MovieChat Forums > Sleepers (1996) Discussion > If Father Bobby had decided not to testi...

If Father Bobby had decided not to testify, King Benny probably...

posted 10 years ago by jaystarstar
2 replies | jump to latest

...could have come up with a witness pretty quickly to testify they were with John and Tommy the night of the killing instead.

Local gangster bosses like King Benny in New York usually have a list of crooked cops, and King Benny whose own nephew was a cop (supposedly an honest one) certainly would have, so all King Benny would have had to do was to run down his list of crooked cops, find one who they could cook up a credible story that they would have known John and Tommy -- it is really not that unusual for young cops to know some of the hoodlums they end up arresting as semi-friends -- and were off duty the night of the basketball game.

Then they could have the crooked cop use the same story they used for Father Bobby -- "I bought the tickets for cash, I met up with the guys at about 6:30, we went to the game, it got out about 10, they went home" -- and even have him keep the ticket stubs too to 'prove' it.

The story that a young cop in his 20s would hang around with 2 guys who were street thugs is really no more far-fetched than a priest would suddenly decide to go to a basketball game with 2 street thugs who used to go to his parish 15 years ago.

In either case, the jury would have either the word of a priest -- or a cop -- to support the story that John and Tommy had gone to the basketball game.

Either way that's enough to counterbalance the testimony of the semi-drunk housewife.

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4) You ever seen Superman $#$# his pants? Case closed.

[–] redban (5202) 7 years ago

I don't think you can randomly pull some crooked cop out of the blue to serve as an alibi. The jury will obviously want to know how this cop knows Tommy and John in the first place, and it will be hard to conjure some fake story about how they met, etc. It will seem fake from the beginning, in other words. With Father Bobby, they actually knew him from a young age, so there was no lying there.

Really, Father Bobby was the only safe bet because of his background. Remember that this basketball story had several flaws:

1). He keeps the stub because, though nobody has ever doubted his words, "there's a first time for everything." Really?

2). Why didn't this basketball alibi ever appear until the final hearing? Why wouldn't Tommy & John tell the police and/or Dustin Hoffman from the start? Isn't it convenient that they produced this alibi at the very end?

3). He just happens to pay in cash? Really?

Father Bobby was a longtime priest who is well respected by the community. That quality allowed him to get the boys off the hook.

[–] PaladinNJ (20310) 5 years ago

I think the idea was for the jury to believe they did tell their attorney. But you still can't shake that surprised look on their face when Father Bobby testifies they were with him. They were the two people who should not have been surprised.

PS: Back then most priests did pay for things in cash. They are given a salary to cover their personal expenses. They had no use for credit cards since the church pays for their biggest necessary expenses.