Beth:
[about the Fifth Amendment] It doesn't apply!
Jim:
What do you mean, it doesn't apply? It's in the Constitution!
Beth:
It doesn't apply in this case, Jim. I told you the judge wouldn't buy your privileged argument! He read the questions the grand jury asked you, and he read your answers, and he said you waived your rights.
Jim:
You want to know what I think?
Beth:
I know what you think and I agree with you, only there's nothing I can do about it.
Jim:
I don't even know Frank Sorvino, I don't even know what they're trying to prove, whether I kidnapped him or snuck him out of the country? The federal prosecutor is playing Clarence Darrow like he's got a whip and a chair!
Beth:
Gary Bevins, he's bucking for the Attorney General.
Jim:
And he'll probably make it too. It's his show all the way, no attorney for the defense, you gotta go take a hike to find a judge, it's just Bevins and his merry band of men!
Beth:
Now look, Jim...
Jim:
Oh yeah, yeah, and the jury foreman? He has a gavel! Now since when do they give gavels to jury foremen?
Beth:
They don't, only it's not unusual for the average citizen to sort of get caught up in the role and...
Jim:
And then ask for one.
Beth:
No, I think they buy their own.
Jim:
Oh, come on. Beth, how soon can you get me out of here?
Beth:
I don't think I ought to try.
Jim:
Try? Hey, even murder's bailable!
Beth:
So is civil contempt, if I can convince the judge you got grounds for appeal.
Jim:
Then convince him!
Beth:
It's not that simple, Jim! You can go out one day and come back the next, you can't take this thing all the way to the Supreme Court!
Jim:
You mean I'm going to be eating cream chip beef on toast till they decide to let me out of here?
Beth:
Not exactly, you stay in jail until you agree to testify.
Jim:
Well, I'm not going to testify! Bevins is a one-man lynch mob!
Beth:
Or until the expiration of the current grand jury term.
Jim:
When is that?
Beth:
About nine months.
Jim:
Nine months? Oh, that's a pretty stiff sentence!
Beth:
That's why they made it civil contempt. If they'd made it criminal contempt, and asked for a sentence of more than six months, you'd have had a right to a trial by jury.
Jim:
Nine months...
Beth:
But, when the new grand jury is impaneled, if you're called again and you refuse to testify, again...
Jim:
Then it's back to the old slammer.
Beth:
Until their term expires, eighteen months. Then...
Jim:
And then they impanel another jury and the whole thing starts all over again. I haven't been charged with anything, I haven't been convicted of anything, you know, with a deal like that, do you realize how long I could be in here?
Beth:
Theoretically? The rest of your life.
Jim:
Yeah.
