[REVIEW] End of Month Reviews #45 - September 2007 [spoilers]

[Tom Russell]

I'm sorry if I shouted; I just wanted to make the point clear. :-)

On Dec 8, 3:31 pm, Martin Phipps <martinphip... at yahoo.com> wrote:

> I never said he was sentenced, just that Martin made no effort to
> prevent being sent to jail.

Well, he did; it's right there in the opening scene of # 10.

> What about the police officers that
> arrested Martin?  Were they also working for Snapp?

No; he was arrested as part of the undercover assignment by someone
not privvy to the undercover nature of the work.  Perhaps I didn't do
as good a job explaining that in # 9 as I thought.

> In fact he should have had a court
> appointed attorney make that argument for him.

I probably should have had an attorney present in that scene.  While
it's perfectly kosher for someone at a bail hearing to refuse
representation, you're right in that it's not the smartest idea for
Martin to do so.  I'll fix that in the trade.

> Martin was entitled to legal representation, be
> it a trial or a bail hearing, and a fair judge would take the time to
> listen to arguments from both sides.

Yes and no.  Yes, in that what you say is correct.  No, in that Martin
Rock is largely considered a malcontent and very few people in Jolt
City would not know who he is.  The judge would be familiar with
Martin Rock, at least from highly negative newspaper accounts, just as
he'd be familiar with the ADA, who was, up until that point, depicted
as a fair and hardworking, honest and decent man.

> Martin didn't massacre people in the park.  Willis did.  But, yes,
> somehow that did make Martin unpopular, even though Martin was the one
> who stopped the Crooked Man.

I think _that's_ why it made him unpopular.  He was a hero-- the guy
who succeeded where the Green Knight failed-- and the subject of
intense interest.  Then a man he left to die in Iraq killed children
in the park to enact revenge upon him.  Suddenly their everyman hero
wasn't so bright and shiny.  He brought this upon the city.

And, remember, he had been up on murder charges before, charges which
he was cleared of.  Generally, people would see him as being unsavory
and his word untrustworthy.

>
> > >  Martin deserved to go into protective
> > > custody, not prison.
>
> > He's not a witness, but a defendent awaiting trial.
>
> Of course he's a witness.

And so the ADA would arrange protective custody for him?  Because that
sounds like what you're saying.  I'm a little confused.

>  He knew that the ADA was working for
> Snapp.  The fact that he would keep quiet about it makes no sense at
> all.

He had no evidence.  If he could gather evidence, or have someone
gather it for him, then, yes, he would be able to-- and probably
would-- bring things to light now that he has something to back it up.

But he never "witnessed" the ADA being in Snapp's employ.  The only
evidence he has is Dani's word that the ADA was informed of the
undercover operation.  And, with Dani presumed dead and Martin
presumed-- though not charged-- to be the murderer, it's a pretty hard
pill to swallow.

> He was put into prison, into general population..  He wasn't just
> simply being remanded into police custody.

Persons awaiting trial for serious crimes-- such as the Supervillain
Charge is in the Eightfold universe-- are generally not simply held at
a police station.  And it is not uncommon for someone awaiting trial
to be put in the general population instead of solitary confinement.

>  I never said there was a
> trial or a conviction.  You don't have to shout. :P

Sorry. :-(

> He had a choice as to whether or not the authorities would grant him
> protection rather than put him into general population but he kept
> quiet.

But the authorities are the one he would have been speaking up
against.  There was no one else for him to appeal to at that time,
save the DA-- who would likely not listen to the unsavory Mr. Rock.

Again, should this have gone to trial, I think Martin would try to
find a way to disentangle himself and implicate Fisk.  But that just
wasn't the way this story worked out, and it wasn't the type of story
this was.  It was a prison break story, not a court room drama.

>  Where was the DA
> all this time anyway?  Was he also working for Snapp?  Fisk was only
> the assistant DA.  Was this case not important enough for the DA not
> to get involved?

Very, very few cases are "important enough" for a DA to get involved
in.  District Attorneys are _generally_ policy-makers more than in-the-
court prosecutors.  They are the "head" of their district, directing
the work of the prosecutors under him.

And, again-- without any murder charges filed against him, just the SV
charge-- no-one really considers Martin Rock important enough to
bother with.  Dangerous enough, due to the nature of the crime and his
reputation, but not "important" at this point in the game.

>  Yet another reason for Martin to speak out then: the
> police had just had all their evidence against Snapp destroyed and
> would have been desperate to rebuild their case.  The destruction of
> the evidence also suggested an inside job and there would logically
> have been an ongoing investigation into it and they'd want to hear
> what Martin had to say even if this particular judge didn't.

If Martin have evidence, sure.  But he didn't.

> More to the point, Martin is supposed to be an example of honesty and
> courage so some calculation as you described above shouldn't dissaude
> him from wanting to get the truth about Fisk out.

But he's smart enough to know that truth without proof is no truth at
all.

==Tom