Title: How Long Did You Think You Could Keep This Up (Before I Found Out)?
Rating: PG
Fandom: White Collar
Pairing: None, not really – okay maybe implied P/N, mention of RLP
Spoilers: Minor 1.13 reference
Summary: Neal’s not stupid, and he’s made a few new friends
Warnings/Triggers: Legal stuff
Word Count: ~1200
A/N: I’m a lawyer, and there are a few recurring plot points that have been really, really annoying me. JE, WhiCoWriters – are you paying attention?
“Caffrey, are you paying attention?” Hughes was practically barking at him, but Neal couldn’t bring himself to care about whether he needed to file one or two copies of form 3-stroke-B/slash-7-blah-blah-blah with the original criminal complaint. Since when was paperwork so important that an Assistant Director of the FBI needed to chew out a lowly consultant? Not that Neal thought of himself as particularly lowly.
“Maybe you’d just prefer to head back to prison right now?”
Peter started to interrupt his boss, but this was just the opening Neal was looking for.
“Sir,” Neal knew this wasn’t the moment to show disrespect. “You’re saying that if I don’t file FBI paperwork properly, you’ll immediately send me back to jail? That seems a little harsh.”
“Neal…” Peter’s voice had a wealth of warning in it.
“What are you getting at, Caffrey?” Hughes modified his tone, but he wasn’t backing off of his threat.
Neal opened the legal folder he had carried with him into the meeting, a folder that Peter first noticed back at Neal’s apartment last night. It was a nice, sturdy folder, with no identifiable markings on it, definitely not an item that came from the FBI storeroom (which would have had an FBI seal on it). It was the type of folder that high-priced lawyers used.
“Morrissey v Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 1972.” Neal offered no additional information. He fully expected both men, who probably had at least 40 years combined experience in the criminal justice system to know precisely what he was talking about. This felt good, like he was in an episode of Law & Order and just blindsided the DA with some obscure ruling. “And you can't tell me that Morrissey isn’t relevant.”
“When did you start law school, Caffrey? Or did your friend – the one who claims he’s a lawyer with a degree from University of Phoenix – which, by the way, doesn’t have a law school – give you this information.” Hughes was turning an odd shade of purple. Peter just stood there; arms folded across his chest, saying nothing.
Neal ignored Hughes’ comment about Moz and just looked down at the printout in the folder. He flipped through a few pages – with paragraphs highlighted in day-glo yellow, “I found this very interesting – it seems that you just can’t summarily put me back in jail.” Neal dropped his voice an octave, and began to read:
“The enforcement leverage that supports the parole conditions derives from the authority to return the parolee to prison to serve out the balance of his sentence if he fails to abide by the rules. In practice, not every violation of parole conditions automatically leads to revocation.” Neal gave special emphasis to the last sentence.
He continued, “Typically, a parolee will be counseled to abide by the conditions of parole, and the parole officer ordinarily does not take steps to have parole revoked unless he thinks that the violations are serious and continuing, so as to indicate that the parolee is not adjusting properly and cannot be counted on to avoid antisocial activity.” Neal looked up from the ruling, first at Hughes – and then at Peter.
“I really like this part: 'Implicit in the system's concern with parole violation is the notion that the parolee is entitled to retain his liberty as long as he substantially abides by the conditions of his parole.' ” Neal couldn’t help but add some dramatic flair on the word “substantially.
“We see, therefore, that the liberty of a parolee, although indeterminate, includes many of the core values of unqualified liberty and its termination inflicts a "grievous loss" on the parolee and often on others. It is hardly useful any longer to try to deal with this problem in terms of whether the parolee's liberty is a "right" or a "privilege." By whatever name, the liberty is valuable, and must be seen as within the protection of the Fourteenth Amendment. Its termination calls for some orderly process, however informal.”
“Stop, just stop.” Hughes made to grab the folder from Neal, as if taking possession of a photocopy of a nearly 30-year old Supreme Court ruling could change the law. “I don’t think Bureau resources should be used to help you find loopholes out of your sentence.”
Neal went on, “I get a Morrissey Hearing – and I’d be entitled to advance notice, legal representation, impartial examiners. I can even bring character witnesses. In short, YOU JUST CAN’T THROW ME BACK.” Real anger was now evident in Neal’s voice.
“Neal…” Peter’s voice was steady, not apologetic. He had long ceased to torment Neal with the threat of re-incarceration – bringing it up only when he thought Neal was about to break the law, and those weren’t threats but simple statements of fact. “You seem to have become quite versant in criminal procedure.”
“I’ve made a friend, Peter.” Neal wasn’t even looking at Hughes now. “Three friends, actually – Stuart Gless, and some lawyers. They dropped by June’s on Sunday, we had a nice luncheon on the terrace.”
Peter’s blood ran cold – the thought of Neal “making friends” with his former victim seemed wrong, somehow.
“Seems that Gless thinks he is now in my debt, said something about his daughter’s life being worth more than any bond. He wants to help me now. He’s got a pair of high powered attorneys on retainer for me – David Boies and Ron Kuby. They are both very interested in seeing my rights protected.” To his credit, Neal didn’t seem smug or self-satisfied and held his gaze steady. “Funny how things change in the blink of an eye.”
Neal finally turned back to Hughes, “I would have thought that you’ve been through enough government-mandated management training classes to know that people work better when given a carrot rather than beaten with a stick.” He added, “Ron seems to think that since I’ve been working with the FBI while on parole, being reincarcerated would pose a significant threat to my well-being. He mentioned something about the Fourth Amendment and cruel and unusual punishment.”
Hughes responded, “There’s always solitary.”
“Nope – that doesn’t work either. You can’t throw me into solitary confinement without justification – particularly for a technical violation of my parole conditions – like failing to follow FBI procedures correctly – and really, unless you can prove I’ve committed a crime, it’s going to be really hard to shove me back into prison.” Neal was on a roll now – he knew he won this round.
Peter had the sinking feeling that his job just got a lot harder – keeping control of Neal when he thought he’d have his parole revoked for the most minor infraction had been hard enough. He could see Neal milking this for the next three and a half years.
Neal seemed to read Peter’s mind, or maybe just Peter’s face. “Look Peter, I’m not out to screw you over or screw this up.” He turned back to Hughes. “Please, just give me a little respect.”
Hughes nodded, it was hard to fight the law when you spent your life upholding it, and Peter had warned him that Neal wouldn’t respond well to threats. Hughes tried to retain the upper hand. “Do your job, Caffrey and we won’t need to have any more of these little conversations. Understood?”
Neal was a smart man, and he knew when to quit while he was ahead. He picked up his hat, his file and backed out of Hughes’ office, perfectly satisfied – for the moment. It was going to be fun testing the limits, now that he had a safety net.
__________________________
Further A/N
Morrissey v Brewer
David Boies
Ron Kuby
No comments:
Post a Comment