The Cadet - The Officers 1 #watty2015

Chapter 8 - That's really not good

A/N: I apologize for the delay in getting this chapter up. When I had started this story I hadn't intended to bring in the issue of bigotry and hate mongering. It radically changed how I am going to be doing the story. Due to this I am having to replan major sections for each chapter. I am hoping that it will smooth out in the next chapter or two.

Raven Whitewater was sitting at her desk and working very hard on not destroying anything. Leonardo, her mate, was also in the office with the Pride Legal Counsel. Since that little bastard had verbally attacked their son his father Herman had been going all out with his verbal attacks. He was making all sorts of wild accusations about his son being punished for exercising his rights. The fact that what he had said was considered hate mongering wasn't even touched on by the man. Every time he spoke it was attacking the military for not having arrested both Cadets.

He was using the court of public opinion to try and force the military to lock her son up as well. As far as Herman's actual orations she didn't give a rat's ass about. Their Pride was on very good terms with the local citizenry, local government, and businesses. What did anger her was that cretin was trying to get her son locked up even though Holcum had the right to do what he had. Now that had most if not all the Pride pissed off and she had a feeling that was part of Herman's plans. If he could get them pissed off enough it was very possible someone would do something stupid.

That would hit the news like a pile of bricks and would give Herman and his cohorts more gas for the fire. This was one reason she had their legal counsel in the offices. Raven wanted to know what options she had in reference to this. She was also going to see about getting some sort of restraining order on the verbal assaults. If they could get the world court to slap a gag order on him it would give her some breathing room. She hoped it would also lead him to doing something stupid so he could get arrested. If he was arrested for contempt then the gag order would in effect keep him from talking to anyone.

After glaring at the far wall for a while she realized she had lost track of what was going on. "Sorry Zoe I was trying to keep my cat from breaking anything." Raven took a slow deep breath and a sip of tea before she continued. "As I said in my message to you I am looking for options. I do plan on holding a news conference asking for restraint by everyone involved. That is going to go ahead no matter what. What I want to know is what legal options do we have? I currently have full intentions of bringing suit again the Williamson's for slander and trying to foster hate. One of my biggest questions is can we get a gag order against him and his talking heads."

Zoe gave her an incisive nod. "I understand Raven and I would prefer you take a few extra minutes to try and calm down. It makes it easier to discuss things." She had dealt with the Whitewater Pride for a number of years and before that her father had. Before the supernatural had come out to the public they had known and served a number of them. "As far as the new conference I would aim for a moderate message. Come across as being sorry this happened but your rights were trampled on as well. I would also go with this being a military issue and not a civil issue. It happened once they were on the station and active service."

Leonardo replied while his mate was thinking about that. "That is pretty much what we were intending. Sympathetic yet firm and not willing to back down, I was almost tempted to toss in something about it was sad what happened but... I finally decided not to since Raven might have destroyed her desk, podium, or whatever she is standing behind. That would not be a good thing." His voice was a deep rich voice which seemed to grab your attention.

Zoe flashed him a brief grin. "From one aspect it would be something to consider for down the road. Maybe from the aspect of 'we are sorry this happened but they were criminals'. Don't play it as their being Were's gone wrong so much as they were just common criminals." She looked back at Raven and pulled some papers out. "My first suggestion would be to go straight to the world court since the Williamson's are in Germany. If you started with the local courts they would have to pass it over anyways. As far as slander, libel, and defamation I would start with that since what he has said can be construed that way. It will give us a starting point and when I file suit I can also file a writ asking for any and all ongoing comments be restricted. I am not sure about a gag order but I am sure I can come up with enough writs to keep his side busy for a while." Her next grin was enough to make a great white jealous.