“I’m glad you’re still Draga’s lawyer, Daddy,” Ellen said after Kevin told her and Diane what had happened in court.
“Why?” he asked his daughter.
“Because those bullies pick on everyone.”
“Any other reason?” he smiled.
“Oh Daddy, you know. I’m not ready to go back home.”
“So why did you let Draga choose you as his lawyer?” Diane asked.
“It wasn’t my choice. It was his. I just hope he’ll talk to me now.”
“Let’s have a party for Daddy,” Ellen exclaimed. “I’ll make a cake!”
“You have homework to do, young lady,” Diane said too sternly.
“Party pooper!” Ellen walked into the dining room and sat back down at the table where her homework was spread out. Kevin had tried to make her do her homework at her desk on the third floor, but Ellen hated being banished to her room. She wanted to be where the action was, so she could monitor and contribute to every conversation. After a few attempts, Kevin had given up. Now a threat to send her to the third floor to finish her homework was enough to get Ellen back on task.
At about 8 p.m., the doorbell rang. Ellen raced to the door and opened it. Soon she was back in the dining room. “It’s for you, Dad.”
Kevin went to the front door. He was surprised to see Zoran Vacinovic, from the Serbian Embassy, and another man standing in the doorway.
“Mr. Vacinovic, come in.”
Vacinovic and the other man entered. “I was in the area so I decided to drop by rather than call tomorrow. I have someone I want you to meet. I hope you don’t mind.”
“I don’t mind.”
“This is Mihajlo Golic. He is your client’s brother-in-law.”
Kevin shook the man’s hand. Golic was huge – at least 6-foot-4 – and had a handshake like a vise. Kevin led the men into his living room. He introduced them to Diane and Ellen, and then took them upstairs to his office.
“Your daughter is beautiful,” Golic remarked.
“Thank you. She’s a great kid.”
Vacinovic got down to business. “Mr. Golic is a former Belgrade police detective. He wants to help his brother-in-law. I thought perhaps you could use him as an investigator now that it looks like you’re going to be representing Mr. Zaric.”
Kevin looked over at Golic. His appearance was very professional. He was dressed in a shirt and tie with a gray tweed sports coat. He looked to be in his early forties, with an Arnold Schwarzenegger physique.
“It’s kind of you to offer your assistance,” Kevin said to Golic. “Have you done any private investigation before?”
“Yes.”
“He has worked on several sensitive assignments from our government since leaving the police department,” Vacinovic interjected. “He has also worked on security matters for some of the largest companies in Serbia.”
Kevin was surprised and delighted to be getting this kind of substantive help. “I’m going to need an investigator in Serbia,” he said. “I can submit a request to the Tribunal so Mr. Golic can be paid for his work.”
“That will not be necessary,” Vacinovic replied. “My government will pay Mr. Golic. We consider your client a loyal and patriotic citizen. It is our duty to help him.”
Kevin pulled out a legal pad from his top drawer.
“Mr. Golic,” he said, “the first thing I would like you to do is to find out everything you can about your brother-in-law’s arrest. I want to know if the United Nations hired someone to kidnap him or paid a bounty for his arrest. Can you do that?”
“That is no problem,” the big man said softly. “I will begin working on that when I return to Belgrade in three days time.”
“Excellent.”
“Can you send him the reports you get from the prosecutor so that he is informed about the case?” Vacinovic asked.
“Yes, that’s a good idea. There’ll probably be other witnesses to interview as well. I’ll make a set of reports for you as soon as I get them from the prosecutor.”
Kevin was pleased. He had a professional investigator, and at no cost.
As Vacinovic and Golic were getting ready to leave, Vacinovic said, “Oh yes, there is one more thing. Mr. Golic would like to see his brother-in-law while he is here, and to give him the regards of his family. Can you arrange a visit for him?”
“I think so. Let me call the prison right now.”
Kevin called and asked about their visiting policy for family members. He learned that inmates could have visits with family members on weekends. But Golic would be leaving before the weekend. Kevin asked about defense investigators, and learned that an investigator could have a visit at any time so long as he had a letter of authorization from the defense counsel. Kevin reported what he had learned to Vacinovic and Golic.
“Could you prepare a letter so that he can visit his brother-in-law as soon as possible?”
“Sure.” Kevin turned on his laptop computer, typed a short letter, printed it out, and then signed it. “Here you go,” he said, handing the letter to Golic.
Kevin walked the two men to the front door and said goodbye. He watched as they got into a Black Mercedes, with Golic driving.
“Who was that pair?” Diane asked suspiciously as Kevin returned to the living room to find that Ellen had gone to bed.
“That’s the guy from the Serbian Embassy and my new investigator, who happens to be my client’s brother-in-law.”
“That huge guy is an investigator? He looks like a bouncer. What are they doing coming to our house at night?”
“They said they were in the area.”
“Why do they want to help all of a sudden?”
“I don’t know why things changed with the Embassy. But it can’t hurt. If the brother-in-law doesn’t work out, I’ll just get another investigator.”
“I don’t feel good about any of this,” Diane said warily as she turned to go into their bedroom. “Not who you’re defending and not who wants to help.”
“I know how you feel, Diane, and I understand. But honey, we came a long way for me to have the experience of trying cases at the Tribunal. I’m finally doing it, even if it’s on the other side of the courtroom. I’m in my element. I can handle it.”
The next day, Kevin received three boxes jammed with papers. The first box contained a cover letter from Bradford Stone. “Enclosed are pages 1-5843 of the disclosure materials,” he wrote. “You are reminded of the protective measures adopted by the Court. You may only distribute copies to your client and persons working for you. You are also required to maintain a log of all copies that are distributed. At the end of the case, all copies and originals must be returned to the Office of the Prosecutor.”
Kevin lugged the boxes over to his desk. He pulled out a stack of papers from the front of the top box where the cover letter had been. There was no index, and the papers, although in numerical order, were a collection of diverse pages from different witnesses in no apparent order. The first page was the beginning of an interview with one witness, the second page was a page from the middle of another witness’ interview, and so on.
The old prosecution shuffle. Before numbering the disclosure, someone had shuffled all of the papers together like a deck of cards. The material was all mixed up. The prosecution had an obligation to provide disclosure, but was not required to organize it for the defense. Kevin had run across this sort of pettiness before. It would take him time to organize the materials, but time was one thing Kevin had.
He started separating the materials by the town or village where the events that were being talked about occurred. When he had gone through the first box, he had thirty-seven different piles. It had taken him almost four hours. After sorting the next two boxes, he would then have to go through each pile and try to gather the pages from each witness’ statement and put them together.
By the time Kevin began riding his bicycle over to the jail, it was about 4 p.m. Kevin was hungry, but he was anxious to meet with Draga now that Draga had chosen him as his counsel. Kevin hoped that Draga would at last begin speaking to him.
When Kevin passed a pizza place, he got an idea. He remembered reading a news account of an interview with Draga from a few years ago. Draga had remarked that the only thing he liked about America was its pizza. Kevin stopped at the pizza place and ordered five pizzas to go. Thirty minutes later, he strapped them to his bike carrier and resumed his trip to the jail.
When he arrived at the jail, Kevin gave the pizzas to the guard. “I brought some dinner for the crew, and one for me and my client, if you will allow it.”
“You bet. Thanks!”
Kevin was led into the interview room. A few minutes later, Draga was led into the room. The guard placed the box of pizza on the table. “I heard you like pizza,” Kevin said to Draga. “I thought we could have dinner together.”
Draga looked at Kevin and said nothing. He opened the pizza box and helped himself to a slice. Then he sat down.
Kevin did the same. “Look, I understand that you don’t want to participate in your defense. Why don’t we just talk about something else? Not as a Serb to an American, but as one human being to another.”
Draga said nothing.
Kevin started to launch into a monologue about the Tribunal’s procedures.
Draga interrupted him. “The pizza is good,” he said.
Kevin smiled. “I like it too. What kind of toppings do you like?”
“Pepperoni.”
“Me, too. Next time it will be pepperoni.”
Kevin was starved, and had already downed two pieces.
“Don’t eat so fast,” Draga told him, “It’s not good for you and it’s not polite.”
Draga looked like he was savoring every bite.
And so it began. Kevin and Draga talked about food, movies, and cars. Kevin said nothing about the case. After they had polished off the pizza, Draga said, “Thank you. This is the best meal I have had in months.”
“What do you do all day?”
“Play cards. Watch television. Work out on the exercise equipment. Write letters to my family.”
“Do you get along with the other prisoners?”
“Yeah. I knew some of them from before. They’re all afraid of me. I like it that way.” Draga smiled. Then he turned it around. “What do you do at night after work?”
“Help my daughter with her homework. Then we play or read together before her bedtime. By that time, I’m usually ready for bed myself. It’s not too exciting.”
“You are with your family. That’s the main thing.”
“Yeah. You must really miss your family.”
“I do. I was gone a lot, but when you’re locked up like this, you really wish you’d done things differently. I would give anything to help my children with their homework.”
Kevin remembered having almost the same conversation with Nihudian. Two people on opposite sides of a war, and both wanting the same thing.
“Help me with your case. Help me understand the facts. Maybe one day you can return to your family.”
Draga laughed derisively. “They’ll never let you win my case. Not in a million years. Just get me a speedy trial. I don’t want to sit here for a year.”
“Why did you choose me?” Kevin asked as the subject moved closer to the case.
“I liked the way you wouldn’t take any crap off that old judge. Krasnic made me sick the way he sucked up to him. And I knew Krasnic would just delay my case so he could bill more hours and make more money. I don’t want any delays.”
“What good is a speedy trial if you get a life sentence?”
Draga didn’t reply.
“Allow me to ask you something that many defense attorneys would never dream of asking their client.”
Draga raised his eyebrows in interest.
“Did you do what they have charged you with?”
Draga took a deep breath. “I am a soldier,” he said. “Not a butcher.”
“Well, that’s as good a place to start as any. I received three boxes of witness statements and reports from the prosecution today. When I get them organized, I’ll make a set for you and bring it here. There are over five thousand pages.”
“Don’t bother. There’s plenty of fiction to read here in the library.”
Kevin smiled. “Are you going to help me with your defense?”
“No.”
Kevin didn’t want to push it. “One more thing. I met your brother-in-law, Mr. Golic, last night. He’s offered to do some investigation for us. He’s also going to come and visit you.”
“He was here this morning. Thank you for arranging that.”
“He’s a big guy like you. How are you two related?”
Draga hesitated for a moment. “He’s the husband of one of my sisters,” he finally replied. Then he changed the subject. “What’s on the menu for next week?”
“Any requests?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Why don’t we do some nice American steaks and mashed potatoes? I’m a meat and potatoes kind of guy.”
“Well, I’ll see what I can do. I don’t know of any take-out steak houses in The Hague. But I’ll look into it.”
“Now, what’s new with the Oakland Raiders?” Draga asked.
Kevin laughed. It figured that Draga’s favorite team was the bad boys of American football. They talked sports for a while, then it was time to go.
“Don’t forget the A-1 sauce,” Draga said as Kevin departed.
Kevin spent the next week and a half organizing, and then reading, the prosecution’s disclosure. The reports were awful. According to over a hundred witnesses, members of the Black Dragons had murdered, tortured, beaten and raped Muslim men, women, and children in Bosnia. One witness reported seeing Draga personally murder a Muslim civilian. Draga had also made numerous public statements in which he threatened to kill Muslims who did not leave Bosnia. The prosecution’s case appeared overwhelming.
When he finished reading the reports, Kevin had a copy service make two copies. The day they were ready, he drove to the Tribunal so he could deliver one copy to the detention center for Draga, and then to the Embassy and left a copy for Vacinovic to send to Mihajlo Golic.
Kevin decided to remove the statements of the protected witnesses from Golic’s copies. Golic would have no need for those reports. The Muslim victims were not going to talk to a Serb from Belgrade. Kevin would need to find a Muslim investigator to interview the victims.
Kevin wrote a cover letter to Golic asking him to interview as many members of the Black Dragons as he could find. He also instructed Golic not to copy or disseminate the contents of the reports to anyone else. Then he wrote out a log, showing that he was distributing one copy of the materials to his client and one to his investigator
After stopping at the prison, Kevin headed over to the Serbian Embassy. It was just before lunchtime and he hoped Vacinovic would be there. He was. “I have the box of materials and a letter for Mr. Golic in my car,” Kevin said. “Perhaps we can have lunch together, and then I can leave them with you?”
Vacinovic agreed. They left the Embassy and drove in Kevin’s car to the Plein, a square adjacent to the Dutch Parliament buildings where there were many excellent restaurants. Kevin got lost trying to find a parking lot, but after circling around a few times, he found a space on the street to park his car. The two men walked to a restaurant that Vacinovic recommended featuring Balkan food.
During lunch, Vacinovic gave Kevin a long history of how the Serbs had been persecuted through the years by the Turks and Muslims, as well as the Croats, who had been on the side of Hitler in World War II.
“But the Court won’t allow that as a justification for anything that Draga is charged with,” Kevin interjected. “What else can I use as a defense for Draga?”
Kevin wondered if Vacinovic would say “his innocence,” but he did not. In fact, he didn’t try to answer Kevin’s question. “It is important to show that the Serbs were victims,” Vacinovic continued. “We were simply defending ourselves. Draga’s trial will put the Serbs in the world spotlight. We must use it to show the truth, once and for all.”
Kevin politely nodded as he listened to Vacinovic’s point of view.
He drove Vacinovic back to the Embassy, although not before getting lost again. He was used to his bicycle and unfamiliar with the auto routes around The Hague. When they arrived at the Embassy, Kevin gave Vacinovic the box of materials for Golic and drove home.
He told Diane and Ellen about his day, and the important question he had asked Draga, and his client’s response.
Diane looked as if she wanted to roll her eyes, but she didn’t.
“Maybe people just dressed up to look like the Dragons,” Ellen offered. “You know, like how kids wear American camouflage stuff because it’s cool.”
“I’ll have to look into that. I don’t have much more to go on right now. In fact, this case is pretty hopeless. Thousands of Bosnian Muslims were killed and beaten by men in Black Dragon uniforms and the only defense the guy from the Embassy can offer is that the other side started it 600 years ago. Draga says he didn’t do it, but he won’t cooperate in mounting a defense. I don’t think F. Lee Bailey could win this one.”
“Oh, Daddy, you’re so much better than him.”
Ellen came over and climbed into his lap. It was her turn to tell him about her day.
That night, Kevin decided to read something to get his mind off of the case for a while. He picked up a novel and stretched out on the couch. When Diane came down from putting Ellen to bed, the phone rang. It was just before 9 p.m.
“Mr. Anderson, this is Zoran Vacinovic.”
“Yes, Mr. Vacinovic,” Kevin replied.
“A group of investigators from the Tribunal were just here.” Vacinovic sounded agitated. “They searched the Embassy looking for the materials that you gave me today.”
“What?” Kevin was stunned.
“They claimed that you and I had conspired to violate some protective orders of the Court.”
Kevin was speechless.
“This is an outrageous breach of diplomatic procedures. We have never heard of an Embassy being searched. My country will be protesting this in the strongest possible way.”
Kevin felt shaky. Had he broken some Tribunal rule? He was just giving the materials to Vacinovic to send to the investigator. He had even taken out the reports from the protected witnesses.
Just then, Kevin heard a loud banging at the front door.
Someone shouted: “Police, open up!”