GONE FOR GOOD

41

Jessica hired a new attorney, David Dorn, as soon as she got out of jail. She handpicked Dorn out of the Yellow Pages and called him. A day later, Jessica sat in Dorn’s office. She talked about what she expected out of legal representation. She called the ongoing battle with Alan a “visitation child custody case.” Alan was suing for full custody, she explained. This scared Jessica. She saw the children slipping from her grasp. Of course, part of her monthly paycheck left with the kids. There was no way she could allow that to happen.

It was January 8, 2002. Dorn reviewed the case. There was a hearing scheduled for January 14 to discuss what had occurred “prior to then.”

Perfect. Dorn could familiarize himself with the case, and the court would bring him up to date on the rest.

Alan was awarded temporary custody of the kids while Jessica was in jail, and he still had them. Terra was overjoyed. Before Alan had left to pick up the children, Terra e-mailed a friend. She explained the situation, noting: We haven’t seen or talked to [the children] in a year and a half (thanks to his ex-wife). She explained further that Alan had been granted temporary custody. It’s a sad situation, but hopefully it will all turn out OK.

During the January 14 court date, Dorn was able to discuss the situation with Alan’s lawyer, Frank Head, and Dorn later said, “Bottom line is, Jessica got her children returned to her.”

Alan had enrolled the kids in the school system of Maryland. They had gone through three weeks of classes. Jessica, however, proved to the court that she was going to have the children homeschooled properly this time, under the auspices of a licensed homeschooling organization connected to a church near her home.

“I’m on the faculty of a school,” Jessica told Dorn, explaining that she was qualified and could teach at Hope Christian School.

Still, the judge wasn’t satisfied. It was decided that Jessica would place the children into a more traditional, conventional school system. At least for the remainder of the year. When—and if—she could prove the homeschooling qualifications she claimed to have, and Alan agreed, she could educate them.

Dorn explained to Jessica that the judge was adamant about the visitation schedule—considering her history—being kept. No more fooling around. It was time to heed to the court and allow Alan what was rightfully his.

This riled Jessica.

Alan brought the girls to the courthouse that day. When all was settled, and Jessica begrudgingly decided to honor the judge’s orders, the kids were back in her arms.

“Jessica, Alan is going to be taking the girls to lunch,” Dorn told his client after court, “so he can say good-bye to them, okay?”

Dorn later said Jessica became “very agitated” by this statement, but she agreed.

Alan took the girls to lunch and then went back to Maryland. He and Jessica were set to face off in court within the next few weeks. The custody hearing was on schedule. They were both set to give depositions in Dorn’s office explaining their side of the story. Until then, the girls would stay with their mother.

A few days after that initial court date, Dorn found out Jessica had lied to him. In doing so, Dorn had turned around and had lied—unknowingly—to the judge.

This did not sit well with the experienced, well-liked attorney. So he corrected the record. “[I]t came to my attention,” the lawyer later explained, “that the information I had represented to the court about the homeschooling was not true. . . . The children were not being educated under . . . the curricula of the homeschooling agency that we had represented, and that Jessica was not considered part of the faculty.”

She had fabricated every part of the story.

How had Dorn found this out? Alan’s lawyer called him and explained that he had checked Jessica’s story out, and none of it was true.

After Frank Head called David Dorn, he relayed the information to the court.

The judge called Dorn. “What’s the deal?”

Dorn explained.

“Well, I am going to make an order,” the judge stated, “that the kids be returned to Mr. Bates immediately.”

“I need some time to discuss this with my client, Your Honor.”

“Yes . . .”

“Can we schedule an evidentiary hearing?”

Dorn wondered how the matter could be solved like this over the telephone. Frank Head was expected to present evidence in a court of law and prove Jessica was a liar. It was the proper way to go about it.

“The twenty-eighth,” the judge suggested.

Ten days.

Alan Bates would be dead by then.

42

It was hard to imagine, but Jessica McCord had won the first round. She lied to the court, the judge and her lawyer, but she had managed to retain custody of the girls.

“What?” was Alan’s reaction when he heard. He could not believe it. Neither could his attorney or his family. After all she had done, Jessica had managed to get her way once again.

It was beyond ridiculous.

According to the judge’s new order, Jessica could keep the girls during the pendency of this [investigation, but the] defendant shall not conduct homeschooling of either child absent written consent of plaintiff. It is also ordered during the pendency of this case that both parties shall at all times inform the other of his or her phone number and residential address.

Alan had heard all this before. They were going around in circles.

Not to fear. During the upcoming trial Frank Head promised he was going to expose every single law that Jessica had broken over the past seven years and show the court the person she truly was. Alan had audiotapes of Jessica raging mad on his voice mail. She sounded belligerent and vicious. He had witnesses. Documentation. There was no doubt: the kids were leaving that court on March 5, 2002, with Alan; he was certain to win.

David Dorn seemed like the type of honest lawyer that Frank Head felt he could deal with in a civilized manner. They were both fighting for their clients’ rights. Sure. Yet, they all needed to get along and allow the court to make judgments on facts—not Jessica’s version of the events or the lies she told. Dorn seemed like the right lawyer to be able to get that done.

After deciding on the matter of temporary custody, which took place in the judge’s chambers, and never made it into the actual courtroom, Head and Dorn decided they both wanted to take depositions from one another’s client sooner rather than later. March 5 was right around the corner. The depositions needed to be done quickly.

“Frank, find out when your client can come back from [Maryland] to Birmingham and call me.”

“I will,” Frank Head said.

A day or so later, Head called Dorn and rattled off a few dates.

“February fifteenth sounds good to me,” Dorn agreed.

“Okay. Since Alan’s flying in from Washington, he’d like to have the kids for that weekend.”

Dorn approached Jessica with the idea. Her reaction was the norm: steam from her ears. Or, as Dorn later put it, “Not positive. You know, agitation.”

On February 8, 2002, Frank Head confirmed the date of the depositions to take place at Dorn’s downtown Birmingham office, first thing Friday morning, February 15.

Seven days away.

As we discussed, Frank Head wrote in the letter to Dorn, Alan would like to get the children for the weekend. . . . Alan could pick them up that Friday after the deposition and return them to Jessica on Sunday night.

On the bottom of the letter, Head wrote a short note to Alan, whom he CC’d. He gave Alan the address to Dorn’s office and telephone number, should he arrive that Friday morning in Birmingham and be delayed at the airport for any reason. If he was going to be late for the deposition, he should call.