Page 28 of Dirty Judge

They were also illegal as hell…

“Maybe I should let her get a taste of prison…” I muttered under my breath.

“Sir, you have to stop looking at those Reddit threads.” My bailiff, George, stepped into my chambers with a file. “I can assure you that no one is stupid enough to attack you in a courthouse.”

“Actually, there’s one person who might.”

“Who?”

I didn’t answer that.

“I need you to do me a favor,” I said instead.

“Anything.”

“Go down to the admin office and ask them to send me the personal addresses of every person who had a bench warrant this month.”

“All of them?” he asked. “Is there someone you’re looking for in particular?”

Clearly.“No, it’s nothing personal. Just make sure they send me all of them.”

“Will do.” He nodded. “By the way, I would start watching your back whenever you’re not on courthouse grounds, especially over the next few weeks.”

“Why’s that?”

“You haven’t heard the news this morning?” He arched an eyebrow.

“Did someone vandalize myothercar?”

“The Supreme Court just overturned your ruling on the Grant Jenkins case and ordered a new trial,” he said. “They also let him out of prison to prepare for it…”

“This better be a late April Fool’s joke, George.”

“I never joke about cases with you, Liam…” He pulled a sheet from his folder and handed it to me.

There it was in black and white.

The front page ofThe New York Timesgreeted me with a picture of a man I fucking despised walking out of prison under an umbrella and an ugly gray headline.

‘What if The Verdict Was Wrong?’

My pulse spiked as I read the article, and every word made me breathe a little slower.

I still remembered every aspect of this asshole’s case, every single second he sat in my presence, and the very moment I brought down my gavel to put him away.

The media hounded me relentlessly for months—accusing me of being “too harsh,” and “utterly unfair.” The Innocence Project started a campaign to get me thrown off the bench, and to this day, the local reporters called any harsh sentence—from any judge—“The Judge Ashton special.”

“This article isn’t written like a grocery list,” I turned over the sheet. “It doesn’t even mention why it was overturned…”

“Jury misbehavior, apparently.” He handed me another sheet. “Two of the jurors received a fifty-thousand bribe for a guilty verdict, apparently.”

It was seventy-five thousand dollars…

“It was nothing you did, of course.” He shrugged. “I just thought you should know.”

“I see.” I swallowed. “Thank you for telling me.”

“I’m sure he’ll be found guilty all over again,” he said. “You ran a tight trial and were more than fair to him.”