Injustice From Beginning to End: April 7 Final Court Hearing (Part 2)

  It was another very bizarre and surreal scene in the court…like being trapped in yet another inescapable episode of The Twilight Zone. Listening to the whining and childish debating of the plaintiffs’ attorney and his cohort from the nursing university while the judge listened intently without questioning his unsubstantiated and vague statements; meanwhile, I was being impatiently herded through the facts of my testimony with barely a trace of any attention on the judge’s part to what I was saying and little indication that she really cared about my testimony.

  Then, in one final half-hearted and fake effort to appear as if the court was allowing me a chance to present my new evidence and explain its relevance, the judge asked me if I have anything else to tell the court before she closed the case. Since I had already asked the judge’s clerk and my departed attorney some days earlier what was the purpose of the hearing and the answer from both was only “it’s the final hearing and the judge will close the case”, I had not brought the complete package of new evidence that I had prepared 8 months earlier and was not allowed to present at the 3 previous hearings. When I explained this to the judge, with a look of utter disdain and scorn, the judge told me I should have been prepared for oral debate and I was at fault for not being prepared. Case over.

   I protested that neither her clerk nor my former attorney told me I had to prepare for oral debate, to which the judge replied that I "should always be prepared for oral debate”. WTF!   

  Even the translator shook her head in disbelief and told me she was shocked that the lawyer had not told me to prepare for oral debate. While this was going on, the other side were gloating over my unfortunate finale – looking ever the devils incarnate they are with their evil smiles. Seeing them basking in self-congratulatory adulation for themselves and each other only served to further incense me…and to get me thinking about how to make one final stand before leaving Taiwan.