Daniel Walks Into the Courtroom
Chapter 07 - Daniel Walks Into the Courtroom
Daniel entered wearing county jail clothing and wrist restraints.
He stopped when he saw Rourke on the floor and Rebecca standing beside the first row.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
Judge Brooks ordered his restraints removed.
The prosecutor objected.
The judge looked at the message on Chief Vance’s phone.
“Your primary arresting officer attacked a witness in open court after receiving instructions from the chief. Restraints are the least of this case’s problems.”
Daniel sat beside his public defender.
Rebecca took the witness stand.
She described the warehouse, Michael’s backup drive, the deleted bodycam files, and the false evidence in Daniel’s car.
Federal counsel authenticated the drive’s chain of custody.
A digital examiner confirmed the original footage had been exported from department servers before it was erased.
One clip showed Rourke removing the same handgun later found beneath Daniel’s seat from a warehouse evidence box.
Another showed Chief Vance approving a destruction form for that weapon two weeks earlier.
The robbery case collapsed before lunch.
But Daniel did not smile.
He looked at Rebecca and whispered, “Michael died for this.”
May you like
She did not know whether that was true.
Now they finally had enough evidence to ask.
