In Their Own Words – The Guardian
Major Sarah MacKenzie
By Erin (ugacrew@yahoo.com)
I was on my way to my office when I passed Harm’s and heard him rehearsing for a closing argument. I had recognized it and couldn’t help but complete it for him. I had told him that he needed to come up with something more creative than what he was saying. I figured by doing so it would irritate him. While making fun of his argument, he had gotten a call from Bud. By the sound of it Bud wasn’t in a good situation. It sounded like Bud was being held hostage at some church. Both of us rushed out the office to help him.
We arrived at the church to find a whole SWAT team surrounding the church. We had a difficult time crossing the police tape until Harm told the SWAT leader that we were in communication with the hostage inside. I went to the surveillance truck while Harm went in, armed with a bulletproof vest, to assist Bud. All I could do was watch Harm go in the church via the video equipment in the truck. I was frightened for him. I didn’t want him to get killed. We had just started working together and I didn’t want our friendship to end right then. I don’t know why my fear was so intense. After all we are just friends. I just keep staring at the screen and hearing Harm try to negotiate for Bud. While he was talking I picked up on the fact that the armed man was an ex-Navy man. The man was in the church hiding from the police because he had killed three robbers in a convenience store. I rushed outside of the truck so that I could place a private call to Military Intelligence at the Pentagon to find out if they had a dossier on the man. I found out that the man, Chief Paul Bauer, was an escapee from the psyche unit at a VA hospital.
Apparently he had escaped nine years ago after finding out that his wife was being stalked. I also found out that he was a P.O.W. and a SEAL and is considered very dangerous. I called Harm on his cell and gave him the information on the suspect. I told him to be VERY careful because the suspect was a SEAL. Leave it up to the SWAT team to mess things up. The SWAT team had attempted to shoot the suspect. In an attempt to protect the SEAL, Harm pushed him out of the way resulting in the man getting shot in the arm.
The next morning was spent in Admiral Chegwidden’s office. While debriefing him on the situation he let me know that he was getting some heat from the D.C. police. He later paged for Harm to come and join the debriefing after his court session was over. He came in and gave him a summary of what he told me. I was surprised that we hadn’t been reprimanded for our behavior. He actually was pleased at the turn of events. And in not so many words told Harm to represent the former SEAL. I guess the SEAL in Admiral Chegwidden helped us.
Later that week, Harm and I went to Chief Paul Bauer’s bail hearing. The prosecution let it be known that he, not the suspect, was arrogant when he got his way the judge. I could tell that Harm disliked the man. I totally agreed with him. Our client was not given bail.
Later on in the evening, Harm and I were going over the case documents and watching the surveillance video of the man shooting the armed robbers. We had no other witnesses except for our client and the dead ‘victims’. I looked over the papers while Harm kept replaying the video. I heard him gasp at something that he didn’t catch before. He slowed the video frame by frame and pointed to me what looked like a baseball cap. We had a witness. Finally! We both wondered if the prosecution had found out about this.
We went to the D.C. Superior Court to fish out any witnesses that the prosecution might have in regards to the case. He didn’t have a clue about the boy that we found on the surveillance tape. No surprise there. The arrogant attorney that we were dealing with was so gung-ho on getting him locked up or at least off the streets. We, in our minds, thought otherwise.
The next day in court, Harm and I were listening to the prosecution's side. The attorney was questioning a psychologist about the Chief’s state of mind when he attacked his wife’s stalker. She diagnosed him with Anti-Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). As the psychologist was testifying, Harm’s pager went off. Bud had paged Harm with some information about the video frame with boy in it. Harm left the courtroom in pursuit of that information. I would later find out that Bud had the photos enhanced in the media department so that the identity of the boy could be revealed. The identity of the boy was the son of Chief Bauer. That was a definite surprise. I was left to finish the cross examination of the psychologist. At this point the prosecution ‘thought’ they had won this point but didn’t. I had asked the doctor if she had witnessed any of the behavior from the patient. She said that she hadn’t personally seen it, but used information from prior interviews with the patient. Only did the prosecution know that I had an ace up my sleeve. I chose that point to enter into evidence two restraining orders that were against the stalker. I asked if the doctor had known about the orders when she diagnosed Bauer. She didn’t. I further asked her if the two victims that filed the restraining orders should be considered to have ASPD. She said no. There went the prosecution's theory. I said to myself, as I looked at the arrogant attorney, "I like the big leagues."
At this point in the case we were pursuing the platform that Chief Bauer shot the would-be criminals in order to protect his son. Bauer had told Harm that he didn’t want his identity reveled to his son because he wasn’t ready. We later spoke with the judge in her chambers that we wanted the boy to testify without revealing the fathers relationship to him. The judge told us that she would apprise the jury of the relationship before the boy would be present in the court. That helped our case tremendously. Without that, we wouldn’t have been able to use the boy as a witness due to the father’s request. The boy’s testimony proved to be the key in our winning the case.
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Disclaimer: While based on the JAG episode, this is for entertainment purposes only and no profit is being made.