Back in his days, John was the sharpest lawyer in town. At the office we used to call him the "Samurai". He used to step into a court room, with a sword for a tongue, he would win over the jury, and he'd win the case, before you even noticed that it started.
So when he took on the case of the murdered child as the defence, the media was all over him. I remember him cancelling a meeting, because there were so many camera teams around him, that he could not move his car. When I asked him why he would choose to defend the guy, he answered it's because he believes in his client's innocence. That was the most important part for him. He had to believe in his clients, he didn't need anything else to win.
And he won that trial, that's for shure. Some people say it was the finest work of an attorney they had ever seen. I mean, that guy, the defendant, he was really deep into trouble. They had his DNA and even a confession, for all of which John had logical explanations. He turned that guy's image from that of a child murderer into one of the biggest victims of injustice in history.
So naturally, it ripped him apart when they caught that guy kidnapping another child just a few weeks later. Already had the boy tranquilized in the back of his van. The news and papers were full of his smiling face in his mug shot. I believe that's what broke poor Johnny. As long as I knew him, his gut was all he had, and if he couldn't trust his gut anymore…
The media shattered his image, asking all kinds of speculative questions. He went from being the most respected citizen of our town, to being the single most hated person, even more so than that child murderer. They called him an accomplice, wondered how many criminals he falsely put back on the streets, wanted all his cases reopened. It was ridiculous. It ruined his marriage and his career.
He managed to get back on his feet, a couple of years after. Has his own little law firm downtown now. He's doing fine, but the trust… He lost that one forever.