The Lincoln Lawyer

Prosecutor Ted Minton delivers an opening statement. Minton describes all the evidence in the case and argues that no one, no matter their profession, deserves to be attacked or brutalized. Mick thinks that Minton is making a rookie mistake by overloading the jury with too much information. One of the jurors is what Mick calls a “scorekeeper” (316): She takes notes constantly, which Mick likes because it means that if the prosecution makes a promise and then doesn’t follow through, she will notice. The prosecution worked hard to avoid having women on the jury for fear that they would not sympathize with a prostitute; for the same reason, Mick worked hard to get at least a few women, including the “scorekeeper” on the jury.

Mick makes his opening statement. He has known the judge for over a decade, and she is notorious for being fair but delivering the maximum sentence. Mick declares that the jury will be presented with evidence that will clearly show Reggie Campo as the real predator: a prostitute that set up a wealthy man in order to extort him for money.

Minton attempts to object, and the judge embarrasses him by telling him that he may not object to an opening statement, commenting that Minton needs to learn how to try a felony case. Minton is again embarrassed when the judge has to admonish him for displaying emotion and physically reacting to Mick’s statement. Mick finishes his argument and, as he turns to take his seat, he notices Detectives Lankford and Sobel sitting in the room.

When the judge dismisses everyone for lunch, the detectives are gone. Mick wonders what they are doing.

As the trial continues, Minton paints Reggie Campo as a victim of a horrendous crime by calling the 911 dispatch officer and first responders as witnesses. Minton has the 911 call transcript read out loud. Then the police officers offer their testimony, stating that when they arrived Reggie was badly beaten, covered in blood, and two men were holding down Louis Roulet. They also note that they bagged for evidence a knife that a neighbor found. They also bagged Roulet’s blood-covered left hand.

On cross-examination, Mick makes it clear that the police should have bagged his right hand, or at least inspected it, and asks if the implication is that Roulet used his left hand to wield the knife. He then goes on to get the witness to admit that it is at least plausible that the injuries to Reggie’s face were self-inflicted. This does not go over well with the jury.

The next day, Mick focuses on the jury and attempts to mirror their facial expressions. Minton calls Charles Talbot, or Mr. X, to testify. He owns a convenience store, drives an expensive Corvette, and has a lot of contact with sex workers. He found Reggie’s ad on her website, set up a date with her at Morgan’s bar, and then paid $400 for sex in her apartment. One of the jurors, a man who reads a Bible during the breaks, is extremely uncomfortable. Mr. Talbot testifies to leaving Reggie’s apartment just before 10 pm and that when he left she had no physical injuries.

Mick shows the jury that Talbot is left-handed. Mick then interrogates Talbot, demanding to know how many times Reggie asked him to strike her in the face, getting the idea that Talbot brutalized her into the jury’s minds before being silenced by objections.

Court adjourns for the day. Roulet is confident that Mick did a good job creating reasonable doubt. In the hallway, Detectives Lankford and Sobel greet Mick. They have been looking for him. 

Detective Lankford hands Mick a search warrant giving them permission to search Mick’s house and car for the exact gun (including serial number) missing from Mick’s closet. The detectives explain that they have already showed the search warrant to the judge presiding over Roulet’s case. Mick asks if they can wait until the trial ends. Detective Lankford refuses, assuming that Mick wants time to dispose of the gun.

The warrant asserts that Mick failed to disclose the fact that he owned a gun matching the exact description of the murder weapon, that he fabricated an alibi and provided a false lead about a drug dealer, and that Levin was extorting Mick for money. Mick knows that this is a “bad-faith warrant” (345), meaning the detectives did not do their due diligence in researching their claims. The detectives show Mick photos they found in Levin’s desk of Mick interacting with drug dealers, prostitutes, and gang members—photos they assume Levin was using to blackmail Mick, explaining why Mick killed him. It’s clear to Mick that Roulet has paid someone to follow Mick, taking and then planting these photos at Levin’s to frame Mick for Levin’s murder.

Desperate to explain that it’s not what it looks like—that these are photos of his clients—Mick gets a sense of what his clients feel when they can’t resist talking to the police or detectives, often digging themselves in before they know what they’ve done.

In a flashback, Mick explains the history of the gun. After Mick’s father successfully defended famous gangster Mick Cohen, Cohen gave him the Woodsman gun as a gift. Mick inherited the gun from his father and registered it in case it was ever stolen.

When Mick and the detectives arrive at Mick’s house, he invites them to search the place, but tells them they won’t find the gun—it was recently stolen. The detectives ask why if he’d had the gun registered in case of theft, he has not reported his gun missing. Mick tells the truth, that a client stole the gun, so Mick cannot report it without violating attorney-client privilege. The detectives assume he is referring to Roulet, and offer to run the data from his ankle bracelet. They also confirm that they already tracked Roulet’s bracelet on the morning of Levin’s murder, which rules Roulet out as the murderer. As they search, Mick invites will not allow the detectives to separate—he wants to be able to see them at all times. In his garage, Mick tells Lankford the joke about lawyers and catfish that he heard from Kurlen. 

As the search continues into Mick’s office, he asks Sobel if Lankford is always so hard on lawyers. She explains that last year Lankford spent fifty thousand dollars in legal fees on a custody battle that he ultimately lost. Lankford also recently lost a big case on a technicality, so he thinks lawyers are corrupt.

As Mick and Sobel chat, he learns that if they don’t find the gun, they don’t have a case against him. The detectives search his bedroom and find the gun’s box. Mick has a moment of terror as he realizes that Roulet could have already snuck the gun back into the box, but it is still empty.

Then the detectives inform him that there is still ballistics evidence on file from an old Mick Cohen case. This means that they can potentially match that ballistics evidence with the bullet casing from Levin murder. Then they wouldn’t need the actual gun to indict Mick. Mick is afraid that “the wheels had just come off of everything I had put into motion” (359).