The Trial of Chief Vance
Chapter 13 - The Trial of Chief Vance
Chief Vance went to trial the following year.
The charges included conspiracy, evidence theft, obstruction, witness intimidation, civil-rights violations, and Michael Trent’s murder.
His attorney described Rebecca as obsessed.
The prosecution answered with records.
Warehouse photographs.
Deleted bodycam exports.
Rourke’s confession.
The message ordering her silenced.
The sabotaged brake line.
Vance testified that he protected the department from chaos.
Rebecca sat in the gallery.
She had heard corrupt officials use the same argument before.
They called secrecy stability.
They called fear discipline.
They called innocent people acceptable losses.
The jury convicted Vance on every major count.
As officers led him away, he looked toward Rebecca.
“You destroyed the department.”
She answered quietly.
“No. I stopped you from pretending you were it.”
A new chief took office under federal oversight.
The department survived.
That was the truth men like Vance never understood.
May you like
Institutions were not the people abusing them.
Sometimes accountability was the only thing that kept them alive.
