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The Majority Rules
CHAPTER 1
THE WASHINGTON POST THAT MORNING HAD A SHORT ARTICLE in the Metro section about the civil sexual harassment trial in progress at the federal courthouse in Washington. A young former FBI agent, Kathleen Falco, was suing the Federal Bureau of Investigation for her alleged wrongful discharge following her refusal to accept a transfer to the FBI field office in Fargo, North Dakota. The ACLU Washington representative was quoted in the article as saying that Ms. Falco's case was illustrative of the widespread sexual harassment still present in the law enforcement agencies like the FBI. The ACLU spokesperson had expressed disappointment in Ms. Falco's attorney, Tim Quinn, and his refusal to allow the ACLU to join the case and make it into a class action. The paper also noted that Quinn had refused comment while the case was pending.
Quinn frowned as he read the article. Damn it! Was the fucking ACLU trying to get a mistrial in his case with that statement about"widespread sexual harassment"? Tim hoped that the judge would let the case continue. The jury had been warned not to read the papers during the projected three-day trial. No doubt Judge Lashly would poll the jury about reading the Washington Post before the morning session started.
On the ACLU request, Tim had refused to let his case be used for anyone's agenda. This was a simple case of an employee being abused by her boss.
His client, after graduating from the FBI Academy, had been posted to the Washington Field Office. There, at the WFO, she had the bad luck to be assigned to a middle-aged and oversexed squad supervisor. He groped her on several occasions. Moreover he made numerous lewd comments and suggestions to her in his campaign to get her to date him. When she had rebuffed all his advances, he arranged for her to be transferred to North Dakota. She had refused the transfer and the Bureau had terminated her employment. A secretary from Tim Quinn's law firm who was Falco's neighbor had suggested that she see Quinn.
Quinn liked and believed her from the start. The pretty young agent had been the victim of a one-way office romance that eventually ended her dream of being an FBI special agent. Tim had filed this suit after his attempt to use the FBI's administrative process to reverse the termination had failed. Now they were in the second day of a jury trial to prove that the FBI had wrongly fired Ms. Falco.
At the beginning of the suit, Tim had a slim chance of winning. The only real evidence of the harassment was his client's testimony. Discovery had been a disaster; the squad supervisor, Lester McKnight, had denied any misconduct and no one else came forward to substantiate his client's claims. The typical "Curtain of Blue" had descended on Quinn's attempt to back up his client's story—law enforcement officers do not rat out a fellow officer. Then a week before trial, Tim was called at his home by a convincing, butanonymous female voice and told that Special Agent William Sharkey had seen several of the incidents of harassment. The next day Tim put Sharkey on his witness list. Discovery was closed and it was too late to depose him, so Tim had no idea what he would say at trial. Flying blind was not Tim's style, but Sharkey was the only chance he had to find evidence to back up his client's version of her termination.
Later that morning, the courtroom was half filled when Kathleen Falco finished her testimony and left the stand. When Ms. Falco was seated at the counsel's table next to him, Tim Quinn told the court bailiff, "The plaintiff calls William Sharkey."
Moments later a balding man slowly walked toward the front of the courtroom. Tim guessed his age as fifty and noticed the squinty eyes with hooded lids that made it seem that he was almost asleep. However when he passed Tim on the way to the witness stand, Tim saw that the sleepy-looking eyes were alert and burning with anger. Clearly Agent Sharkey didn't want to be here.
After the witness was sworn, Tim asked a few preliminary questions that established that Sharkey had worked in the same section of the FBI as Ms. Falco and her supervisor, Mr. McKnight.
"Mr. Sharkey, did you ever see Ms. Falco and Mr. McKnight together?"
"Yes."
Then came the "make or break" question.
"Did you ever see Mr. McKnight touch Ms. Falco?"
As Tim waited, he had no idea what the answer would be. Even though Tim knew this was a hostile witness, Sharkey's FBI personal data sheet, which had been furnished to him by the government, was encouraging to Tim. The biographical data—which included his work assignments and his FBI commendations—all indicated to Tim that Sharkey was an honest FBI professional. SoTim was expecting the truth—even if it may be a tough truth for Sharkey and the FBI. And it was.
"Yes."
The low raspy answer seemed to come reluctantly from deep inside Sharkey.
Tim leaned toward Sharkey and asked a follow-up.
"Please describe for the court where Mr. McKnight touched Ms. Falco."
Sharkey's face was in a tight frown as he uttered the words, "He touched her on her buttocks once and another time he put his hand inside her blouse."
A hush seized the courtroom. At the defendant's table, McKnight, who was sitting next to the assistant U.S. attorney, slumped in his chair ... all color seem drained from that vain, smug face of the FBI supervisor.
The members of the jury were now on full alert as Tim elicited the facts and circumstances of the two incidents from a grim-faced Special Agent Sharkey. When Tim had finished his direct examination of the witness, the government attorney wisely declined to question Sharkey further. There is a saying among trial attorneys: "If you find yourself in a deep hole, don't reach for the shovel and continue to dig."
Mercifully for the government, Judge Lashly called the trial into recess for an early lunch. Once the jury had filed out, the judge called both attorneys up for a side bar. Quinn and Wilson approached the bench and stood looking up at the judge. The judge put his hand over the bench microphone, leaned forward, and spoke in a whisper. These words would never appear in the court transcript.
"Mr. Wilson, I assume you were looking at the jury during Agent Sharkey's testimony."
"Yes, Your Honor." Wilson's face was in a tight frown.
"Do I have to say it, Mr. Wilson? ... Do I really have to suggest settlement?" The judge locked his eyes on Wilson, the government's lawyer and the defender of the FBI and Mr. McKnight.
"No, Your Honor. I'll call the chief of the civil division right away and have discussions with Mr. Quinn ASAP."
"Do you have anything to say, Mr. Quinn?"
"All we were looking for is a rehire, a decent job assignment, and some damages to pay for the forced unemployment, Your Honor."
The judge gave a brief nod and said, "Seems reasonable to me, very reasonable, Mr. Wilson. And I suggest you repeat those words verbatim to your boss. I'll delay the jury's return until three so you boys will have some time to hammer out something and get this clunker off my docket. Now step back."
The settlement was reached by three: Ms. Falco was rehired, $95,000 in damages were agreed to by the parties, and after a month of paid leave Ms. Falco was going to continue her career as a special agent in the L.A. Field Office.
When a satisfied Tim Quinn went home that evening, he felt he had used up his luck for the week. He was wrong.
Copyright © 2005 by Eugene Sullivan
