Judge Gold scratches his cheek for a moment, like he’s Marlon Brando in The Godfather. “Counsel, please approach.”

We all join him beneath the bench, including Dana Goodwin, who Judge Gold has previously ruled is to be treated like counsel in these conferences. When we get there, the judge says, “Mr. Burrows, is this whole production because of the defense’s theory that someone other than Ms. Goodwin sent the texts at issue?”

“It is,” he says.

After a moment, but not much more than that, Judge Gold says, “Okay, here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to sustain the defense’s objection, but only because the evidence at issue hasn’t been introduced yet. What I’m also going to do is explain to the jury why they’re not going to hear more about that text just now. Anybody got a problem with that?”

“No, Your Honor,” I say. The last thing I’m going to do is be the person who says she doesn’t want the jury to understand what’s going on.

“Nor does the defense,” Burrows says, because he’s not going to be that guy either, even though I’m certain he would be much happier if the judge didn’t go there.

“Excellent. Now step back,” Judge Gold says.

When we’re all situated in our usual positions, the judge turns to the jury and says, “Ladies and gentlemen, here’s what just happened in the conference at the bench. As you know from Mr. Burrows’s opening statement, it is the defense’s contention that Ms. Goodwin did not send the text that Lieutenant Velasquez just testified about. That’s why Mr. Burrows objected. I am going to sustain the objection because there’s been no evidence introduced about who sent that text. Not yet, anyway. But that might change later, because the prosecution has a lot more witnesses to call in this case.”

The judge’s focus shifts back to me. “Still your witness, Ms. Broden. You may want to tidy this up a bit.”

“Of course, Your Honor. Thank you.” To Gabriel, I say, “Lieutenant Velasquez, please explain what you meant when you said that the message was sent by Ms. Goodwin to Ms. Wright.”

Gabriel smiles at me and then turns to the jury with the same friendly expression. We’re all just trying to help here is his silent message. All except the nasty defense lawyer who’s trying to trick you.

“What I meant was that the text was sent from Ms. Goodwin’s phone to Ms. Wright’s phone. Obviously, I did not see her actually type the message into her phone. But it is my experience that when a text is sent from a phone, the owner of that phone is the sender.”