Chapter 479: If You Should Go In, Then Go In

July 3rd, sunny.

Avoid betrothals, auspicious events, and visiting graves; suitable for court hearings and entering prison.

In Modu, Zhao Yi has already started to feel nervous, because the morning two days from now is the time for the court hearing.

However, the other party has not made any statement, as if the apology letter she posted online were fake.

She can no longer speak with her colleagues, because yesterday she complained to them about this, believing they were giving her bad advice.

Naturally, her colleagues were unhappy: "I helped you out of kindness, and now that there's no result, there's nothing I can do. You're blaming me now?"

After the argument ended, the other colleagues stopped speaking to her as well.

For a Criminal Private Prosecution Case, if the defendant is not directly detained, it often creates a false impression for the parties involved, much like a Suspended Sentence.

They think that everything is already fine.

But the reality is, once the verdict comes down, you will have to deal with the consequences regardless.

There are several others like Zhao Yi—those university students who apologized online.

They all assumed that under such public opinion, A Yi would have to show some restraint; even if he didn't care, his Company still had to do business.

As it turned out, he really did not care, and he hadn't contacted them for such a long time.

Consequently, everyone panicked; at this moment, they wanted to contact Zhou Yi again, but they were unable to reach him.

Of course, Zhou Yi was not intentionally ignoring calls; he is currently at the Court, as today is the day of Charlie's hearing.

He hasn't been busy lately, but Fang Dazhuang has truly been busy.

Because the other party actually used a Court Investigation Order to pull all the Monitoring from the restaurant at the entrance of the Guangming Peak Residential Quarter all the way to Han Juan's house.

This was truly a massive project; not only did the Court find it troublesome, but even the officers at the Police Station were a bit speechless.

"Even if you are fighting a lawsuit, there is no need to prepare in such detail, right?"

With so many Monitoring records, how many discs would it take to burn all of this...

However, Fang Dazhuang's reputation was still enough to carry weight, so they were pulled regardless, though no one could figure out why he wanted them.

Including Zhou Yi himself...

Then, just like that time in Modu, he submitted the evidence right at the deadline for the evidentiary period.

For members of the public like Wu Dama who attend court hearings, a Criminal Private Prosecution involving a foreigner is truly fascinating!

As a result, the number of observers today is off the charts; everyone is very curious about how the Guangming District Court will rule on a case that is not large in scale but has significant influence.

The Guangming District Court is also under pressure; it can be said that this case is no longer a simple one at this point.

It involves aspects from all sides, so the verdict must be legally sound.

The judge struck the Gavel, and the trial began.

Lawyer Le stood at the position for the Defense Attorney, a hint of confidence on his face.

He already knew yesterday that the lawyer on the other side was named Fang Xujing.

It seemed he had heard this name in Modu before, but Le Yin did not care.

In fact, aside from the chain of contempt regarding whether one has a law degree or not, the legal field is similar to other academic circles; there is a chain of contempt regarding whether one has studied abroad.

For many universities, if you want to be promoted to a certain professional title, you must have overseas study experience, and the legal profession is naturally the same.

Fang Dazhuang has no overseas experience, which is also the reason why he is looked down upon by many in the legal circle.

No matter what you do, they just look down on you.

Reading the Private Prosecution Complaint, Fang Dazhuang stood up and began to recite it in a rigid, formal manner; everyone was very familiar with this.

Following that was the session for presenting evidence and Cross-examination.

The evidence submitted by Fang Dazhuang's side was too voluminous, but there were only three pieces of key evidence.

At least in Le Yin's view, there were only these three pieces of key evidence; he hadn't really looked at the others.

Because there was truly too much; when he saw that pile of evidence during the exchange, he was completely bewildered.

It's just a Criminal Private Prosecution Case, why produce so much evidence? Who could possibly finish reading it all?

Especially one of them called "Monitoring Record"—he estimated it would take many days to watch it all, even if he used fast-forward.

He even had the morbid thought: would the judge also get annoyed watching it and just rule against the other side directly...

While he was thinking this, Fang Dazhuang had already begun presenting evidence.

The first piece was very simple: the invoice for Zhou Yi's Sports Camera, to prove the price of the camera.

Le Yin spoke directly: "No objection to the authenticity or the probative value of the evidence."

The second piece was the key: the Monitoring Record from the restaurant.

"This Monitoring clearly shows that after my client left, the Defendant took the camera."

Le Yin spoke up: "No objection to the authenticity of the evidence, but I object to the probative value. This Monitoring video can only prove that my client walked out holding the camera, but it cannot prove that my client took it away!"

Le Yin stated his primary defense argument!

Naturally, he intended to mount a Not Guilty Defense.

The argument was that Charlie only took the camera out of curiosity, and after leaving, he realized it was fake, so he threw it away.

In this way, it would not be Embezzlement, because no act of embezzlement occurred, and it did not meet the Constitutive Elements of Embezzlement.

Of course, throwing away someone else's property for no reason is definitely a Tort, because there is an obligation to manage property once it is found.

Therefore, the item must certainly be compensated for.

It's just that in that case, the Criminal Case could be converted into a civil dispute, and naturally, there would be no crime.

This was the basis of Le Yin's defense.

Many people know about the previous case where someone found a Diamond and then lost it; he was referencing that process.

Regarding this, Fang Dazhuang said nothing and just continued to produce evidence.

Zhou Yi, however, sitting to the side, seemed to feel like he was beginning to understand.

Because the Monitoring shows that the distance wasn't very far and the two of them walked home, it is impossible to say the camera was left in a car.

So the question arises: if you say you lost the camera, it should at least be visible on the Monitoring.

This is a cognitive error; perhaps having stayed in the United States for too long, they don't know that here in our city's main streets, Monitoring can basically achieve full coverage...

Only those very remote corners would form blind spots...

So this is why, if you really did something, to find you, one just needs to watch the Monitoring one by one to track you down...

Thinking of this, Zhou Yi inexplicably felt that Fang Dazhuang was a bit sly; in fact, the only key information inside was the ten-plus minutes they spent walking home.

Yet Fang Dazhuang provided a pile of things that would annoy anyone looking at them, not to mention he submitted them right at the time limit...

The third piece of evidence is the Call Record; the other party denied taking the camera over the phone, which seems like it cannot be used as evidence.

But you must know that using "I didn't pick it up" as an excuse to shirk responsibility is also one of the circumstances of Embezzlement.

Le Yin didn't have any good grounds for Cross-examination regarding this evidence either, still arguing that the probative force was insufficient and it could not prove an intentional refusal to return it.

Le Yin was already preparing for the Court Debate; he wanted to have a good debate with the other side, and as for that other Monitoring video evidence, he didn't feel anything about it.

As it turned out, Fang Dazhuang spoke up: "My final piece of evidence here: the Monitoring of the Defendant and his girlfriend Han Juan walking home from the pig trotter rice restaurant on the day of the incident!"

"We can see that during this process, the Defendant did not have any action of discarding items."

Indeed, there was no action of discarding, because the two were busy being intimate on the road and had no time at all.

What the hell? Le Yin was completely stunned.

Now his feeling was that the other side had anticipated his anticipation!

And they had used evidence to completely pin down his defense point...

The main event, the Court Debate, hadn't even started yet, and he had already completely lost his train of thought.

Poor Le Yin was still rubbing his hands, preparing for a good debate.

Everyone present was not blind; naturally, they could see that the Defendant's Lawyer's face changed when he heard this evidence.

Even the judge felt a bit of pity; it was too miserable.

This is actually a tactic many Lawyers play, intentionally leaving some loopholes in the initial Indictment or Private Prosecution Complaint submitted.

Then you naturally feel very happy when you see it, thinking, "Isn't there a point to debate now!"

Then all the work will revolve around this, and you won't consider other aspects.

Nowadays, many Lawyers take every case they see; with a pile of cases on hand, it is certainly impossible to spend all their energy on one case.

Then, once the time limit for submitting evidence expires, it is basically almost time for the trial; even if you discover something is wrong at this time, it is a bit too late...

Le Yin was in this state now; the Court Debate had begun, and he was stumbling over his words.

The rhythm was completely disrupted, and he could only barely bring up the other points he had thought of before.

But these had already been rejected by himself, so saying them out loud was certainly of no use at all.

Fang Dazhuang refuted them with ease and then casually started mocking...

That's just how Fang Dazhuang is; if he's happy, he will definitely mock, and Fang Dazhuang in court has never had any humanity...

By this stage, even Wu Dama, who was observing, already had an opinion: what else is there to say, just sentence him directly.

Wang Daye next to Wu Dama even felt that for this case, you could lead a dog up there and get the same result; and he calls himself a Lawyer...

Charlie had his mouth wide open; he could understand, and he felt he was being discriminated against because the Lawyer they hired was really so incompetent...

The Court Debate ended, and Le Yin sat in his chair, his face blank.

Who am I, where am I, what is this place?

Why is that Lawyer on the other side like a pervert, why does he have to mock me like that, am I really that incompetent?

In the Final Statement stage, there was nothing left to say; he hoped for a sentence, an Actual Sentence!

Everyone thinks it's still the way it was many years ago, that they can receive special treatment; wrong!

The trial ended and the court recessed; Zhou Yi looked at the other side, and that Charlie seemed to be lashing out at his own Lawyer.

Soon the recess ended, and the judge delivered the verdict in court: Charlie Rosen is sentenced to one year of Fixed-term Imprisonment and a fine of ten thousand yuan!

Besides this, he must also return Zhou Yi's camera.

Hearing this verdict, Zhou Yi smiled; the Guangming District Court is still reliable.

This time they withstood the pressure and sentenced him to one year, and it was an Actual Sentence.

Don't look at it as only one year; you must know that the circumstances for a "relatively large amount" in Embezzlement are only under two years.

And only over one hundred thousand yuan is considered a "huge amount"; Zhou Yi's camera was only worth thirty or forty thousand.

Comfortable, truly comfortable.

It's just a pity that the assault on the police officer was not established...

Charlie learned the verdict through an interpreter and sat there all of a sudden; he had come from thousands of miles away, thinking he could be like what was said on the internet—pick up girls at will and be fine no matter what.

As a result, he had to go to jail just for taking a camera...

I wonder how the prisons here compare to the ones back home; I heard they don't respect the human rights of prisoners!

By contrast, Han Juan was a bit different.

Her circumstances were not serious, and she completely collapsed after learning that her boyfriend was actually just a pauper in their own country.

She didn't know why she had been like possessed, thinking that being friends with a foreigner was "very impressive."

As a result, now, not to mention losing her person and money, she still has to go in.

Han Juan's father did not show up, perhaps also feeling that his daughter's situation was a bit shameful.

One day later, still at the Guangming District Court, Han Juan was sentenced to six months of Fixed-term Imprisonment with a one-year Suspended Sentence.

The reason for the Suspended Sentence was that her expression of guilt and repentance was obvious, and her father was actively seeking a settlement.

When the verdict came down, the light in Han Juan's eyes faded away.

The main people in Jingzhou have already been sentenced, but the matter is not over yet.

The phones of Zhou Yi and Huo Pengfei were being blown up.

Especially Huo Pengfei, who could only be contacted as the Lawyer when Zhou Yi could not be reached.

However, no matter what those who offered hollow apologies said, the only response they received was a single sentence: no Mediation accepted.

Consequently, one tearful video after another appeared online.

Those who had previously been stirring up trouble were acting like madmen.

A topic had already appeared on the trending list: Boycott Tenda!

"You have all seen it, this is A Yi, who under the banner of being serious, remains completely unresponsive even when so many people are crying out; I am very surprised at how he can have the heart to do this!"

"They just started university, their future is still so long, and you want to send them to prison, right? They have already apologized, such a sincere apology, what else do you want!"

"So I call on everyone to boycott Tenda; right now, your support will become the capital for A Yi's so-called seriousness. Let's all ignore him and see what he does!"

The second update is here, goodnight everyone. Please vote for monthly tickets!

(End of this chapter)