Chapter 11 -- The Royal Palm
Wednesday December 21
Mom and Dad were up very early to talk to me before I went off to do my interviews today. I had to get up at this ungodly hour because of LA traffic. Mom was making breakfast, and it smelled wonderful.
"What are you making?"
"Bacon and stuffed French toast."
Not exactly on my diet, but I wasn't about to turn it down. Dad handed me a coffee.
"I talked with Ms. Dixon yesterday. She updated me on several fronts. I'll start with your civil suit," he said as Mom put bacon in front of us.
You could tell we were related because we both took a moment to wolf down a couple of pieces before he continued.
"Zander's lawyers want all the video from Zak's house. Ms. Dixon said Jason told her it's a play to get leverage. They think that you won't want to turn it over because of everything else that's on it. They're making noise that they'll subpoena the full tape for discovery. The implied threat is that Zak was taping people having sex without their knowledge, and that's against the law," Dad shared.
Frick! I didn't want to get Zak in the middle of all this. Fritz had signs everywhere that stated that we had video surveillance; it was clearly displayed. Even then, I worried sometimes that people might not realize they were being videoed. Hell, the women that tried to entrap me by editing their video hadn't figured it out. That was an issue we would need to look into at some point, especially when I went to college.
"Obviously, we can't give it to them," I said.
"Ms. Dixon has been in touch with Zak and explained his potential exposure. His lawyer has demanded that we hand over all the tapes we took from his house; they claim it's his property," Dad said.
"I get a bad feeling about doing that. If we knowingly hand Zak the videos back, and they destroy them ... well ... I don't want to be the guy involved in a cover-up."
"Good," Mom said as she put stuffed French toast in front of Dad and me.
We called a mutual timeout so we could feast on what Mom had made. She'd stuffed the French toast with cream cheese, cinnamon, walnuts, and maple syrup, which gave it just a touch of sweetness. While I savored my breakfast, it gave me a moment to think.
"Is there some kind of lawyer maneuver that can be made to protect Zak?" I asked.
"Like what?" Dad asked.
"I don't know. You hear about everyone getting deals if they testify. What if Zak's lawyers made some sort of deal with Zander's people for access to the video? Something along the lines of them not being able to use any of the other stuff if it doesn't pertain to the case and that they won't go to the cops on him based on what they see," I suggested.
"I don't even know if that would work in a civil case. Your granddad always told me that you only tell your lawyer what they need to know," Dad said.
"Unlike your parents. You have to tell them everything," Mom added.
Even Dad rolled his eyes. I nodded so that we didn't get off track.
"So, it looks like Zander's lawyers know what they're doing. Jason never said this would be easy," I said.
"Ms. Dixon didn't seem too worried. She told me one option is to give them a copy of the tape for the full time Zander and the girls were in the room and leave everything else off that copy. That would force Zander's people to file a motion with the court to compel production of the rest of the tape. At that point, Zak's lawyers can intervene and oppose it, and that would turn it into a battle between Zander's and Zak's lawyers, with us getting out of the way.
"From what Ms. Dixon said, the beauty of it is the judge would almost have to view the entire video by himself--she called it
in camera
--to decide what's relevant and what's not. That way, even if he suppresses it all, he'll still have seen it. She also said the judge most likely would let only the relevant portion into evidence. A second way the judge might handle it would be to allow the relevant part into evidence and let Zander's people use the rest only if it's under seal. That would mean it would not be available to the public or the press. Either way, by having the court decide, we're clean and protected legally from both Zander's and Zak's people.
"Anyway, she recommends that option, and she said they'd let Zak's lawyers know what's going on, but not until right after we turn over the portion that's relevant to Zander's lawyers.
"Finally, Ms. Dixon said Zander's lawyers are just trying to do everything they can to slow us down. But with this approach, they'll realize that isn't going to happen. They know that if this goes to court, he will lose, and this will drive it home to them. She said to tell you to trust them on this," Dad said.
"Easy for her to say," Mom observed.
Mom did have a point. If it weren't for Ms. Dixon watching everything, I would have been nervous. At least now I wasn't dealing with either Cal or the idiot from the 'attorney to the stars.' He'd played Candy Crush on his cell phone the whole time he was supposed to be representing me during my police interview.
"Anything else on that front?" I asked.
"No," Dad assured me. "The next topic is the NCAA. Ms. Dixon talked to Maddie Addison about Stewart Chadwick and his threats. She says that until he actually does something, it's all just words. You haven't been damaged, though technically, his threats are illegal. She said that if he does something, you have him. Her only concern is that you videoed him without his consent. He specifically asked that we not do that."
"What you can prove in a court of law and what you can show the world are two different things," Mom said.
That was basically what we'd done to Zander: convicted him in the court of public opinion before the law could get to him. So far, it looked like even though we'd exposed what he'd done, the legal system had taken a pass on actually doing anything meaningful to him.
"I understand that," I said. "I'm just worried that he'll cause us trouble down the road. Can the FBI do anything about him?"
"Maddie said you don't want to share the last video of Stewart with the FBI, and we don't want to put in writing that we even asked that question. We provided them with evidence of what the shoe companies are doing, along with agents and financial advisors. The NCAA may also be a subject of their investigation, but we don't have any way of knowing that, and the FBI hasn't said anything to that effect to us. She said you want to step back from that mess and count everything you've done to cooperate with them to this point as a win," Dad said.
"What does Mr. Morris say about it?" I asked.
Dad smiled.
"He was appalled by Chadwick's actions. You have to remember that Mr. Morris worked for the NCAA for a number of years. He said that your comment about them being a group of decent people was spot on. They will defend their member institutions to the hilt, but they don't go out of their way to make threats to athletes to get them to do their bidding."
"As long as I don't try to break their antitrust exemptions, I'm okay?" I asked.
"That probably would cause them to have some significant heartburn, and then all bets would be off," Dad agreed. "Mr. Morris wants to take the tape to people higher up the food chain. He said he's certain they have no idea that Stewart is doing anything like this."
"What does Ms. Dixon say?" I asked.
"She said to sit on it. She doesn't see an upside of turning Stewart in to the NCAA unless he follows through on his threats."
I was starting to feel anxious. I was very much a 'tackle a problem head-on and be proactive' kind of guy. This waiting and trusting people was really getting on my nerves.
"What else?" I asked.
"Aaron signed papers promising not to sue you or Cassidy. In exchange, you are leaving him on his medical insurance until he recovers. You also agree not to file a civil suit against him," Mom said.
"What about the criminal side?" I asked.
"He's going down," Mom said.
"Aaron agreed to plead guilty to child endangerment. With that on his record, he'll never be able to work with children again," Dad said.
"Can I still kick his ass?" I asked.
"No!" my parents said in unison.
"One last thing," Dad said. "Caryn wants to do a year-end wrap-up when you come home for New Year's. I told her you'd do it."
"Super!" I said, faking excitement.
I'd avoided business talk for almost a month. My druthers would be to have my dad deal with it. I was sure my mom would if I asked. The only problem was she might go a little nuts on me. She would probably think I had to buy more real estate or something. Mom would justify it by saying we would save on taxes or some other nonsense.
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"Well, hello, stranger. Long time no see," I said as I spotted Kimberly and Phyllis Fillmore.
Kimberly had played Ceci in
