"You resent my client?"
"I do."
"So you are biased."
"Emotionally? Probably. That's why I gave investigators recordings instead of asking them to trust my feelings."
The jury watched her carefully.
Keene played portions of the recorded meetings and suggested Vale was trying to prevent weak allegations from overwhelming Professional Standards.
Naomi agreed that weak complaints existed.
"Then Deputy Chief Vale had a legitimate concern."
"A legitimate concern can still be handled illegitimately."
"Meaning?"
"Investigate and close what is unfounded. Don't rename it so you never have to investigate."
Jonah testified about BLU_SYNC.
His testimony was more technical, and prosecutors wisely kept it shorter. He explained the hidden reporting table, the service-account architecture, and the fact that the job selected cases based on complaint, evidence, discovery, and supervisor-action fields.
Keene asked whether hidden administrative tables were common.
"Backend tables are common," Jonah said. "Secret policy isn't."
"Was BLU_SYNC called secret?"
"No."
"Then that's your interpretation."
"The user documentation didn't mention it. The compliance map didn't mention it. The data-governance inventory didn't mention it. Staff responsible for records retention didn't know it existed. You can choose another adjective if you want."
A few jurors smiled.
Judge Ortiz, who had been assigned the case after Carter's recusal from criminal matters, told everyone to avoid editorializing.
Darius Bell testified about the search and the complaint that followed.
His restored video played in court.
I watched him watch it.
That was harder than watching the footage itself.
On screen, Darius stood beside a fence with both hands raised.
Officer Vance ordered him to turn around.
Darius asked whether he was under arrest.
Vance grabbed his arm and forced him against the fence.
Later, officers searched his vehicle after he explicitly refused consent. Contraband was not found.
The original incident report described Darius as repeatedly reaching toward his waistband and advancing on officers.
The video showed neither.
The defense pointed out that Marcus Vale was not physically present.
Darius agreed.
"So my client did not touch you."
"No."
"He did not search your vehicle."
"No."
"He did not write Officer Vance's original report."
"No."
"Then your bad experience with Officer Vance does not prove anything about Deputy Chief Vale, does it?"
Darius looked toward the jury.
"The part about what happened on the street? No. The part where I spent a year being told the video didn't exist? Somebody did that after the street."