The Verdict

Inside the courthouse, the persons involved, people from the media and the jury are already seated inside. They chatted among themselves.

After the ceremonies took place, the judge started, looking intimidating in his black robe and looking arrogant.

Clara's lawyer was a lawyer for the public. He took up the case just because she approached them. When he was reviewing the case, he was determined to win.

Atty. George Stanley was still good with his job. All he can think of now is to not let Diana go scot-free for harming patients.

"Do you or do you not admit that you were neglectful in your duty as a Medical technologist?" He probed.

"No. I did my job to the best of my ability." Diana couldn't afford to waver in her words. She knows that her words will be used against her if there was even a slight hesitation.

Which is why he tried to grill Diana as hard as possible, making the jury see how neglectful Diana was for not watching the specimens as carefully as she should have.

The jury was starting to get swayed. If they thought of themselves as the patients being harmed upon, they could really see that Diana really made a grave mistake.

They also sympathized with Clara. She was only helping out her colleague, now she's the one getting accused.

"I feel sorry for the woman. She was only helping her colleague get out of the mess. But instead, she's the one getting dragged." A woman commented.

"I agree. This complainant is ungrateful to her colleague." Another woman quipped.

However, when it was Atty. Pierpont's turn to submit his questions, the tides turned.

As he was asking Diana with questions, he let the people inside the courthouse objectively see the situation. Diana only retold all the details of the events and didn't add anything else. She was calm and collected all throughout.

"Ms. Winchester, take me to the time of the event. Can you please help us visualize what transpired?"

"Yes. It was a busy day at the Institute and the hospital. There were two groups of people involved in a car accident. Most of them need blood transfusions and surgeries. Our department was swamped with lab requests and we did so to the best of our ability. It was throughout the day when my former employer mr. Bryan Cook called me into his office and told me that there were erroneous results from the specimens I took. I remember feeling confused because to my recollection, I followed every step process in obtaining specimens and processing it. It was also then when my former colleague, Ms. Clara Holt entered the office and asked for the results to be reviewed. From their conversation, I gathered that Ms. Holt retook the specimens from the patients I was assigned to and for some reason, the results were different. The common issue was the elevated hcg levels. When I took the specimens from the patients, I immediately took it to the processing room. I placed it on the table near the computer to get it ready for processing. I left momentarily to pick up the photocopy of a lab order that was printing.

It was only a short distance walk and I never even thought for a moment that something would occur during that time. Ms. Holt was in the processing room at that time as well. But that time, I didn't have a slight inkling as to her involvement. The only thing is, during that day, none of the patients I was assigned to was pregnant that could show obvious elevation in hcg. However, there are other explanations as to why there would be elevated hcg levels in other patients, with the use of the patient's medical history. There could be underlying illness that could explain it, which is why I thought nothing of it."

After Diana relayed the events, she was asked to come down.

He fired question after question against Clara as Clara's lawyer tried to object. However, the judge ignored the latter and just let Atty. Pierpont proceeded with his inquiries.

"Miss Holt. During that day, were you able to obtain specimens from patients?"

"Yes."

"Was any of them pregnant?"

"I believe so."

"Was there? Or was there not?"

"Yes there was a pregnant patient I took a specimen from."

The people started to become rowdy as each of them started to form their own opinions.

Finally, Diana's lawyer presented the evidence.

It was the surveillance footage of the Processing room.

"I'll present to you surveillance footage from the processing room in Hopton Research Institute. The footage was deleted but was recovered by our experts from the Oxfield Crime Department. As you can see, the evidence of Ms. Holt tampering the specimens is visibly seen."

And lastly, Atty. Pierpont presented evidence of the transaction that Clara made with the Security guard. The bank records and phone messages revealed everything.

"I have here evidence of Ms. Holt tried to cover up her crime by paying off a security guard to delete the footage."

There was not much to say, the judge reached his verdict.

"Oh my God! How horrible! This woman is just despicable. Just to tarnish her colleague's reputation, she didn't even care that she would harm the patients."

"The nerve of her to play victim!"

"This woman should not be allowed to work in this field! She is dangerous."

Clara was sentenced to 5 years and 6 months in prison.

At this, Clara wailed in misery. "Noooooo! Please!"

She tried to plead with the judge, she even tried to beg Diana.

"Diana! I regret it! Please! Take it back. I don't want to go to jail!"

Bryan was still shocked with the outcome.

He couldn't believe that he has been defending the wrong person all along.

But more than that, he was even more shocked when he was also served a summon to appear in court for wrongful termination. And there was even a list of complaints of sexual harassment against him, for using his position to gain sexual favors in exchange of company's benefits. The complaints were not even from Diana. It was from all the ex-employees who were wrongfully terminated by him for not giving in to sexual favors.