They Call it The City of Angels
A New Serial Novel by Joshua A. TRILIEGI
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Chapter Ten: Stan
Stan made decisions that effected other peoples lives.
He was well aware of his moral obligations and had
not been the only person in his family to become a
judge. There was a long history of legal professionals
who had created legislation, legal precedents, cooperation
between groups, unions, affiliates and social movements.
His first visit to the White House had included a lunch
engagement with a second Uncle, who had made it up
the legal ladder from lawyer, to cabinet member to
a supreme court justice, appointed in the nineteen sixties.
Back then, most of the people in his lineage were liberal
or at least democrats, but the tide had turned and now,
most were republican or conservatives. Though, it was
hard to find anything being conserved lately. Ever since
Cliff was born, Stan had become numb to world affairs.
Even a bit ambivalent towards party politics. He had
settled down late in the game and having a kid was
Dora's idea. She was considerably younger than him.
They had lived together for several years before marrying,
heaven forbid they make the same mistakes their parents
had. He was an extremely cautious man, not the type to
jump into anything, even as a child, his parents noticed
that he had a wisdom beyond his years, sometimes had
more common sense than many of their adult friends.
When Cliff began to lag behind the other kids in class,
they figured out rather quickly that he had disabilities.
Dora immediately began looking for reasons why this
could have happened. She handled cases where pesticides
had effected children's health, chemical companies had
been negligent in their social responsibilities, building
codes had allowed asbestos to be exposed, local energy
companies had polluted the water, electrical wires hung
to close to housing tracts and even the local government
had sprayed DDT, which had entered the blood stream
of unsuspecting residents. And of course, fluoride scandals.
She started with their diet. Where had the restaurants they
frequented prior to Cliff's birth purchased their meat ?
What kind of cultivation had the vegetable growers used
at the local grocery store? What type of soap had she used
to wash their clothes ? Everything and everyone had become
suspect for inspection. Although this never led to any final
discoveries, it did become a transformative period. From
that point on, they lived entirely different lives. Dora began
to buy her produce directly from local farmers. She wanted
to know exactly who grew it, how they grew it and where
they grew it. She became extremely aware of artificial colors,
flavors, dyes, man made fabrics, fillers, additives, and all the
rest of it. Stan sometimes felt responsible for Cliffs health.
He had been a smoker in his youth, was older than Dora,
thought maybe it was his fault. Though she never did blame
him for anything. They couldn't find anything in their family
history and eventually concluded that this was just something
that happens. But deep down inside, Dora never quite finished
her inspection, it was an ongoing situation that at any time
just might reveal itself. She began to specialize in cases where
large companies had been responsible for damaging individuals.
Dora was becoming a sort of social hero, whereas Stan was
posited in direct opposition to her newfound community post.
He was about to preside on a case that would make the Palm
Trees burning throughout the city seem like a cigarette burn.
Most people thought that a jury was mostly responsible for
the final decisions made in courtrooms. But those on the
inside, lawyers, investigators, court appointees, even bailiffs,
cops and sheriffs all knew very well that the judge had as
much to do with final outcomes as the case itself. What
information was admissible, how a witness was to be
questioned, when evidence was so-called valid and any
number of opportunities could either be allowed or objected
to, in one way or another, it often came down to the judges
decision. Time was always a factor. Another element that
often flew directly over the public's knowledge, was all of
the inner connectedness of the legal system. For instance,
Dora and Stan's connection. When they had just begun to
date, there were times when she had brought cases into
his court room. No one knew that they were involved.
In fact, he never would have fallen in love with Dora if
he hadn't witnessed what a brilliant lawyer she was. For
a man like Stan, love was much more than attraction,
beauty, sex, for him it was about a mutual respect, and
to have that, he needed to appreciate the skills involved,
Dora had it all. So when things got serious, Dora knew it
was either step down or leave yourself open to a series of
conflict of interest cases. She opened her private practice
as a consultant and they moved in together. But they were
the exception, all throughout the court system, relationships
such as theirs existed, someone's sister might be married to
a cop, who was a regular witness in another guys courtroom,
who happened to be from the same church as the sister.
Elsewhere, lawyers, secretaries, highway patrol, detectives
and others had often been connected in some precarious
situation where the fine line between justice and injustice
was difficult to decipher. No one person was to blame, it
was just a part of the system. Humans got to know the people
they worked with, they got involved & they favored their own.
But in a city as large and diverse as Los Angeles, this was a
dangerous game with lives in the balance. Your life maybe.
Stan was responsible for putting away a good number of
hardened criminals. So many, in fact, that it was difficult
to even keep track. For the protection of Judges like Stan,
the court system began to track the releases of certain
criminals, so they could avoid retaliations which had been
on the rise in the past few years. Some guy who may have
lost his entire family, his home, his self respect, his youth
and even his position and power within a larger group might
simply come out, retaliate and go right back into the system
for the rest of his life. So, on a monthly basis, judges were
now given a file to read, some read it, others didn't bother.
Although Stan seldom bothered to review his monthly file,
when he found the startling portrait of a familiar face in
Cliff's bedroom, the next day, he read the recent releases.
Sure enough, a man he had convicted in a high profile case
had been released and Cliff's portrait was spot on correct.
It was a manslaughter case in which the prosecuting lawyer
had decided to try the teenage man as an adult, that was
the first red flag. The second was proof of malicious intent
to kill. The convicted man had told a fellow worker that he
wished a certain guy would get into an accident. They were
able to prove that he not only intended to, but was actually
the cause of the accident. The third count, he fled from the
scene. This was used as a divisive way to influence the jury
that the defendant was not only guilty, but also a coward
who didn't even stop or attempt to help his victims. There
was no way in the world that the kid could have ever helped
them out of the car prior to the explosions, it all had
happened on impact. Had the boy been able to speak on
his own behalf, he might have had a fighting chance, but
the entire event had sent him into shock, he lost it, had
nothing to say in his own defense and was easily tossed
away for more years than he had even been on the planet.
Which meant that he had now spent over half of his waking
life inside the prison system. An all white jury sent the
teenage boy far and away. Stan noticed a letter in his in-
box, opened it & realized it was an official communication
from the officer and witness involved in the case, requesting
to wiretap the recently released criminal under a special
circumstances situation. Usually, this type of thing seemed
almost routine, but for some reason Stan got a terrible
feeling about all of it. He granted the request. What a life.
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Editor and Publisher of BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE
Announces a New Experimental Serial Novel about Los Angeles.
Mr Triliegi will write a chapter a day for the next few weeks and
post the results in various languages at the three blog spots that
regularly showcase Art, Theater, Music and Community events.
" I thought it would be a good writing exercise to simply write
about what I see and hear everyday on the streets of the city.
To simply create a chapter a day based on the people and things
going on in Los Angeles. Since we all come from so many back-
grounds, styles, cultures and languages, I decided to structure
the multi character novel to represent all of Los Angeles. I simply
write a chapter a day by allowing the characters to unfold & the
story to reveal itself based directly on the things I see and hear."
" Its pure fiction based on generalities. For instance, Chapter Three,
which was inspired by a girl I saw on the bus earlier in the day, she
had a sketch book with some nice artworks and I thought about her."
Or Chapter One, based on a conversation I had with a guy who was
entering back into society from a long stretch in the penitentiary.
I thought about what other people in his life may have been thinking."
" Its a challenge to simply introduce a character and follow the
creative
line as it flows into something structured and complete. I usually know
the beginning and the end of each Chapter, and simply let the middle
fill itself out. I like the daily discipline as well as the audience
being
in on the process. In this particular case, I don't really take notes.
I just start with an idea and let it flow. This is not a normal novel by
any means, but it is a new and interesting challenge for both the
writer and the readers. Were publishing it in three cities and a wide
variety of languages, English, Italian, French, Chinese, Armenian,
Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese & Korean so far. Its been a lot of fun
I hope the people of Los Angeles and the world will follow it out as
it reveals itself. As the writer, in this particular case, I am just as
curious as the reader as to what will happen and how things will go.
The cool thing about this project is how quickly the characters began
to take on a life of their own. "
" Its an interesting way to work. I am putting together several other
writing projects and decided that this would be a good warmer upper.
We get anywhere from a 50 to 400+ views a day on our website for
our Articles, Reviews and especially our Audio Interviews, so this
particular literature project should be good exercise and at the same
time, allow people to see how a novel is actually created day by day."
Joshua A. Triliegi's BUREAU of ARTS and CULTURE Magazine New York Edition an Affiliate of BUREAU of Arts and Culture NETWORK. We originally Delivered Paper Editions Now With BUREAU Magazine Sites in New York, MidWest, South, Seattle, LA, Santa Barbara, San Diego, The Literary + NEWS Site. Office 323 . 734 . 2877 Download The 300+ Page E Edition Read by Millions Worldwide.
