Brigham was so outraged he dropped his silver toothpick. “I refuse to confess to a crime I did not commit.”“Given the circumstances, the deal is a reasonable one,” Jules said with evenhanded calm. “You’re facing a rape charge. The DA is willing to reduce that to second-degree assault. That’s a class-four felony instead of a class-two. You’d serve eighteen months.”“Prison? That’s out of the question.”“Mr. Brigham, if you are found guilty as charged, you are looking at eight to twenty-four years. At a minimum you’ll serve a mandatory five.”“But they’re not going to find me guilty,” the client declared with the confidence of a man who thought he could buy an acquittal.To some extent he was correct. Jules had handled worse cases and gotten the charges dismissed. And if by some unhappy stroke of fate the jury did not see things her way, there was always the appeal process. Sagelblum had a 90 percent success rate in that arena.“It’s your decision,” she said.
