The Curse of Sacerdozio

It seemed like a great honor. I was the first Jicarilla Apache to graduate Harvard Law School. Then, I was selected from many applicants to clerk for Supreme Court Justice Anton Sacerdozio. The judge did not actually select the clerkship candidates. The court Administrator did. I think he made his preferences known, like it would be nice if they were from Harvard Law School and a real plus if they had been a member of the student division of the Thomas More Society. But his main instruction to the court Administrator was that "they had better be ready to work hard, long hours, or I'll replace them." I was young, smart and naïve, and having grown up on the reservation, was without people skills in the Ivy League. I was quiet. My study buddy had been Catherine Welch, and she was a great at covering my shyness. As it turned out, Catherine was also selected to clerk for Justice Sacerdozio, perhaps because she was Catholic, as well as intelligent. We fell in love, and at the most inopportune time, Catherine became pregnant. She and I decided on an abortion. Justice Sacerdozio went ballistic, and our entire professional future looked in doubt, as he stated he would not provide us with an end – of – term favorable review. That seemed terrible enough, but as we attended the Sacerdozio, Thomas More and Federalist Societies’ retreat on a far West Texas ranch (an end – of – term requirement), the judge was found dead floating in one of the hot mineral pools. Because of my philosophical arguments with the Justice and the abortion of upheaval, I became a murder suspect in the eyes of the FBI. In fact, I was arrested and put in the El Paso federal lockup for over a year waiting for trial. There had been so much going on behind the scenes that I had no knowledge of, but unknown events were having a direct effect on my life and my freedom and any possibility of a future with Catherine. From the West Texas ranch and by incarceration, I came to know the sheriff from Sierra Blanca and his friend, Jacob Stern, a private investigator from New Orleans. They believed in my innocence and came to my aid. Up to that point, I had no one but federal prosecutors hammering at me. They wanted a plea of guilty, and they wanted it now. I wouldn’t do it. There were interrelating influences that were affecting my life and Catherine's such as mining interests of a powerful Houston mining company owner, the judicial doctrine known as "Originalism," societies of influence and power seeking to control the judiciary, and not least, the government's strong will to prosecute the killer of Justice Sacerdozio. This is my story of that intense path. What seemed like a great honor in the beginning turned into a disaster. The only thing the powerful want is more power. You do not know what fear is, until you get in their way.

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