Chapter 7 - The Trap in the Courthouse
Two months later, the preliminary hearing for The State v. Carmen Robles et al. commenced at the State Supreme Courthouse.
The courtroom was packed to capacity with news reporters, camera crews, and high-society onlookers who had watched the Robles family empire crumble in real-time over the evening news.
Carmen sat at the defense table dressed in a plain, inexpensive gray suit, stripped of her diamond jewelry and signature arrogance. Her legal team had shrunk from four top-tier criminal defense attorneys to a single, overworked public advocate after all her frozen bank accounts were rejected for legal retainer payments.
Javier sat beside her, looking thin, disheveled, and pale, refusing to look back at the gallery.
On the prosecution side, Sofia sat between Alexander and me. She wore an elegant dark blue dress, her face completely healed, her posture straight and proud. She wasn't the broken bride who had collapsed on my doorstep three months ago. She was Colonel Alexander Brooks’s daughter.
The defense attorney stood up, trying his best to salvage an impossible case.
"Your Honor," the public defender argued, addressing Judge Sarah Evans. "We move to dismiss the charges of grand extortion and kidnapping. The state’s entire case relies on circumstantial hotel video footage and the testimony of a disgruntled ex-wife who had a pre-existing financial dispute over real estate."
Judge Evans raised an eyebrow. "Circumstantial, counselor? There are thirty-two high-definition camera angles showing your clients physically detaining the victim."
"The defense claims that the alleged assault was a private family argument that spiraled out of control," the attorney pushed on desperately. "Furthermore, my clients have been subject to unprecedented financial harassment that has crippled their ability to mounting a proper defense!"
At that moment, the double doors at the back of the courtroom swung open.
Four uniformed officers from the Federal Bureau of Investigation walked down the center aisle, accompanied by a senior prosecutor from the United States Attorney’s Office.
The entire courtroom went silent.
"Your Honor," the federal prosecutor announced, standing before the bench. "The United States Government steps in to file superseding indictments against Carmen Robles, Javier Robles, and former Judge Mateo Robles."
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Carmen gasped, clutching her heart. "What?!"
"Under the RICO statute," the federal prosecutor continued calmly, "the defendants are officially charged with operating an ongoing criminal enterprise involving bank fraud, interstate extortion, and money laundering totaling forty-five million dollars over the past seven years."
