"The Trial of Walter Johnson" (A chapter from "Behind Bars")

[CutiePie1997]

"The Trial of Walter Johnson"

A chapter from
"Behind Bars"

Note:
This trial takes place at an
as-of-yet-undetermined time.
It is being compiled now
and will be added to the timeline
of the parent thread
at the appropriate place.

If you wish to delay reading this thread
until the time at which it is added
to the parent thread, do so.
There will be notice of its completion.​

Charlotte "Charlie" Higgins hadn't known for certain what the future might hold for her when she'd taken over Clark County Correctional. There had been so much horror taking place at the time:

• The Red Flu had taken the lives of 90% of the inmates and staff.
• The Justice and Corrections systems had failed, leaving the prison to fend for itself.
• And the surviving inmates were sometimes were only tended to by staff every two or three days.

Charlie had taken hostages during a trip to the Infirmary and had made her demands of the remaining Staff: leave the prison and the prisoners to me and get the fuck out.

In normal circumstances, her request would have resulted in an armed and potentially deadly return of the prison to the control of the Authorities. But the interim-Warden at the time had been looking for a reason to abandon Three-C.

That Interim-Warden, of course, had been Walter Johnson. And now, of course, he was back, captured during the Casino Field Trip and housed in the end cell of A-Wing, not too far from where he'd brutalized Charlie herself on occasion.

"Open it," Charlie told Harvey Lewis, the last remaining Corrections Officer in the New Society. "I want to see him."

She rested her hand on her Beretta 9mm as she peered into the near total darkness of the cell. Walter Johnson was curled up on the concrete floor in a near fetal position with only a blanket to keep him from freezing to death, and even that blanket wouldn't cover his entire 6'6" height as Charlie had had it cut in half.

"Time to get cleaned up for your trial, Walter," she told him with a pleased voice as Harvey illuminated the cell from a nearby control panel.

Walter was hard for Charlie to look at, even with her hatred for the man:

• He'd been out and about in the dying world for only a week or so.
• His face had disappeared behind an ugly, ragged, graying beard that had grown almost impossibly long in such a short time.
• He'd retained his prison uniform out of pride -- or spite? -- and it had become ragged and stained.
• He'd been fed 3 meals a day during his incarceration in A-Wing, but Charlie had limited the meals to almost a bread and water nutritional value.
• Now naked except for the bandages over his shoulder -- Steven had shot him during the Casino gunfight -- he looked far less the strong, intimidating man-of-power he had been.

His first words upon looking up at Charlie were, "Water ... please."

Today, Charlie gave Walter Johnson all the care he needed: food, water, shave/shower/shine, and a fresh set of clothes ... an inmate uniform, of course.

She couldn't help but notice that Harvey showed concern for and sympathy to his former Supervisor. She didn't know whether or not to be worried about that or not.

 

[CutiePie1997]

Madge and Charlie discuss the charges

The day before the trial began:

Madge opened the file Charlie had just tossed onto her desk, asking, "What's this?"

"They're the charges against Walter Johnson, the result of my interviewing each and every inmate about their interactions with the former Corrections Officer and wannabe Warden."

Madge turned pages, her expression showing her surprise. "How many charges are there?"

"So far, 304, and that's just the ones involving inmates who are still here."

"How can that be? There's only, what, 26 inmates?"

"There're 25, including me and you," Charlie corrected, adding, "And those don't include the charges I could have filed involving the sexual assault of one of our Staff."

Madge looked to Charlie and contemplated what the woman was saying. There were only 3 Staff remaining in Three-C, and somehow she didn't imagine that either Steve or Harvey had been the victim of a sexual assault by Walter Johnson. She asked softly, not really wanting to hear details, "Betty Evans?"

Charlie told Madge more than she wanted to hear, "Couple'a months ago, after the Red Flu struck. Non-penetrating, not that that's important. It was assault, and it was brutal and frightening. I didn't know about it until after got Walter back here and Betty found out he was in A-Wing. I didn't include it in the charges, and you will not bring it up either, am I understood?"

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!​

The two spent more than three hours discussing the charges, after which the former Assistant District Attorney confessed, "If we are abiding by the official, statutory, pre-Red Flu laws and not some sort of post-Apocalypse, hang'em-high-for-revenge, jailhouse version of it, I don't think I can convict him on more than, I dunno, maybe 10% of these. There just ... there's no witnesses to most of them."

"You won't be prosecuting Walter Johnson," Charlie told her. "You'll be defending him."

Madge's eyes widened and her mouth fell open. "Defending him?"

"You are the only lawyer in Three-C. Walter has to have a capable defense ... before he'd found guilty and executed."

"So ... you've already decided he's guilty and will hang?"

"Needle in the arm, and no, I haven't decided he's guilty. A jury of his peers will."

"A jury of his peers?" Madge asked, laughing. "Inmates, you mean."

"Criminals," Charlie corrected, clarifying, "like Walter himself. His jury will included murders, rapists, and thieves, crimes that Walter himself is guilty of. So, as I said, a jury of his peers."