TWO POLICE OFFICERS SHAVED MY HEAD—THEN DISCOVERED I WAS THE JUDGE ASSIGNED TO THEIR CASE.

Months passed before the new charges reached open court.

A grand jury indicted Voss and Pruitt for their attack on me and related obstruction offenses. Separate charges were brought against Pike and Baxter after investigators reviewed messages, access logs, and the recovered drive. Each defendant entered a not-guilty plea.

The system did not move as quickly as the headlines wanted it to. Lawyers argued over recordings. Experts checked original files. Witnesses were interviewed again and again.

Some mornings I thought the process was painfully slow. Other mornings I was grateful it would not run on anger alone.

When my turn came to testify, I wore a simple charcoal suit and no scarf. The close-cropped hair on my scalp was beginning to grow back.

I described the torn identification, the handcuffs, the floor, the sound of the clippers.

The defense attorney asked whether I could have mistaken a shove for an attempt to control a dangerous situation.

I looked at him.

“I showed my official identification and requested assistance,” I answered. “I did not threaten either officer.”

“Isn’t it possible you were simply upset by the arrest?”

“I was assaulted while restrained.”

He tried again.

“Yet you can't know what was in Officer Voss’s mind.”

“No,” I said. “I can tell you what he did. The recording can tell you the rest.”

Camille testified the next day. Her voice shook at first, but she explained exactly how she had recorded the encounter and kept the original file intact. The technician described its transfer history. There was no dramatic surprise on the screen, just ordinary proof that refused to disappear.

Then prosecutors played the audio from the recovered archive in a related hearing.

An officer said Isaiah Bell was filming.

A second voice replied, “Take his phone. Make sure he doesn't leave with it.”

The witness identified that voice as Pike’s.

And for the first time, Pike’s attorney asked the court for a private conference.