“Yes.”
“Radio traffic.”
“Yes.”
“Access records for Officer Hale’s camera.”
Brooks paused.
Josephine saw it.
“What?”
The Captain looked toward Hale’s chest.
“His camera should have automatically activated when he removed his handcuffs.”
Josephine’s eyes narrowed.
“It didn’t.”
“No.”
Hale interrupted.
“Battery issue.”
Leah Barnes spoke for the first time.
“You turned it off this morning.”
Everyone looked at her.
Hale’s expression hardened.
“What?”
Leah swallowed.
She was nervous now.
But she continued.
“I saw you.”
“When?”
“After Brooks called you into her office.”
Hale laughed.
“That’s ridiculous.”
“You were in the locker room.”
“You said you were tired of the camera recording every conversation.”
“I said nothing like that.”
Leah’s face changed.
“Mine was on.”
Silence.
Hale stared.
Leah continued.
“You told me to turn mine off too.”
Captain Brooks looked physically sick.
“When?”
“Seven forty-three.”
Josephine closed her eyes briefly.
Not because she was weak.
Because the case had just grown.
The hearing scheduled for ten thirty would no longer be about whether three complaints justified increased oversight.
It would now involve possible intentional camera deactivation by an officer already under review.
Josephine looked toward Brooks.
“I’m recusing.”
Hale blinked.
Josephine continued.
“From all proceedings involving today’s incident and any complaint naming Officer Hale individually.”
Captain Brooks nodded.
“Understood.”
“I’ll ask Judge Keller to take the emergency hearing.”
She looked toward Leah.
“Officer Barnes, do not discuss your footage with anyone except investigators and counsel.”
“Yes, Your Honor.”
Hale laughed bitterly.
“Of course.”
Everybody looked at him.
He had nothing left to lose socially, so anger returned.
“This is exactly the problem.”
Josephine stared.
“What is?”
“You’re a judge.”
He pointed toward the hallway.
“Suddenly everybody acts like I committed murder.”
Brooks stepped forward.
“Stop talking.”
But Hale had already started.
“If that had been Maya Turner, nobody would be acting like this.”
The corridor went silent for the second time.
Josephine looked at him.
There was no fury on her face now.
Only something more painful.
Recognition.
She asked quietly:
“Do you understand what you just said?”
Hale realized too late.
“That isn’t what I meant.”
“It is precisely what you meant.”
“No.”
Josephine looked toward the people standing around them.
Attorneys.
Defendants.
Families.
Court employees.
The public.