“Mr. Hanson, you continue to joke despite the severity of the situation. Do you not understand the problem you are in fact faced with at the moment?” Joe leaned back in his chair. Anger came over his face, strain in his eyes, and contempt on his mind.

    “I understand it all perfectly. No need to reiterate it to me,” Hanson said with a smile across his face, his tone joking, his eyes hiding something.

    “Apparently there is a reason for me to reiterate because you, Mr. Hanson, are not listening. This is a very serious situation that must not be taken lightly. Do you understand?”

    Hanson turned his attention to the blonde paralegal sitting next to him, “What do you think, Sarah?”

    “I think you’re a creep!” Sarah said in an almost preppy high school voice.

    “Why are the pretty ones always so mean?” Hanson asked as he turned his attention back to his lawyer. “Where do we go from here?”

    Joe, the lawyer, put a strong amount of anger in his voice, “First of all you can stop flirting with my paralegal. Then you can stop with the childish demeanor, and act like a f***ing adult.”

    “Hey! There is a very pretty lady in the room. Watch your language!” Hanson said, turning his attention back to Sarah. “I must apologize for him, Sexy.” Hanson reached his hand over and placed it on the middle of her back.

It all happened so quickly that she couldn’t possibly have reacted in time. The feeling of his hands was strange and unwelcome.  Hanson moved his hand down, moving toward her butt. A image of pure shock came over her face as she leapt from her seat, moved away from Hanson’s reach, looked to her surprised employer, and said, “May I please leave?”

“Go see Phillis in HR.” Joe said to her.

Sarah turned around and exited the room as quickly as she possibly could.

“What is wrong with you?” Joe said to Hanson. “You know she can sue you for that, right? That is sexual harassment. It also, if she goes to the persecutors, could be used as an attack on your character.”

“What? They can attack a guy’s character for just having some fun?”

“Let me explain to you, Mr. Hanson. You were caught with a woman much younger than you. You’re thirty, she’s fifteen. You are looking at a very serious statutory rape charge. The girl on the other end is claiming that you knew about her age and didn’t care. You are claiming that you had no idea. I need to know. Did you or did you not know she was fifteen?”

Hanson smiled a strange, liar’s smile. It seemed he knew something that he wouldn’t say, “She’s a lying b****.”

“Do you want to know what I think?”

“No!”

“I think you’re a lying piece of s***. I think you’ve been lying this whole time. I think you knew about her age and didn’t care. Now please tell me again. Did you or did you not know she was in fact underage?”

Hanson’s smile faded, his eyes became remorseful, he showed for the first time the whole meeting, seemingly genuine feelings, “I didn’t know.” As soon as the words slipped from his mouth he went back to his same unphased, childlike demeanor. His smile returned, eyes twinkled mischievously, and he raised his head in pride.

“I think you’re a lying a**hole,” Joe stated bluntly.

“Is my lawyer even aloud to talk to me that way? Isn’t there a law saying you have to be nice or something?”

“Your official court date is tomorrow in the morning. You have to show up on time for a change. Or else it’s a poor reflection of your character. Though you’ll do a great job of that when you take the stand.”

    14 hours later.

    Hanson, Joe and Sarah all sat in the same room together. Sarah stared at Joe refusing to even look at Hanson. Her face radiated anger.

    “Well, that went well, don’t you think so, Sexy?” Hanson said to Sarah.

    Sarah said nothing.

    Joe looked away from Sarah to Hanson, “The jury is currently making their decision. You might just get some probation. Luckily, the only person who made the claim that you knew her age was the fifteen year old girl. Unfortunately, juries usually see them as the victim even when they are not.”

    “You hear that, Sarah?  I could get probation. You and I will be able to spend time together--you won’t have to wait for me”

    Sarah said nothing.

           "Hanson, please do not speak to Sarah. She is only here to take notes for me. She is not an object for you to flirt with," Joe said in an angry voice. "You speak with me and me only!"

    "But, she is so much more fun to look at."

           Joe had reached a point where he was beyond frustrated with Hanson. Hanson took nothing seriously. He spent all his time flirting with uninterested girls. Joe found it utterly amazing he had never been slapped with a sexual harassment lawsuit until now. Joe was amazed by this disgusting individual.

"When that phone rings, it is time to go back to the courtroom and hear whether or not they believed you."

    Joe looked away from his phone back to Hanson seeing a look of sadness. He, for the first time ever, conveyed an emotion of anguish. Once again, as quickly as it came, it went away. His childlike demeanor returned. Hanson smiled and said, “Let me know when that phone rings.”

    Hanson stood up and left the room.

    Sarah and Joe sat in an unadulterated silence. Sarah’s expression softened at Joe easing the silence. She smiled a little bit and said, “You think the piece of s*** knew?”

    Joe’s expression still hard, still angry, replied, “I don’t have the slightest idea.”

    4 hours later

    “What makes his words ok? How can he treat me that way?” Sarah said almost angrily to Joe. Her voice had become more stern, more direct.

    “I’m not saying what he did is ok from a moral standpoint. He has rights too. In fact he in no way can do anything to you that does not infringe upon your rights. So his little comments to you are from a legal standpoint are not wrong. From a moral point, they are disgusting. While he may have the right to do that to you, you still have the exact same rights as him so you can make rude comments back like calling him a creep.”

    Sarah sat back. His logic was infallible. She knew that Joe was right and there was nothing she could do but sue him for his actions of sexual harassment where he had touched her, “Well I’m sewing him for yesterday and when he touched me.”

    “I don’t care. Hell, I’ll represent you as your lawyer.”

    “Good!” she said leaning back into her chair.

    There were a few moments of an awkward silence. The noiseless sound was broken by the piercing sound of the phone ringing.

    Joe looked to sarah, “Go get Hanson.”

    Sarah stood and left the room as Joe grabbed the phone and answered it, “Hello.”

    Joe stood there for a few moments just listening to the person on the other end of the phone occasionally saying, “uh-huh.”

    Hanson walked in. Sarah did not follow him in. She never re-entered the room from this moment forth with Hanson in there.

    Joe said, “Thank you.” He hung up his phone looked to Hanson, “Sit down Mr. Hanson.”

    Hanson did as he was told. He looks scared joe thought to himself. Hanson’s eyes were sunken low his mouth slightly ajar. He looks really scared Joe thought to himself. “Well, I have some good news and some bad.”

    “Let’s start with the bad news.” Hanson’s look of being scared still had not gone away.

    “The trial isn’t over”

    Hanson’s face became more scared at these words, “Good news?”

    Joe couldn’t help but to notice that Hanson was growing increasingly scared, “The good news is you have a hung jury.”

“How is that horse s*** good news?” Hanson said with the the look on his face becoming one of anger.

“A hung jury can take up to years before the case get’s solved. So you lucked out in that aspect.”
With those words, the look of anger diminished. The same childlike demeanor returned over Hanson’s face. “That’s great news!”