After the CVR recording was finished, Hackett turned off the recorder and continued quietly, "Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, this is pretty simple. WorldCopter did not do background checks on its employees, and they didn't have the clearances that they were required to have in order to build Marine One. Yet, they assured the Department of Defense that they were in compliance. Then when building the rotor blade that killed the president and all aboard his helicopter, they can't even tell you that it was balanced, what tip weights were put on, how much weight was put on, or the serial numbers for those tip weights. Whatever they did, they did wrong. The tip weights came off. That is their fault, plainly. So what do they say? They can't tell you because they've lost the records, or they never existed, or they've been destroyed."

Hackett paced. "There is more to this than simple negligence on the part of WorldCopter. We have reckless disregard for the safety of others, particularly the president of the United States and his crew on Marine One. It might even be more than reckless. There could be malice here. We may even find intentional conduct. We'll have to see how this evidence comes in, but you listen carefully." He paused, glancing up and down the rows. "You listen to what these witnesses say. You wait and see who shows up to tell us what happened from WorldCopter."

Hackett took a deep breath. "At the end of this trial, I'm going to ask you to award a substantial amount of damages to my clients. And by damages, I mean money. It's the only thing we have that we can force WorldCopter to do. We can't bring back President Adams and put him back in charge of this country. We can't bring back my clients' husbands and fathers or take the pain of the fire away. But we can ask you to compensate them for the loss that WorldCopter has caused. There will be a lot of evidence over the economic value of these cases, as well as the losses suffered through their loss of consortium-sexual relations-the loss of care and comfort, the loss of society. Losing the relationship. These cases have enormous value. I will be asking you for damages in excess of one billion dollars." Several jurors frowned at the number. "So listen for the evidence which will support that, which you will see very clearly. Thank you very much for your attention, ladies and gentlemen. I will speak to you again at the conclusion of the evidence, in my closing argument, and I'll tell you what you need to do to award my clients what they're entitled to in your verdict."

Hackett sat down and the first lady put her hand on top of his hand in gratitude. It was very touching.

At that moment the judge looked at me and said, "Mr. Nolan, your opening."

29

THANK YOU, YOUR Honor," I said as I stood and crossed to the lectern. I opened the notebook that contained the outline for my opening statement and looked at the jury. I expected many had already picked sides.

"Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Again, my name is Mike Nolan, and I am here with Rachel Long," I said, indicating. "We represent WorldCopter." I paused and scanned their faces again. No movement.

"Mr. Hackett made a very compelling opening statement. I expect it generated sympathy in you and persuaded you that what he said is exactly right. It may be. But rather than evaluating the case based on sympathy for the families, which we all share, or feeling the loss of our president, which we all feel, let's focus on the facts of what happened in the accident, on what we know. Mr. Hackett said this accident was caused by WorldCopter. That it was the fault of WorldCopter. Was it? Think about what he said and how much he talked about the actual facts. The investigation. What experts are going to say. Who is it that has said that this is WorldCopter's fault? What evidence points to WorldCopter? Essentially, Mr. Hackett points to the fact that several of the workers, including those who worked on balancing the blades and installing the tip weights, did not have the Yankee White security clearance required to work on the presidential helicopter. That is true. And whose fault is that? His implication is that WorldCopter intentionally dodged the security-clearance process so they could hire workers determined to sabotage the president's helicopter. Why didn't he just say that? He tries to impugn the character of the people who worked hard on this helicopter, without explaining how those clearances had anything to do with the balancing of the blade. True, the documentation is not as precise as it should have been. WorldCopter acknowledges that and the evidence will support what Mr. Hackett says. So if you want to award a judgment against them based on poor record keeping, then I can stop now. But I'd rather explore with you what facts Mr. Hackett will put on that will support his theory, and what other things you may conclude based on those facts."

I turned the page of my notes and looked up at them. They were listening but skeptical. "There are four other possible causes of this accident I want you to keep in mind. First, the helicopter crashed in the middle of one of the worst thunderstorms we have ever seen. Marine One was flying right through the middle of that storm. It was in what is called a cell. A cell is the part that reflects on radar and shows tremendous turbulence, hail, rain, and the like. It is the real thunderstorm. Could it be that the helicopter simply came apart due to the huge forces inside a thunderstorm? I want you to hold that in mind as a possible cause of this accident.

"A second possibility though is one that is difficult to contemplate. You've been watching the first lady, as we all have since she entered the courtroom. She is admired throughout the country and is a person of great dignity. It is appropriate to notice her and give her the respect she's due. Behind her though, directly behind her in this courtroom, sits Mrs. Collins. She was here this morning during the voir dire process. She also is entitled to tremendous respect. She's also entitled to your sympathy, outside of your role as a juror. But one of the possible causes of this accident must be mentioned. Her husband, Colonel Collins, was the highly decorated and respected pilot of Marine One. You heard his voice on the cockpit voice recorder that was played for you earlier by Mr. Hackett. But he didn't play the first part of that recording. The part before the helicopter took off from the White House."

I walked over to the console between the counsel tables that had all the electronic equipment on it and pushed PLAY on track two. It played the exchange between Collins and Rudd, the copilot, and the discussion of the president. I watched the faces of the jurors as Collins demonstrated his contempt for the president. They were surprised. "You undoubtedly have heard a lot of information about this crash; the press has covered it extensively. But this is the first time the cockpit voice recorder has been played anywhere outside of the NTSB headquarters. As you can see, there may be more to this story than a loose tip weight. Not only did Colonel Collins hold the president in contempt for his political views, he didn't even give him the formal respect due to the office. For example, it is well-known that President Adams claimed to be the third Adams president, in the same family line with John Adams and John Quincy Adams. But that claim was thought to be fraudulent by Colonel Collins. I will prove to you that he wrote letters to people about what a fraud the president was.

"That's not all. A couple of months before the accident, Colonel Collins took out a new life insurance policy with the Armed Forces Insurance Association for one million dollars. That was ten times the insurance he had before. What would inspire a Colonel who was approaching retirement to suddenly take out a massive life insurance policy that he had no interest in before, even when he was in combat? The Collinses have no children. Coincidence? Maybe. But the other possibility, the more malignant possibility, is that Collins knew what was coming. He anticipated, or even caused, the accident." A loud gasp came from the audience and the jurors. "So do I think that Colonel Collins killed the president and everyone else on board on purpose? That he disagreed with the president's policies so much that he ended it on purpose? Let me give you one additional fact. The evidence will show that the flight data recorder stopped. It stops thirty seconds before impact. In the wreckage we found the panel that has the circuit breakers on the right side of the cockpit by the pilot's knee. The circuit breaker for the flight data recorder was out. Could it have been tripped by an electronic short or other failure? Yes. But you heard the cockpit voice recorder. It was working fine. And there's no indication of other electrical problems. It's possible that he perceived a hydraulic failure and was trying to pull the hydraulic-pump circuit breaker and got the wrong one. It's absolutely possible. But it's also possible that he pulled the circuit breaker for the flight data recorder so that we couldn't know what actually happened. Right after that circuit breaker popped, this aircraft started an immediate descent and crashed into the ground almost inverted. One of the scenarios you're going to have to consider is that Colonel Collins disliked the president and everything he stood for and used this storm as a cover to kill the president. Is that what I think? I don't know, and what I think doesn't matter. The question is, what does the evidence show? And your job is to determine what happened based on the evidence."