Pete goes to Miners Valley to meet his next client. He soon realizes he has walked into a complicated situation when everyone he meets is carrying a gun. His client is 18-year-old Cody Dennis. He was caught red-handed with twelve shotguns in the back of his truck, all with filed-off serial numbers. He was facing twelve to sixty years in jail. The boy's grandfather Paul, was in the business of selling guns. He started citing constitutional rights, saying what they were doing was neither wrong nor illegal. Regardless of the constitution, it's the Criminal Code of Nevada that counts in this case.
Meanwhile Nick meets up with ADA Tom Cole, who has asked Nick to help his sister Linda save her bear Otis, scheduled for lethal injection.
“Hi Otis. I'm a lawyer. We don't taste good.”
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| Nick meets his client |
Pete has two possible defenses. The first one is that Cody didn't know the guns were in his truck. The second is that he didn't know the serial numbers were missing. Pete isn't so sure if that is true. Before that though, he will tried get the case tossed based on the illegal search.
Nick, who came to work smelling like bear, tells Pete about his client. The bear clawed some drunk that jumped up on stage during the animal act at the Moroccan.
Otis the killer bear! -- He's a cause celeb.
Well, Otis didn't kill anybody. He was simply following natural instincts, trying to protect his trainer. But defending bears is not really their area of expertise. Nick knows nothing about bear instincts. Pete figures out the real reason why Nick was interested in this case.
“I don't know. It's just that bear trainer. She had this vulnerability, this pleading in her eyes. She needs help”
“How hot is she?”
“She's hot.”
Pete chastise Nick for trying to sleep with a client.
“It's your weakness, Nick. A sucker for the broken wing thing ... bad, bad, bad, bad.” That's not all.
“It gets worse, worse, worse, worse.” She's ADA Tom Cole's sister.
He enlists Zoey and Lisa's help. “We are going to save a bear.”
At the hearing, Pete discovers that the US Attorneys Office was interested in this case, as well as the Nevada Gun Rights Coalition.
ADA Gomez recommended that the motion to suppress should be denied.
The officer had plenty of motive to search incident at the traffic stop. The officer suspected the defendant was transporting methamphetamine.
Pete insists that the search was illegal and moves to have the guns disallowed and the case dismissed.
Judge Bass allows the guns. Motion to suppress denied.
Amber Mack, lead counsel from the gun coalition offers her assistance. If Pete is willing to fight this case, her organization will finance the trial, right up to the Supreme court. It's a cause worth fighting for. There is no reason a law-abiding citizen should be punished for removing serial numbers from a gun he owns.
"Serial numbers on guns are a way to track criminals."
"Exactly. Your client isn't a criminal. He's being punished for someone else's sins by a DA that clearly doesn't support gun rights."
Nick got the bear's reprieve. He's got a hearing for Otis.
"We have people work here."
"Linda Cole is people."
Pete tells Nick about Amber Mack.
"You want to use Amber?"
"Bingo. Are you in, Nicky?"
"Playing them publicly? Vigilantes? Heavily armed? Damn right, I'm in."
Nick opens. Cody is not a criminal. This case is about Cody and his family holding different beliefs. In America, holding different beliefs is celebrated not illegal.
Pete asks Gomez for a deal. Two years, parole in nine months or Pete will make the case political and call support from the Nevada Gun Rights Coalition. Their platform is that the District Attorney's Office is soft on crime tough on gun owners. Gomez will ask his boss first.
Nick has gone to Linda's to celebrate, when he runs into Cole, who is surprised to see him there, bearing a romantic gesture. They have their first awkward moment.
“It's a long drive.”
“It's not that long”
“Yes, it is. It's a very long drive.”
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| Nick? |
Pete got the deal from the DA. “The Amber card scared the bear crap out of them.”
Three years, parole after eighteen months. All Cody has to do is plead guilty.
That's like admitting he did something wrong, when he didn't.
“He did do something wrong. He carried illegal firearms. He broke the law.”
"He did not break the law."
Nick puts his foot down and refuse to argue about gun rights in the Constitution, while Cody's life hangs in the balance.
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| I'm not going to argue about gun rights. |
It's a decision Cody should make himself.
“No deal. I want to fight.”
Nick was late for Otis' hearing. The state presented strong evidence against the bear. But Nick made an impassioned case. Otis was an orphan, whose mother was shot by hunters. Linda Cole gave Otis a second chance at life. She fed him. She took care of him. She became his foster mother. They lived and trained together for six years without incident. Otis acted purely out of defense to protect his mother.
“This beautiful, sensitive, nurturing woman that gave me back my life.”
Now the only problem is, when a 700 lb bear swats you, it's gonna hurt. That one is not on Otis. That one is on the drunk guy.
When Amber Mack finds out that she has been used to get a plea, she takes back her support for the case.
The US Attorneys Office has been building a case against Paul Dennis and his gunrunning operation for two years. They have evidence that suggests that guns from the Dennis clan has been making their way into the hands of the gangs engaged in drug war violence along the borders and beyond. A witness from within the organization would their case ironclad.
18-year-old kid runs an errand for his grandfather -- ends up facing sixty years in prison, and now everyone wants to use him. Testifying against his grandfather will mean a worse sentence than the one he is already facing.
“I'm not even going to ask him,” says Pete.
If he doesn't cooperate, the US Attorney will file federal charges against him. He can face twice the jail time.
Pete convinces Paul Dennis to take the stand, to tell the truth and to make this case his platform. Cody needs a chance to live his life.
Paul Dennis testifies that he sell arms to survivalists, law-abiding citizens who have the right to own a gun as written into the Second Amendment. He doesn't believe the government should track the guns he buys and sells, even if it's illegal to remove the serial numbers.
In light of his testimony, the DA moves to have the case dismissed.
Paul Dennis is arrested on federal charges for violating the Federal Gun Control Act.
Tom thanks Nick for his help. The state is happy. More importantly Linda is happy. He respects Nick's professionalism, expressing that things between him and his sister remain professional.
“Tommy, I'm no longer Linda's lawyer. The case is over.”
“Are you saying that you are not bound by rules of ethics regarding attorney client fraternization?” No.
“I like her.”
That's too much for Cole to take. He scurries out of Nick's office with a $5000 invoice and freaks when Pete implies that Nick was sleeping with his sister.
The look on Nick's face. Priceless. - 9/10
