A JURY OF HIS PEERS

1994 was one hell of a year for Los Angeles, and for Charlie Trust.

It began with a bang, literally, when the Northridge Earthquake decimated a huge swath of LA and scared the crap out of everyone it didn't wreck. Right after that, the murder trial of the Menendez brothers ended with a hung jury, and soon, Charlie and Sandy are asked to represent Lyle Menendez at the retrial.

Charlie figures the year couldn't possibly get any more outlandish for him than it already has, but then the telephone rings, it's O.J. Simpson calling, and quickly enough he finds out just how wrong he is about that.

Of course, he does. It's 1994, in Charlie Trust's LA.

Charlie is doing pretty well for himself. He’s in a law partnership with Sandy Bouchier, once one of America’s most famous criminal lawyers, who is now a little up in years and looking to pass his practice along to Charlie. He also owns a house on Malibu’s Carbon Beach that was left to him by an old friend, and he has a cherry-red 1969 Mustang convertible that is his pride and joy.

Charlie has somehow stumbled into a really good life, and he knows it, but he also knows1994 is doing everything it can to screw it up for him.

For a while there, Charlie thought he might actually be getting 1994 back under control, but then he and everyone else in LA watched absolutely riveted as the slowest police pursuit in history unfolded live on television. O. J. Simpson had been accused of brutally murdering his ex-wife and a man named Ronald Goldman, and now Simpson was in the backseat of a white Ford Bronco driven by his friend Al Cowlings. He appeared to be on the run, but no one really knew what was happening.

Charlie is particularly mesmerized by the whole spectacle since he knows OJ slightly. They’ve met a few times around LA, and OJ once even asked for Charlie’s business card, saying he wanted to call Charlie if he ever needed a criminal lawyer. They had both laughed at that back then since obviously Simpson was only joking, but the joke doesn’t seem nearly so funny now.

If OJ is running, he’s running really slowly. Cowlings makes his way along the freeways of LA at a sedate pace, and the cops hang back. Cowlings is telling them on the telephone that OJ has a gun and is threatening to commit suicide, and no one wants to be responsible for that. Eventually, Cowlings works out a deal with the cops and drives OJ back home to Brentwood to surrender, and the whole public spectacle comes to a quiet end.

The next day, Charlie is packing up his briefcase to leave the office when their case manager buzzes him with a call.

‘I’ve had enough for today,’ Charlie says. ‘Tell whoever it is that I’ve already left. I’ll call back tomorrow.’

‘Oh, I'm certain you'll take this call,’ she says.

‘And why would I do that?’ Charlie asks.

‘Because,’ his case manager answers quietly, ‘it’s O. J. Simpson.’