Wow, Roy, that's a whole heap of trouble your posse has gotten themselves into. I am going to forward this along to a policeman friend/RPGer of mine and ask for his opinions. I'll forward back here any thoughts he has.
Reemull <reemull@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Hi all - another question this time a legal one - however it includes a
reasonably lengthy explanation. BTW the reason I post here and not the
forum is I don't want any of my group browsing the Deadlands forum
online and come across our groups stuff by accident.
As I said, I've ended up with a legal situation with a couple of my
posse and I wondered what people's advice would be.
Item 1: Break in and Robbery at the New Orleans Tribune
Evidence:
Witnesses saw: 3 of the posse (Inigo, Sam, Robert) loitered outside at
11am before sending Robert round the back to pick the lock. After
botching the job and leaving part of his lock picks in the lock Robert
returns - then all 3 goes round the back and after some bangs and
crashes Inigo kicks the door in (ok the first kick was timed with a
passing carriage - but the other two weren't).
The
missing cash ($500 confederate) was pretty much found intact in
Inigo's hotel room. Presumably still in a bundle as he never did
anything with it - he also has very little other cash besides it.
Item 2: Theft of a private business ledger of a recently murdered man
named Corbier (murderer unknown)
Evidence:
-> Discovered by accident while the police were searching for the cash
in Inigo's hotel room.
-> Inigo, Sam and Robert were all at the party where the man was
murdered
Sam was caught entering the scene of the crime by the police by
climbing through a window.
-> The dead owners daughter [Celie] (and now technically the owner of
the ledger) will testify that the ledger was a private record kept by
her father and rarely left the library in the house and so would never
be given to a complete stranger.
-> The ledger seems linked with the murder as it has the dead mans
blood on it.
Item 3: Attempted theft of
personal items from the Corbier house
following the murder.
During a visit where Sam, Inigo and a third posse member was present.
Sam was caught twice by Celie Corbier trying to steal personal items
belonging to her friend.
The police have arrested Sam and Inigo (Robert having died since the
theft in item1). This has led to the discovery of item 2 and from
following that up to item3.
I cannot imagine Celie Corbier following up item 3 as it is a trivial
matter - but she would testify regarding it in order to illustrate the
character of anyone on trial - she is a rather affluent member of a
high society New Orleans family.
I was wondering how strong the case for prosecution would be for Items
1 and 2. There is quite a lot of evidence pointing towards Inigo here,
especially for item 1. Would the evidence of the money and witnesses
be enough to convict Inigo and Sam? I think Law Dogs gives jail terms
as being around 1-5
years?
There seems a possibility that if Sam could be persuaded to testify
that he only followed the others and only looked about and that Inigo
kicked the door in and took the money - then he might get let off and
Inigo take the full hit? Is this likely? At that point I figure the
police would conveniently forget item 3.
Item 2 is tricky as it directly links Inigo to an unsolved murder. Sam
has already been questioned concerning the window escapade and the
Lieutenant was pretty convinced that he wasn't involved - just that he
was too nosey. Is possession of the ledger enough to convict Inigo of
the theft (even if he denies knowing it was there)? Would the police
try to pin the murder on him - even if it is rather flimsy evidence?
I'm not to up to date with New Orleans law around these times - however
it does sound corrupt from the River O'Blood supplement. Would they
try to convict a stranger to town on circumstantial evidence
(even if
he lacked a motive). I did warn them that law worked a little
differently in the city and was quite alert for such things - however
Inigo's player specifically asked if there was cash in the safe and so
presumably was looking to rob it.
Thanks for reading this far and for any comments/advice.
Roy
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