01x04 - The Trial

[bunniefuu]

I don't know how this could
have happened, Dr. K.

I'm very careful.

I'm sure you are, Sandy.

These things just happen
every once in a while.

Take two of these pills,
morning and evening, with food.

And here's a bottle
for your client.

Dr. K. How can I thank you?







Let's cut there. That's good.

You want to do it
differently?

A different way?
Uh, how so?

Have her be, like,
ditzy blonde?

Uh...

When I wrote the screenplay
to "Duplicity,"

that's where I had to get
a little creative.

I had scenes between Audrey
and Royce,

Audrey and her girls,

and in those phone logs,
there was a call to a Dr. K,

so Dr. K is in the screenplay.

One of the girls has a rash.

Could you specifically
describe in detail

what the rash looks like?

I want you to go see
Dr. K at noon.

Know what to do by now.

And you can just imagine,

when one of Audrey's girls
goes and visits Dr. K.

Am I surprised about
what happens during our visit?

Well, you're a hooker,
so sex to you is nothing.

Okay. Yeah. Cool.

So, but he's diagnosing her

with, like, an STD
in that scene, right?

That's correct.
Yeah.

But then he has--you're
implying that they have sex.

I'm implying that he takes
advantage of her, and--

Right, but he knows that she
has an STD at the--currently.

Oh, I guess maybe
he'll use a condom.

Originally, like,

I thought she would be
like a real ditzy blonde.

Okay.
You know?

Your typical hooker, no brain.

Yeah.
So, it's like, "Hi, Dr. K."

Okay.
You know?

Okay.
Like that.

"I don't know what happened."

Okay, yeah. Yeah. Okay.

All right.

Paul's very quirky.

He seems very excited about the
story of his life, it sounds.

I would be too.

I guess, maybe. I don't know.

Sounds like we have
very different lives.

Would I not have made
a great pimp or what?

Giving instructions
to the girls.



Yep. Yep.





Hi.





Hi. I'm Paul T. Goldman.

When I found
a crinkled up photo

of a young Asian girl
in Royce Rocco's trash,

a girl he was smuggling
into the country

to be a prost*tute in his
ring, my heart sank.

I started reading
everything I could find out

about global child
sex trafficking.

Once in a lifetime,
you have an opportunity

to make a difference
in this world.

I found a crinkled up
fax to Royce,

asking about a passport
for a young Asian girl.

And I notice, at the top
is an email address.

I put this email address
into Google search,

and up came Albert Borelli,

manager of an organization
that gives away bibles.



It appeared to be
a prayer group.

Is that a coincidence?

I don't think so.

A Christian organization
is the money laundering front

for the whole series
of prostitution rings.

Royce is a sex trafficker,
working with Albert Borelli.

So I brought
all the evidence to the FBI.

"Walking into the offices
of the FBI

isn't something
to be taken lightly."

Considering the power
represented by those initials,

the idea that I might
simply saunter in

and share a story
with an agent seemed surreal.

Would they think
I was wasting their time?

Would they start a file on me?

The face staring back at me
was pure evil--

vacuous eyes,

a heavy beard
framing a long face,

and a slightly
smiling expression

that was as penetrating
as it was haunting.

Osama bin Laden had been on

the FBI's Top Ten Most Wanted
List since 2001

and was now the number one
Most Wanted t*rror1st.

I had seen him
plenty of times before,

but never quite in this way.

Terrorism
was on everybody's mind.

I firmly believe that Royce
had the ability

to bring women
into this country.

Well, he could bring
t*rrorists too.

Maybe he wouldn't
bring a t*rror1st,

but a t*rror1st organization
could acquire that capability.

Mr. Goldman.

Yes.
Agent Portman.

We spoke
on the phone yesterday?

This is Agent Jones
from our Securities Fraud unit.

Why don't you come with me?



Thanks.
You're welcome.

You gonna leave me hanging?



I remember you from "24."
Bless you. Bless you.

It was great.
Thank you.

It was an interesting show.

Let's frame him up.
Okay. Coming up. Okay.

You'll stand up, Paul,
when you shake his hand, right?

Yes.

Oh, yeah.
We'll make Royce talk.

How?
He'll certainly lie to you.

He's facing significant
prison time.

He'll talk.

And we'll interview
some of the local tricks.

And they'll talk.
This woman must be stopped.

There are children involved.

React, Paul.

And if the ring is paying off
Spencer County cops,

then it is serious indeed.

Heck, with what you've done,
this case is already half-made.

I mean,
they were just amazed.

Thanks for coming in,
Mr. Goldman.

"Their handshakes were firm,
very firm."

These guys were tough.

And there he is.



They said that they would
give all my evidence

to the High Crimes Unit.

You don't mess around
with these guys.



I felt like I was
soldiering on with him

and helping him to get through
what he needed to get through,

because it was not easy.

Frustrated is a very good
word for that.

You bet I was!

And so he kept pushing.

"Where's the status?
Where's the status?"

"Well, these things take time.
These things take time."



I've got three weeks
to go until the trial.

Okay. So, I had to do
something out of the box.

I was looking
at the news one night,

and I saw a report from
an investigative reporter.

But have not heard back.

Terri Parker, WPBF 25 News.

So I thought, huh,
I want to talk to this person.

I went in. I talked with her.
I gave her the evidence.

And she said, "I can come
to your divorce trial,

"and I can report on
everything that is said there

and put it
on the news that evening."

I thought that was pretty good.



A case of simply
falling out of love

or deception
leading to divorce?

Terri Parker joins us live
from the newsroom

with tonight's big story.
Terri?

Paul Finkelman and

were married
a little over a year.

The date of my trial was...



Quite an interesting day.

Paul Finkelman says
his stay-at-home wife

was leading
a secret double life.

I believe that
is the madam

and working prost*tute
of a huge prostitution ring.

Finkelman,
his private investigators,

and lawyers say they have
surveillance videos,

hundreds of emails,
pictures, phone logs,

and bank records showing
huge cash deposits.

And he told you the same
story that he tells everybody,

that my client is engaged
running a prostitution ring.

It's sad.
Mr. Finkelman is delusional.

Okay. Let's try one.

Jason?
Yeah.

Can you put
that camera on me?

I have one thing to say.

Christian, go to Paul.
Yeah. Say it.

Here we are.

My courtroom.
Here we are.

My divorce trial.

Jason, we gotta go.
Okay, we gotta go.

That's it.
Thank you, Paul.

That's it.
Okay, thank you.

That was great.
And...action.

Your Honor, we will show
that this was anything

but a typical marriage
gone wrong.

We will show that Audrey Munson
married Mr. Goldman

solely for his money.

We will also show
that she stole from Mr. Goldman

during the marriage,
that she had a boyfriend

on the side
during the entire marriage,

and that the boyfriend
is her pimp, Royce Rocco.

And Audrey Munson...

is a prost*tute.

You know, the problem
with the case--

I don't care
what anybody does.

I don't care
how they make their living.

But she was trying to fleece
Paul, you know, out of money.

You know, unless
you're a complete moron,

everything added up to the fact
that's what she was doing.

Mr. Goldman,

tell us how you
came to meet Ms. Munson.

My life was predictable,
uneventful, and stable.

But there was a lot missing,

such as financial achievement
and a family.

I wouldn't be
sitting here today

if I had gone along
with that life.

But, uh, I decided
to try to change it.

So I took a trip to Russia,
where I met my first wife.

Unfortunately, things
didn't work out between us.

But I don't regret it,
because I have Johnny.

Objection, Your Honor.
This has no relevancy.

Get to the point.
Mr. Goldman,

how did you uncover
Audrey's duplicity?

She had me duped
the whole time.

Probably sleeping with Royce
in my bed in Jupiter.

Objection, Your Honor.
Unsubstantiated.

Sustained.
There's no evidence of that.

Mr. Goldman, no more
conclusions without evidence.

What aroused your suspicions?

When she conned me
out of almost $7,000.

Objection.
Sustained.

So what did you do?

I got the proof
of her frauds.

Objection.
Sustained. Mr. Goldman.

Audrey's lawyer,
all through the day...

Objection.
His role was to object,

and he was objecting
all the time.

Objection.

Of course,
that didn't matter,

because the judge
had heard the testimony.

The next person to testify
at the trial was Audrey Munson.

I liked the one
where you read him...

Let's go to bell,
everybody.

I don't know
what he thought about it.

Yeah. The last one.
Yeah, yeah. Okay.

Ms. Munson, would you
please read to the court

this email written by you
to Royce Rocco

one day

before your marriage
to Mr. Goldman?

"We could spend as many
seconds of our lives

together or apart."

He has Audrey read
these love letters to Royce.

"I love you
and always will.

It's just meant to be,
and we are meant to be."

The day before we're married.

"Admit that you love me,

and kiss me passionately, and
appreciate our relationship."

The day after we're married.

"And surrender to the forces

that are over us
and put us together for life."

The week after.

"Love you
till death do us part.

Audrey."

"My beloved Royce.

"I'm your princess.
We're soulmates,

destined to live together
till death do us part."

On and on and on like that.

"Will your next 50...

"years chime of continued
self-imposed struggle,

"suffering, and pain, or can
you surrender to the fact

"that you have met
the love of your life,

your soulmate,
your life partner?"







I want the empathy of the
audience to be on my side.

Of course.

More empathy for her,
less for me.



Not necessarily.

I need all the empathy
I can get.

You can have empathy
for everyone.



I hold in my hand
a notarized copy

of the final judgment
from my court case.

Notarized copy.

You can see right there,

it's got the notarized
signature

and the seal and all that.
So, this is it.

"Ms. Munson's testimony
was not credible."

During the marriage, she was
willing to lie and misrepresent

when it suited her purpose.

Mrs. Munson entered
the marriage not for love

but for money.

Mr. Goldman's testimony
was credible.

The Court finds him
to be naive and gullible.

"The Court finds him to be
native and gullible."

Thank you, Court.

Less than an hour ago,
the judge ruled that,

while he did not believe
in entirety,

that Finkelman did not prove
that she was a prost*tute

nor that she committed fraud.

However, due to the extremely
short duration

of that marriage,

he also ruled that
was not entitled

to any of Finkelman's
real estate assets.



There was mixed emotions.
You know?

Yeah, we won. She didn't get
any of my assets.

Yeah. Marriage is over.
See what I mean?

It's always
those mixed emotions.

But you have to...



You know, become the warrior
if you're gonna...

you can't wallow
in the emotions.

After the divorce trial,

I found that I had
a stack full of notes,

conversations between
me and Audrey,

my lawyer and I, the FBI.

So I turned my notes
into "Duplicity"

and self-published it
on Amazon in 2009.

You can read about what I did
in my book "Duplicity:

A True Story
of Crime and Deceit."

I invite you to click
on the "Buy Duplicity" button,

and you'll be taken...

And I started marketing it
on Twitter.

I kept in touch
with law enforcement.

Things supposedly were rolling
with investigations.

So I was, you know,
kind of in a holding pattern,

always hoping for good news
in the next email.

"Hi. Mr. Rocklin, I hope you
are sitting down for this one.

"Of course, maybe I am not
telling you anything

"that you and Interpol
don't already know.

"I think I should have
been a detective.

"These girls are being
imported for prostitution

"all over the country.

"This means that the people
behind this ring,

"the actual owners,
are The Mob.

Nobody else could set up
such an organization."

"Paul, all I can say

"is the right people
are working on this,

"and it can't go any higher
than it is now.

I will get back to you.
Keep sending your information."

You've done quite a job,
Mr. Goldman.

We'll take this case.

Did you ever hear from
any of these guys again?

No.

Why do you think
they didn't follow up?

I have no idea.

Small potatoes.
What do you expect?

It wasn't
small potatoes to me.

"Please confirm receipt
and forward to the FBI."

"Cases like this take a huge
amount of resources and time."

"The investigation is ongoing,
etc., etc., etc."

"Unlike TV crimes shows that
wrap up the case in an hour--"

"And then they kind
of trailed off."

"This case has
several agencies involved."

"I've never heard from either
of them since."

No response.

Yes, this is Paul. Did you
call for an insurance quote?

Hey, San Diego.

My son Johnny lives
in San Diego with his mother.

Not Audrey Munson.
My first, non-criminal wife.

Okay. Is your car garaged
outside of California

more than 60 days a year?

As you know,
I'm just an insurance guy.

So, I have this insurance job

quoting automobile insurance
for this company.



It's the worst job
in the world!

Let me just say it right there.
It's--it certainly is.

What could be worse than doing
the exact same thing

all day long for pretty much
minimum wage?

That's life in hell.

Consider a job
that's incredibly repetitive,

no chance for advancement.

Also, if you want to go
to the bathroom,

they won't pay you
for that time.

So, I have to go back
available right now...

Because I just got

the little notice from them.

I was talking to you too long.
"Paul, is everything okay?

Please make yourself
available."

This is Paul with The General.
Can I help you?

All right. 13 minutes.
I got 13 minutes.

You know, let me just say,
the job is horrible,

but here I am,
living in paradise,

the golf course, the lake.
I got my garden.

I love planting.
That's a miracle fruit tree.

These berries,
they do something

so that you can take
a grapefruit,

and it just is
the sweetest thing

you've ever wanted to taste,
and a lemon.

You're turning lemon
into lemonade,

just like Paul T. Goldman did--

turned
the lemon of Audrey Munson

into the lemonade of, uh...

Hey, and there's a lizard!
Get a closeup of the lizard.

This is very cool.
This one here is called a...







I don't know what to say.

They hadn't responded
to my emails in a long time.

Wondering if
you're gonna get the news

that, uh, the FBI
had swooped in

and they're all on
their way to prison.

Multiple agencies involved?

Multiple agencies
don't get involved

if there's nothing there.

The wheels of justice
turn very slowly.

And then what happened?







Audrey Munson! FBI! Open up!

Oh, f*ck.

Ms. Munson,

you have ten seconds
before we force the door!

f*ck.

Go! Go! Go! Go!
Go! Go! Go!



Joe.
Royce is under arrest.

That's a wrap.



Unfortunately, the scene
where Audrey is arrested

is fictional.

You were writing this scene--

Because this is what
I wanted to happen.

It's as simple as that.

After I wrote "Duplicity,"

I started writing
the screenplay to "Duplicity."

Why?

To increase public awareness

through the most
effective means

of increasing
public awareness this planet

has ever seen--Hollywood.

I knew that my story
would make one heck of a movie.

A regular guy discovering
that his wife is a hooker

and a madam.

And later on, discovering also
that that ring is involved

in international
sex trafficking.

The whole idea is to
increase public awareness

of this horrific problem.

"With the public awareness
and worldwide publicity

"that a movie will create,
we will bring down

"international sex
trafficking organizations

starting with the one
I uncovered in 'Duplicity.'"

The book is true. The ending
being kind of up in the air,

the cops are investigating,
nothing new,

that's the ending,
because that's true.

So when it came time
to write the screenplay,

I thought, well, I think I'll
do things a little different.

First, I had Audrey
and Royce arrested.

And the next scene...





What do you want?
I paid your bail.

Your court date is set
for two months from today.

You're free to go, but I want
to talk to you first.

I have an offer to make you.





I know how miserable you are.
I know how unhappy you are.

I'll pay for a specialist
to help you--

if you want to be helped,
that is.



Are you crazy?

Where did you get
such a load of bullshit?

I am a perfectly normal,
happy person.

Everybody tells me that
your life is not salvageable.

But that's not a judgment
that I'm willing to make.

To me, every life is valuable.
Even yours.



You're the only one
that didn't hate me.

When I was done with you,
you didn't give me that look.

The only one who would hold me
and...

Talk to me.

Don't do that.

Don't you do that.
'Cause...

'Cause I don't



Oh God.

No. No...oh...

It's okay.

I want to heal, Paul.

That's the first step
towards healing.

I'm finished with this life.

I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

And cut.

How was that for you?

Not great.

It felt, reading it,

you were seeking some kind
of closure with this scene.

Closure and catharsis
and all that stuff.

The original scene had Paul
crying along with Audrey.

I showed that to my father,
and he said, like,

"What?
What are you doing there?"

What did he say?
"You're a wimp.

What are you doing?"

So you had this scene,
and your father said

you were a wimp in the scene,
so you changed it.

Yeah. Yeah.

Let's try something closer
to the original version.



Let's go all the way now.
Go 100%.

And let's see what happens.

Oh no! No!

Oh God!

Oh...I really...

I really want to heal.

I'm so...

Oh, I'm so done
with this life.

I'm so tired.







We'll get
through this together.

Thank you.

We'll get through this.

Cut.
Great. Great great great.

One more. One more.

No.

I'm a warrior now.
I'm not the wimp anymore.

So emotions have to be
swept--put down.

If I show a lot of empathy,

I'm taking away from Paul
being the warrior.

You don't think
a warrior has empathy?

Well...
What's the difference between

a warrior and a sociopath?

The journey is about you
becoming colder.

Right. It is.

Is it your goal to get rid
of all your emotions?





Did you feel any catharsis

or closure
from writing this scene?

No.
So, what did you do next?



We switched scenes
to New York and the office

of the Mafia boss,
the true owners of the ring.

"Interior, a darkened room,
night.

A shadowy figure sits behind
a desk reading a newspaper."

Sir, I need to talk to you

about our southern
Florida operation.

What is it?
They all got pinched.

Why? What could
they possibly have?

Rocco's been doing a
clean operation for many years.

It seems this madam,
one Audrey Munson,

she wasn't happy with the money
she was making,

so she started marrying men,
divorcing them,

and then trying to get
their assets in the settlement.

Marone.
On the latest divorce,

her cell phone records
got subpoenaed,

and the husband found her out.

How does this
affect our operation?

We're finished.

The Russians
are gonna probably move in.

I don't like it.
They know too much.

Could be trouble.

Sal, I want you
to send a message.

Use Halloway.
He'll know what to do.

Time for a little
spring cleaning.

Right back at you. Will do.
Thank you, sir.

This is a great story.

Just a great story.
It's one of those stories.

So Audrey and Royce
are out on bail.

"Audrey and Royce walk down
a narrow wooded path

towards Royce's boat."

Oh my God,
you should have seen my tears.

I could have gotten a Oscar
for that performance.

I really had
that as*h*le going.

But I still don't understand,
how come they let us go?

I cut a deal with the feds.

What do you mean
you cut a deal?

How's that even possible?

Means I'm giving up
my bosses.

What? Your bosses?

I thought you were
the owner of the business.

Everybody's got bosses.
Oh. Isn't that dangerous?

Yeah. Those f*ck
aren't as powerful

as they think they are.

I gave my lawyer
a signed deposition.

It's got all their names in it.

And I gave him
a copy of our books.

So, they try to mess with me,

and they're the ones
that's gonna get f*cked.

We're covered either way.
You get it all?





Couple hours, we're gonna be
at the Bank of the Bahamas,

and the good life shall begin.

And then, we're gonna
get married, right, Royce?

Just like you promised.

Yeah, yeah,
we'll get married.

Yeah. because
we are soulmates.

Till death do us part.

Till death do us part, baby.





Fade to black.

The end.
Or should I say the beginning?



Closure.

Is something like that
ever totally closed?

So, I kept on going.

Paul is just at the beginning
of his journey.

You wrote it. We're sh**ting
everything you wrote.

This is the script now.
Don't worry.

It'll be great.

I'm a very lucky guy.

I have this knack
of finding the best people.

I found Jason Woliner.

Three. Two. One. Bang!

Action.

Till death do us part, baby.

And my dreams
are coming true.