The Alligator Man (17 page)

J
udge Thorpe was not happy that Kevin was dragging the federal government into his courtroom.

“Mr. Wylie,” he bellowed at 10:00 a.m. on Monday in an empty courtroom—the morning hearings had just ended. “Don’t you think your time would be better spent preparing for trial rather than sparring with the federal government? Explain to me why you think the financial records of Dynatron are relevant to your case. I understand why the State would want them. They have to prove that your client was an employee of Dynatron and lost his pension and benefits when Dynatron went belly up. That establishes motive. I get that. I have no idea what you could possibly want with those records.”

This was very dangerous territory for Kevin. Judge Thorpe’s fuse was already lit. He didn’t want the man to explode.

“To be honest with you, Judge, I don’t know what’s in those records. My job in representing my client is to leave no stone unturned. There may be something in those records that gave somebody else a motive to kill Roy Johnson. For instance, I just learned from Mr. Moss that Roy Johnson was under criminal investigation and that he had an attorney—my old boss, Bernie Stang. Now Bernie would always explore the possibility of a deal, which means Roy Johnson could have testified against other Dynatron employees for a lighter sentence or no sentence at all. That is a pretty good motive to kill somebody. I’d like to find out who those employees were and where they were on the day Roy Johnson was killed.”

Kevin had just come up with the theory about Roy Johnson testifying against other corporate officers the night before. It was a weak theory and he didn’t plan on using it at trial, although it did provide a reasonable basis for reviewing the financial records.

“What’s that got to do with Dynatron’s financial records?” the judge asked.

“The information for the possible criminal charges came from the financial records. I didn’t know about the criminal stuff until I talked to Mr. Moss. Now I want to ask this agent specific questions about that.”

It made some sense even to Judge Thorpe. He looked at Jeanette.

“What does the State have to say?” he asked.

Jeanette Truluc had her own strategy for this hearing. The feds had reluctantly given the State the financial information about Billy, but she did not have a witness to authenticate the information and she wasn’t sure she could get a federal agent to testify on the day of trial. Since she had a good working relationship with the FBI field office in Miami and even considered the head of that office, a man named Phil Roberts, a friend, she called Phil for some advice.

“I can get you anything locally, Jeanette, including witnesses. But sometimes
I
can’t get information out of north Florida. They don’t cooperate even with their own people. It’s just the way it is.”

Consequently, Jeanette
wanted
the agent to testify. She’d even brought a videographer so she could show the video to the jury.

“Your Honor, we have no objection to an FBI agent testifying about relevant portions of the financial records. I have a videographer here to record that testimony in case we need to use it at trial. Mr. Wylie and I certainly disagree on what’s relevant, however.”

Judge Thorpe smiled. Being a former federal prosecutor, he understood Jeanette’s strategy and he liked it.

“All right. You both make some sense here. I’m going to allow this agent to testify, and Ms. Truluc, you can video it, and I will allow this testimony to be used at trial if the witness is unavailable for any reason. Mr. Wylie, I’m going to give you a lot of leeway here. Ask all your questions. Ms. Truluc, I understand you have objections, but don’t make them at this time. I promise you, before this video goes before a jury or before this witness testifies before a jury, all your objections will be heard and decided. Everybody understand?”

All three attorneys, including Mr. Moss, told the judge they understood.

The FBI agent took the stand. He looked like an accountant, small and thin with thick glasses, and in his hand, he had a large black legal binder, which he opened and set before himself.

“Ms. Truluc, why don’t you begin the questioning since you plan on using this testimony in your case? It will be less confusing to the jury,” the judge suggested.

“Yes, Your Honor,” Jeanette replied as she walked to the podium to address the FBI agent.

“Would you state your name for the record, please?”

“Harvey Booth.” It was the same man who had told Vern Fleming to go pound salt not so many weeks before.

“And where are you employed, Mr. Booth?”

“I’m an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and I’ve been so employed for twenty years. I am also a certified public accountant and my responsibilities at the agency include, among other things, reviewing financial records to determine if criminal activity has occurred—mostly money laundering, that kind of thing.”

Mr. Booth spoke with confidence and he answered questions that were not even asked, which told Kevin that he had been a professional witness for many years.

“Mr. Booth, do you have in your possession and have you reviewed the financial records of the Dynatron corporation?”

“Yes. When Dynatron announced that it was closing its doors, the United States attorney’s office obtained a search warrant and seized all the financial records of the company. They have been in my possession and control ever since.”

“Was there a reason why the federal government seized those records?”

“We had reliable information that there were questionable accounting activities going on at Dynatron. To give you just a brief example, very high earnings had been reported and the stock was trading at a very high price just before it totally collapsed. All employees had their pension monies in Dynatron stock as part of a company policy. It was something we had to investigate.”

Kevin loved the testimony so far.

Jeanette took Billy’s personnel file, which had already been released to her by the government, and handed it to Mr. Booth.

“I have handed you a document that we have marked for identification as State’s Exhibit number forty-six and I ask you if you can identify that document.”

“Yes. Part of the records we seized were the personnel files of each individual employee to see what that employee had contributed and had earned in the company’s pension plan and also to see what other benefits that employee had accrued and then ultimately lost. This document identified as exhibit number forty-six is the personnel file of William Fuller.”

“Can you tell us, Mr. Booth, how much Mr. Fuller had in his company pension plan at the time Dynatron closed its doors?”

“Yes, he had nothing in his plan when the company closed its doors. However, three months before that date when Dynatron stock was still trading at a modest level, Mr. Fuller’s individual plan was valued at $754,361.67.”

“Did he have any other benefits?”

“Yes, he had a premier health insurance plan with major medical coverage and he had vacation and sick leave benefits valued at $37,513.”

“What happened to those benefits?”

“He lost them all when Dynatron closed its doors.”

“Including the health insurance plan?”

“Yes.”

“No further questions.”

The judge looked at Kevin. “Your turn, Mr. Wylie.”

Kevin walked to the podium. He needed to follow up on Jeanette’s questions before heading into his own agenda.

“How many employees did Dynatron have when it closed its doors, Mr. Booth?”

Mr. Booth calmly referred to his black binder for the answer to Kevin’s question. “I believe 20,132.”

“And what was the average length of employment, do you know?”

“It was approximately twelve years.”

“And do you know what the average pension account for all employees was?”

“Not with any definite accuracy, but we have done some models and the best we can come up with is that the average employee lost between three hundred and three hundred twenty thousand dollars in total benefits. That includes pension, health insurance, and sick and annual leave.”

“And what did the stockholders lose?”

“Billions.”

“There were a lot of angry people out there, weren’t there?”

“That is not a calculation I made.”

“Let’s talk about the criminal investigation. Were you involved in that?”

“Yes.”

“And is it accurate that at the time of his death Roy Johnson was under criminal investigation?”

“Yes.”

“For what specifically?”

“No indictment had been drawn, but basically, it was for defrauding investors, employees, insider trading—you name it.”

“Was an indictment imminent?”

“I’m not sure what you mean by ‘imminent.’ I can say that it was certain.”

“Were there other people at Dynatron who were under investigation?”

“Yes.”

“And who were they?”

“There were three vice presidents and the chief accountant. We had already indicted and convicted the chief financial officer.”

“Now, isn’t it true that when you have multiple defendants like this, you try to work on one or two to get them to turn on the others?”

“Sometimes.”

“Mr. Johnson had an attorney, didn’t he?”

“Yes.”

“And that was Bernie Stang?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know if Mr. Stang had any negotiations with the U.S. attorney regarding this matter?”

“No, I don’t.”

“When did the criminal investigation of Dynatron begin?”

“I can’t say for sure. I know we had been looking into the company’s finances for about a year.”

“Before Roy Johnson left the company?”

“Possibly.”

“Were you aware that Mr. Johnson received a severance package of approximately one hundred million dollars when he left the company?”

“Yes. I was.”

“When you reviewed all the accounting information for Dynatron were you able to determine where all of the earnings of the company went?”

“No.”

“And why not?”

“Dynatron, like most major corporations in the United States, had offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands—tax havens. We could not get at those accounts. We could trace money that went to those accounts but not money that was earned or money that was withdrawn.”

“So Roy Johnson could have received more than one hundred million dollars?”

“Possibly.”

Kevin had everything he needed. “No further questions, Your Honor.”

“The witness can step down,” Judge Thorpe announced. Then he looked at Kevin. “Is there anything else you need in those records besides what this witness has testified to?”

“Yes, Your Honor. I’d like all the records. We’ve just touched the surface here.”

“That’s what I thought you’d say. I’m going to allow the witness to testify at trial to the extent he has today with all objections preserved, but hear this, Ms. Truluc. I’m going to give Mr. Wylie some leeway before the jury to defend his client.

“Mr. Wylie, I’m going to deny your request for any more records at this time. The government has an interest here because of its ongoing criminal investigation, and frankly, you have not laid any relevancy predicate at all. You have even candidly admitted you are on a fishing expedition. I believe you have what you need to make the defense that you want to make. I’ll see you folks in three weeks.”

Kevin accompanied the videographer to his office to get a copy of the tape to take home. He wanted his father to see this.

I
t sounds like the judge is going to let you introduce all of this testimony into evidence if you so choose,” Tom Wylie told his son, “but where does that get you?”

They were sitting in the living room at the ranch on Tuesday morning, having just watched the tape of Harvey Booth’s testimony. Kevin was beginning to think Alex Rivard, Tom’s doctor and longtime friend, was a fraud. Tom looked terrific. He was now getting up and down from the couch on his own, and his face, neck, and arms were tan from the frequent walks he was taking. He did not look at all like a man who was dying.

“I’ve been stewing everything over and over in my brain, trying to come up with a cohesive strategy based on everything we know. Jeanette is going to put on her case, which is going to be very tight and convincing. What do you think is going to happen if you just throw against the wall the fact that Roy Johnson was under criminal investigation and Randy Winters happened to get out of prison a week before Roy Johnson disappeared?”

“The jury is going to think that I’m desperate, which I will be at that point.”

“I’m afraid so,” Tom said. “Your strongest case will be if your friend comes through and produces those files, and they contain something that indicates Johnson stole some money from Winters and Sellers back in 1982. Then you’ve got some traction.”

“I agree. But David getting those files and those files having the information we need is a long shot to say the least. Do you really think we’re sunk without it?”

“Not necessarily. Let’s go to your second-strongest argument: that Roy Johnson was the confidential informant.”

“That may not be true. The evidence suggests to me that Scotch Buchanan was the confidential informant.”

“Why?”

“Because he was killed right after Bobby Joe Sellers got out of prison. We’ve already talked about this.”

“I know. Let’s just follow the logic for a minute. You can’t make that argument, though, can you?”

“Hell, no. Judge Thorpe is not going to let me speculate that Bobby Joe Sellers killed Scotch Buchanan and therefore Randy Winters probably killed Roy Johnson. He’d tar and feather me right in front of that jury.”

“Okay. So stay with the original argument that Roy Johnson was the confidential informant. It’s a very strong case because revenge is a powerful motive. If it isn’t true, then the State will make your other case for you.”

“I’m not sure I’m following you, Dad.”

“The State will have to put on some evidence that Roy Johnson was not the confidential informant and that Scotch Buchanan was. That should open the door for you to inquire about both the date Scotch Buchanan died and the date Bobby Joe Sellers got out of prison. Even if they don’t, even if you stumble onto it yourself, you should be able to get in the evidence that you need.”

“You mean, since I’ve got the FBI agent subpoenaed, they might let me ask the questions and find out that Roy wasn’t the confidential informant.”

“They may let you do that, but I don’t think so. I think they’ll call him. However it happens, once the evidence is in you can make whatever argument you want in your closing.”

“Either way, at least this gives us a chance. It’s brilliant.”

“We’ll see.”