Chapter 7 - THE BAIL HEARING
On Monday morning at 9:00 a.m., the Cook County Central Bond Court was packed with defense attorneys, bailiffs, and hungover holiday offenders.
I sat in the front row of the gallery, dressed in a sharp dark navy suit, hair pulled back tight into a chignon. Beside me sat Marcus Reed, who had insisted on coming for support, and Detective Miller.
Across the courtroom, behind the bulletproof glass partition, the prisoners were led in wearing orange jumpsuits.
Ross looked like a hollow shell of the golden boy who had swaggered into my ER forty-eight hours earlier. His hair was greasy and unwashed, his designer beard patchy, his shoulders slumped in humiliation. Evelyn looked even worse. Without her makeup, hair extensions, and expensive jewelry, she looked ancient, frail, and venomous. Her hands shook as she gripped the wooden railing.
A court-appointed public defender stood beside them, rapidly flipping through their case files with a look of profound exhaustion.
“Case number twenty-four-CR-eighty-nine,” the clerk called out. “The People versus Ross Vance and Evelyn Vance. Charges: two counts of aggravated child endangerment causing great bodily harm, two counts of reckless depraved-heart assault, and one count of grand larceny.”
Judge Sarah Higgins, a woman known throughout the judicial district for having zero patience for domestic cruelty, adjusted her reading glasses and glanced at the prosecutor’s brief.
“Your Honor,” the assistant state’s attorney stood up. “The State requests no bail for both defendants. The facts of this case are exceptionally heinous. The defendants intentionally locked two minor children, ages nine and twelve, onto an exterior balcony during sub-zero temperatures for nearly four hours while hosting a luxury party. One child suffered cardiac arrest from severe hypothermia. The State has obtained four-K video evidence showing the defendant, Ross Vance, physically wedging a security bar into the track to prevent the children from entering. Furthermore, defendant Evelyn Vance observed the children pleading through the glass and explicitly instructed Ross Vance to leave them outside.”
Evelyn suddenly lunged toward the microphone, her voice high and screeching.
“That is an outrage! Your Honor! I am a senior citizen! I have heart palpitations! My daughter is doing this out of spite because she’s always been jealous of my son!”
*BANG!*
Judge Higgins slammed her gavel down with the force of an executioner’s axe.
“Ma'am, you speak out of turn one more time in my courtroom, and I will hold you in summary contempt and remand you directly to the psychiatric wing,” the judge snapped, her eyes blazing behind her spectacles. “Do you understand me?”
Evelyn shrank back, trembling.
The public defender cleared his throat nervously. “Your Honor... my clients have no prior violent felony convictions. Defendant Ross Vance is a local entrepreneur. We request reasonable bond with electronic monitoring so he can attend to his business affairs.”
“What business affairs?” Judge Higgins asked dryly, looking at a supplemental document on her desk. “I have an affidavit here from the Sterling Capital Group stating that all proposed ventures with Mr. Vance have been terminated due to comprehensive fraud investigations. I also have an affidavit from Dr. Lauren Vance indicating that the defendant’s entire financial history is fabricated and funded solely through unauthorized access to her accounts.”
Ross grabbed his attorney’s sleeve, whispering frantically, but the attorney pulled his arm away with obvious distaste.
Judge Higgins looked over her glasses directly at Ross Vance.
“Mr. Vance, I have reviewed the video footage provided by the State. In twenty-two years on the bench, I have rarely seen an act of such callous, self-absorbed cruelty. You stripped a nine-year-old child of her coat in five-degree weather because she spilled a drink on a guest’s shoes.”
Ross’s lips twitched. “She... she ruined the vibe, Your Honor. She was being rude.”
The entire courtroom went dead silent. Even the bailiffs looked disgusted.
Judge Higgins’s expression turned to pure ice.
“Bail is denied for defendant Ross Vance. You will remain in custody at the Cook County Department of Corrections until trial.”
“What?!” Ross screamed, clutching the glass partition. “You can’t do that! I have rights! Lauren! Lauren, tell her! Mom, do something!”
“As for defendant Evelyn Vance,” Judge Higgins continued, ignoring his screams, “bail is set at five hundred thousand dollars, ten percent cash required. In the event of release, you are subject to immediate home confinement with an ankle monitor, zero contact with the victims, and a mandatory surrender of your passport.”
“Five hundred thousand?!” Evelyn wailed, falling to her knees on the courtroom floor. “I don't have fifty thousand dollars! Lauren, pay the bail! I'm your mother! You have the money in your savings! Lauren!”
I sat perfectly still in the front row. I didn’t blink. I didn’t flinch.
Evelyn scrambled against the glass, her fingernails scraping the partition as two burly female deputies hauled her to her feet.
“Lauren! Don't let them take me to general population! They have criminals in there! Lauren!”
I stood up slowly, smoothed the fabric of my navy jacket, and looked directly into my mother’s terrified eyes.
“You should have taken an Ambien,” I said softly.
May you like
The deputies dragged her through the heavy iron door, her shrieks echoing down the concrete hall until the latch slammed shut with a heavy, final *thud*.
***
