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“mufti,” who was also in attendance at the Islamic Center at the time of the riot. The Commonwealth attorney had also called as a witness an attendee at the conference, a professor at a Florida university who had suffered a broken arm in the melee. His injury, according to the testimony, was likely to leave him with a small percentage of permanent disability.
    Now the prosecution was wrapping up its case with testimony from the arresting officer who had obtained a statement from Gilead.
    The prosecutor led the thirty-year veteran of the sheriff’s department through a description of his presence at the Islamic Center that day. The deputy described the tensions with the two groups of protestors outside the Center. Then he said that a mob of angry Muslims had burst out the front door of the Center chasing after Gilead Amahn, whom he then identified as the man sitting at the defense counsel table next to Will Chambers.
    Then the Commonwealth attorney went to the heart of the matter.
    â€œAnd you arrested Gilead Amahn?”
    â€œYes, sir, that’s correct. Then I placed him in the patrol car. And then after that, I proceeded to read him his rights, after which time he gave me a free, voluntary statement concerning his side of the incident.”
    â€œNow tell the Court,” the prosecutor said, “exactly what Gilead Amahn told you in the patrol car after he was arrested.”
    The deputy paused for a minute and turned to squarely face Judge Hadfeld.
    â€œMr. Amahn told me,” the deputy said in a slow, clear voice, “and this is his statement verbatim…‘I knew they would react—I was not afraid of violence.’ ”
    â€œAnd after Mr. Amahn told you that he knew the audience in the Islamic Center would react to his speech, and that he was not afraid of their violent reaction, what did you do?”
    Will Chambers quickly rose to his feet.
    â€œObjection, Your Honor,” Will said “The Commonwealth attorney is misstating the deputy’s testimony.”
    â€œOh, I suppose Mr. Amahn’s confession was fudged a little by the Commonwealth attorney,” Judge Hadfeld said, glancing at his notepad in front of him, “but this is not a jury trial. The Court is not misled. I’ll instruct the Commonwealth attorney to be a little more careful in restating the testimony. Now let’s get on with this.”
    The prosecutor smiled and restated his question.
    â€œAfter Mr. Amahn confessed to me he knew the audience would react,” the deputy said, “and that he wasn’t afraid of violence, I informed him that I was taking him to a magistrate for the setting of bail, and that he would be charged with a criminal offense of disorderly conduct.”
    â€œYour witness,” the Commonwealth attorney said to Will, and then sat down with an air of satisfaction.
    Will was back on his feet but without any notes in his hand.
    â€œDid you read something to refresh your memory before testifying today—so that you could memorize Gilead Amahn’s statement word for word?”
    â€œI’m not sure what you mean,” the deputy said, hedging a bit.
    â€œLet me approach this from a different angle,” Will said in a casual tone. “As a deputy, you wrote out a formal incident report on this event, did you not?”
    â€œYes, I did.”
    â€œAnd in your formal report you quoted Gilead Amahn exactly, word for word, as you recited in court today. Correct?”
    The officer nodded.
    â€œThat’s right. Word for word.”
    â€œSo my question is this,” Will continued. “Did you have with you that day, the day of the incident, a memo book?”
    â€œYou’ll have to specify—”
    â€œI mean a daybook. A notebook—a personal log that you keep, as most officers do, to write down events, statements, and observations on the scene. Then when you get back to the station, you use your log or memo book to