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“Briefly, Your Honor,” Winston said.

Winston was looking at the laptop screen as she asked the next question.

“Detective Bosch, do you — ”

Garland objected to Winston referring to Bosch as a detective.

“He is not a detective,” Garland argued. “Counsel is trying to restore the witness’s credibility by falsely elevating his station to detective. He’s just a citizen who crossed the line.”

“I object to his objection, Your Honor,” Winston shot back. “He’s using it to make his argument to the court. The witness was an LAPD detective for more than thirty years and is now a licensed private detective, which defense counsel should well know. Calling him Detective Bosch is accurate and well earned.”

“I wish opposing counsel did not have to be so petty,” Leibowitz said. “It’s not a good look, guys. The defense’s objection is overruled. Proceed, Ms. Winston.”

“Thank you, Judge,” Winston said. “Detective Bosch, do you know what interment rights are?”

“No, I don’t,” Bosch said.

“Did you know when you took the actions you did on February eighth of this year that when a cemetery plot is purchased, it does not actually include ownership of the land?”

“I did not.”

“Did you know that the purchase of a cemetery plot is technically an easement, with the cemetery retaining ownership of the land and responsibility for its maintenance?”

“I assumed that was the case but had not researched it.”

“So you did not believe that you were intruding on private property when you took flowers to the grave of murder victim Jennifer Talbot?”

“Not at all.”

“I have nothing further, Your Honor.”

Leibowitz flipped it back to Garland and Ross to call their next witness. They said they were finished with testimony and prepared to argue their case for suppression of the recorded conversation between the defendants. This was not surprising to Bosch or anyone on the prosecution team. Calling Ballard or Laffont or even John Osmond, the actual bugger, would add little in favor of dismissing the evidence. The defense lawyers decided to quit while they thought they were ahead, knowing that if they failed in this courtroom, there were higher courts to take the matter to.

After noting the time, Leibowitz set ground rules for the oral arguments, allotting each side only fifteen minutes, since written arguments had already been submitted.

“If you have something new to add to your submissions, I want to hear it,” the judge said. “But I don’t need a rehash.”

Garland made a weak argument that he and Ross should have fifteen minutes each before the court, but the judge shot that down without hearing Winston’s objections.

“I don’t care how you split it,” Leibowitz said, looking at the tag-team lawyers over the rims of his glasses. “Even split, five and ten, six and nine, whatever. You have fifteen minutes and your clock is starting now.”

Garland continued to be lead, since he represented the defendant accused of doing the actual killing.

“Your Honor, I don’t need fifteen minutes,” he began. “This decision is clear. The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable search and seizure. Now, what is unreasonable? Obviously, it means without warrant or probable cause. These people knew full well that the bug they planted would end up in the private confines of Gregory Talbot’s property. That includes his automobile. They obviously planned it that way, Your Honor, and no denial from the witness withstands common sense. There is ample precedent and law on the search and seizure of private vehicles without due process. There was no probable cause and no warrant. Everything gained by this illegal maneuver is fruit of the poisonous tree. It has to go, Judge. You know it, I know it, everybody in this courtroom knows it. Thank you.”

Leibowitz turned to Ross.

“Mr. Ross, looks like your colleague left you almost fifteen minutes anyway,” he said. “Please proceed.”

Ross stood to respond.

“Your Honor, I also don’t think I need fifteen minutes to state the obvious,” he said. “Mr. Garland said it correctly and concisely. This was a bad search, plain and simple. It’s poison and there is only one remedy. To that I would add that the government is guilty here of entrapment. From the testimony today, it is clear that Mr. Bosch was sent into that cemetery to confront the defendant and elicit statements concerning the commission of a crime. That is entrapment, Your Honor, and the remedy for that is also clear. Thank you.”

Ross sat down, and now it was Winston’s turn. Though she was not a trial attorney and rarely, if ever, argued in front a jury, she was a veteran at making oral arguments before panels of appellate judges. She had also redeemed herself in Bosch’s eyes after the visit to the judge’s chambers. She had come out vigilant and strong in her objections since then.

She stood to address the court.

“Your Honor, defense counsel is correct. This is a rather simple decision. It is not about whether there was probable cause to bug the grave site of murder victim Jennifer Talbot. There was ample probable cause from the past investigation and the new information from the gravedigger who heard the defendant bragging about literally getting away with murder. The question before the court is whether a search warrant should have been applied for and approved by a judge. I submit that there was no requirement under the law for the state to obtain a warrant to record a conversation in a public space. Though privately owned, the Hollywood Forever Cemetery is a business that is open-air and open to the public. There are cameras that surveil and record the property, and there is implicit understanding that all who go there are recorded. Placing a recording device at a specific grave was not illegal, nor did it require a warrant. What occurred after, the defendant himself taking the recording device into his own automobile, does not constitute any illegal action on the part of the government and therefore does not carry the penalty of exclusion. The defendants in the case are the agents of their own undoing, Your Honor, and the government should not be penalized for their actions.”