Page 34 of This Is Law 3
Chapter Thirteen
DUTCH THORNE
“Your honor, before you make your ruling on whether my client can get a bond, I would just like to say that I recognize the seriousness of the charges that Mr. Thorne is currently facing. In cases like his, that involve organized crime, racketeering, and conspiracy, it’s common for bonds not to be granted.
I don’t want you to think that by me asking for my client to receive a bond that I’m minimizing that.
Trust me, that’s not the reason I’m asking.
I’m just asking if you can look at the reality of what my client is currently going through.
Mr. Thorne’s son is in the hospital because he was targeted and shot multiple times.
It isn’t looking good for him, and the only thing that’s keeping him alive are the machines that he’s hooked up to.
Over the weeks that he’s been hospitalized, his condition has deteriorated.
With this, my client is asking for leniency from you, with all respect to the charges that he’s facing.
All he wants is a bond, so that he can be with his child.
If the worst happens, he would like to be there to attend his sons funeral, “Dominic, my attorney said to the judge, taking a quick pause, so that he could finish.
“If he’s granted a bond, we understand that there will be strict conditions that he must adhere to, and we’re willing to accept them.
Mr. Thorne will immediately surrender his passport.
He’ll agree to the monitoring system twenty- four hours a day.
Even if the court requires him to remain under house arrest, only leaving to visit his son in the hospital, he is willing to accept that as well.
My client is not a flight risk, your honor.
This is just a man that’s desperate to make it back to his son,” Dominic concluded, and to me, that shit sounded great, so I could only hope that the judge felt the same way.
In a perfect world, the only person that would have been defending me during this process was Law.
Since Law was a little boy, I used to always tell him that if I ever got hemmed up, and had to face crazy charges, he was going to be the one that I relied on to get me out of that jam.
Never in a million fuckin years did I think that our shit would unfold like this.
When Law walked in the room a few weeks ago at the jail for us to go over this shit, and get me out of it, I didn’t think that he would have come to see me on that bullshit.
Not going to lie, when he played that audio for me, at first, I didn’t hear what the fuck he was trying to have me listen to, but then, that crazy ass nigga sat there, and kept playing the shit, and I heard exactly what he heard, even though I tried to play it off, and make that nigga out to be crazy for hearing things.
In that moment, two things came to mind; one is that he was his father’s child because Knox was the kind of man that was going to always get to the bottom of something, no matter how long it was going to take him.
Secondly, he had earned that title of being labeled the best attorney in the game because there was no way he was able to crack a case that even the feds couldn’t crack well over thirty years ago.
I was so fuckin angry with myself for going out to that cemetery and doing all that talking to Knox.
I was spaced out, in my own little world, riding my high horse, like I always am, not paying attention to anyone, or anything that was around me.
Out of all the ways that I could have ever gotten caught slipping, I never thought that it would be on audio of me confessing to it.
Once I knew that Law wasn’t going to represent me, I had to move fast and see who would come next.
I didn’t know other attorneys like that because for years, I’ve always known that if shit ever went down, Law is who I would turn to.
I did my homework, and I learned that the next best thing, or someone that was just as good as Law, was attorney Alecia Jackson.
I reached out to her office, but I could never get her on the phone.
It was always her assistant that would pick up.
I was calling that bitch’s office every time that I had access to a phone.
Her assistant eventually came clean and told me that Alecia had taken on too many clients, and she wouldn’t be able to fit me in her schedule, but I felt like that shit was a lie.
That bitch probably heard the severity of my case and decided that she didn’t want anything to do with it.
That or Law was trying to sabotage me, so that no one would work with me.
I did some more digging, and that’s when I decided to reach out to Dominic.
I knew that he was the attorney that was representing that rapper nigga, Reggie.
I didn’t want to reach out to him at first because I knew how much work went into a RICO case, so I didn’t think that he would be able to properly give my case the attention that it needed, but he assured me that him, and his team were the best, and they would help me out of this jam that I was in.
Seeing the way he just pleaded for me to the judge, so that I could get out on bond, I was starting to believe that my money to him was well spent.
The judge that we had this morning was a black judge named judge Morris.
Older guy, probably in his early seventies.
He sat in front of the courtroom with brown skin and silver hair.
I’ve heard stories about judge Morris, and I knew that he wasn’t shit to play with in the courtroom.
He handed out hard sentences to all the killers, dope boys, and gangstas in Miami, and he did that shit like it was nothing.
Nigga didn’t give a fuck about a person’s sob story, that’s why even though Dominic just vouched for me, and made my story sound as sad as he wanted it to, I knew that judge Morris wasn’t going to be easily moved by it.
He wanted killers off the street. Anybody that broke the law, he wanted them locked up, and that’s the part that I was worried about.
Judge Morris had paperwork in front of him, and he used about two minutes to look through everything that was before him.
To the right of me, I heard someone from the prosecutor side clear their throat, and someone stood up.
There were two members over there on the prosecution side.
They were members of the Assistant U.S. Attorney (AUSA) .
My case was considered federal, so it was the big dogs that were after me.
The government wanted my ass buried underneath the prison, and this was the prosecution team that was sent to do it.
“Your honor, I do want to give you time to look over whatever is in front of you, but I would just like to state that the government strongly opposes bond in this case. The charges that Mr. Thorne is currently facing are too heavy, and it’s a risk that I don’t think you should take.
He will flee. This is a man of power, with people working under him, taking direct orders from him, so if he wants to get out of Miami, I strongly believe that he will.
The hard evidence shows not only his involvement in his charges, but also the lead role that he has played over the years.
He has the means, and the connections to flee.
While we are sympathetic with what’s currently taking place with his son, who had also stood before you in court on a few occasions because of his history of breaking the law, it still doesn’t remove the danger or the flight risk that he is.
These reasons, Your Honor, we are respectfully asking that the bond be denied,” one of the prosecutors said.
I was staring a hole through that cracka right now, wanting him to look at me, but he wouldn’t.
His ass tried to be shady by mentioning my son’s criminal history.
Dominic knew that that shit pissed me off because as I was sitting down, my leg was bouncing up and down, and he gave me a look, shaking his head, basically telling me not to blow this moment by showing that other side of me, where my temper could go through the roof.
“Counsel, I’ve listened carefully to both arguments that were presented today in court.
Mr. Thorne, I want you to know that myself, and members of this court are all sympathetic towards what is currently taking place with your son.
I have five children of my own, and I believe that no parent should have to endure the possibility of losing a child.
Even through my sympathy, it’s not enough to take away from the law, and the things that we must consider.
The charges that you have are serious. They are heavy.
With the weight of the evidence that’s against you, the potential sentence that you can receive, and your ability to flee, all these things speak against a bond for you.
The defendant will remain in federal custody until pending trial,” judge Morris finished, banging his gavel, and all I could do was nod my head at it.
Yes, I was upset, but there was this piece of me that was prepared for it. Dominic had already told me earlier to prepare for shit not to go my way because it was rare for RICO cases to ever allow a bond.
“Don’t let this shit discourage you, man. We knew it was a chance this would happen. Once trial starts, we going to be on their asses. You gotta trust me that I’m going to do my job, man,” Dominic turned his head to say to me.
“You better trust you to do your job. If I get time, you going to personally see the reason why I’m locked up in the first place.
You don’t want to see that side,” I threatened him, as the officer came over, pulled me up by my arm, and with me being shackled up, I walked back, with officers on either side of me.