Russell Benson watched the Hopkins leave with Jefferson, and remained behind as he had his own agenda to take care of. He walked down the hallway in search of someone else, and found that man standing in the lobby leading out to the front doors of the courthouse. Dick Burgess was taking questions from various reporters and basically making a pitch to how he was going to handle Russell’s client on behalf of the people of the state. Burgess was also sharply dressed and with teeth whiter than freshly pressed shirts as he enjoyed looking good for the cameras. His natural ability to give the press the sound bytes that always managed to make the airwaves helped his cases more than it hurt, as most people for prospective jury pools would remember the sharp dressed man with the cute smile. That always seemed to give Dick an edge but this was on beach that Russell Benson wasn’t will to surrender without a fight. Russell also wasn’t the kind of man who would allow someone to take up all the talking time so he emerged into the lobby himself, strolled over to where Burgess was making his statement and pretty much budded in.

“I can assure you,” Burgess was saying to the press, “That we will use all our resources in place to secure the conviction and make sure justice is attained for the victim and the people of this fair city.”

“This fair city is about to learn why I have a winning record against you, Dick.” Russell called out as he stepped up to the same reporters. “Good afternoon, my name is Russell Benson and I represent the accused, Xander Hopkins.”

“What strategy are you going to use for your defence?” one reporter asked.

“I thought a wise strategy would be to go with the truth,” Russell said, with a cheeky and rather playful tone. “The truth happens to be that our client is innocent and these allegations are total fabrications.”

“How can you be so sure?” another reporter asked.

“There are signs if you look hard enough,” Russell answered, “The fact that the alleged victim tried to extort our client for money last week would be a red flag for me. We are not going to give these blackmailers what they want, and intent to fight vigorously in court to clear Xander’s good name. When this is all said and done, I will not hesitate to sue anyone who assumes my client’s guilt without evidence and includes the media as well.”

“You can sue us for exercising our first amendment rights!” one reporter called out. She looked rather bothered by that statement.

“Yes, I can.” Russell corrected her, “Because the first amendment only covers the right to speak the truth. Lies and blatant fabrications are not protected speech and you can be sued for defamation and slander if anyone reports or prints something that isn’t accurate. Contrary to popular opinion, you are allowed to yell fire in a crowded theatre if there is an actual fire and your declaration happens to be a true account.”

“So who is telling the truth right now?” the reporter asked.

“That’s a good question,” Russell replied, “You’ll have to find out next week during the preliminary hearing. I look forward to speaking to you again, and maybe by then someone will have proven which story happens to be true.”

Russell walked away from the lobby and over to the other side where Allister was waiting for him, hands in his pockets as he watched Benson make his comments. He had a grin on his face and Russell approached him.

“Couldn’t resist, eh?” Allister started, “You’re almost as good and Burgess is at hamming it up for the cameras.”

“Just because I’m good at it, doesn’t mean I like it.” Russell said, as he turned to look back at Burgess who had carried on with his conversation with the press as if the last few moments with him never happened. “Some people are born to be in front of the camera.”

“Doesn’t hurt when you’re looking to seek higher office, either.” Allister said, “If he wins this case, Burgess is a shoe in to win the next election for DA.”

“A shame he’s not going to win then, isn’t it?” Russell declared.

“You sound more confident than usual, Russell.” Allister observed.

“I got a text from Mac during the arraignment,” Russell said, “We need to get back to the office. It appears our top investigator found something she claims is rather significant to our case.”

“Oh, I love it when she says that.” Allister said, “I’ll get the car.”

It took them little time to get back to the office but when they arrived Mac was already in Russell’s office. She was sitting in his chair, and had a ton of papers scattered all over his desk while she worked on their case. Russell walked into his office and placed his brief case on one of the empty chairs and took his jacket off while scanning over his messy desk.

“Correct me if I’m wrong,” Russell started, “But don’t you have your own office?”

“That office is cluttered with other stuff for another case,” Mac replied, “A case I plan to resume after I take care of this one. So for the time being, we’re using your office to organize and focus on this case. Do you have a problem with that?”

“If it helps you with this case, then I do not.” Russell said, laying his coat on the back of one of the chairs facing his desk. “Our client needs us all to be vigilant, so if you need more office space, than that’s what you’ll get. Ego takes a backseat to results. Give me something I can work with and you can move in here for all I care.”

“Remember you said that,” Mac said as she picked up a rather thick file off of the mess on Russell’s desk and handed it to him.

“Is this about the alleged victim?” Russell asked.

“No, I’m still looking into her,” Mac answered, “That file has a lot of interesting information about the man who hosted this little unfortunate shindig. I think you’ll find what I uncovered about him rather interesting.”

“Is that so?” Russell said, as he opened it and started to read it. He scanned through a few pages and the pictures that were printed on them and then looked back at Mac. “Is this for real?”

“I verified it myself,” Mac said, “I called all the police stations in each state and faxed the pictures for confirmation. It’s legit.”

“Holy crap,” Russell said as he kept reading, “This changes everything.”

“I can only imagine Burgess’ face when we show this to him,” Mac said, “His face will turn as white as his teeth.”

“We don’t have to tell him,” Russell said, “Discovery is for trial, we can hang onto this and sandbag him at the preliminary hearing, especially if Dick calls this guy to the stand, which I’m sure he will.”

“What makes you say that?” Mac asked.

“They’re trying to pressure us to settle,” Russell said, “And despite my declaration to never settle, Dick will still try to push us in that direction by showing us everything he’s got. That means he’ll call this host to the stand too. When he does that, we’ll take this guy to the shed and rake his ass.”

“And what do you hope to achieve?” Mac asked, “Besides making you and your client feel a bit better.”

“You’d be surprised how effective that is,” Russell answered, “Other witnesses will be intimidated, and might not even testify and that will hurt Dick’s case big time. We might not even get past the prelim.”

“Don’t push your luck,” Mac said, “There isn’t a burden during that hearing. All he has to do is prove that’s he’s barking at the right tree. You’re the one fighting an uphill battle here.”

“Get me something like this on the victim,” Russell suggested, “And that fight won’t be as much of a burden to me.”

“I’m working on it,” Mac reminded him, “For now made do with that.”

“Are you staying in late?” Russell asked.

“I am,” Mac confirmed, “You?”

Russell started to roll up his sleeves, “Might as well. I’ll get Allister to order Chinese from that place we like. Show me what else you found out regarding this piece of trash...”