Drastic Measures ( A Law and Order:SVU Fanfiction)

Chapter Twenty-Four

"Everyone settle down! Mr. Evans, it's your turn," the judge ordered the court as everyone had come back from the brief recess.

"Right, thank you judge," Smith's lawyer stood up, adjusting his tie as he approached the stand. "By the way. I'm very sorry for what happened to your child Ms. Chapman."

Eliza rolled her eyes, not convinced by his fake apology, "Mhm."

"Anyways," he coughed, clearing his voice, "According to these print outs of messages you sent to my defendant, you had planned to go out with him, am I correct?"

"Yes," Eliza nodded.

"So you knew the dangers of going out with him that night, am I right?"

"I suppose," Eliza narrowed her eyes at the lawyer.

"Meaning you knew very well that your life was in danger. So therefore, this is partially your fault," Mr. Evans said.

"What?" She furrowed her eyebrows.

"Objection! He's making a biased assumption," Rafael interrupted.

"I'll rephrase," Evans quickly spoke, "Could it be that if my defendant didn't know you were undercover that you wouldn't have been kidnapped?"

"Of course not. He's done the same things to other women," Eliza said.

"And how do you know that?" Evans asked.

"Well, it's obvious."

"Provide me some evidence," Evans demanded.

"Well we don't really have any convincing evidence..."she muttered in defeat.

"Exactly," Evans smirked confidently.
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"I'd like to call up junior detective Dominick Carisi Jr," Evans announced.

"Sonny's his witness?" Eliza arched a brow as she saw her boyfriend walk up to the stand.

"He didn't have a choice," Olivia assured her, "Trust me, he doesn't want to go up there as much as you don't want him to."

"Detective Carisi, you were involved in the interrogation of my client, yes?" Evans asked.

"Yes."

"According to my client, you applied brute force," he said, reading a file.

"I may have laid my hands on him. But I didn't  harm him," Sonny admitted.

"I've read your file and you have a pretty clean slate. You're not known to be violent in interrogations. So why the sudden change?" Evans questioned.

"He provoked me and I snapped. I wasn't in the right mindset at the time obviously because he was holding my partner captive," Sonny explained.

The lawyer eyed Sonny suspiciously for a moment then spoke again, "So you're admitting that you let your personal emotions get in the way of a case."

"I'm not saying that. You're twisting my words," Sonny sighed, starting to get annoyed.

"Do you have a close relationship with your partner, detective?" Evans asked.

"Of course I do. We've been partners for more than a year now. We're practically best friends," Sonny smiled as he quickly glanced at Eliza.

"Are you sure it's not more than that? Because that's not what this paternity test says," Evans lifted up a small file and handed it to the judge.

"Objection, he's straying off topic," Rafael interjected desperately. Although he was confused too, he could tell none of this would end well.

"Judge, I promise, this correlates with the case in that I belief my client was falsely charged due to this detective's relationship with the victim," Evans explained. "See for yourself."

The judge adjusted her glasses, narrowing her eyes as she read the file. "I'll allow," she muttered.

"Thank you your honor," Evans nodded, "As you can see from the file, it is clear that Detective Carisi's DNA matches the DNA of the miscarried fetus. This proves that due to this detective's close relationship with the victim, it's easy to see that he would wrongfully treat my client."

Sonny sat there in awe, not sure how to even respond. Practically everyone was shocked.
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"Why didn't you tell me this information earlier?" Rafael asked as he sat on his desk, rubbing the sides of his forehead in exhaustion.

Eliza sat across from him, drinking her tea nervously while Sonny paced around the room. Olivia leaned by the door, contemplating everything that just happened.

"I didn't think he would even bring that up. How'd he even get that info? Isn't there a patient confidentiality rule?" Sonny asked.

"There is, but the fetus is deceased so the laws are nulled," Rafael explained and sighed, "I just...really wish you'd have told me this sooner. Now you're at the risk of losing your job and we're at the risk of losing this case."

"You're not serious right?" Eliza finally spoke.

"Oh I am. If you two hadn't kept your relationship quiet from the DA and if Carisi here hadn't involved himself so closely in the case, we wouldn't be having this issue. But here we are," Rafael waved his hands up in defeat.

"So what do we do now?" Sonny asked.

"Go home, and rest. Hell, we all need it," Rafael muttered in exasperation, "We'll deal with this tomorrow once we hear the verdict. Let's just hope luck is on our side."