Other Works by the Author
Other works by this author—
CITY TO FEAR was self -published as an ebook under the pen name of W Lee Slaight during Covid years but will be re-issued in the near future. This is the story that is never told or given sufficient attention. Elovich was a trial attorney admitted in New York and New Jersey specializing in labor law and employment practices. For three decades I studied police corruption, firsthand. Good police folk (both genders) whose careers were ruined due to a systemic corruption born of greed--old tactics of hands in the till for drug trafficking, sale of guns and making monies illegally. Police corruption, discrimination, peddling of undue command influence, which could hit the rank and file or the public almost daily, with reprisal activity for those who rejected the program. This is fiction or not--You decide.
All the characters and incidents have been created out of the writer's imagination, including the City, and its Mayor, Administration, Police Director and its Chain of Command. No real individuals or environs identified so as to establish the real focal point and debate may be universal. The terror within this City can happen anywhere, and will unless stopped! This is a tale of conspiracy, aiding and abetting wrongdoing to satisfy the animus of the Police Director, who wields authority because he was deliberately placed in the seat of power despite his known proclivities. A pattern of evil decisions, discrimination and retaliation plagues the good cops. As an aside, the City does have a name BellePorte, the beautiful gate, meant to depict a gateway of opportunity offered to all its racial and ethnic residents and workers.
The story opens with the Caucasian Police Director disappearing. Only his two ears show up in a glass mason jar left on the African American Mayor's desk to taunt the entire City Administration that he is dead. Meanwhile, there is widespread violence, rioting and shootings, protestors trying to burn down the City due to the latest outrage of racial profiling...two black youths, one with autism have been victimized for a normal (illegal)vehicular traffic stop. Gang members and the general public are out looting and burning. The Mayor is in his third term and cast as the "failed liberator". He cannot fathom how to save the City when it becomes plain that no one within the police community nor local county investigative agencies want to solve the mystery of the missing Police Director. The crowds insist the police murdered their own.
The Blue Code of Silence is exposed from the outset along with the hard issues of gun control, the Second Amendment, the limits of Civil Rights laws, gangs and underaged youth handling drug sales and more generally, terrorism issues. The central characters are the Mayor, Edward Dawes, who ends up soliciting the services of a maverick female attorney, Lee Trevor Galt. Said Attorney frequently sues the City on behalf of black and brown police based on the City's own discriminatory/retaliatory practices and the suspects appear to be her own past and present clients. This is written as a Serpico tale for a film series where each suspect's history within the Department unfolds as a possible plot of revenge to keep the reader guessing who has the strongest motive to have harmed the Police Director. Here, there is tremendous misconduct within upper management, including harassment, power struggles, sexual fraternization and lack of progressive discipline calculated to harm subordinates in the lower ranks of their workforce.
Nothing is omitted from the City to Fear. The author paints a final picture of a City without privacy and how cybersecurity has invaded all the communication channels. This is a tale of caution and certainly raises a question why terrorism keeps gaining momentum within our communities by reason of the confrontation between the police and the public based on fears and prejudice. Judges continue to insist that internal policy has changed based on diversity of personnel while the litigating attorneys offer proofs of discriminatory adverse employment activity as an ongoing fact. Retaliation marks the vengeful activity evident within the Chain of Command... You must think that I gave away the story--Not a chance, I barely touched the surface....
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SECOND BOOK: THE FAILED JUDICIARY --both books need and deserve a real fine publisher...
This is a sequel: another lawyer mystery with a homicide to solve pursuant to the last shooting closed out in the City to Fear...only this time the homicide came too close to Attorney Lee Trevor Galt! The two books can be read together or the stories can stand alone. Again, a film series can be easily produced per the unfolding of the complex plot(s) within the State Courthouse.
This time we are focused on two continuing trials involving brothers, both highly competant brown skinned Somali policemen with strong records until one of them angers the same Director of Police, Gordon O'Donnell, for purported failure to salute. Pretextural incidents with charges occur before the Director's mysterious disappearance. Then, we see the great City continue to crumble as we witness a bizarre political takeover of powermongers.
Judges do not escape the Corona virus by reason of donning their black robes or sitting higher in the Courtroom upon a raised pedestal. Initially, the reader is presented with a hospitalized, screaming, Superior Court Judge James Ruehl then suffering from Covid 19 and insisting on privileged status by reason of his elite position. The Judge is placed under an old ventilator to avoid his demands although the Chief, Doctor Ethan Samuels, shall intervene to wean him off the equipment based on the written DNR directive. It appears JR, as he is called, has a poor medical history and is not expected to live. He is the central character critical to this story. Initially, he was struck down by a terrorist and so crippled that he could not complete the second jury trial that he had ordered for the Geesi brothers, Aaden being the elder Lieutenant and Assad, the younger brother of equal rank. Thereafter, this Judge suffered even worse punishment, as his vulnerabilities flared for a lasting case of Guilliane Barre Syndrome which coupled with the massacre wounds and covid symptoms would end his life. (We imagined it was very real punitive damages for all the evil decisions he made as a Judge of the Superior Court and maybe the last Immigration Court that he had been assigned to. Who knows?
Their first trial against their employer, the BellePorte Police Department (BPD) had led to a verdict totaling one million dollars--$500,000 dollars to each plus payment of their legal fees to their esteemed Counsel Lee Trevor Galt. The outcome was predictable insofar as Galt's advocacy had outweighed the defense presentation from the first day to the last. The City had poor witnesses and their expert report was deemed insufficient such that expert testimony on behalf of the City was precluded. Twelve years of discriminatory discipline and reprisal had not made any sense to the factfinders as meted out to these good cops. And, all Judge Ruehl's efforts to diminish the evidence had not gone unnoticed as an unfair trial tactic meted out from the bench. Frankly, this Judge was shocked at the outcome and practically scurried away, like a rat, before the jurors left their seats leaving quite a bit of confusion as the requisite motions were still to be made by both sides.
Succinctly put, time kept passing and Galt and her clients were caused to realize Judge Ruehl would not sign the judgment in their favor. He was fixing to manipulate more injustice with coaching from the sidelines, his peers in black robes and a higher bench. Who knows the individual(s) pulling all the string to claw back the fine verdict? That became Galt's defining mission, and more specifically, after the second verdict came in leaving each plaintiff only $8000 each despite the long years of discrimination and reprisal where neither had any authority aligned with their rank. Moreover, Assad had been denied a promotion despite the fact he had the highest scores on DOP testing of any police personnel and he was caused to remain on a pretextural daily monitoring list without a reason or ability to come off that list. Rather, the brothers kept obtaining poor late evening assignments and disastrous tours to prevent them from enjoying family life. But for the fact the BPD was actually shorthanded, each would have been terminated. Unfortunately, they were compelled to difficult double and triple shifts where their wages had increased such that the evil Judge made quips before the jurors that there was no mistreatment and he allowed new evidence to prove the higher wages. The new jurors barely earned $20,000 each. so they were not going to award commensurate proper damages to these police victims. The Judge's health failed before the second verdict was announced.
Judge Ruehl was in no condition to sign any new judgment as he was already hospitalized and barely breathing. Yet, a troop of unnamed Judges appeared in his hospital room to force his signature. The hospital staff, physicians and nurses had already been forced to listen to JR's loud ranting banter for weeks pertaining to the Geesi Brothers two trials. It was obvious to them that he was suffering from a bad conscience and narrating his own evil mischief in the Courtroom, which mirrored reports of journalists watching the two trials and also the vivid jurors complaints during the first trial. What could be done?
The City of BellePorte was self insured and the higher verdict would have hurt their coffers--budget and the Treasury. Lee Trevor Galt had lost a dear friend, the Mayor, in a park setting where Edward Dawes was responding to protests. There was ongoing corruption detailed throughout The Failed Judiciary with more terrorism, deaths and corruption that went unsolved. Galt was convinced that BellePorte remained the last candy jar for the mob or other politicos with deep pockets. They carved out new wars, made deals with the gangs and definite powermongers kept staying on the payroll moving from one top job to the next so as always to be collecting new pensions for their future. She had found support in characters developed in the first book, City to Fear. Suddenly, she wanted answers; not from her clients but from the insiders causing havoc within the City. JUST MAYBE, the former Judge Ruehl who was on his death bed would finally come clean---He could trade the last secret that he held so long to find some peace within himself. Galt knew he wanted something from her. What could she possibly offer? Again, I give you hints how this mystery will keep you up but I dare say, you will not put this book down!
OTHER WRITING:
Four Plays now ready for a Director, Producer and audience: All timely, current issues but still entertaining
The Painting…a 19th century highly valuable legacy involves the great masters. The Young Rafaelle,
is signed by Sir Frederic Leighton and has become the focus of a family
drama…the son is determined to sell this great painting against his
mother’s wishes. His sibling has quite a different approach and, of course, the mother shall surprise you.....
Mother’s Choice concerns the abortion issue—five different hard
decisions to be made in a secret clinic operating against State laws.
Different solutions offered for these extreme cases….with A I
intelligence guiding and protecting anonymity.
Safari- A Young Man’s Journey—story of a Somali teen caught up in
gang crime is offered an opportunity to escape his fate and punishment
while traveling through Kenya. Plainly, a story of redemption and resolve.
The Invitation set in New York City where former politically chic 1960’s
roommates meet decades later to share an exquisite dinner cooked by
one of them. Each have had sterling careers; some married, divorced,
become single again and they share their stories as they play a
challenging game where they can ask any daring question of their
former friends gathered around the table. Eventually, they discover the
purpose of the game to recast themselves on a mission together…Can
you guess the goal---it is to rebuild a nation….
Request a play-no charge …recommend it to a friend in theatre…
