Are You Crazy? He’s only an Intern Lawyer?
Chapter 518 - 513: Evidence Tampered With, Is There Really a Problem?

Chapter 518: Chapter 513: Evidence Tampered With, Is There Really a Problem?

Zhang Wei requested a pre-trial conference.

That wasn’t really anything out of the ordinary.

But the request he made was a bit "excessive."

"Who did you say you want to subpoena?"

"Judge Liu, I’m speaking in my mother tongue. It’s Laura Campbell from William International. Do I need to repeat myself?"

Zhang Wei spread his hands and put on a face that said, "You’re joking, right?"

Am I joking?

But in his heart, Judge Liu was furiously complaining, You’re asking for my life here.

Why subpoena her of all people?

Her identity alone was already outrageous, not to mention she had a father who was an international lawyer.

William Campbell, an internationally renowned lawyer. Even Lin Xiangtian, reputed to be the top lawyer in Dongfang Capital, had to respectfully call him "Master William."

Yet, you want to subpoena his daughter in my courtroom?

What are you really trying to do here?

Judge Liu hurriedly looked toward Zheng Fenyong standing beside him, his eyes frantically signaling.

Prosecution, say something, will you!

"Judge Liu, we object!" Prompted by Judge Liu’s "encouragement," Zheng Fenyong finally blinked.

I knew you’d object!

Still, Judge Liu had to go through the motions and asked Zhang Wei, "Lawyer Zhang, why do you want to subpoena this person to testify?"

"Because we received reliable information that there may be a so-called political persecution conspiracy behind this case, and my client, Forensic Yang, might be a victim of this conspiracy. That’s why we requested Lawyer Laura to testify in court, to clear the doubts of the court and the public!"

Damn!

What a massive damn!

Judge Liu could barely stop himself from cursing. How did things become so serious all of a sudden, and this kind of issue arises?

This is just an ordinary criminal case; does it really need to escalate to this level?

"Judge Liu, if Lawyer Zhang truly believes that there’s a deep meaning behind this case, even a conspiracy, shouldn’t we allow that witness to testify in court?"

But unexpectedly, Zheng Fenyong suddenly agreed with Zhang Wei’s request.

He was very confident, even believing that Zhang Wei’s subpoenaing of that witness wouldn’t reveal any problems.

Moreover, as the prosecution, as an excellent prosecutor, his professional ethics wouldn’t allow him to object.

"Ah, this..."

Judge Liu glanced at Zhang Wei, then at Zheng Fenyong, and then also cast a glance at Black in the prosecution’s seat.

Is this really the right thing to do?

"Judge Liu, don’t hesitate. If we issue the subpoena now, we’ll have just enough time!"

Is this a matter of timing?

Judge Liu no longer wanted to complain. I just don’t want to issue this subpoena, but you, the prosecution and the defense, are forcing my hand.

"I... I, I... I agree!"

At last, Judge Liu chose to compromise.

He waved over to the court guards on either side, asking one of them to come over.

Then he whispered a few words into the guard’s ear, and the guard left, clearly on his way to prepare the subpoena.

"You two may step down now!"

After giving instructions, Judge Liu waved at Zhang Wei and the other person, telling them to return to their seats.

"Ahem, just now, the defense attorney requested to subpoena a new witness. After consultation with the prosecuting attorney, Prosecutor Zheng, the court agrees to the defense’s request. So, I’m informing everyone here!"

Judge Liu gave a brief explanation to the whole courtroom and then signaled the prosecution with his eyes.

Dr. Ding, who had testified yesterday, stepped up to the witness stand for the prosecution.

"Prosecution, do you need to continue questioning this expert witness?"

"Judge Liu, our side has finished questioning Dr. Ding."

Zheng Fenyong had already received the results he wanted yesterday, so naturally, he would not continue the questioning.

The opportunity to question passed over to the defense side.

Zhang Wei rose and walked up to the witness stand.

"Dr. Ding, hello."

"Hello, Lawyer Zhang."

The two had actually met before.

During their first visit to the First Forensic Office, they had already become acquainted.

However, since Dr. Ding was a witness for the prosecution, Zhang Wei hadn’t met with the opposition privately, and hadn’t discussed the situation of Yang Chunyuan with them.

"Dr. Ding, you’re an expert forensic examiner at the First Forensic Office, so you should be very proficient in DNA and even other forensic pathology research, am I right?"

"I suppose so."

"Yesterday, in your testimony in court, you claimed that the report provided by my client 20 years ago had issues, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"You also mentioned that the First Forensic Office later compared the DNA from the hair found in the victim Dong Juan’s throat from the serial killings 20 years ago with the DNA of the suspect, Mr. Li, and the results showed that they did not match, is that so?"

"Yes, that’s correct."

"Now that’s strange, isn’t it? Why did the tests 20 years ago match, but after 20 years of technological advancements, the results are completely different?"

Zhang Wei put on a bewildered expression and scratched his head.

"There’s no problem with that. The technology from 20 years ago was very prone to errors."

"But isn’t this error too huge, as if the hair had been replaced by someone?"

"Well, that... "

Dr. Ding found himself at a loss for words as Zhang Wei put it that way.

But while the speaker meant little, the listener took much from it.

Zhang Wei’s words had aroused a flicker of curiosity in the jury.

They began to entertain the possibility. Had that hair been replaced by someone?

Of course, at that moment, the jury was still hostile towards the defense, still hostile towards Yang Chunyuan.

Both the evidence and the atmosphere of the courtroom were clearly leaning towards the prosecution.

"Dr. Ding, I would like to ask, have you tried using the methods from 20 years ago to retest that hair, to verify whether the findings match those of my client from 20 years ago?"

"That..." Dr. Ding was baffled.

With so many generations of technology advancement since then, who would still use methods from 20 years ago to verify?

Nowadays, it’s all high-tech, with automated mechanical sampling and analysis, all automated processes, accompanied by computer-generated analysis charts.

Who would still bother with tweezers, test tubes, DNA test paper reagents, and other such laborious steps?

"Dr. Ding, you haven’t used the old methods, have you?"

"Of course not."

"Well, that’s convenient because our forensic expert tested the evidence using the technology from 20 years ago!"

Zhang Wei said, and handed over a report directly to Dr. Ding.

"Dr. Ding, please look at this. It’s the report from our expert using the old methods."

Dr. Ding looked over the report and frowned.

"The data shows a mismatch, not consistent with the report from Forensic Yang 20 years ago?"

"That’s right. What does this tell us?"

"It suggests that Forensic Yang’s report at the time had issues?"

"If there were issues then, why did nobody notice? Logically, there should have been more than one copy of the test report, right? If the suspect Mr. Li or his parents had raised questions, wouldn’t they have sent that hair to another testing institution?"

Zhang Wei countered with a smile, "Mr. Li’s parents were middle class, after all. Finding a trusted testing institution to carry out the tests should not have been hard, right?"

"That is..."

"The hair found in victim Dong Juan’s throat 20 years ago unquestionably belonged to the suspect, Mr. Li. There’s no doubt about it!"

Dr. Ding also nodded, that was indeed the case. Otherwise, how could the investigation department dare to arrest someone? There would be no justification.

But why, when using the old methods from 20 years ago, did the results come out completely different from those obtained back then?

"What does this imply, Dr. Ding? Do you have a theory?"

Dr. Ding frowned, but then something seemed to come to him.

"Someone tampered with the evidence, and not at the time, but on some later date!"

That was the only explanation.

The evidence from 20 years ago was a hair from Mr. Li, and the DNA results matched.

But now the DNA results show that the hair is not from Mr. Li.

So there’s only one explanation. Someone had replaced that hair sometime after.

But...

It has been 20 years since Mr. Li’s conviction.

During these 20 years, even though the evidence has been stored in the archives, if someone really did risk breaking into the archives to replace it, who could it have been?

How many people have entered the evidence storage room over these 20 years? It’s a difficult thing to verify.

"Actually, it’s not difficult to find the person who replaced the evidence, in fact, I already have a suspect in mind!"

But just then, Zhang Wei spoke up.

This left Dr. Ding astonished. How quickly you’ve found a suspect!

"Dr. Ding, this report is the result of a comprehensive examination of the evidence — a hair — using the latest technology. Not only was DNA tested, but many other factors were examined as well!"

Zhang Wei handed the report back to Dr. Ding, who opened it carefully and then suddenly widened his eyes in shock.

Such a complex report, who ever prepared this must have been so idle to test so many things.

"Huh, this genome..."

Dr. Ding appeared to have found something amiss.

He flipped through the report, pointing at an item with a puzzled look.

"Dr. Ding, you’ve seen it too — the hair sample had some plant spores attached to it, commonly known as ’pollen’!"

Zhang Wei pointed to the page in the report and asked, "Dr. Ding, how’s your biology? Do you know that pollen contains genetic material?"

Dr. Ding said subconsciously, "Although pollen contains only half the chromosomes of somatic cells and not all the genes of an individual, it does have all the genes necessary for the development of an individual, hence it can develop into a complete individual, which is a haploid; and within the pollen..."

"Dr. Ding, I’m not a professional, and I’m sure the jury and everyone in attendance don’t want to hear these technical explanations."

Seeing that someone was about to start educating, Zhang Wei directly interrupted.

"Dr. Ding, could you simply tell us whether these pollen particles could affect the accuracy of DNA or even genetic testing, causing any errors?"

"Yes, and they could cause a significant error!"

Dr. Ding said with a very affirmative tone.

At the same time, he also formulated a guess — the reason why the test results from 20 years ago do not match the current ones is because of this pollen.

So the question arises!

Who contaminated the evidence with pollen?

"Dr. Ding, you remember Old Cao, don’t you?"

"Of course, Dr. Cao is a senior from our office, I naturally know him."

"And do you remember what he was doing after he retired?"

"After retiring, he bought a piece of land in the suburbs, and his days were spent in pastoral bliss — keeping dogs, birds, and even bees. He drank honey every day to bolster his health and also planted vegetables and flowers in his garden... wait, planting flowers and keeping bees..."

At this point, Dr. Ding finally caught on.

"Dr. Ding, have you realized who could have come into contact with the pollen, who could have accessed the evidence, and who is most likely to have tampered with it?"

Upon hearing this, everyone was bewildered.

What are you talking about, who is it?

Is it Old Cao?

He seems to be planting vegetables and grass in the suburbs; he seems to be also growing flowers, so he could have come into contact with the pollen!

Now, not just Dr. Ding but also the jury and the audience were catching on.

It looks like it was Old Cao who tampered with the evidence.

"Objection, the defense attorney is leading the witness to speculate!"

Zheng Fenyong couldn’t stay seated any longer.

He originally thought he held the winning cards, but unexpectedly, there was a twist in the plot.

The evidence was tampered with.

In itself, that was not much of an issue — he had even thought that it was Yang Chunyuan who doctored the research reports and even the evidence.

But what he didn’t expect was that the person tampering with the evidence was someone else.

Old Cao, who had testified previously, was also involved.

"Judge Liu, our side suggests that the court should recall the witness Old Cao to testify once more, as he is highly likely to have tampered with crucial evidence in this case!"

Zhang Wei ignored Zheng Fenyong’s objections and likewise addressed Judge Liu sitting in the judgment seat.

"Judge Liu, Dr. Cao has already completed his testimony, and the defense has no direct evidence to prove that Dr. Cao accessed the evidence without permission, so we reject this proposal!"

"This..."

Judge Liu saw the opposition from the prosecution but the defense insisted on this matter, and he was somewhat at a loss for a moment.

"Who said I don’t have evidence?"

But just then, Zhang Wei sneered and pulled out a photo from his pocket.

"Judge Liu, and Prosecutor Zheng, this is a surveillance photo of the entrance to the Martial Association Documentary Room. The photo shows Dr. Cao entering the archives recently. However, what surprises me is that Dr. Cao didn’t write his name in the visitor’s log. Why is that?"

In the photo, a sturdy old man was seen signing in at the door of the archives room.

This old man was none other than Dr. Cao.

However, his entry into the archives without logging it certainly seemed suspicious.

And his recent visits to the archives seemed to be fraught with contradictions.

"Prosecutor Zheng, aren’t you curious why Dr. Cao, who is already retired, would still want to enter the archives?"

"A retired forensic doctor, free from work pressures and unlikely to handle cases, what could he possibly do in the archives?"

These consecutive questions made Zheng Fenyong start to lose confidence.

Yes, why did Dr. Cao want to go into the archives?

Did he really go and tamper with the evidence, spreading pollen on that strand of hair to frame Yang Chunyuan?

Suspicious!

Extremely suspicious!

Zheng Fenyong felt that it would be a dereliction of his duty as a prosecutor not to summon Old Cao and question him thoroughly about this.

Thinking it over, he decided, "Judge Liu, perhaps we should have Dr. Cao come back. There are some questions that need to be clarified in person!"

"Alright then," Judge Liu once again called over a Court Guard and instructed him to go out and prepare to summon Dr. Cao.

However, just a few minutes later, the Court Guard returned and whispered a few words in Judge Liu’s ear.

"This..."

Judge Liu’s face slightly changed color, then he glanced at both Zhang Wei and Zheng Fenyong.

"Ahem, the court would like to announce that after verification, Dr. Cao left Dongfang Capital last night and his current whereabouts are unknown!"

No sooner had these words left his mouth than the entire courtroom was in an uproar.

Now, everyone felt that there was something wrong with Dr. Cao.

You old fellow, did you run away after giving your testimony yesterday?

Fleeing out of guilt, could you have guessed that someone would come after you today?

"He left?"

Zheng Fenyong too looked stunned, then he frowned deeply.

This behavior was practically telling everyone, "I truly have a problem."

"He really did run away!"

Zhang Wei alone seemed to have anticipated this outcome, so he was not the slightest bit surprised by Old Cao’s overnight escape from Dongfang Capital.

"Since Old Cao fled in the night ... oh, no, I mean left Dongfang Capital overnight, then whether or not he tampered with the evidence has become something we cannot verify, hasn’t it?"

Though Zhang Wei spoke with a tone of regret, the smirk at the corner of his mouth simply couldn’t be contained.

Your escape is even better for us, as it practically confirms your guilt.

Dr. Cao is the one who tampered with the evidence!

It was you who applied pollen to the critical piece of evidence, interfering with it in order to frame Yang Chunyuan.

And as for your motive, sorry to say, yesterday’s court session also proved you had a personal grudge against Yang Chunyuan!

So, your motive is established.

The evidence of pollen is there.

You, Old Cao, are definitely the culprit, and that’s why you chose to flee!

There, the truth is out!

The jury was all fired up.

They seemed to have latched onto the heart of the matter, all looking keenly at the courtroom, or rather, at the prosecution’s bench.

Before, they were on the side of the prosecution, targeting Yang Chunyuan at the defense.

But now...

A 180-degree turnaround in the situation.

If Old Cao is suspect, then could the prosecution, as well as Mr. Li and others who are the original plaintiffs, also have issues?

At the very least, there’s a problem with the evidence that disadvantages Yang Chunyuan, so who benefits from it?

The answer is naturally Mr. Li.

As long as the evidence cannot prove that he is the murderer, then wouldn’t he be set free without guilt?

In other words, the most likely person to have directed Old Cao to tamper with the evidence is only Mr. Li!

The jurors seemed to have stumbled upon the truth, their gazes toward Mr. Li brimming with distrust and displeasure.

You damn, daring to deceive us, you’re finished!

"Ahem, who could it be then, who directed Old Cao to tamper with the evidence?"

Zhang Wei muttered under his breath, then turned his gaze to Judge Liu.

"Judge Liu, my side has no further questions for Dr. Ding for the moment, and we also hope that Mr. Li will take the stand to testify as soon as possible!"

As Zhang Wei spoke, he voiced the thoughts of the jury and those in the public gallery.

They all wanted to question Mr. Li as soon as possible, as to whether it was he who instructed Old Cao to tamper with the evidence.

Dr. Ding naturally exited the scene, having served as an expert witness and inadvertently assisted Zhang Wei somewhat.

"Mr. Li, please take a seat on the witness stand again for questioning!"

Following Judge Liu’s prompt, Mr. Li could only stand up and retake his seat on the witness stand.

This time, however, he faced the courtroom’s suspicious glares.

Is he truly the one behind Old Cao’s actions?