Crim239-1
King's Brief: Crim239-1p
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Docket Number: Crim239-1p - Rex vs Lanthos, Jupicia, and Barandis
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Brief for the King, submitted by Private Vonkar
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Kings Brief for the Prosecution of Lanthos, Jupicia, and Barandis for the crime of Extortion
Findings of Fact:
1. Jupicia and Barandis perished during a clan challenge in the Gloridome
2. Jupicia and Barandis' clanmates blamed their deaths upon three mages, Omnis, Sheol, and Elmor
3. Shortly after the deaths of Barandis and Jupicia, Lanthos, Jupicia, Barandis and Lavith met with Elmor, Sheol and Omnis.
4. Lavith left the meeting shortly after it began. During the course of this meeting, there was allegedly some mention of "not wanting bloodshed" and Sheol, Omnis and Elmor were asked "form a punishment they felt was acceptable" (quoted from the testimony of Sheol) as compensation for the deaths of Jupicia and Barandis.
5. Sheol tithed a total of twenty orbs, Omnis gave coin, though it is unknown the amount and fashion, and the parties involved claim that Elmor offered either his life or his bank account. Elmor denys this.
6. It was testified by both Jupicia and Lanthos that after Omnis and Sheol had left, leaving only Jupicia, Lanthos, Barandis, and Elmor at the table, that Barandis stood up and attempted to hold Elmor in his seat at the table. Lanthos then instructed Jupicia to attempt to fatigue Elmor which she attempted. These actions are also mentioned in Elmor's testimony. At the time that this occurred, Elmor was refusing to turn over the two hundred orbs in his bank account to Lanthos and his companions.
7. At a later date, about the fourth day of Cuspis in the year 236, I witnessed an argument in the Green Griffon between Elmor and Barandis in which I heard Barandis threaten the life of Elmor if he did not pay the 200 orb that was demanded. I then began looking into this matter.
Argument:
In the case of Rex vs Frobozz, Crim219-1, it was decided that the blame for deaths that occur as a result of an accident in the Gloridome are solely in the hands of the combatants who left the Recovery Room before being fully healed. Thus Lanthos, Jupicia and Barandis had no legal right to lay blame upon Elmor, Sheol and Omnis.
In the case of Rex vs Datchery, Crim182-5, it was decided that Extortion is indeed a crime and was defined as follows:
"Extortion will be found where one citizen threatens certain physical harm, severe bodily injury, death, or improper use of the legal process on another character contemporaneously with a demand for money or other services to refrain from the threatened behavior."
The testimony of Lanthos and Jupicia both confirm threatening behavior towards Elmor during the meeting. The testimony of Sheol and Omnis certainly lend weight to the fact that this was not merely a simple meeting between friends as Lanthos claimed in his testimony. Lanthos was doing most of the speaking for Jupicia and Barandis according to the testimony of Sheol and Omnis. He also, according to both his and Jupicia's testimony, instructed Jupicia to fatigue Elmor.
Conclusion:
Jupicia, Barandis, and Lanthos commited the crime of extortion by asking for and accepting coins from the group of mages who were not responsible for the deaths of Jupicia and Barandis and through the continued harassment of Elmor by Barandis.
Defense Brief: Crim239-1d
================================================= Docket Number: Crim240-1d - Rex vs. Lanthos ================================================= Brief for Lanthos, submitted by Kraxe =================================================
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Docket Number: Crim239-1d - Rex v. Lanthos
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Defence of Lanthos for the crime of extortion
Submitted by Kraxe, Guildmaster of Necromancers
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My client Lanthos pleads NOT GUILTY to the charge of extortion.
The only charge brought against Lanthos is one of extortion. Demanding money through coercion or with menace.
The deaths cited in this case are irrelevant but for the fact that they led the three mages to seek penitence in the eyes of those they believed they wronged. Whatever the reasons, whatever blame may or may not be legally apportioned, Sheol, Omnis and Elmor sought out Lanthos, Barandis and Jupicia with the express purpose of repairing a wrong that they deemed they should right. They took this upon themselves.
Shoel and Omnis made their efforts towards reconciliation while Elmor then became belligerent. After a long and drawn out talk over the course of many hours, Elmor proceeded to get irate and leave before all avenues were exhausted. The incident involving the fatiguing of Elmor was simply a frustrated reaction to keep him there so that the talks could continue. At its worst it was common assault. If violence was ever the intention, Elmor would have been killed. As it is he was not wounded in the slightest and no violence was offered against his person, despite Elmor's attitude of 'You can take my life'
After the talks failed, it is my understanding charges were brought against Lanthos and his co-defendants. Yet Elmor then approached Barandis and offered him 10 orb as a conciliatory gesture. Confusion reigned when Vonkar told Barandis that he could not accept this and it would be illegal to do so. Surely if Elmor still sought reconciliation then a court case could have been avoided. If all that was desired by the mages was to settle this out of court, why was Barandis told that this couldn't be done?
I beg the indulgence of the court and would like to say that it is my understanding this whole case hinges on a charge brought by Elmor which he then shows is not his intention by attempting to reach a settlement out of court with Barandis.
Lanthos was only involved in the talks at the table in the tavern. His part consists solely of mediating the efforts at reconciliation between his clan members and those mages who felt responsible enough to seek some form of mutually agreeable settlement. Lanthos understands that as overlord of Yishvina he is ultimately responsible for the behaviour of his clan members, regardless of the structure of the clan, and knows that allowing Jupicia to fatigue Elmor was wrong. This was simply a last desperate attempt to keep the dialogue open, however foolish it now may seem. Elmor left unharmed.
Lanthos is innocent. No coercion took place, only heated dialogue.
Elmor obviously sought to avoid the courts, evidence of which was provided by his own actions in attempting to settle with Barandis after the grounds for the charges had been laid and brought against Lanthos and his co-defendants.
This case never needed to come to court, and I ask that all charges be dropped against Lanthos.
Your faithful servant,
Kraxe, Guildmaster of Necromancers.
================================================= Docket Number: Crim239-1d - Rex vs. Lanthos ================================================= Brief for Jupicia, submitted by Jupicia =================================================
Your Honor,
I have been instructed to submit my defense on this particular case. There are a few minor facts that seem to have been left out from the testimony and conclusion.
Barandis had indeed left the recovery room. I believe it was in order to catch those that had disrupted the clan dome challenge. He was dead upon his leaving the room. Lanthos, leading a party of Yishvina at the time, was horrified at our clanmate's death, and thus left to see what he could do. His leaving the recovery room while still leading the party, I was practically dragged out by what was left of my bleeding carcass. I fell in that instant to my death.
After the death, Barandis and I were discovered in Vivoria's Temple, dilirious. Obviously our brains weren't functioning properly, thus the reason that we didn't do much speaking at the table. We hardly knew who -we- were, not to mention that everyone else seemed wiped from our memories as well.
As for Lanthos, I believe that he was merely trying to compensate for his mistake of leaving the recovery room while still leading our group. I feel that what he did was honorable for his clanmembers, and that's what being in a clan is. Loyalty to the members - all working for a cause.
And Elmor, denying that he offered his bank account - I'm afraid that he isn't telling the truth on that one. He did, in fact, offer that which was said offered.
================================================= Docket Number: Crim240-1d - Rex vs. Barandis ================================================= Brief for Barandis, submitted by Barandis =================================================
Honored Judge of Sable and Esteemed Justicars of Bilanx,
This is in response to the prosecution's brief in Docket Number Crim239-1p, an accusation of extortion against myself, Lanthos, and Jupicia. While I hope to present arguments in my defense, and I do hope to show that my clanmates did not commit any crime either, until I have a chance to speak with the co-defendants, it should not be assumed that this is in their defense as well.
I also hope that you will indulge me, as I have been given less than three months to reply to a charge which was investigated in some fashion for over four years. I have attempted to make myself knowledgable in the Sablean legal system, but I have been unable to find certain documents that were recommended to me, and I have been unable to contact a couple of people recommended as legal counsel. These people will apparently not return to Sable until after the deadline set before me to respond. Hence, I cannot promise that my response will be as eloquent or legally correct as the Justicar's, as I have neither his time nor his resources. Nontheless, another Justicar reasoned to me that this seeming disadvantage is offset by the fact that it is the burden of the prosecution to show the commission of a crime, rather than the defense's burden to show that none occurred, and I feel that this is fair.
Regarding the "Findings of Fact":
The Findings of Fact set before me are anything but. In fact, out of the seven presented, two are dead wrong, and two are misrepresentative. I shall take them point by point and try to explain.
1. This is basic knowledge and is accurate.
2. This is untrue. I had perished once before in a dome battle by my own fault, and I understand completely that it was not the fault of anyone other than myself. I told as much to Lavith (the man by whose hand I was killed) on more than one occasion.
3. This, once again, is basic knowledge and is accurate.
4. This is the first of the misrepresentative statements. It is, in essence, true. What is failed to be mentioned, however, is that there was no pressure placed upon anyone for any sort of "retribution." I personally was surprised when it was offered. But I am also not a fool, and if someone is going to offer me coin out of their own free will, I have a difficult time finding it illegal, and I'd have a difficult time not calling one who refused it a fool.
5. This statement is true, but requires clarification. Once again, it was the idea of the party of mages for these sums. Sheol and Omnis, in my opinion, genuinely felt bad and wished to ease their own consciousnesses by some small recompense. Elmor did apparently not feel similarly, but it was actually the idea of one of his companions (I'm afraid that I don't remember which, after all this time) to offer up the idea of 200 orb. Elmor himself added the bit about his life as an alternative. It was apparent to me that Sheol and Omnis were placing a certain amount of blame on Elmor, and that's why the hefty amount was apparently suggested. It is indeed true that Elmor denied his part in this, later, but that then makes me questio why he waited around with us for several hours waiting for the bank to open (this was before any confrontation).
6. This is also a misrepresentation, though true at the core. I did prevent Elmor's departure. Jupicia did try to fatigue him. However, there was a reason for this...Elmor refusing to follow through with a deal that he had made. My understanding is that this is an investigation into extortion, and my assumption of the definition of extortion is an attempt to coerce an agreement against the will of one of the parties by some sort of force. (The brief mentioned a case in which extortion was defined, but unfortunately, I could not find that case on file with the Clerk of Sable.) That being the case, and given that the deal was made WITHOUT coercion (which I will discuss shortly), these actions were in fact taken because of the breaking of a verbal contract by Elmor.
7. Once again, this statement is incorrect. Vonkar did, in fact, witness a part of an argument between myself and Elmor. However, if memory serves me correctly, he did not witness the entire argument. One who DID witness the entire argument, however, was the respected warlord Yanda. When Vonkar called me to a private table to discuss the matter, she told him directly that no threat had been made. However, to the best of my knowledge, this was ignored by Vonkar, and I do not believe that she was made a part of the investigation, despite being a key witness to the event that launched it.
My argument:
This is something that has been said time and time again but continues to be ignored. The fact that there had been a dome accident is coincidental and irrelevant to this case. The bottom line is that three mages offered certain sums of coin, and that these offers were made of their own free will. As I had also pointed out (but as has once again been ignored), in a hypothetical fair fight, I have little doubt that Lanthos, Jupicia, and I would have proved the losers. Jupicia had not been chosen at the time and was not even an elder. Lanthos was the only one of the three of us that HAD been an elder for any significant period of time. Yet, we sat across the table from three mages, all of whom WERE elders. It seems rather farcical to me to suggest that we bullied them into recompense for a dome accident when the reality of the matter is that if anyone COULD have been bullying, it would have been the mages.
I have been unable (due to lack of knowledge and time constraints) to look through a lot of the cases prior to ours, but I will be surprised if I find that it is against Sablean law to accept a freely given gift. And, as I have previously stated, there was no blame placed on Elmor, Sheol, or Omnis for my death, or for Jupicia's. It would be much more plausible for us to blame Kaiva and Lavith, but in fact, that never happened either. Hence, this part of the Justicar's argument is not terribly germane.
The definition of extortion has been given; however, I am unable to find the document from which this definition arose, and I find the definition to be vague. My assumption of extortion is that it does not apply to a case of a breach of contract. I would be hard pressed to find anyone who would respond to such a breach by saying, "Okay, never mind then." At the very least, a threat to bring legal action would likely ensue, and as legal action is covered in the definition given in the brief, I see little difference between making a threat of physical violence and a threat of legal action in this particular case. At the very least, based on the definition, either both are extortion (which I find hard to believe), or neither is.
It should also be pointed out that the concept of "200 orb or your life" has been brought up. This was something that was mentioned (time and time again) by Elmor himself, never by the accused. In fact, I was beginning to tire of the amount of effort that the three of us expended on trying to comfort the whimpering Elmor and convince him that we would do no harm to him so long as he only complied with what he had agreed to.
There are two final points that disturb me, and I feel that they should disturb the Justicars as well, as a body dedicated to fairness and justice. I personally spent 16 weary hours arguing the points of the broken agreement with Elmor. During this time, he came up with numerous excuses for why he should be under no obligation to pay what he had agreed to pay. Never once in this time did Elmor EVER make mention that he felt that he was in danger of physical harm had he not agreed to what he did. Much of these 16 hours were spent publically in the tavern, and witnesses such as Yanda would have very easily been able to confirm this had they been interviewed at the time. Yet, somehow, after only a few minutes of talking to a Justicar, suddenly his defense was coercion. I am not by any means suggesting any kind of plot on the part of the Justicar, but I am suggesting that likely, he asked Elmor, "Do you feel you were being coerced?" and Elmor thought, "Hey, that's not a bad idea!" This is the only reconciliation that I can imagine between his lack of accusation of extortion until after speaking to Vonkar, and the only reason that I can see for Elmor not going immediately to the Justicars with this matter. He didn't go at once because he had no case until it was invented (however innocently) for him.
The second problem that I see is that this matter should have been resolved four years ago. Within minutes after leaving the office of the Justicars after my interview, Elmor presented me with 10 orb and a smile, which had been accepted as settlement. He was rather shocked when I told him that it had been declared illegal for us to settle the matter. I am quite certain from his reaction that he'd much rather have had everything over and done with. I also would have preferred that. It seems that the only group that wished any different were the Justicars of Bilanx, and this after getting themselves into the matter over a mistaken point (that I had threatened Elmor in the tavern in front of Vonkar, which Yanda testified never happened). I understand that it is the function of the Justicars to uphold the laws of Sable, but I have difficulty understanding how two parties can come to an agreement (and this time, it was recognized as an agreement by both sides) and have that resolution overturned by the Justicars to the tune of four more years of litigation.
It is not a crime to accept gifts from others, whether the reason is to clear their conscience or because they are feeling particularly philanthropic on that day. It WOULD have been a crime if shows of force were made to tender those gifts, but not only did that not happen, I hope that I have brought considerable doubt to the possibility that it even COULD have happened. Unless I'm mistaken, unless there is coercion, there is no extortion.
Also, it seems that half of the prosecution's argument in this case stems from the fact that this had been as a result of a dome accident. I reiterate that the argument is irrelevant. No claims of blame were placed upon any of the three mages for the accident (except, possibly, by Sheol and Omnis upon Elmor, but that is hardly our responsibility). The bottom line is that I was offered a sum of coin without even so much as asking for it, and my anger was evoked by the blatant breach of that promise by Elmor. The fact that the incident started in the dome is inconsequential...had the offer of coin never been made to me, I'd have never given it a second thought. But since it was, I was determined to follow through on it.
I apologize for the long-windedness of my response, but I felt that it was necessary given the disturbing inaccuracy of the findings of fact by the investigator in this case. I have every confidence that you will rule in a fair and legal manner, and should you require any more information or testimony of me, I will be more than happy to oblige.
Humbly,
Barandis Alarion
Dark Mind of Set
Clansman of Yishvina
Judgment: Crim239-1j
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Rex, )
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v. ) Crim239-1
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) DECIDED: Cuspis 14th, 252
Barandis, )
Lanthos, )
Jupicia )
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Facts: (a) Jupicia and Barandis perished in a dome accident. According to Rex v Frobozz Crim219-1, this was entirely their fault.
(b) The defendants talked to Omnis, Sheol and Elmor. The consequence of these talks was that Omnis, Sheol and Elmor were willing to pay retribution for the dome deaths (which were entirely the fault of the people killed)
(c) Elmor allegedly offered 200 orb, and after he refused to pay, Jupicia assaulted him by use of a fatigue power
Judgment:
The Court doesn't see that the Prosecution has properly proved that the willingness of Omnis, Sheol and Elmor to pay a retribution was due to a threat of "certain physical harm, severe bodily injury, death, or improper use of the legal process". As the Court has stated in Rex v Cruz Crim182-1:
"It is clear from applicable case law that the standard to which proof must rise is CLEAR AND CONVINCING EVIDENCE. That is, the trier of fact must find, to that level of certainty, that the alleged crime did in fact occur."
Therefore the Court finds Barandis, Lanthos and Jupicia NOT GUILTY of extortion. Regardless of whether Elmor ever offered "200 orb or his life" as claimed by the defendants, this offer is clearly legally invalid, since it is obvious that Elmor did not seriously offer this.
In the heated discussion, Jupicia used her power to fatigue against Elmor, therefore the Court finds Jupicia GUILTY of Assault of Elmor.
Sentence:
The Court orders Jupicia to pay a fine of 5 orb to a Justicar. Failure to pay will result in DEATH without a hearing.
In addition, the Court issues a fine of 9 orb against Barandis to be paid to any Justicar, who used his defense brief to whine and ramble. A defense brief is supposed to be *brief*, NOT to include the prehistory of the brief itself nor a discussion of the defendant's emotions about the prosecution procedure. The Court does not accept Barandis' apology for his long-windedness. Failure to pay that fine will result in prosecution for Contempt of Court.
