Original subtitles

- Doctor, did you have occasion to examine Mr.

Hicks on September 15, 1992?

- Yes, I did.

- Would you tell us what that examination revealed?

- Mr. Hicks was suffering from multiple contusions

about the head and the face.

Both his neck and his right arm were strained.

- What about the blood pressure? - Mr. Hicks.

- Come on.

- Did you observe anything else, Doctor?

- His blood pressure was somewhat elevated.

- And to what did Mr. Hicks attribute his injuries?

- He said that he was beaten up by Val Bodine.

- Did he tell you how this attack occurred?

- He said that Mr. Bodine charged into the stands

and attacked him.

- What, if any, were the short-term consequences of Mr.

Hicks injuries?

- Stiffness, soreness.

I believe that he was out of work for about a week.

- How about two weeks!

- Mr. Hicks.

- What, if any, were the likely long-term consequences of Mr.

Hicks' injuries?

- Some residual soreness is possible.

Sleeplessness, nervousness, a loss

of attention-- any and all of these things

are possible long-term effects.

- Thank you.

I have nothing further.

- Nothing further? Come on.

The guy's hitting us for $3,000, and you got--

- Mr. Hicks.

- nothing further?

- Mr. Hicks, sit down!

- Hey, Doc!

You're taking money under false pretenses!

That's called stealing!

- Mr. Hammond, will you kindly advise

your client as to the manner in which he's to conduct himself?

- Hang on, Your Honor!

I'm not going to take lessons in etiquette

from some guy who's selling me down the river.

- You think I'm selling you down the river, Ed?

- Yes, I think you're selling me down the river.

- I think you're more interested in cozying up

to a big, famous baseball star than you are with providing me

with adequate representation!

- Your Honor, at this time, I would ask to be

relieved as Mr. Hicks' counsel. - Whoa, whoa.

Your Honor, we have been through delay after delay after delay.

- I can assure you, that's not my intention.

- Well, it may not be your intention,

but that is the effect.

- Your Honor, we are now into the baseball season.

My client's practice has been disrupted,

and his performance on the field is being affected.

Mr Hicks has been through four different attorneys.

Each time he gets a new one, he buys himself another delay.

- Mr. Rollins is absolutely right.

Mr. Hammond, I'm not going to allow you to withdraw.

- Your Honor, I cannot effectively represent this man.

- Hey, Judge?

How about if I represent myself?

- Mr. Hicks, do you have legal background of any kind?

- No, I do not.

- And you feel competent to, uh, represent yourself?

- (SCOFFING) I'm at least as competent as this idiot.

- All right, Mr. Hicks.

We'll adjourn for now in order to give

you an opportunity to prepare.

- Thank you, Your Honor.

- We'll resume Wednesday morning at 10:00 AM.

And please, be prepared to proceed.

- Don't worry, Judge.

I'll be ready.

Hey, Mr. Rollins.

Now, we got us a game!

[laughs]

[theme music]

[upbeat music]

- Hey.

- Hey, Gwen.

- How's everything going with the bar exam, Gwen?

- Oh, it's OK.

I'm taking this review course with this guy, Tony Henderson.

I go to class every day, and I study every night.

- I can attest to that.

- Are you taking enough time off from work?

- Uh, yeah, I am.

Plus, as the test gets closer, I'll be cutting back more.

Plus, most of the time that I'm here, all I'm doing

is studying.

- Good.

- Don't be shy about asking for help.

- Thanks. - Shall we?

- By all means.

- Hicks versus Bodine.

- That's me.

We are representing Val Bodine.

- The ballplayer?

- The ballplayer.

A guy named Hicks had been heckling

him for an entire season.

Uh, Bodine went into the stands and committed battery

upon his person.

The team offered Hicks $100,000 to settle.

Hicks refused.

He wanted his day in court.

He hired and fired five different lawyers,

and now he's representing himself.

- Temporary insanity.

- No.

- Self-defense.

- No, all he did was yell.

- Plead provocation to try to mitigate the damages.

- That's what I'm doing.

- And makes sure we get some tickets.

- [chuckles] Done.

- Salter versus Sunny Hills School.

- That's mine.

We represent Ben Salter.

He's a second-grade teacher who was accused of sexually

molesting a student.

- A male second-grade teacher?

What kind of guy teaches second grade?

- We're not representing child molesters, are we, Ann?

- I said he was accused, Douglas.

The charges were dropped.

- What's he suing for?

- The school asked that he take something

called a penile plethysmograph before they reinstate him.

- Yeah, I don't like the sound of that.

- What is it?

- It's a machine that attaches a wire to the male organ

and measures sexual arousal.

- [groans]

- Ah, sounds like A Clockwork Orange.

- He refused to do it.

- You're convinced there was no basis for the accusation?

- The charges were dropped. - Yeah, yeah.

I understand, but that doesn't necessarily

mean he didn't do it. - In this country, it does.

- They attach a wire?

- I keep telling myself, Gwen, there are over 100,000 lawyers

in the state of California.

Most of those people pass the bar without having

a nervous breakdown.

You can too.

- You're going to do great.

- I don't know how I'm going to do.

- Oh, you got work to do.

- A little, yeah.

- OK.

- You're going to pass the test, Gwen.

- You've been pretty distant lately, you know that?

- It's nothing.

- It's not nothing, Daniel.

It's something.

Tell me what it is.

- I'm worried about my kid.

I'm worried that she needs more of a home life with me

than she's getting.

And I'm worried that she needs more

of a constant female influence.

- And I don't fit that description.

- I'm not sure you want to fit that description.

- I can't discuss this right now.

I've got to study.

- OK.

- Um, I'll talk to you later.

[door shutting]

- What are the exceptions?

Unavailability of the declarant, previous testimony,

statement against interest, dying declarations, pedigree.

All right, we'll go into the specifics of each tomorrow.

Right now, I want to say something to you

about this whole process.

Put down your pens.

I'm seeing the look of panic on a number of faces.

Panic isn't helpful.

Put down your pens.

There's a tremendous amount of information

you're going to have to integrate between now

and the day of the bar exam. You need to be organized.

You need to be disciplined. You need to work your tail off.

But at the end of the day, you need to forget about it.

- What?

- Hey!

You.

Stop writing.

Just listen.

There are going to be questions on this test

you will get wrong.

It makes absolutely no difference

if you pass by one point or by 40 points so long as you pass.

Panic will not make you pass.

Panic will make you fail.

Don't panic.

Eat well!

Have great sex.

[laughter]

Get a good night's sleep.

I'll see you tomorrow night.

[scattered applause]

- Hey, Joel.

Do you understand the parole evidence rule?

- All prior or contemporaneous negotiations

are subsumed into the written agreement,

assuming there is one.

You want to get a beer?

- Get a beer? Don't you have to study?

- I've studied enough for one day.

- Why is it I can never feel that way?

- All you have to do is understand what they're looking

for and give it to 'em.

It's a test.

It's no big deal.

[synth jazz music]

- I taught second grade at Sunny Hills School for six years.

- What reason was given for your dismissal?

- I refused to take a penile plethysmograph test.

- What is a penile plethysmograph test?

- They attach a metal ring to your penis

and measure your response to pictures of naked children.

- Why were you asked to take such a test?

- I'd been accused of molesting an eight-year-old boy.

- Did you?

- No.

- How did you first learn that this accusation had been made?

- Six police officers came to the school,

and in front of students and faculty,

I was placed under arrest.

- Were you convicted of the crime of child molestation?

- No, I was never tried for the crime of child molestation.

The charges were dropped for lack of evidence.

- What position did the administration

at Sunny Hills School take regarding

your employment there?

- Well, they said they were happy and relieved and anxious

to have me back there teaching again.

They said they knew right along that I was innocent,

but unfortunately there were some lingering doubts

among some of the parents, and they asked me if I would

help put those doubts to rest.

- How did they suggest you do that?

- First, they asked me to take a lie detector test.

- Did you agree to do so?

- Yes, I did.

- What was the result?

- I passed.

- What, if anything, did they ask you to do next?

- They asked me to be interviewed by a psychiatrist.

- Did you agree to do that?

- Yes, I was interviewed on five separate occasions,

and to the best of my knowledge, I was pronounced normal.

- Did that suffice for the administration

of Sunny Hills School?

- No.

They then asked that I take a penile plethysmograph test.

And when I refused, I was dismissed.

- Why did you refuse?

- Because enough is enough.

At some point, I had to reclaim a little bit of dignity.

That's what I did, and that's what I was fired for.

- Thank you.

I have nothing further.

[courtroom murmuring]

- Do you have children of your own, Mr. Salter?

- No, I do not.

- Well, if you did, how would you

feel about them being placed in the care of a pedophile?

- I am not a pedophile.

- No, no.

No, I'm not saying that you are.

I'm asking you, how would you feel about your own child,

assuming that you had one, being taken care of by a pedophile?

- I would not allow my child to be

taken care of by a pedophile.

- Well, then my question to you, sir, is simply this.

Shouldn't a school do everything it can

to stop that from happening?

- Not this.

- Why not this?

- Because I'm not a laboratory rat.

That's why not.

I'm a human being.

- You're a human being that was accused of being a pedophile.

- Those charges were dropped.

- That's right, they were dropped.

They were never disproved. They were dropped.

- Objection! - I thought you were--

- Sustained.

- innocent until proven guilty in this country.

I thought charges had to be proved, not disproved.

- I'm curious about something.

You agreed to a lie detector test.

You agreed to a psychological profile.

Why did you not agree to the plethysmograph test?

- Because I wouldn't strip naked and have wires

attached to my genitals.

Because I felt that it was my right

as a citizen of this country not to be forced to do that.

- It wouldn't be because you were afraid of what

might happen, would it? - No.

- It wouldn't be because you were afraid that when

photographs of naked young boys were put in front of you

that your genitals would betray you?

- Objection.

He's already answered the question.

- Wouldn't it be that the penis doesn't lie?

- Your Honor--

- Mr. Colquitt, you will stop badgering this witness.

- Sir, I have never molested a child in my life.

I have never wanted to molest a child.

Now, unless and until somebody proves that I'm lying,

I don't want to take any more tests.

I want my job back, I want my name back,

and I want to be left alone.

- Question, where were you on the afternoon

of September 15, 1992?

Answer, I was in the ballpark, sitting in my seat.

[chuckling]

Question, what were you doing there?

Answer, I was watching a ball game.

- Mr. Hicks, really not necessary to keep saying

question and answer.

- Whatever you want, Judge.

What was Mr. Bodine doing that day?

He was playing left field.

Did you say anything to him?

Oh, yes, I did.

What did I say?

I said a lot of things.

I commented on his fielding, such as it is.

He'd throw rainbows.

He never figured it out.

The shortest distance between two points is a straight line!

I commented on his propensity to swing at bad pitches,

to strikeout in clutch situations!

- Objection! Your Honor--

- Sit down!

- Mr. Hicks, I'll run the courtroom if you don't mind.

And the objection is sustained.

Mr. Bodine's performance isn't relevant to these proceedings.

- [chuckles] Ah.

Did you use profanity?

No, I did not.

I make it a point not to.

What did Val Bodine do upon hearing my remarks, Mr. Hicks?

Around the fifth inning, he comes

charging up into the stands and assaults me.

Did I fight back?

No, I did not.

Why did you not fight back, Mr. Hicks?

I was overmatched in size and strength!

What injuries did you sustain?

Both eyes swollen shut, a head that looked like a pumpkin.

And that, I'm a shoe salesman.

I deal with the public.

I was unable to work for some two weeks.

And I was also left a little frightened,

shaken up, given the fact that my 11-year-old son had just

returned from buying a hot dog in time

to see his father beaten up.

I felt deeply humiliated!

[courtroom murmuring]

- Well, I have no further questions.

- How many games had you attended in the 1992 season

by September the 15th, Mr. Hicks?

- Every time there's a home game, I was there.

- Isn't it a fact, sir, that at each

and every one of those games, you made continuous denigrating

remarks to Mr. Bodine?

- Hey, I got something on my mind, I say it.

You're allowed to do that in the US of A.

- You made remarks about his fielding.

You made remarks about his hitting.

- I'm a student of the game.

My observations happen to have some merit.

- But your observations weren't limited to the game, were they?

- In what way weren't they?

- Did you make remarks about the failure of a restaurant

that Mr. Bodine had invested in?

- It was in all the papers.

It's not like I'm giving away any state secrets.

- You also saw fit to harangue Mr.

Bodine about a paternity suit he was involved in, didn't you?

- That paternity suit took 40 points off his batting average.

- You were somewhat fixated by Val Bodine, weren't you,

Mr. Hicks?

- I was paying attention.

- Isn't what you did a little more than that, sir?

Isn't what you did to have kept up a non-stop barrage

of verbal abuse, taunting, and baiting this man until,

on September 15, you finally provoked

him into making a response?

- He's wasting his God given talent!

That's a sin by me.

Look, I followed this guy's career

going back to the day they brought him up from the minors.

I tell the whole world, this guy is it.

This guy, he's the difference between having and hoping.

I stood by him because I saw something in him!

Look, my kid liked him.

I liked him.

We picked him as our guy.

- And when he didn't live up to that, you let him know.

- This lucky bastard makes more money

playing nine innings of baseball than I do

selling shoes for six months.

You bet I told him!

- I have no further questions.

[courtroom murmuring]

- Doctor, would you tell us your field of expertise?

- I'm a psychiatrist specializing in the treatment

of sexual disorders.

- Did you have occasion to interview the plaintiff?

- Yes, I did.

- Would you tell us what, if any,

conclusions you reached regarding

his sexual orientation?

- I found Mr. Salter to be both heterosexual

and age appropriate in his social and sexual development.

- Doctor, are you familiar with this machine?

- Yes, I am.

- Would you tell us what it is and what it does?

- It's a penile plethysmograph.

It measures the degree of arousal

a man undergoes when presented with various stimuli,

both visual and auditory.

It operates by the use of a strain gauge placed

around the shaft of the penis.

- In your opinion, Doctor, was its use on this man indicated?

- It most decidedly was not indicated.

- And why do you say that?

- Because far less intrusive and, in my opinion,

far more reliable diagnostic techniques told you all

you needed to know about this man.

Simply put, he is not a pedophile.

- Doctor, in your opinion, does Ben Salter

represent a threat to the children

who are placed in his care.

- Absolutely not.

- Thank you.

I have nothing further.

- Tell us, Doctor, is there ever an occasion

when a penile plethysmograph would be indicated?

- If you're trying to determine an appropriate treatment

modality, if you are designing some sort of aversion therapy,

or if the results of other diagnostic techniques

are inconclusive.

- But the results of your diagnostic techniques

were conclusive?

- That's right.

- Doctor, you administered various psychological tests

to Ben Salter, did you not?

- Yes, I did.

- And these tests were voluntary, were they

not, Doctor?

You asked a question, he thought about it,

and he gave you an answer.

- That's right.

- The penile plethysmograph test measures

an involuntary response, doesn't it, Doctor?

- Yes.

- So when the school's clinician got to the only test

that Ben Salter couldn't fake, and he backs off,

doesn't that raise the tiniest question in your mind

about how conclusive your diagnosis is?

- He stated his reasons, and I agree with him.

- Is it possible that Ben Salter could have fooled you, Doctor?

- I've been practicing for a long time, Mr Colquitt.

It's not likely.

- I asked you whether or not it were possible.

- Anything's possible.

- That's what we're afraid of.

I have nothing further, Doctor.

Thank you.

- [sighs]

- Hey, Gwen.

- Arnie.

- How's the bar review going?

- Fine.

- You're handling the pressure?

- Hey.

You all right?

- Every minute I'm awake, all I want to do is sleep.

Every minute I try and sleep, I lie in bed, my eyes wide open,

trying the hell to understand collateral

estoppel or-- or prior restraint or--or

the rule against perpetuities.

Do you understand the rule against perpetuities?

- No.

- Oh, great.

- Nobody does.

- How does anybody pass the bar exam?

- Gwen, you can't get hung up on what you don't know.

You don't have to know everything.

- Right, just enough to pass.

- That's right.

- I don't know, Arnie.

Why-- why did I ever think I could be a lawyer?

What kind of bright idea was that?

- Hey, come on.

- I mean, did-- no, no, really, did my parents

want me to be a lawyer?

No.

Did I grow up watching To Kill a Mockingbird

and thrilled at the knowledge that I could

be the next Atticus Finch?

No.

I-- I don't even remember deciding

I wanted to go to law school.

I don't remember that.

- What's the worst thing that can happen?

You fail.

So what?

I failed the first time I took the exam.

You can take it as many times as you want.

- I don't think I could survive going through this one

more time.

- What was your reaction when you first

heard that Ben Salter was accused

of sexually molesting a child?

- Shock.

Complete and utter shock.

This, after all, was someone I considered a friend.

- What did you do?

- Pending the resolution of the criminal charges,

I suspended him.

When the charges were dropped, I called

him into my office to map out a plan for his reinstatement.

- Why did you need a plan?

Why didn't you just reinstate him?

- There was a lot of concern on the part of the parents.

That's why.

- How did you seek to address that concern?

- By conducting our own investigation of Ben and then

by being able to go to the parents and say

he got a clean bill of health.

- And did Mr. Salter indicate to you

that he was willing to cooperate with such an examination?

- Yes, he did.

- And did he, in fact, do so?

- Up to a point, he did.

When it came time to use the plethysmograph, he refused.

I had no choice but to fire him.

- Would you tell the court why you felt that to be the case?

- The question had been raised as to the advisability of

letting Ben be around children.

That question had to be settled, and it

had to be settled by him.

- I have no further questions.

- I assume you were relieved when the charges were dropped,

were you not?

- Profoundly relieved.

- You just had the problem of those parents to deal with.

- That's right.

- Had any of the parents actually

communicated their concern over Mr. Salter's reinstatement?

- If I had reinstated him, I would have heard from them.

Believe me.

These people pay $7,000 a year to put

their kids in our school.

- And you figure that entitled them to have a wire hooked up

to this man's genitals, right?

- Objection.

- Sustained.

- What other requirements would you

be willing to impose on your faculty

in an effort to please the parents?

- I don't know what you mean.

- What if there were a teacher that someone

suspected of being gay?

- Being gay isn't a crime.

- What crime did Ben Salter commit?

- He was accused of molesting a child.

- What crime did he commit?

- So far as we know, he didn't commit any crime.

- Then why were you treating him like a criminal?

- I was doing my job as headmaster

by protecting our students and the school

at which I was employed.

- What were you protecting the school from, Mr. Hollis?

- From the possibility of being sued in case

Ben Salter did commit a crime, in case

he wasn't age appropriate in his sexual orientation.

- In other words, this was a legal strategy, wasn't it?

You were preparing for a lawsuit,

and you wanted to be able to say if anything

happened that it was the machine's fault and not yours?

- I think that way because I have to think that way,

because lawyers like you make me think that way.

- You had a prosecutor dismiss the charges against this man,

you had a lie detector test and a psychiatric evaluation

both conclude that he was not a pedophile,

and still that wasn't enough for you.

- No, it wasn't, and it wouldn't have been enough for anyone

in my position.

Most schools would have dropped him on his head.

I'm bending over backwards to give him back his job.

I'm spending a fortune to employ "state of the art" technology,

and he wants to pick and choose what he will and will not do?

He's lucky I'm willing to strap him up to that machine!

- Thank you, Mr. Hollis.

I have no further questions.

[tense music]

[synth jazz music]

- Describe for us, if you will, Mr. Bodine, the first time you

noticed Ed Hicks.

- It was opening day of the 1992 season.

He was yelling at me for the mistakes

he said I made back in 1991.

- I was supposed to pretend they didn't happen?

- Mr. Hicks.

- Yeah, I know.

- How was it that you were able to tell from whom

those remarks were coming?

- How could I tell?

- Yeah.

- When other people sat down, he stood up.

Uh, when other people got quiet, he got loud.

When other people got loud, he got louder.

You couldn't help but notice this guy.

- And did his behavior continue in a similar fashion

beyond opening day?

- Yeah, how about all season long?

- What was it that caused you to go

into the stand and-- and physically assault Ed Hicks?

- I just settled this paternity suit, and, uh, it was painful.

It was messy.

And even though it was in the papers, when he mentioned it,

I went nuts.

I had to listen to his voice for five and a half months.

And I'm sorry that it happened, but hearing

him talk about my personal life on that particular day

was more than I could take.

- I have nothing further.

[courtroom murmuring]

- How much money did you make last year, Val?

- Objection, irrelevant.

- Hey, Judge!

Is it irrelevant to them?

- I'm going to allow it.

- Hey!

[claps] Way to go, Judge!

[chuckles] Excuse me.

How much, Val?

- I made 2.2 million.

- 2.2 million?

Whoa-oh!

Heh-heh-heh.

How much is that per game, do you know?

- No, I don't know.

- Well, let's look it up.

162 games into 2.2 million, that's--

whoa.

It's a little more than $13,580.

- There are probably 150 other guys in this league

who make more money than I do. - Really?

- There's probably 400 who had a better season.

[laughs] - I was hurt!

- You were hurt.

So what were you doing playing hurt?

I mean, who were you helping? - Objection, Your Honor.

- Sustained.

We're not here to discuss Mr. Bodine's performance

on the field, Mr. Hicks.

- Understood, Your Honor.

Do you know you were called out on strikes 24 times last year?

- Objection.

- Mr. Hicks!

- There were some bad calls in there, Mr. Hicks.

- Oh, come on, please, let's not start crying about the ump now.

Do me a favor.

- Gentlemen, enough!

If you want to argue the fine points of baseball,

do it on your own time.

- [sighs]

Why did you hit me, Val?

- I hit you because you wouldn't shut up.

- Why did you hit me in front of my kid?

- I'm sorry.

I didn't see your kid.

- Let me ask you something.

Do you ever listen to what I'm saying?

- I can't help listening to it!

- You can't help hearing.

What I'm asking is do you ever listen.

- Look it, I've got a manager.

I've got coaches.

I've got teammates.

I got people.

I've got friends.

I got enough people to listen to who actually know

what they're talking about. I don't need to listen to you!

- My son came home from school, and right away

I knew something was wrong.

- How did you know?

- Well, because I'm his mother.

Mothers know.

- What, if anything, did you do?

- I talked to him.

It took a while, but he finally told me what was wrong.

He told me that his teacher, Ben Salter, had molested him.

- Objection, hearsay.

- This is being used to demonstrate the state of mind

of the witness, Your Honor.

- I'll allow it.

- Your Honor, I want the jury instructed that this statement

by the witness's child is being admitted solely

to demonstrate the witness's state of mind

and should not be taken as fact.

- The jury is so advised.

- What, if anything, did you do?

- First, I called the police, and then I called the school.

- And you continue to believe that your child

was molested by this man?

- Yes, I do.

- Despite the fact that the District Attorney's

Office found there to be insufficient evidence

to proceed to trial?

- District attorneys often find insufficient evidence

to proceed to trial, but that does not

shake my conviction one iota.

I believe my child.

- I have nothing further.

- Had your son ever been sexually assaulted

prior to that day at school?

- Objection, irrelevant.

- It's being offered to demonstrate

the witness's state of mind.

- I'll allow it.

- Had he?

- Yes.

- Who was it that molested him that time?

- His father, my ex-husband.

- You first accused your ex-husband of sexual

molestation while the two of you were in the middle

of a divorce, isn't that right?

- Yes, I did.

That was one of the reasons he and I got a divorce.

- Tell us, was he ever tried for the crime

of sexual molestation?

- No, he wasn't.

- Why was that?

- The district attorney felt there

was insufficient evidence.

Do you think that means that I'm crazy?

- Ask that the witness confine her remarks

to answering the questions she's being asked.

- The witness will refrain from engaging in colloquy

with plaintiff counsel.

- Does your son's father have visitation rights?

- Yes, he does.

- Does he have unsupervised visitation rights?

- Yes.

- It's safe to assume then, is it

not, that there was not only insufficient evidence

to support a criminal prosecution,

there was insufficient evidence to prevent

him from being alone with the child you claim he molested.

- You can be sure that if it were up to me,

that wouldn't be the case.

- Was it you or your ex-husband who wanted to keep your son

enrolled at Sunny Hills?

- That doesn't have anything to do with this.

- Ask that the witness be directed

to answer the question.

- It was him.

- Your husband got to keep the house in Brentwood, didn't he?

- Objection.

- Overruled.

- It was his before we got married.

- You wanted to enroll your son in a school that

was close to where you lived, close to where you

had to move to, because you couldn't

afford a house in Brentwood.

You were the one that had to pick him up,

you were the one that had to take him to school,

and the judge who presided over your divorce required

you to keep him in Sunny Hills.

The judge listened to your husband about that

just the way he listened to your husband about everything else.

- Do you think I made it up?

Do you think I made this whole thing up?

These things happen.

People's lives are ruined.

Men do whatever they want to do, and lives are ruined.

Women and children's lives are ruined.

- Did your son tell you that he'd been molested, Mrs.

Hartshorn, or did you tell him?

- [shakily exhales]

He told me, and I believed him.

- I have nothing further.

[courtroom murmuring]

- Mr. Henderson-- - Tony.

- Right, Tony.

- And you are?

- Gwen Taylor.

- What can I do for you, Gwen Taylor?

- I was wondering if you could recommend

a tutor or an outside class or someplace where I can get

a little extra help preparing because otherwise I'm not

going to make it through this.

- Everybody feels that way.

- No, you don't understand.

I don't-- I don't have a law degree.

I've been apprenticing.

I haven't had a lot of practice being tested like this.

I'm going under, and I really need some help.

- Hi, Tony.

- Hi, Sheryl.

- Are we going to cover third-party

beneficiaries today?

- Yes, we are.

- Good, because I'm hopelessly confused.

- You see?

You're not alone.

- Tony, I passed hopelessly confused last Tuesday.

I--I learned all these these mnemonics,

MY LEGS for written contracts and COPE for the rules against

perpetuities, but now I can't remember

what the letters stand for. Does the E--

- Gwen--

- in-- in LEGS stand for Executor, or is it Escrow?

The O-- - Gwen--Gwen, I will help you.

- You will? - Is tomorrow night soon enough?

- Yeah. - Good.

Tomorrow night it is.

- I can't believe you have time enough to help me.

- I'll make time.

I like a challenge.

Come on.

- Imagine that every morning you go to work,

you encounter the same person.

Wherever you are, there he is.

And all day, every day, he yells at you.

He reminds you of mistakes you've made.

He tells you what you're not doing as well as you should,

what opportunities you've missed,

what-- what a disappointment you've been.

And he comments on your personal life

loud enough so that everybody can hear, that he won't stop.

So you try to ignore him.

You try to concentrate on your work, and you tell yourself,

it's-- it's part of the job.

It's a part of the job.

In one way or another, you manage not to lose your temper

until that day, until that day when the circumstances

in your life are such that this-- this guy yelling at you

just pushes you over the edge.

It could happen to me.

It could happen to you.

It happened to him.

Val Bodine is a professional baseball

player, ladies and gentlemen.

He is not a trained bear.

Yes, he's paid.

He's paid very well to play baseball in front of people,

and, yes, he should be able to take the booing along

with the cheering.

But what's a little tough to take

is the relentless and obsessive taunting

by a man like Ed Hicks.

I mean-- I mean, just think-- think what it would be like

if it were him waiting for you every day

at work, every day for five and a half months.

I ask you to imagine that right now

before you render your verdict.

- How do you do this?

[chuckles] What, am I--

I'm supposed to get up here and make a speech?

All right, I'm going to get up here,

I'm going to make a speech, and-- and everyone's

going to listen to me.

It's pretty good.

[chuckles] Doesn't happen to me very often.

[laughs]

I mean, when you're a kid, you dream

everybody will listen to you.

You dream about being center of attention.

You dream big.

You dream you'd be a Senator or a movie star or a-- or a,

you know, baseball player.

You don't dream you're going to sell shoes.

That's just something you wind up doing like-- and that

and watching baseball games.

Time stands still at a baseball game.

There's no clock.

Who you are doesn't matter.

Anybody can go if you come up with the money.

All right, so maybe it sounds stupid,

but 12% of my take-home pay goes to buy the tickets.

I used to go with my father, and now my son goes with me.

I'm a-- I'm a nervous, overweight guy who drives

an hour and a half back and forth to work to make 37.5

a year selling shoes.

I mean, my kid's not going to yell

from the rooftops about what his old man does for a living.

He's got nothing to brag about in that department.

He's stuck with me.

So I take him to the baseball game, and I make a lot of noise

so my kid will see that I--

I love something, and he'll love that thing too.

All right, you may not believe this,

but when we're at the ballgame, I am a real big shot to my kid.

Nobody knows the game better.

Nobody yells louder!

And that may not be a lot, but it's something!

It is something.

[contemplative music]

- Did Sunny Hills School act reasonably

in requiring Mr. Salter to take this test,

the penile plethysmograph?

Much has been made of the test's invasiveness.

We all feel discomfort at hearing it described

and imagining it administered to ourselves.

Admittedly, it's hard to view it as anything

other than a violation of one's privacy.

I would urge you to keep one thing in perspective, though.

It's not as much a violation as being sexually molested.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is what we are talking about.

If a school had any basis to suspect one of its teachers

of molesting children sexually and they did not do anything

they could to prevent that, the next sound you would hear

would be the snapping open of attorneys' briefcases hell bent

on suing that school for all it's worth.

The penile plethysmograph is the fastest

means we have of breaking through a suspect's denial.

Its results may not be conclusive,

but they definitely give us a piece of the puzzle.

They enable us to identify who is a threat to our children.

If any of you--

if you or if someone close to you

was sexually abused as a child, you

understand the enormity of that threat,

and the momentary discomfort or embarrassment

that Ben Salter may go through as a result of this test

pales in significance when compared

to the misery and the pain that a victim of sexual abuse

carries with them the rest of their life.

I would urge you to render your verdict accordingly.

- Ladies and gentlemen, I am not here to defend

the sexual abuse of children.

My adversary has done his level best, however,

to make it appear that I am.

He knows that if you are sufficiently caught up

in the drumbeat of fear and suspicion,

you won't bother to distinguish between that

which has been alleged and that which has been proven.

And if you don't bother to do that, he wins.

This case terrifies me.

I look at what happened to Ben Salter,

and I understand how it was that women called witches

were burned at the stake.

A person stands accused of that which we as a society

revile and condemn.

He refuses to have wires attached to his body, wires

which bypass the conscious mind, which measure not guilt

or innocence but the physiology of some disembodied part

of his anatomy as if that defines who he is.

As a result, he loses his job and has his reputation ruined.

Does it behoove him to suffer whatever ordeal is put in front

of him in order to undo that?

Only if you're willing to scrap the Constitution

and cast out the most basic tenet of our judicial system,

innocent until proven guilty.

This is not a case about child abuse, ladies and gentlemen.

It's a case about an innocent man fighting

for his right to hold on to the last shred

of what it means to be human.

[courtroom whispering]

[indistinct chatter]

- Hi.

- How you doing?

- OK.

How's the bar review going?

- OK.

How's Lucy?

- She's great.

- I was, um, thinking about her, and I was thinking about what

you said the other day.

- Gwen, this really can wait until after the bar.

- I don't think it should.

I-- I don't think I can be the constant that she

needs in her life, Daniel.

And the truth is that I don't think I can be

the constant you need either.

- So.

- So.

I thought this would feel terrible but at least

be a relief, and instead it just feels terrible.

- Hey.

- Oh, I'm so sorry.

- So am I.

- Has the jury reached a verdict?

- We have, Your Honor.

- What say you?

- We find for the plaintiff, Edward Hicks, and award

the sum of $1 in damages.

- So say you all?

- $1?

- Mr. Hicks.

- They don't give IQ tests for jury duty, do they?

- Mr. Hicks--

- Hey, morons.

- Bailiff!

- Here's a question for ya.

How could he be guilty and only owe $1?

- Listen to me, Mr. Hicks.

- If I give you a dollar, do I get to beat you up?

- Mr. Hicks!

If you don't stop haranguing the jury,

I'm going to have the officer of the court place

you under arrest.

Ah!

The jury is dismissed with the thanks of the court.

This court's adjourned.

- Hey, Ed! Ed!

- What?

What, you want to rub my nose in it?

You want to beat me up again? - No, the jury already did that.

- Hey, Val.

Are you sure this is going to be constructive?

- Jonathan, I got a little business

to take care of with this man.

- Oh, what kind of business?

- I want to give you something.

- Oh, what, you're going to give me a dollar?

- No, I'm not going to give you the dollar.

I want to give you this for your boy.

- What's this for?

- Y-- you showed me something yesterday.

I thought you were just a pain in the ass, which you are,

but you're more than that.

You-- you love the game.

You love your kid.

And I respect you for that.

I'd like it if you realize that I'm a human being

and respect me too.

- Is that the real deal?

- I used it all last season.

- Including when you blew the double play against the Astros?

- Yeah, including then.

- Thanks.

It'll mean a lot to him.

It means a lot to me.

All right.

- Hey, sorry I beat you up.

- I lived.

- See you at the ballpark?

- Yeah, count on it!

- Would the foreperson please read the verdict?

- We the jury in the matter of Salter versus Sunny

Hills School find for the plaintiff and award $250,000

in damages.

- The court hereby orders the plaintiff be reinstated.

The jury is discharged with thanks of the court.

This court is adjourned.

- I think we need to talk.

- I'm not worried about the monetary damages.

They'll be covered by our insurance carrier.

The problem comes with reinstating you.

- What is it you're asking, Mr. Hollis?

- I'm asking for you to teach someplace else.

- Now, why would I want to do that?

- Because it'll be a hell of a lot more comfortable for you

someplace else.

I'm telling you this as a friend, Ben.

There are quite a few parents that don't want you back.

They've said to me that if you do come back,

they want absolute assurances that you won't

be alone with their children.

I'm going to have to put a monitor in your classrooms.

- You do that, and I'll have you back in court so fast,

your head will spin.

The judge's order calls for his reinstatement, period--

no conditions, no qualifications,

no holding him out to be someone who can't be trusted.

- She's right, Richard.

You can't do that.

- Is it worth it, Ben?

- I'm going to be in room nine Monday morning, Richard.

I expect to have a second-grade class in there as well.

- You want to have a second-grade class in there?

Then you call the parents of those second graders

and tell them they have nothing to worry about.

Tell them that no matter what their fears are, if they want

to continue to have their kids to Sunny Hills,

you're going to be their teacher.

Do you want to tell them that?

- No, because that's your job.

That's what you have to tell them.

You have to tell them.

You have to stand up and say that Ben Salter is

coming back to teach because Ben Salter has done nothing wrong.

He's not a child molester.

He's not a suspected child molester.

He's a teacher.

He's a good teacher.

- It appears as though I have no choice, so OK.

For what it's worth, though, I think

you're going to be miserable.

- Are you telling me that as a friend?

- OK, you get in under the exclusionary rule.

How?

- [groans]

- Independent source.

- Intervening act of free will--

- Intervening act of--

- by the defendant--

- free will by the defendant, inevitable discovery, live

witness testimony, in-court ID.

- Good.

And remember, if the exclusionary rule

is on the essay question?

- Mention the exceptions whether they're relevant or not.

Get in that I know what they are.

- Right. - Mm.

- OK, how about the rule against perpetuities?

- The rule against perpetuities, COPE--

Contingent remainders, Option to purchase land,

Powers of appointment.

Oh, Executor interest?

- You love those mnemonics, don't you?

- Yeah, they make me feel more secure.

I really-- I want to thank you for taking the time to help me.

I feel calmer now than I have in the last few weeks.

And there was a moment back there when I actually

pictured myself as a lawyer.

It was really great.

- I can't believe I did that.

- Mm.

- [clears throat]

I can't believe I did that.

- Why did you do that?

- I don't know.

I-- I felt like I was standing outside myself

watching me kiss you.

- Look, it's late.

We're both tired. It's OK.

- I never do things like that.

It's totally out of character for me.

- Why don't we just get back to work?

- As long as you're sure you're OK,

and you forgive me for being so out of line?

- Yeah, I'm OK, and I'm-- yeah, I forgive you.

- All right.

[clears throat] OK, statute of frauds.

What contracts need to be in writing?

Oh, right.

Right.

Where the consideration is marriage, where the duration

of the contract is more than a year, suretyship

land for the sale of goods valued at more than $500

and for an executor to pay the debts of an estate--

[theme music]