document with trembling pale and slender fingers, paused, and read: "When I was seven years old, Vincent picked me up from the street, and he... started to touch me and hit me at that time , rape me, let me call him master, and sleep on the ground at his feet...Once I do something wrong, or don't listen to him, he will..." Stephen's Adam's apple rolled, and he continued, "Use torture The instrument of punishment in the room punishes me."

Shen Lie reached out and pressed the remote control, and the projection showed the picture of Stephen's scars when he was just rescued from Vincent's mansion by the police officers and sent to the hospital.

"This is what you call a consensual sexual relationship?" Shen Lie withdrew the document from his hand and pointed at the projector, "You chose to be raped? You chose to be abused? You chose to have this satisfaction voluntarily." The scars on your body? You voluntarily chose to live like a sex slave for ten years?"

"Objection!" Klein said, "Forcing witnesses!"

Judge Parker looked at Shen Lie disapprovingly: "The prosecutor pays attention to the boundaries."

Shen Lie looked at Stephen's pale and delicate face, calmed down, took out a photo of Louis, and continued to ask: "Do you know this boy?"

Stephen nodded, and whispered: "Gabriel."

"Gabriel? You mean Louis?" Shen Lie snorted, "Was Vincent named?"

Stephen didn't speak.

Shen Lie said in a deep voice, "Did Vincent kill Louis?"

Stephen raised his face and glanced at Vincent in the dock, who gave him an encouraging smile.Ning Yuan saw this scene, and said to Shen Lie: "Don't let Stephen and Vincent make eye contact."

Shen Lie deliberately took a step to the left, blocking Vincent and Stephen's eye contact, and said sharply, "Don't look at him, look at me!"

Stephen was still looking in Vincent's direction, and it took him a while to look at Shen Lie. What Shen Lie saw from his pair of green eyes was emptiness and despair.Stephen said softly: "No, Vincent didn't kill him, I did."

Shen Lie: "..."

Ning Yuan: "..."

Casey in the auditorium was trembling with anger. Dino pressed his hand, frowned, and said in a low voice, "Didn't Shen be fine last night when Shen took him to rehearse for the court?"

Casey also shook her head: "Who knows!"

Dino's tone was firm: "Vincent must have contacted Stephen last night and told him something."

"You are too tactful, what did you say? This is obviously brainwashed!"

Dino thought for a while: "Does Stephen have any communication tools? The tablet that Shen gave him?"

"Pull it down," Casey vetoed, "That's a tablet, you can't even insert a SIM card!"

Casey and Dino were quietly researching how Vincent got in touch with Stephen, while Shen Lie and Ning Yuan were completely stunned.

Shen Lie calmed down: "Stephen, do you know what you are talking about now?"

Stephen nodded.

"It's impossible, what motive do you have to kill Louis?"

"..." It took Stephen a while to spit out two words, "jealousy."

"Jealous?" Shen Lie laughed angrily, "Why are you jealous of Louis?"

"I'm jealous that he got Vincent's attention, I'm jealous that he's younger than me, and I'm jealous that he fits Vincent's taste better than I do now." Stephen also looked at Shen Lie coldly, word by word, "You are satisfied Yet?"

"Are you admitting that Vincent had sex with you and Louis?" Shen Lie grasped the meaning beyond his words and asked forcefully.

Stephen was irritated and shouted: "What does it matter!"

"Yes, or not!" Shen Lie approached him with a heavy tone.

"Yes! So what!"

Shen Lie left across from him, facing the jury, said: "Yes, it constitutes two counts of statutory rape." He then said to the court clerk: "Please record, the first witness testified that the defendant was guilty of two counts of statutory rape. "After finishing speaking, he didn't even look at Stephen, and said directly to the judge: "There is no problem."

Klein stood up and began to cross-examine Stephen: "Stephen, the first question, when did you have a sexual relationship with Vincent?"

Stephen moved on the chair uneasily: "Last year."

Shen Lie sneered, and rolled his eyes without hesitation.

"Then why did you say in your police statement that you were seven years old?"

Stephen said quickly: "I lied."

"OK," Klein asked tentatively, "You were 16 years old last year?"

"Yes."

"Why did you choose to have sex with my client at the age of 16?"

Stephen twisted his fingers: "I, I... love Vincent so much, I can't wait until I'm 17 [note], I told Vincent that I'm already 17, so..."

"So," Klein paced back and forth, "You lied to Vincent that you were legally of age, but Vincent believed you, and he didn't know that he had committed a crime—"

"Objection!" Shen Lie stood up, "Your Honor, New York State does not recognize statutory rape as a justification for coaxing or any other reason."

"I withdraw," Klein said calmly. "The second question, who had the sexual relationship with Louis, who is what you call Gabriel?"

Stephen took a few quick breaths and closed his eyes: "...It's me."

"No problem." Klein returned to his seat after signaling to the judge.

Ning Yuan stood in front of Stephen. Although he knew he couldn't see him, he still stretched out his hand to touch Stephen's face.

The hand stopped a few centimeters away from Stephen's face, Ning Yuan was afraid that the ice would hit him, so he took it back.

Shen Lie took Ning Yuan's actions into his eyes, and his face darkened.

Judge Parker tapped the hammer twice and announced, "The trial will continue at [-]:[-] p.m., and the court is now adjourned!"

"What the hell is going on?" Back in the office, Shen Lie threw the document on the table with a snap.He asked the police officers with a sullen face, "Just one night, Stephen retorted so much?"

Dino also frowned tightly: "I'm contacting the patrolman on the night shift, and he said there is nothing abnormal, and Casey is in contact with Ren'ai Hospital."

As soon as he finished speaking, Casey pushed the door open and came in: "The security department of Ren'ai Hospital said that there was a problem with their surveillance video, and it took at least three days to fix it."

"Three days?" Shen Lie sneered, "The child is dead and they are coming to nurse, and the trial is over, I still need that broken video for a fart."

Ning Yuan was dumbfounded.

Did such a vulgar sentence really come out of your mouth?

Shen Lie pinched the bridge of his nose and said, "Cathy, I will summon you to appear in court this afternoon."

"Me?" Kathy pointed back at himself, "what can I do in court?"

"Vincent's phone call, or anything else, if I ask you, you should answer truthfully," Shen Lie stretched out his fingers and began to break, "The defendant, who is humorous and has a high social status, is familiar with the law. The defense lawyer, the first witness who took all the charges by himself, the second witness who died, if there is not even a witness on my side in this case, there is no way to win or not, the disgraceful local prosecutor's office You won't let me go so easily."

"But..." Casey hesitated, "I didn't record Vincent's phone call, and there is no physical evidence."

"Your appearance in court is just to give us one more bargaining chip and give the jury another choice. Don't acquit Vincent too easily." Shen Lie leaned back on the desk and rubbed his temples.

Casey spread his hands: "You can do whatever you want me to do, as long as I can throw this scum in there."

Shen Lie said indifferently: "I'm afraid that after you have done everything, he still won't be able to get in."

courtroom one

Shen Lie stood up: "Your Honor, the prosecution summoned the second witness, Officer Casey Barron of the New York Police Department's Homicide Squad to testify in court."

Poor Klein had just sat down, and the stool hadn't warmed up yet, so he had to stand up helplessly, and said, "The application is coming forward?"

Judge Parker nodded, and Klein and Shen Lie walked from their seats to the front of the judge's bench.

"Your Honor, I did not know of this second witness for the prosecution until now."

Shen Lie had a half-smile, "Why? You spent almost an hour with Police Officer Barron in the interrogation room."

Klein was helpless: "You know that's not what I meant."

Judge Parker signaled them to stop, and asked Shen Lie, "I want to hear the prosecution's reasons."

Shen Lie said nonsense without changing his face: "Officer Barron has a close relationship with this case, and he took over the case from the beginning. He also had the most contact with the defendant. Because of the issue of sexual orientation, Officer Barron has always refused to agree to appear in court. Testify and have not been persuaded until just now."

Ning Yuan was on the side: "..."

Sexuality issue?

Does Kathy know he's been out by you?

Wait a moment……

Do you really know Casey's sexuality?

Judge Parker thought for a while, and looked at them through the gap above the glasses: "Since the witness has something to do with the case, I allow you to go back."

On the way back with Shen Lie, Klein said in a low voice: "Thanks to Prosecutor Shen, today I have seen what serious nonsense is."

Shen Lie didn't even look at him: "You can shut up and prepare for the cross-examination of Casey."

Klein: "..."

You really don't give me any face.

_______________________________________________

【注】美国法律上的成年是17岁。如果17岁之后的人和17岁之前的人发生性关系，就属于法定强奸。我记得美国有一个州是接受法定强奸的抗辩的。类似于“她和我上床的时候说自己已经17岁啦”“拉倒吧你看她你那个样子哪里像17岁以前的？”“你和别人上床之前会看别人的身份证吗？”这种理由。但是纽约是不接受类似于这种理由的任何抗辩。

Because the law believes that children before the age of 17 do not have the ability to independently decide whether they can have sex with others.I'm afraid that everyone won't be able to read my long-winded explanation. If you have any questions, you can comment and ask me~