Elegy - Chapter 35

Surprising myself, more than anyone else, I actually did manage to get caught up on my schoolwork. Just like the previous year, it probably wouldn’t have been possible without Kat, who worked her practice schedule around my free time to make sure she could spend every minute she could going over all of the stuff I’d missed.

Compared to the work she’d had to do getting me to grade level last year, this was at least easier since I was only making up a month and a half or so and not years of well-intentioned but poor education by my mother. It also helped that my teachers were bending over backward to make sure I had everything I needed to get caught up, allowing me to turn in assignments late when a new assignment needed information that was taught during the time period I missed and responding to emails even late at night when I had a question.

Some were doing it because they were good teachers and they generally seemed to want me to do well, but it was clear that the temporary administrator had laid down the law because even those teachers who had been, at best, apathetic had gone out of their way to help. All that meant that as it neared the end of the school year I was more or less caught up and ready for finals.

We still had another two weeks, but I still made it a point to study on my own whenever I had downtime, and I was deep down a math rabbit hole, that I was still struggling with, in spite of Kat’s help, when Hanna called. She always did have good timing.

“Hey, tell me you’re bored and want to talk for an hour or two,” I said when I answered the phone.

“Math again?” she asked.

We’d been talking more since I’d spent those days with her in Raleigh, but I’d avoided talking about my schoolwork, mostly because I usually wanted a break from it. Unfortunately, she’d also been talking more to Kat, who hadn’t shied away from those topics.

“Tell Kat I’ll be fine.”

“You tell her. She just worries about you.”

“I keep trying, but she’s been getting more and more pushy since you left. I swear, I miss the quiet and meek Kat.”

“No, you don’t,” she said, calling me out.

“Fine. No, I don’t. I could use less of ‘drill sergeant Kat,’ though.”

“I told you that you were creating a monster.”

“Frankenstein’s monster didn’t yell at me to work harder. He just grunted. I know that because she made me read the books.”

“You realize the mute version is only from the movies, right? He talks in the books.”

“Really?”

“Yep. See, this is what happens when you try to cut corners.”

“Great. So now I have to read the book, and I know how it ends. You were supposed to be a distraction from my work, not give me more to do.”

“You’ve only got yourself to blame, buddy boy.”

“Yeah, yeah. So if you weren’t calling to socialize, what’s up?”

“I wanted to let you know I won’t be coming home over the summer. I’ve got an internship analyzing business patterns for this research grant Professor Cross is doing.”

“Really? That sounds exciting and completely up your alley.”

“It is, although it’s not as exciting as it sounds. I’m not doing any of the actual fun stuff. My job is mostly digging for data and putting it all into the system for them. It’s a glorified data entry gig.”

“Considering how much he’s taken you under his wing, I bet it’s more than that, though.”

“Yeah, and I’m looking forward to it, but it means I’m not going to be able to help you on tours as much as I did last summer. If you need me, I can still come out sometimes and help get things organized, and anything that doesn’t need me in person I can definitely do, like making calls or dealing with merch or whatever, but I have to be here most of the time.”

“Don’t sweat it. We don’t even know if we’re going to have any tours. Everything I’ve done was set up by Willie, Brent, or Warren. I have a few people I actually made relationships of my own with that I can call and get gigs with, but it’s mostly the smaller places we played early on, and I can only play at those so many times. So it looks like most of our gigs are going to be at the Blue Ridge for the time being. And a lot of that depends on what MAC decides.”

“How much longer do they have?”

“Three days. I don’t really know if Mr. Eaves is serious or not, but I’m going to find out. If we have to take them to trial, it’s going to cost a lot of money. He’s already said he’ll take the case on contingency, since he thinks we can win and the payday is going to be big, but I’m still going to have to fork over some cash. Which means I’m not going to have time to do shows that have more exposure but pay less than the Blue Ridge.”

“It’ll work out. Just have faith.”

“Yeah, faith hasn’t been working out too well for me this year. I’m sticking with pessimism and doubt. At least that way, I won’t be let down.”

“Fine. Be that way. I’ll still be around, and I expect regular calls with updates.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, saluting the empty room around me.

I don’t know if she could tell that’s what I was doing or if it just made me sound a certain way, but it did get a laugh out of her.

“Are you ready for tomorrow?” she asked, changing the subject.

“I guess so. Honestly, I’m not sure how it’s going to go. Unlike the MAC thing, I haven’t gotten to sit in on anything, but I trust Mr. Eaves to handle it. I don’t really even care that much about getting any payment out of the lawsuit. As long as they make sure Mr. Campbell is never in a position of power where he can mess with me again, I’ll be happy.”

We talked for another ten minutes, mostly about how things were going at school and how excited she was about the internship. She said a few things that referenced her mystery man but still didn’t give away enough for me to know who the guy was. I guess after how things went with Troy, I didn’t blame her for being cagey.

***

Walking into the courthouse as the person bringing legal action was very different from walking in as a defendant. I was still nervous, but it was a different kind of nerves. If I lost today, my life would essentially be the same, except I’d have to make it through another year having to deal with Mr. Campbell and his ongoing vendetta. As bad as that was, it didn’t compare to having to spend twenty-five years in jail, which is what I was looking at as a defendant.

I definitely preferred things this way. I didn’t know if Asheville only had the one courtroom, or if it was a coincidence, but I ended up back in the same place where I’d been a month before, although on the other side of the room, since I was sitting where the prosecution had been, last time.

We didn’t have to wait long. Almost as soon as Mr. Eaves and I sat down, we were standing up again as the court clerk announced the judge. This time it was a much older woman with gray hair and giant glasses, so the county at least had more than one judge to preside over their apparently single courtroom.

“Okay,” she said when she sat down. “This is going to be pretty informal, and we’re going to try and get through it all pretty quickly, but I want to remind all of you that we’re still in a courtroom and I expect everyone to act like it. There isn’t a jury yet, so there’s no reason to give performances for their benefit. I don’t enjoy grandstanding, and I can’t stand hearing more than one person talking at once, so we’re all going to take turns and play nice. Okay?”

I felt like, with very few modifications, she could have used that same speech for a room of third graders, which made me wonder about how bad these cases sometimes got. It didn’t take long to find out, since after Mr. Eaves said ‘understood,’ she turned her eyes to Mr. Campbell, who was representing himself and the state, and who said nothing, looking down at his papers instead.

“I understand,” he said, almost begrudgingly.

“Good,” she said, frowning at him but moving on. “As I understand it, we’re here for the case of Charlie Nelson versus Buncombe County, where the plaintiff alleges that the defendant, specifically the Buncombe County prosecutor’s office, maliciously pursued a prosecution, and is seeking damages for financial loss following the prosecution and emotional distress. I see we have several motions to dismiss by the defendant in rebuttal, which we’ll be dealing with today. Once this matter is settled, I’ll have my clerk put the case on our books, and we can begin the process of heading to trial.”

“Now,” she continued. “In every civil litigation that comes into my court, I like to urge the participants to take a moment and consider negotiating a settlement before we end up going to trial. Our courts are currently at max capacity, and every case that can be dealt with before trial helps everyone, from those involved today to the taxpayers. It’s also usually the best-case scenario for everyone, even the victor, although the rewards received may not be what was hoped for. I want all of you to make the best effort possible to figure this out before it gets to trial. Understood?”

This time, at least, Mr. Campbell answered quickly.

“Good. Mr. Campbell, this is your motion, so you go first.”

“Thank you, Your Honor,” Mr. Campbell said, standing up. “Our motion is simple. We argue that in order to find a prosecution malicious, the plaintiff has to show that our office knew these charges were false and pursued them with malice anyway. Considering my office acted in good faith and was able to show enough probable cause to a grand jury that they voted to charge Mr. Nelson with the crimes, we have already shown that we had a good faith belief that the charges were true. That alone, regardless of the outcome of the criminal trial, should be enough to show that the prosecution was not only considered and warranted but completely reasonable. Because of this, we argue that the case should be dismissed today, freeing up your court’s time, as you’ve already pointed out is in everyone’s best interest.”

The judge had no reaction other than to flip through the folded stack of papers with a blue cover page, and after looking around for a second, Mr. Campbell sat down.

After scribbling some notes, the judge finally looked up and said, “Mr. Eaves.”

“Thank you, Your Honor. We wouldn’t have brought this lawsuit if we didn’t feel there was good reason for it. Aside from the fact that the trial judge saw fit to throw the case against my client out before it ever went to trial, she also referred Mr. Campbell to the state board and ethics committees for possible sanction due to his decision to bring the charges against my client to trial. While that alone should be sufficient reason for this lawsuit to continue, I have since gathered additional information that further proves the malicious and borderline illegal way Mr. Campbell and his office pursued my client.”

Pulling a series of documents out and holding them up, Mr. Eaves said, “We obtained this email correspondence from Mr. Campbell’s email account, between him and a school administrator, discussing that administrator finding a reason for Mr. Campbell to prosecute Charlie, as well as the promise of a payment in exchange for that administrator’s successful ‘discovery.’ It is clear from the content of this exchange that the accusation Mr. Campbell was requesting from the administrator did not have to be true, and suggestions were made as to what kinds of things could be ‘discovered.’ At the top of the list was the administrator finding narcotics among my client’s possessions. That one is interesting since such a ‘discovery’ was made, and the district attorney also managed to file charges with the grand jury for narcotics possession based on that accusation. Only after being presented with proof that it couldn’t ever have been in my client’s possession, did the administrator agree that the ‘discovery’ was a mistake and the charges were dropped.”

“Your Honor,” Mr. Campbell demanded, standing up quickly. “Those are confidential emails that …”

“We obtained through early discovery,” Mr. Eaves finished. “We presented your office with the request last week, and your assistant district attorney provided them to us; as he was required, by law, to do.”

While that last part sounded right, Mr. Campbell clearly thought it wasn’t, as his head shot around and he glared at a younger man sitting in the gallery. The man gave him a wolfish smile and a little wave that suggested providing the emails to Mr. Eaves had been done specifically to harm his boss. Considering the environment Aaron’s father almost certainly fostered in the workplace, it came as very little surprise that he hadn’t engendered much loyalty among his staff.

“Your Honor, this is clearly against the rules of …” Mr. Campbell tried again, more flustered this time.

“Are you suggesting your emails should not have been provided to the plaintiff as part of discovery? I’m not clear upon what grounds you’re objecting, considering your office was the one that handed them over.”

“I …” he started, but this time he cut himself off, sitting down, glaring back at his colleague again.

If Mr. Campbell did survive this ordeal, I seriously doubted the longevity of his subordinate.

“In that case, you may continue, Mr. Eaves.”

“Thank you. While paying someone to plant evidence on my client so he could be prosecuted should be enough to prove the targeting of my client well beyond the point of harassment, we also have the transcript of the hearing in the criminal case to Charlie’s trial which, as mentioned, showed conduct egregious enough that the presiding judge personally sent a complaint to the state ethics board.”

“Let me see those, please,” she said.

Instead of taking them to her, he stood there and waited while the court clerk retrieved them from him and carried them over to her. She spent almost five minutes flipping through the various documents and scribbling more notes while we all sat patiently.

Finally, she said, “From what I’m seeing here, there seems to be enough evidence to allow this case to proceed to trial. I’m currently looking at Wednesday, August second as the first open slot on my docket. You’ll be scheduled for trial that day, and you have until the end of June to submit any requests for continuances or delays, and until the fifteenth of July for additional motions or filings to the court prior to the start of trial. If that doesn’t work for you, please contact my clerk and he’ll see what he can do to find another time slot.”

She banged the gavel and stood up. Mr. Eaves also stood up and, just like in the hearing last month, pulled on my sleeve to get me to stand with him, which I guess signaled the end of the hearing.

“Once again, I would strongly … strongly recommend you consider discussing possible areas in which a settlement may be negotiated,” she said, looking directly at the men sitting with Mr. Campbell. “You gentlemen have a nice day.”

While I was happy to hear we’d survived to go to court, August was a very long way away, and I was definitely concerned about what Aaron’s father could do between now and then. Although, from the judge’s warning, it did sound like we had a good chance to win when it did finally go to court.

We’d barely made it out of the courtroom when some of the men in suits, who’d been sitting with Mr. Campbell, intercepted us.

“Mr. Eaves, do you have a moment to sit down and talk?”

I might have had no idea who they were, but Mr. Eaves did because he said, “When I talked to you last Tuesday, you didn’t have any interest in negotiating, George. Have you changed your mind, or is this going to be a waste of my time?”

“We’d just like to find a way to settle this without going to trial,” he said.

Mr. Campbell was behind the group of men and looked pissed, but that sounded a lot like they were willing to give in. During my last conversation with Mr. Eaves, he’d said our best shot to get what I wanted, which was getting Aaron’s father as far from a position of power as possible, was going to be through negotiation. If it went to trial, the best we’d really be able to hope for was a cash settlement.

“That’s all we want, too. I think they have a room down here set aside for public use,” Mr. Eaves said, pointing down the hall.

I found myself next to Mr. Campbell as we walked down the hallway, and I could feel the fury rolling off of him in waves. He never looked at me directly, but I could see he was doing the same half-look, half-peripheral thing I was doing. His lips were puckered, and he was breathing heavily, and I hoped he could keep his rage contained better than his son. The last thing I needed was to drop a lawyer in the courthouse.

We found ourselves inside a small conference room where we took seats on either side of a wooden table and sat awkwardly for a minute, everyone looking at everyone else. Mr. Eaves stuck to his policy of never speaking first if you can help it, until one of the men in suits finally spoke up.

“What will it take for this to go away?”

“With the evidence we have and how bad Doug’s conduct was, I imagine we’re going to be awarded between ten and fifteen million, based on the other cases this court has ruled on. We’d be willing to settle for the bottom number, ten million, or we’d settle for only five hundred thousand if it came with Mr. Campbell’s immediate removal from office and a guarantee that the county will not put him into a position of power ever again.”

Mr. Campbell slammed his fist on the table, his face turning beet red, and yelled, “This is outrageous! I will not stand by and …”

“Shut … up … Doug,” the man named George said.

Mr. Campbell opened and closed his mouth in rage, like a fish on land, but did stop talking.

“I read the newspaper, gentlemen. I know the financial troubles this county is currently facing, and that losing ten-plus million dollars would put you in a very difficult situation,” Mr. Eaves said, ignoring Mr. Campbell’s antics completely. “To put it frankly, it would cripple the county entirely. Getting the damage to half a million would probably let most of you gentlemen keep your jobs, come November. I also want to point out that getting rid of Doug is probably your only course of action once this is all over, no matter the cost. You’ve heard what he’s been up to. Someone like that is a giant liability to the county and will likely put you in this situation again and again. Although we could take the large payout and still get the end result we want, the reason we’re willing to take a smaller one is that we want assurances, in writing, that you won’t find a way to sneak him back in. I know Doug has a lot of connections, and I know he’ll use them so he can take another shot at my client. Look at him now and tell me I’m wrong. We’re willing to negotiate a reasonable amount to ensure that won’t happen.”

Mr. Campbell was glaring at me like he wanted to kill me when Mr. Eaves said that, causing him to suddenly look away with a mixture of surprise and guilt. He wasn’t fast enough, and he’d made Mr. Eaves’ point for him.

“If this goes to trial, trust me when I say I have more evidence that will drag you through the mud. We’re willing to burn the whole county to the ground to ensure he never gets back into office.”

The commissioners were silent, exchanging conflicted looks. Mr. Campbell stared straight ahead, barely controlling his rage. After a few agonizingly long heartbeats, they gave each other nods, as if they’d had a silent conversation, and had come to the same conclusion.

“Very well. We accept your terms.”