“Sometimes Nothing Can Be A Real Cool Hand: Jessica Reznicek appeals to jury with Cool Hand Luke defense on trial in Nebraska” by Frank Cordaro, Via Pacis, July 16, 2016
Representing herself on trial in May, Jessica Reznicek opened her defense before the jury with a reference to her “most beloved Hollywood cinema character,” Cool Hand Luke.
“When he’s sitting around the poker table and all of his fellow prison inmates are berating his hand in cards, saying, ‘You ain’t got nothin’ boy,’” Jess recalls the scene for the jury. “They’re telling him that he’s got ‘a hand full of nothin’. And Cool Hand Luke just leans back, smiles and says, ‘Well, sometimes nothin’ can be a real cool hand.”
“I may have – like Cool Hand Luke – a hand (a legal defense) full of nothing … with the truth on my side.”
Legally speaking, the “real action” took place a week before the trial, in a pretrial court session with Judge Patricia Lamberti. It was then we learned that Prosecutor Nicole Hutter dropped the State’s felony charges against Jessica and replace them with two Class 1 Misdemeanor charges of Criminal Mischief ($1,500 or more; less than $5,000) and first-degree trespass. These reduced charges, also greatly reduced the possible jail time Jess risked for her Dec. 27 witness. The jury trial was set to start on May 24.
Legally speaking, Jessica had always maintained her felony charges were bogus and the evidence proved this.
Jess was back in court on the Friday before the May 24 trial for a second pre-trial conference. This time to see if the judge was going to let Jess put on her defense and “play her hand” in court. This was the high point for the defense, legally speaking, because the road was cleared for Jessica to present her defense during trial.
Prosecutor Nicole Hutter presented two motions to “in limine” — to prevent any evidence regarding Northrop Grumman war crimes into the trial. Judge Lamberti ruled the prosecutor’s motions were premature and that she, the judge, would decide whether or not Jess’ evidence was admissible at trial.
“What this means for me,” said Jessica, “is that the judge is open to hear my necessity defense argument and therefore open to hear my case against Northrop Grumman, at least in principle.”
Jess’s standby attorneys, Bill Quigley and Robert Sigler, were by her side in court. Jess and her legal team spent the weekend well preparing for Tuesday’s trial.
On the day of the trial, two things were in play.
One: once facing two felony charges, now two misdemeanor charges, the bar for evidence of guilt was easy! Procedurally speaking “a slam dunk,” especially because Jess was willing to admit damaging Northrop Grumman’s property and to trespassing on their rented land; in fact, she insisted on owning responsibility for the broken windows and door as part of her defense! (That’s why she waited in prayer until the police came.)
Two: Jess felt a strong connection between herself and her female judge and prosecutor. The combination of reduced charges and a woman-dominated court gave Jess the hope and courage to give the Court a chance, to play her “nothin hand” before twelve fellow citizens, a way to continue the witness she started at Northrop Grumman on December 27th into the courtroom.
Going into the trial, there was so much agreement on all sides. It was agreed ahead of time: the whole affair was not going to last more than two days! In fact, the picking of twelve jurors, opening statements, the prosecutor’s case, Jess’s case, the judge’s jury instructions, and closing arguments were all done by 3:45 p.m. The jury deliberated less than a half hour … this had to include body breaks, the picking of a foreperson, the reading of the charges, the reviewing of the evidence and the unanimous vote for guilt … wow …
The trial was not easy on Jess. The trust she put in and the challenge she presented her judge and prosecutor were virtually ignored. Despite the cordial dialogue in court, the heartfelt appreciation both judge and prosecutor gave to Jess. When it came to showing her true allegiance, Judge Lamberti sided with the 1%ers, being a truly corporate-owned judge.
In an effort to streamline the trial, all agreed to give Jess 20 minutes to lay out her case in a narrative form as testimony from the witness stand. Jess did not get five minutes into her testimony before the prosecutor objected to what Jess was saying and the judge held up the objection. Much of Jess’s prepared testimony never got into the record. What did was very powerful. Jess got to speak of her early years and how important the love and values she got from her parents were for her formation that moved her to do her “Hammer of Justice” witness. So much more was left out.
This was the first betrayal, neither the prosecution or the judge needed to interrupt Jess’s testimony. The criminal misdemeanor convictions were a sure thing! Jess admitted as much. All Jess want to do was play her “nothin’ hand.” Both the judge and the prosecutor did more than they had to do to get the convictions their jobs demanded. Jess never got to speak clearly, heart to heart, to the jury, because the prosecutor and the judge kept interrupting her. Why?
The second betrayal came when Jess flat out offered both women a chance to step out of their job roles and make a statement as women about Northrop Grumman and what they and other war profiteers are doing criminally. Throughout the trial, Jess asked both women to publicly raise the question in court about the possible war crimes happening at Northrop Grumman and how our legal system is not able to deal with these issues. Both women ignored Jess’s offer. Why?
Nicole, the prosecutor, showed her true heart in a maternal way when at one point in her closing statement Nicole said she hoped that her young daughter would grow up to have the same spirit and convictions for her beliefs that Jessica demonstrated in court. Basically, all she would commit to doing was her job. Ignoring Jess’s challenge to think outside her legal box. The classic liberal sellout.
We did not get Judge Lamberti’s true heart on the matter until after sentencing the following day.
Jess’ sentencing the following day was ALL ABOUT THE $$$. Jess gave an extraordinary statement before sentencing, giving the judge every opportunity to sentence Jess to whatever jail time she wished, as long as the judge understood Jess was not going to pay any restitution, nor was she going to pay any court fees or fines. Nor was Jess going to comply with any terms of probation. Then Jess challenged the judge one more time to personally make a public statement in support of the issues Jess was trying to raise.
After Jess spoke, the judge let everybody know she was in charge of sentencing and not Ms. Reznicek. The judge spoke as if she had not heard a word Jess said throughout the whole trial. Then she proceeded to sentence Jess to pay just under $5000 in fines and restitution for her destruction of property charge and sentenced Jess to 72 days of jail time, with time served for her trespass charge, plus court costs. The war criminals at Northrop Grumman got off free! Jess nailed it, when she said right after the trial as we were leaving the court room, “It’s all about the money!”
The third betrayal proved this true. Jess was LIED TO regarding the special $1,000 bond she paid to get out of jail. We could not help but feel soiled and unclean as we left the court room. Jess was told the special $1,000 cash bond we put up for her freedom last March would be returned to her in full after her trial, no matter what. We were lied to. The last thing Judge Lamberti did at the end of the trial was to order (steal) Jess’s bail money to be used towards paying her fines and restitution.
It was only after the sentencing, when the trial was over, that Judge Lamberti showed her true heart on the matter: maternally! Judge Lamberti shared with us “OFF THE RECORD” that she was very familiar with the Catholic Workers and Plowshares movements because her daughter had once been married to Paul Magno back in the 1990s. Paul had e-mailed me the day before that Jess’s judge was his ex-mother-in-law! I remember Paul and Kim, Judge Lamberti’s daughter, joining us in Omaha at SAC for our annual December 28th Feast of the Holy Innocents witness a couple of times in the 1990s. They were Catholic Workers living in Washington D.C. At that time Kim and Paul were seriously exploring doing a Plowshares action.
Judge Lamberti spoke glowingly about her daughter’s current job with US Catholic Relief Service. And then she shared how grateful she was that her daughter Kim back in the 1990s did not choose to act up and destroy property, as Jess had done!
In our Catholic Worker world, we see things that really matter on a person to person, personal level. And even though Judge Lamberti and Ms. Hutter kept their professional distance from Jess and her “Hammer of Justice” witness in court, showing their true allegiance to our most corrupted and unjust justice system, on a personal level, speaking as mothers from the heart, Jess got to them both. From our Catholic Worker, personalist perspective, Jess again proved that in court when all you have
Frank Cordaro's Writings and Archives 
One thought on ““Sometimes Nothing Can Be A Real Cool Hand: Jessica Reznicek appeals to jury with Cool Hand Luke defense on trial in Nebraska” by Frank Cordaro, Via Pacis, July 16, 2016”