On cross-examination, Joshua Burch asked the witness if he understood the term “procuring prostitution.”
“Of course I understand what that means. I am a police officer.”
“Well, then, you must certainly understand that procuring the services of a prostitute is also a crime, punishable by a fine and jail time.”
“I do, yes.”
“So you, as an officer of the law, admit here, under oath, that you committed a crime?”
“No sir. It was an undercover operation, and if you knew police work then you’d understand that we are often forced to pretend to be people we are not.”
“So it was not your intent to commit a crime?”
“It was not.”
“Didn’t you go to the nightclub with the full intention of entrapping Marlene into an act of prostitution?”
“No sir. Again, it was an undercover operation. We had good reason to believe there was criminal activity going on, and I went there to see for myself.”
Burch tried several times to trap the witness into admitting his own criminal activity, but Jesse had prepared him. Dennis Greenleaf was next and his testimony was virtually identical to Armstrong’s. Burch railed at the officer and tried to paint him as the perpetrator, a man of the law preying on young ladies who were only serving drinks and doing their jobs.
The next four witnesses were also off-duty policemen and deputies, and by noon the questions and answers were monotonous. There was no doubt that Carousel was a hotbed of prostitution. Before recessing for lunch, Chief Deputy Kilgore arrived in the courtroom and explained to Judge Baker that Sheriff Bowman had been called away on pressing matters and was out of town. Kilgore was grilled about the failure to serve the subpoenas, routine matters in Baker’s opinion. He handed the five subpoenas to Kilgore and ordered him to serve them on the “waitresses” immediately. He promised to do so, and the hearing was adjourned until the following morning.
It was not clear whether the deputies actually went to the nightclub in search of the witnesses, but at 9 a.m. the next day Kilgore reported that none of the five was still working at Carousel. To add to the confusion, the names on the subpoenas were aliases. The girls were gone.
This angered Judge Baker but no one was surprised. Joshua Burch called Ginger Redfield to the stand, and she calmly denied any wrongdoing at her club. She was a smooth liar and explained that she did not tolerate prostitution and had never seen any evidence of it.
Jesse was itching to cross-examine her, his first real shot at a crime boss. He asked her to repeat her testimony about prostitution at Carousel, which she did. He reminded her that she was under oath and asked if she understood that perjury was another crime. Joshua Burch objected loudly and Judge Baker sustained the objection. Jesse asked her about the five waitresses and tried to elicit their real names. Ginger claimed that she didn’t know because the “ladies” often used fake names. He grilled her about her record-keeping and she had no choice but to admit that the girls were paid in cash with nothing on the books. She explained that the waitresses came and went, that her workforce was unstable at best, and that she had no idea where the five had gone.
Jesse then questioned her about gambling at Carousel and she again claimed to know nothing of it. No slots, poker, blackjack, no craps or roulette tables. Burch objected to that line of questioning and reminded the court that the alleged nuisance was prostitution. The DA had put on no proof of gambling. Judge Baker agreed and told Jesse to move on. The cross-exam lasted for two hours and was at times contentious, as both lawyers argued back and forth while the witness kept her cool and at times even seemed amused. Judge Baker tried to referee the fight but lost patience. Through it all, it became evident that he didn’t believe a word the witness said and had no tolerance for the illicit activities at her nightclub.
The hearing ended before lunch. Both sides expected Judge Baker to take the matter under advisement and mull it over for a few days. He surprised them, though, with a ruling from the bench. He declared Carousel to be a nuisance and ordered it closed immediately and permanently.