Original subtitles

Previously on L .A. Law.

What the hell are they doing here?

What does it look like they're doing? They're having dinner.

You think it's social?

It couldn't be social.

We don't like your methods. We don't like the secrecy. We've called this

to make our feelings clear. Fine. I am passing the senior partnership

temporarily over to Douglas.

You can't do that. I certainly can.

This bus accident is not the kind of case Mackenzie Brackman takes on.

I'm sorry. I don't mean to be abrupt.

We settled with a bus company for $225 ,000.

And here is a check made payable to the firm for $36 ,400.

Oh.

My birthday isn't until Thursday.

Agreed. But since you seem to be particularly anxious about it, I thought

take the opportunity to remind you every day this week. The big 4 -0. 39.

Look, in case you two are planning any surprise parties, forget it. I am not

celebrating this birthday.

Everybody quiet.

I'm going to go get Arnie now.

Okay.

Arnie, are you in there? It's me, Roxanne.

Go away.

Arnie.

Damn it,

Roxanne. Enough is enough.

This has been going on for over a week. I cannot take any more of this

hostility. I would think, under the circumstances, I would get a little

understanding.

The circumstances were that your wife was out there organizing a surprise

birthday party to show you how much she loves you while you were in here

committing sex acts with a client. Exactly. And do you have any idea what

like for me to have to cope with such a guilt?

Oh, please.

Think about it, Roxanne. The easy thing to do would be to confess, to cleanse my

conscience and unload the burden. But I don't. You want to know why I don't?

Because it would hurt Corinne too much. And I couldn't bear the thought of doing

that. So I hold it all in, suffering all the pain myself for her sake.

You're incredible.

Roxanne.

I wasn't going to say this, but... And I don't want you to worry.

But I'm sick.

What do you mean you're sick?

It's nothing to panic about yet, but I'm not well.

I have psoriasis.

Satter what?

Satiriasis, abnormally excessive sexual compulsion, probably caused by a small

lesion on my hypothalamus. Now, the doctors, they think it's treatable, but

have to go through some more tests. So right now, I'm just, I'm trying to think

positive.

Satiriasis. I'm going to beat this. With the support of my family and my

friends, I know I can beat this.

Just be there for me, Rox.

Give me strength.

Bye.

All right, let's get started, people. We've got a full docket.

First up, as senior partner, I've taken the liberty of setting up a few meetings

with some of you this week regarding various administrative matters. Do it.

You and I will meet after we're done here. Ann, I've got you slated for 2

Michael. 11 .30 tomorrow, please. I'm not sure I'm free. You are. I confirm

your secretary.

Jonathan, Tommy, I also have projects for you which we can discuss later.

Where did you send Abby? She was right here. Abby's in court handling another

matter. I assigned her under my authority as senior partner.

She'll be back by noon. Moving on. Shaw versus Gendler.

Oh, yeah, that's mine.

We represent the buyer of a house trying to rescind the sale.

Trial starts today. What grounds for the rescission? It's haunted.

Haunted? I beg your pardon? The house is haunted.

Two -day trial at most. We should be finished up by Friday.

Grace, where does your court -martial stand?

We go today.

Where's the defense here?

The guy disobeyed a direct order during combat. What bigger form of treason can

there be?

Refusing to attack innocent civilians doesn't spell treason to me.

They weren't civilians.

They were soldiers in the Panama Defense Force guarding General Noriega. You

don't know that. I certainly know that Noriega had to be captured. Not that

he didn't. Innocent people... You got a better way in? It was an excellent

surgical strike. Oh, come on. We were looking for an excuse to shatter the

image. That invasion was overkill. That's enough. You want to malign the

States of America?

Do it on your own time.

Not during the staff meeting while I'm in charge. We're adjourned.

What's up?

I've decided to take you off the Mancuso trial.

What? It makes more sense to let one of our own full -time litigators handle it,

so I'm... I'm a good trial lawyer, Douglas. Of course you are, but Michael,

Victor, Anne, Grace, Tommy, Jonathan, even Abby have more experience, plus

which... Your running off to court all the time makes our tax department seem

half -assed, and we can't have that, especially with the new regulations

becoming law. You can't just pull me off a case like this. Yes, I can.

I'm the senior partner.

This isn't a demotion.

It's just that in order for this firm to function at its highest level, we have

to get everybody here doing what they do best. With you, it's taxes.

Well, I don't want to do taxes for the rest of my life. I'm sorry. My decision

is final.

You're our only tax expert.

We need you more there than in court.

I trust you to recognize this and do what's best for the firm. That's all.

We'd been in the house about five weeks when we began to hear it. What exactly

did you hear? It was this muted -like moaning.

We first thought it sounded like a wounded animal.

But then as we listened, it was a woman, a woman in pain.

Did you and your husband both hear this?

Yes. That's the only reason I know I'm not crazy, because Jimmy heard it too.

It was this throaty, muted, like a woman trying to cry, but she couldn't. Where

were you when you heard this? We were in our bed.

We got up and we looked all over the house and we didn't find anything.

But then as we walked back into the bedroom, it got louder.

Not loud ever, but louder.

And when we got back to the bed, that's when we knew it. Knew what?

That the sounds were coming from inside the bedroom.

Was anyone else there?

No, there was no one else in the entire house.

You must have been scared to death.

Objection. I'm sorry.

Did you ever hear any of these sounds again?

Yes, three more times over the next week.

We finally checked into a motel. Jimmy looked up the history of the house

because, well, we thought it was haunted.

And what did your husband's investigation reveal?

That in 1962, a woman by the name of Nancy Atkins was stabbed to death in

very room.

The police never caught who did it. Did you know this when you bought the house?

Of course not. The only reason we found out at all was because we heard that

moaning. So now you want your money back.

There's something in there. I know it sounds crazy, and I'm not one to believe

in ghosts.

But we've slept in that bedroom, and we know for a fact there's something in

there. Thank you, Miss Shaw. That's all.

About a month after you moved in, your husband got laid off from work. Isn't

that right?

Objection. Relevant? This man took a new job which paid him $700 less a month.

They suddenly couldn't make the mortgage payment, and they wanted out.

We could make the mortgage payment. You've tried to sell this place, have

not? Yes.

Well, with the collapse of the real estate market, you can't get what you

for it. So you've come up with this ghost story in order to get rescission

the contract. We didn't come up with it. We heard what we heard. There was

moaning in that house. You were doing the moaning over its declining market

value. It happened.

All right, Mr. Klippner. Sorry.

Did you see any ghosts?

Well, we didn't see anything, but... Thank you, ma 'am.

Nothing further.

Kennards and Brumette definitely tow the army line. Our backs should be fairly

sympathetic. But other than that, the panel's pretty stacked.

Colonel Matthew?

Fair judge. He's a good draw.

Renaro is one of their top prosecutors, though.

They always use him for the big ones.

I'll see what the holdup is.

Hang in there. Yes, sir.

You'll be running the show in there, right, Miss Venowan?

Well, no offense to Captain Danowitz. I know he's on my side.

But he's Army.

And when all this is over, he still has to answer to them. Well, I don't.

You'll get the best possible defense, Robert. I promise you that.

Do you think we can win?

I don't know.

They only need two -thirds to convict, and this is military court.

The code name for the operation was just cause.

Our mission was to capture General Noriega and bring him back to the United

States for trial.

But specifically, sir, what were you trying to do on the night of December

1989?

I was in charge of Alpha Company in the El Churrio section of Panama City, where

there were about a thousand troops loyal to General Noriega. Their

communications were located in three buildings.

My orders were to knock them out. And how did you proceed, Captain? I deployed

my men around the three buildings when suddenly Lieutenant Braden's unit became

pinned down by sniper fire.

After discussing the situation with Lieutenant Braden, I ordered him to use

tank and take out the snipers. And were these orders carried out?

No, he refused.

And when I repeated the order, he again refused.

And this is while you were under enemy fire?

Yes, sir.

After that, I gave the order to a platoon sergeant who carried it out. The

sniper fire was suppressed, after which I had Lieutenant Braden taken into

military custody where I preferred charges for disobeying a direct order.

Thank you, sir.

Captain Jaworski, did Lieutenant Braden offer any reason for his behavior?

He claimed there were noncombatants positioned inside the building.

Where were you, sir, at this time?

I was at the CP, two blocks away. So when Lieutenant Braden told you he saw

civilians...

You don't know that to be false, do you?

Panamanian defense soldiers often dress up as civilians. There's no... I'm

familiar with the tactics of the PDF, Captain, but we are talking about a

civilian neighborhood.

Are you telling this panel there were no innocent people around? No, I'm telling

this panel...

that there were enemy soldiers entrenched in that neighborhood, some of

were spraying us with machine gun fire.

So you started leveling buildings, even though the Geneva Convention says you

have a duty to minimize civilian casualties. We took measures to ensure

civilians cleared the area. What measures were those, Captain?

Artillery missions.

Artillery missions.

That means you shelled them.

The bombardment was meant to discourage them from remaining in the area. But

we're talking about massive bombardment. You shelled them. Isn't it possible

that these people were too scared to move?

I have no idea. So you just went in with your tanks anyway?

My men were under fire, counselor. You were under sniper fire, and you respond

by ordering your tanks to destroy an entire civilian neighborhood.

I am the one who has to write the letters to their mothers and fathers

them their son is dead. I am responsible. What about the Panamanian

Who writes to them?

Objection, counsel. You give no warning to evacuate. You just start shelling

their homes. It was a war, lady. It wasn't a war until we invaded. You don't

know. You weren't there.

Lieutenant Braden was. there. He was looking at the innocent people you

him to kill. Miss Van Owen, that's enough.

All right.

Let's adjourn for this afternoon.

We'll reconvene at 10 o 'clock tomorrow morning.

We'd been pinned down for about 10 minutes.

There were maybe 30 of us on foot.

about 200 feet from the building.

I was positioning my tank when the order came in.

But, Lieutenant, you refused to execute that order.

Yes, ma 'am.

Could you tell the court why?

As I was looking through my night scope, I saw many civilians in the area, all

unarmed.

There were women and old people.

And what did they appear to be doing?

They appeared to be running for their lives, ma 'am. Did any of them fire at

or your men?

No, ma 'am.

And is this what you reported to Captain Jaworski? Yes, ma 'am.

He just told me to carry out the order.

But you refused.

I would have killed too many innocent people.

I just couldn't do that.

Thank you, Lieutenant.

You were under machine gun fire, were you not? In my opinion, there were many

more civilians than there were snipers.

In your opinion.

As part of your training in preparation for the invasion of Panama City, you

were told that Panamanian soldiers often dressed up like civilians.

Isn't that correct?

Yes, sir. And yet here you are in combat, suddenly deciding which is

know what I saw.

Those people weren't soldiers.

Well, why don't you describe those distinctions for us, Lieutenant?

I saw them.

They were in a panic.

Is it possible these were PDF soldiers in a panic in the face of the

overwhelming firepower?

I didn't believe that to be the case, sir. You didn't believe that to be the

case.

So, based on your hunch, you decided to disobey a direct order.

Those people... Answer the question.

Isn't that what happened?

Yes, sir.

Thank you, Lieutenant.

That's all.

You wanted us? Ah, you're both here. Great.

Copy of our liability insurance policy, together with an assignment memo. I need

the research by 9 a .m. tomorrow. Copy of our lease, also attached to an

assignment memo. I need your research by the end of the day. Ann Kelsey's

waiting for me to shepherdize some cases through Westlaw.

You tell her the senior partner took you off her case and put you on his.

Mary Jane, tell Mike Kuzak I'm ready for him now.

Yes, Mr. Moore.

Hello, Rox.

Hi.

Arnie's in probate all afternoon, Corinne. I'm not even sure he's coming

the office today. I know. I came to talk to you.

In private?

Okay.

What's up?

I think Arnie's having an affair.

Excuse me?

Something's wrong. I can just feel it with him.

For last week, he's been completely solicitous, like he's feeling guilty.

I know it's unfair for me to come to you like this.

Is he having an affair?

Not to my knowledge, no.

So I'm just being paranoid.

Nothing's happened. I'm just being paranoid.

Roxanne?

I don't think it's appropriate for me to talk about Arnie's personal life.

This isn't an easy conversation, Michael.

The time spent by this firm, mainly by you on Earl Williams' murder defense,

translates to a bill of $485 ,000, a bill which to date remains unpaid.

Yeah, well, he's obviously having a difficult time right now. He never got

job back. I know. I ran an assets check.

He is, however, still living in a house valued at $470 ,000.

I had Abby go after that house.

You what?

She got the prejudgment attachment yesterday morning.

You son of a bitch. Why wasn't I told about you? Because you would have helped

Earl oppose our motion. Well, you're damn right I would have helped him.

Michael, I know you like this man, but... But that's not the point. You

behind my back, Douglas. Hear me out, Michael. I will go into court myself

and... Hear me out!

I have no intention of chasing Earl out of his house.

But the assets check revealed he's extremely deep in the red. He could sell

house to pay off those other debts, in which case we'd be left with nothing.

This way we're protected.

And by securing the prejudgment, the banks are more convinced of our

giving me a better shot at getting a loan we desperately need for expansion.

I want that attachment dissolved immediately. Do you hear me?

That won't happen until he can guarantee the debt.

Time's up on you, Douglas.

I'll organize the lynching myself. You're no senior partner.

Not even for six weeks.

And would you describe for the court exactly what a parapsychologist is, Dr.

Lewin? Well, briefly, I specialize in psychical research.

Paranormal or psychic occurrences.

Ghosts. Yes, ghosts.

I'd like to call your attention, Doctor, to the residence located at 14 Oriole

Drive in Las Feliz, California, the home which is the subject of this

proceeding. Did you ever have cause to investigate this residence?

Yes, I did. In 1982, I was called by the owners of the house because they

suspected the presence of a supernatural being.

1982?

So, these were people other than my client?

Yes, yes. These would be the people who eventually sold the home to the

defendant. Thank you.

And did your investigation confirm the presence of a ghost in this house? Well,

we definitely detected the electromagnetic energy, yes.

Yes, we did.

I'm sorry, Doctor, you've lost me with that one.

Inside every house, there's an electromagnetic field.

In very simple terms, this field can absorb the emotional energy expended in

that environment.

In cases of extreme emotional intensity, this field can almost, well, record it,

then play it back.

That playback...

if you will, would be what we call a ghost. So if a gruesome murder occurred

this field, is there a chance it would be recorded electromagnetically?

Oh, absolutely.

And judging from my investigation of this house, the emotional energy of that

murder is, in fact, still present there. The house is haunted?

In layman's terms, yes.

The house is haunted.

Thank you, Doctor, that's all.

Did you see any apparitions in this house?

No, and nothing showed up on infrared, but the Geiger countings were off the

chart. Uh -huh. Did you hear the moaning?

Personally, no, but two sets of owners had. It was a ghost on playback.

Probably hopped right out of the VCR.

Objection. I'll tell you this, Mr. Klippner. I conduct over 200

of ghost sightings every year, the majority of which I dismiss.

This one, I did not.

Like Mrs. Shaw said, there is something present in that house.

Last year, you investigated a ghost in a San Diego house where strange singing

had occurred, didn't you?

Objection. Ghost to credibility.

Overruled. And you concluded there was a ghost in that one, too, didn't you?

There was a psychic presence, that's correct.

And you identified this ghost.

I didn't have enough data to form a conclusion. But you had an opinion,

Yes, I did. And in your opinion, Doctor, who was doing the singing?

Elvis Presley.

Nothing further.

I've been a journalist for the Miami Tribune for the last seven years.

And you had been assigned to Panama City?

Yes, specifically to investigate General Noriega's involvement with Miami drug

trafficking. Miss Dawson, could you tell us what transpired that night, December

20th, 1989?

Yes, I was interviewing one of my sources in El Churrio, and suddenly the

just lit up with fire. It was explosions from American gunfire.

What did you do?

Well, we made it to a Catholic church. It was the only brick building around,

and people knew that it wouldn't burn, but the rest of the town was just

What did you see that night, Ms. Dawson?

Mostly I saw American military and American tanks.

I saw members of the Panamanian Defense Force fighting back.

I saw people running for safety.

There were civilians in the area?

This was a residential neighborhood counselor. People lived there.

And were civilians killed?

Many were killed.

Thousands more were injured.

The gentleman that I interviewed that night, he was killed.

He was a civilian.

When did you find out that he had been killed?

Two months later, when I had to identify his body.

He had been dug up from a mass grave.

What do you mean, ma 'am, when you say his body was dug up?

There was more and more information that the dead civilians were being rounded

up by American troops and buried in mass graves.

To cover up the fact that innocent lives had been lost, they dumped them into

these big pits and buried them.

One of the mass graves was found.

They found 123 rotting bodies in the Yardin de Paz cemetery, stuffed into

plastic garbage bags.

Who put them there? The U .S. Army admitted to doing it.

No identification, no notification to the families.

Our military killed innocent civilians and stuffed them into garbage bags.

How many civilian casualties resulted from the United States invasion of

300 have been confirmed dead, but other reports say maybe twice that.

We'll probably never know.

Why is that, ma 'am?

In my opinion, yes.

Because the Army's engaged in a massive cover -up.

They killed a lot of innocent people.

They trampled an entire town and left over 15 ,000 people homeless.

And I don't think they want the people back here to know about that.

Thank you, Ms. Dawson. I have nothing further.

Do you have any knowledge our military was trying to kill civilians?

No, and I don't believe they were. They were after Noriega's men.

That's right.

And did you ever see an American soldier directly shoot a civilian?

Directly at them?

No, but with all the explosion... Thank you, ma 'am.

And to your knowledge, it is possible that Panamanian Defense Forces did

the building Lieutenant Braden was ordered to target, right?

It's possible, yes, but that's not... And ma 'am, just so I can be clear on

predisposition here, you've written various articles.

prior to this event, extremely critical of the United States military presence

in Panama, right?

Yes, that's right.

Thank you, Miss Dawson.

That's all I have.

What the

hell is this?

It is you moving out. That's what it is. Corinne, I don't... You're sleeping

around, and this marriage is over.

Hold on a second. You have no idea how much you disgust me.

I'm only more disgusted with myself for getting taken in by you. I don't know

what you're talking about.

Shut up!

You just shut up!

God, I hate you!

Go back to bed, honey. Go on.

Why are you yelling? Just go back to bed right now, okay? I'll be there in a

minute.

Oh, God.

What have I done to her?

I let her get attached to you.

I let her love you.

Oh, God.

Corinne, let me explain.

No, Arnie, just get out.

Get out. Just get out now.

Roxanne, you betrayed me. No, she suspected you were having an affair.

And you confirmed it. No, all I did was refuse to lie.

It was an impossible situation.

Well, you won't ever have to face it again. You're fired.

What? Nobody does what you just did to me. You ruined my life. You did this to

yourself. Can't you at least recognize... I said you're fired!

I don't want to hear anything else from you. Just pack your crap and get the

hell out of here.

Everybody, everywhere in this country.

wanted to get General Noriega. So when we invaded Panama a little over a year

ago and finally flushed him out, we all cheered.

But some of the cheering stopped when it became clear exactly what our military

had done.

In violation of the Geneva Convention, we disregarded the safety of innocent

people and used overwhelming firepower to flatten a civilian neighborhood.

Killing women, children, making 15 ,000 people homeless.

We didn't warn anybody.

We just went in blasting.

Lieutenant Braden couldn't.

I know I'm not Army, and you probably look at me and think, how can she

understand military?

And maybe I don't. But my father fought in World War II, and I grew up

listening. to his stories and feeling his pride at having risked his life to

protect the values of this country.

And I grew up always believing we were the good guys.

But I'm not so sure we were the good guys that night in Panama.

And I don't believe I'm the only one in this room with doubts.

Lieutenant Braden turned to his conscience that night.

For his sake, right now, I'm asking you to turn to

yours.

Thank you.

The Geneva Convention

does not apply here.

Panamanian soldiers were present in that building, making it a legitimate

military target.

Of course, it was a tough call. But Captain Jaworski made that call, and

Lieutenant Braden willfully disregarded it. While in combat with his men under

enemy fire, Lieutenant Braden disobeyed a direct order.

A military, any military has to have discipline where the chain of command is

honored.

The second it's not, as soon as junior officers are entitled to call the shots

and say, this order I'll obey, but this order I won't, then we won't have much

of an army, will we?

We put 18 and 19 -year -olds in combat with massive weapons.

Now we can have them in the middle of a battle, weighing international law and

pondering their own interpretation of the Geneva Convention, or they can just

follow orders.

It's not a tough call, gentlemen.

You just have to decide whether you want to win wars or lose them.

Let's just admit it was a big mistake.

Which has to be corrected now. Letting him be senior partner for one more

Now, hold on.

He directed Abby to put an attachment on Earl Williams' house. That's not the

way we do business.

Well, letting our bill for a half million dollars go uncollected is not

we do business either.

Leland, I just got a call from Olympic and Rourke, our landlords.

It seemed Douglas stopped payment on the rent check and he's trying to break our

lease. What? He's Al Haig on the loose, Leland. You have to stop him. Well, I

can't believe he'd do that.

Well, believe it. Guy thinks he's immortal.

I mean, he's been like that ever since he started seeing Vanna White. You gotta

do something.

Yes? Perry Littlefield.

Valentine Insurance is on three.

He says it's urgent.

Yes, Perry.

What the hell's with Douglas Brackman, Leland?

What do you mean?

I mean the guy's demanding we cover you on the Rosalind Shays verdict.

Leland, that judgment was for punitive damages. We don't have to pay you a

nickel. I'll look into it, Perry.

Please do.

Also, you tell Brackman I ran his little bluff by my lawyers and they said we

don't need Rosalind Shays' help in any of this.

So the fact that you're sleeping with her now doesn't scare me.

Set up a partner's meeting.

I lived in the house practically a year. I never heard anything.

You never heard any moaning or the sounds of a woman in pain? Come on, this

whole thing is a ridiculous ploy to try and get out of a deal they wish they

hadn't made. Thank you, Mr. Gendler. I have nothing further.

When you bought the house, you knew about Nancy Atkins' murder, didn't you?

Didn't stop me from buying it. Why didn't you tell my client and his broker

about it? Because it didn't matter.

Oh, no, sir.

You withheld that information because you feared it would matter. There is

nothing haunted about the house.

When you lived in that house, why did you sleep in the downstairs bedroom?

It's a three -bedroom house. I had a choice.

Yes, but the master bedroom, the only one with a private bath, is upstairs.

Why didn't you choose that one?

I hated the wallpaper.

You were afraid of that room. You were afraid because Nancy Atkins was stabbed

to death there. Give me a break.

You were afraid she might cry out to you.

I wasn't afraid.

Well, maybe she did speak to you. Maybe that's why after only a year, you had to

get out. I wasn't afraid of anything.

No, you just hated the wallpaper.

I have nothing further, Your Honor.

Closing arguments tomorrow, two o 'clock.

Your Honor.

I'd like to do my closing tomorrow night at the house in Nancy Atkins' bedroom.

I beg your pardon? This case turns on whether it's reasonable for my client to

believe the house is haunted.

The only way for the jury to properly gauge that is to go see it at night. I

object. Miss Lamb, this is a very strange request.

But this also happens to be a very strange case, and under these

I think it would behoove us all to go take a look. You've got to be kidding.

I'm not kidding.

Eight o 'clock tomorrow night, the jury will meet here, and we'll all go over

there together.

Members of the panel, have you reached a verdict?

Yes, sir, we have.

Under Article 90, Article 99, and Article 133,

we find the defendant...

Second Lieutenant Robert Braden, guilty of all charges.

Anything on sentencing, Major?

Mr. President, the government will be seeking the maximum allowable

at hard labor.

Ms. Van Owen.

Your Honor, before sentencing, I'd like the panel to hear from Lieutenant

Braden.

I went into ROTC at school because it helped pay for tuition.

I knew that it meant that I had a debt to my country, and maybe someday I'd

have to go to war and die for my country, and I was prepared to do that.

I am still prepared to give my life for my commanding officers or for the men

who serve under me.

I was ordered to blow up innocent people, to take out sniper fire.

I was ordered to destroy a civilian building.

I said no to that.

And under the same circumstances, I'd say no again.

No matter what my government's trying to prove.

What are you doing?

Ernie fired me.

Why? It's not important. I'm just not working here anymore.

Would you like to work for me?

Gee, Douglas, that's very nice of you. I'll raise you.

$125 a week, effective now.

That breaks the secretarial caps. You wouldn't be a secretary.

I need an assistant to help me with office management.

I'm talking about a big promotion, Roxanne. More money, more power.

If you find me too impossible to work for, you just quit.

What's not to try?

Thanks for agreeing to see me.

What do you want to say?

That I'm sorry that what I did was unforgivable.

It only happened once. It's the only time it's ever happened since we've been

married, and that doesn't make it any less inexcusable, but this is not a

pattern, Corinne.

I promise you.

I also want to say that I can't picture my life without you and Chloe in it, and

I'll do anything to fix this.

I've hired a lawyer. The divorce papers will be filed probably by the end of

next week. Don't you think that's a little rash?

Marrying you is rash.

Corinne, this was one stupid slip. It doesn't mean that I want to... That's

you are.

That's what you are.

I feared it going in. So did you.

Now, maybe if I weren't a parent, it would have been okay for me to take a

chance on you.

But to be so reckless with my little girl's life...

I'm certainly not going to make that mistake again.

Give me one more chance, Grant, please.

I'm following the advice of a former lawyer of mine, a very good lawyer.

Walk away from the problem.

Get on with your life.

My new attorney.

Call him.

From now on, you don't call me.

Lieutenant Braden, this board has a great deal of sympathy for you.

Your service record indicates you're both an outstanding officer and a fine

young man.

Furthermore, there are some serious questions about the performance of our

military in Panama.

And the ratio of ten Panamanian civilians dead to every American killed

action makes it hard to believe that we really did try our best.

to minimize civilian casualties as required by the Geneva Convention.

And this business of policing up civilian bodies and wrapping them in

bags and dumping them in mass graves without any notification of the

if that's true, well, it's a disgrace, pure and simple. And as

officers and as soldiers, we should be both shocked and embarrassed.

But of all the sins committed that night, Lieutenant,

by far the most dangerous and far -reaching was yours.

You disobeyed a direct order in combat.

For soldiers to disobey their lawful superiors while under enemy fire,

well, there can be few greater threats to our national security.

Therefore, Lieutenant Braden, it is the decision of this board that you be

confined... at hard labor, for a period of ten years.

Such sentence to be carried out at the United States Disciplinary Barracks,

Leavenworth, Kansas.

You have no right to... If I fire a secretary, she stays fired. I don't need

hear that.

All right, one thing at a time.

First, what the hell are you doing breaking our lease?

I exploited a favored nation's clause with Jonathan's help to break the

contract. With the downtown glut of office space, many buildings are

free rent, some up to two years. I don't want to move. We're not moving. But the

threat of moving alone was enough to allow me to negotiate a new deal here.

I cut our monthly payments by 6 % and got the first six months rent -free.

that adds up to a savings of $108 ,000 immediately, plus another $137 ,000 over

the next 10 years.

I see.

But what were you doing with our insurance carrier?

threatening them with a suit, telling them of my relationship with Rosalind

Shays. I merely pointed out that since Rosalind is now sympathetic to us, they

couldn't count on her help in defending against an action brought by us. They're

still denying coverage, but they've agreed to kick in $170 ,000 for defense

costs. You're kidding.

No, I'm not. They knew we could run that much up in litigation costs easy, and

there's a very real chance they could lose.

As for rehiring Roxanne Arnold...

I did that in part to prevent an extremely viable lawsuit that she could

against us.

For what? Why was she fired?

Personality differences.

Right. And Michael, securing our debt with Earl Williams, did impress the

With that $300 ,000 security, along with the projected savings in rent and the

kicking by the insurance company, Brentwood Federal was moved to give us a

new line of credit, which I've used in part retroactively to pay out the

partnership bonuses that we thought we'd have to forego this year.

Checks for all of you.

$27 ,000?

Wow. How did you do this? By showing the bank that we were a half a million more

solvent than they thought we were. They made the loans?

This is fantastic, Douglas.

That's very good, Douglas.

Yeah, that's very good.

Hello, senior partner.

We've all had a look. Miss Lamb, you want to make your statement before we

Yes. Could everybody find some wall space or maybe sit on the bed or

I don't really have a statement. I just wanted us all to come here, take a look,

see where it happened.

Good God, she was sleeping right over there.

And it was somewhere from somewhere.

My clients heard those awful sounds.

The thing is, Nancy Atkins couldn't scream the night she was murdered.

Because the killer plunged his knife straight into her throat, severing her

larynx and cutting her vocal cords.

But that wasn't the fatal wound.

He continued to stick his knife into her arms, her legs.

Seventeen times she was stabbed.

There was so much blood, it seeped through these planks and dripped into

kitchen.

The coroner said she had to have suffered.

She couldn't scream.

She'd try, but with her vocal cords cut, she could barely make a sound.

Some people believe that to this day, right here, Nancy Atkins

still tries to cry out for help.

Oh, my God!

Let's get out of here!

All right, you buy back the house. Same price, but we're not covering closing

costs for the point.

Hey, they could hit you with punitive. You know how scared they were. Your guys

won't be paying commissions, E .J. That'll more than cover all the

Come on, we're making them whole.

Let's finish this.

Well, okay.

I'll draft the settlement. This is so ridiculous.

It's false evidence, you know. It's as good as lying to the court. We could get

disbarred. I never say anything about how or why the lights went out. Nobody

even asked me.

It wasn't a normal circuit breaker, for God's sake. It was an old -fashioned

fuse box. Here, I couldn't get the thing back in. I caught my finger trying.

Did you get them to settle? Full purchase price.

You were absolutely perfect.

Isn't this the fuse that controls that light?

Yeah. Thank you for everything, Miss Van Owen. I'm not giving up, Robert.

The appeal will be filed tomorrow.

So don't you give up.

Yeah.

Lieutenant. Major.

I'm sorry about the sentence.

I think what you did was wrong, but I also think with 300 ,000 soldiers in the

Persian Gulf, the panel had to make an example of you.

Would you go on record with that?

It's only an opinion, Counselor.

Let's go, sir.

proud of you, son.

Okay.