Judge Penelope Rafferty sat quietly in her chambers reading the trial brief that lie on her desk. She was not kindly disposed toward muggers. In fact, at this very moment, her mother was in the hospital recuperating from a mugging. She had been returning to her car, after doing some shopping at the May Company, when she was attacked in the mall parking lot.

At first, she had been tempted to disqualify herself from presiding over the trail of the People-versus-Steve Brewster, but thoughts of her dead father dissuade her.

At times she found it extremely difficult being a Rafferty. She was the third generation of Raffertys to serve the Judiciary and the first female. Her father had passed away while still serving as Chief Justice of the California Supreme court. During moments of difficulty, he would still speak to her. She knew he would say,

"Penny, if you allow yourself to disqualify from this trial because of personal bias, soon you'll find excuse to disqualify yourself because of some other life experience. You know, Penny, that the end result in that course of action will be that you'll be no damn use to yourself or your community. So face up to your sworn responsibilities, get your butt in there and do your job."

She sighed, picked up the trial brief, and started reading. It appeared to be a rather simple case:

Steve Brewster was charged with murder in the first, while committing a strong-arm robbery. Specifically, he was charged with hitting Missus Mary Ann Pope in the head with a metal pipe, snatching her purse, and leaving her to die in a puddle of blood under a street light at 5643 Elm Street, Los Angeles, California. The time and date of the crime was 8:15 P.M. -- Sunday, April 8, 1994.

The prosecution's case was weak. It mainly consisted of one eye witness. The witness had picked Steve's picture out of the mug books and had with no hesitation picked him out of the line up. She laid the brief back on her desk and closed her eyes,

"Well," she thought, "if this witness proves to be reliable and of reasonable good character, the public defender will have a helluva tough time getting old Steve out of this one."

...........

Court convened at 10:00 A.M. sharp. Judge Rafferty read the charges and asked the public defender, Henry Martin, if he was ready to start trial proceedings? Henry cleared his throat and croaked out,

"Not guilty, Your Honor."

"No, Henry! You've already done that at the preliminary hearing. Are you prepared to go to trial?"

"Sorry, Your Honor. Yes, the defense is ready." She glanced over at the prosecuting attorney,

"Is the prosecution ready?"

Tony Williams, the Assistant District Attorney answered with a confident smile,

"Sure are, Your Honor."

Penelope looked down at young Steve Brewster. Even cleaned up and dressed in a suit, he looked sullen and vicious. His record indicated that he had been in similar trouble four times before. She found herself praying for a really believable witness. She turned to the Prosecutor,

"Mister Williams, would the prosecution like to begin their opening statement. He stood and began his presentation to the jury. She sat lost in thought as he rambled on. When he finished, she gave Henry his opportunity to make Steve look like a choir boy to the bored jury. When Henry stopped sobbing out his opening statement, she ask Tony to call his first witness.

"Your Honor," he replied, "this trial is expected to be very short. The people have only one witness. He is an eye witness to the crime and can prove beyond any doubt that Steve Brewster did indeed commit the crime. There will be only a direct examination of this witness, a cross-examination by the defense, the summations, and then it will go to jury. Okay?

"Sounds good to me -- get on with it."

"The People call Mister Russell Set to the stand."

The doors at the back of the courtroom swung open and a rotund, little, old man came wobbling up the aisle. His short, fat body shifting from side to side, as his stubby, little legs brought him up the aisle. When he got to the witness stand, the court clerk held out the Bible saying,

"Mister Set, please place your right ... no Mister Set, I didn't mean to sit. I need you to stand back up and put your right hand on this Bible." Laboriously Mister Set slid out of the witness chair and did as he was told. After promising to tell the truth, he was told,

"Now, Mister Set, you can sit." After seating himself in the witness chair, he looked around the room, waved at Tony Williams, and leaned back expectantly.

Penelope studied him from behind the papers she was holding. Never had she seen a person with such a bad complexion. His skin was greyish brown and wrinkled almost like elephant hide. There were patches of hair growing in odd places on his face and neck. He appeared to be cheerful and friendly though.

"Mister Set," Tony Williams started his direct, "Please tell the court your address, and the relationship of your address to the location of the crime that you witnessed."

"Please, just call me Russell or even Russ would be better. I'm not used to being called Mister and you know what happens when someone says Set. Oh yes, my address. I live in Apartment `B' at 5644 Elm Street, Los Angeles, California. My apartment front window looks out onto Elm Street, and that's the window I was looking out of, when he whacked that poor woman in the head and took her purse."

"When who whacked her?"

"Why, him. That guy sittin right there in the suit next to the guy with the big briefcase.

"Objection, Your Honor ... calls for a conclusion.

"Sustained, Mister Williams, you need to lay a little more foundation before you try something like that."

"Russ, are you a native Californian?

"No, all my roots are in Idaho. I come to California last year after I retired.

"What did you do back in Idaho?"

"Was on the farm. All us Sets were farmers."

"Why'd you leave the farm and come to California, Russ?"

"T.V. Ya see our farm was so far out, we never had no T.V. Then one time when the wife got sick and died, I had to go to Boise. I stayed in that hospital waiting room watching T.V. til the old lady died. Took almost two weeks. Heck, when I got back to the farm, things just weren't the same -- dirty clothes, cold meals, and no T.V. I guess I missed that T.V. more'n I missed the old lady, so I sold the farm and come to Hollywood where they got lots of T.V. stations."

"What do you do for a living here in California?"

"Shucks, I guess you could just call me a couch potato. I take my old hound for two walks every day and the rest of the time I sit on the couch, drink diet pop, and watch T.V. I bought me six of those big screen T.V.s, so I don't miss anything. I just turn em all on and watch em all at the same time."

Tony, starting to get a little worried, asks,

"Doesn't that sort of put a strain on your eyes? How are your eyes? Any problems?

"No Sir! I got a few problems, but bad eyes ain't one of them. Don't you worry, Mister Williams, I have excellent eyes."

"Were you watching T.V. the night you saw the defendant attack Missus Pope and take her purse?

"Yes Sir, I didn't know what her name was, but I sure as heck saw him jump out of the bushes in front of that porch across the street."

"He ran up behind her and hit her in the head with a piece of pipe. She dropped like a rag doll and that no good bum ran off with her purse. I called the 911 number then ran out, but she was already dead. So I just came back to my apartment cause it was time for the end of `Murder She Wrote'. I like that one, don't you?" Penelope noticed that Steve was whispering to Henry. He was pointing at Russ in the witness chair and gesturing wildly.

Tony Williams indicated that the direct examination was over and Henry stood to begin his cross examination,

"Russ, tell me, had you ever seen my client before you identified him in the line up?

"Yes Sir, I saw him when he conked that poor lady in the head."

"Move to strike, Your Honor -- would you please instruct the witness to only answer the questions asked?

"Why Henry, I believe that's what he just did," she replied.

"No Russ, I mean in the streets, at the beach, or in the market where you shop. Had you ever seen him in places like that?"

"No Sir."

"Has he ever harmed you in any way?"

"No Sir."

"Then, Russ, why are you trying to blame him for something that he didn't do? Why are you trying to destroy this poor boy's life? If you were watching six big screen T.V.s how can you possibly say that you saw him clearly across the street in the dark?"

"Objection, Defense is badgering the witness."

"Sustained."

"You mean I can't answer him? I don't mind answering that question one little bit."

Penelope looked down at the little man in the chair on her left,

"Russell, I want to remind you that you are Mister Williams only witness, and when he objects, it's to protect you from being discredited and him from botching this prosecution. The Defense must prove that you are either lying or incapable of seeing clearly to win their case. Do you understand?" The little man seemed to puff up with indignation,

"I'm beginning to understand. First, Tony here starts worrying about my eyesight and the condition of my eyes. Now, you tell me that you and the jury will let this bum go, if this Henry fella can prove that I'm either a liar or that I'm going blind.

"Well let me tell you -- We Sets have always had good healthy eyes ... lots of them. This punk thinks that I didn't see him cause my back was turned, and I was watching six T.V.s. Shucks, I coulda been watching six more T.V.s and still been able to see every move he made."

"I saw the tattoo of the snake on his left arm and the ship on his right shoulder. He had on a blue tank top like the kids wear when they want to show off their muscles and blue jeans with the left rear pocket torn off.

"Maybe this will convince you, Mister Henry ... the clock on the wall behind me says 10:42 and the second hand is approaching the 8. The Judge is looking at me from behind her paper." Russ opened two extra eyes on his forehead and rolled them at Henry while he opened the eye just above his right ear and winked at Penelope in a roguish manner. The jury were craning their necks to see what was happening, so Russ opened a few eyes on his neck and soon all eyes were upon him and all his eyes were busy winking at the people in the courtroom.

He turned to ask the Judge if he could go home now. He didn't want to miss the "Young and the Restless," but the Judge had disappeared. He turned to Henry and shook him gently to stop the screaming,

"Just remember, Henry, don't ever have any doubts about ... Russ Set from Idaho having good eyes."

They put Steve back in the slammer, took old Henry to detox, and sent the court clerk to look for the Judge. He found her in chambers. She was asleep with her head on her desk and her trial brief under her head.

.........

"Wake up, Judge Rafferty, wake up -- it's ten minutes to ten. Court convenes in ten minutes. You know you always like to prep for ten minutes before Court goes into session. Today, you have the People-versus-Brewster trial."

She barely had time to wash her face and put on her robes before Tony Williams knocked on her door, stuck his head in, and cheerfully notified her that Steve Brewster had plea bargained to strong-arm robbery, aggrevated assault, and manslaughter. He said,

"I guess, when he heard that we had an eye witness, he knew his goose was cooked."

Choking back a giggle, all she could do was nod her head.