The DOJ's regional office opened the pattern-or-practice investigation the following morning at 9:14. The tone of the call from Agent Tanner's office—professional, direct, detailed—reflected that he had been watching this situation since the photograph went public and had a clear sense of what his office was looking at.
Derek Caulfield was formally charged by the Harlan County DA's office on Thursday afternoon: one count of felony deprivation of civil rights under color of law, one count of aggravated battery. The grand jury convened Friday morning and returned the indictment in under three hours. Teresa Okafor presented it herself, which was not standard practice for a case at this stage and was therefore a statement.
Caulfield learned about the indictment from a news alert on his phone, alone in his apartment. He sat with the phone for a while. He set it on the couch cushion beside him and looked at the wall. His right hand rested on his knee. It stayed there.
Sandra Bellwether's situation resolved along its own parallel track. The DA's office reviewed the 911 audio against the physical evidence and the porch camera footage, and made a determination communicated to Sandra's attorney in a letter whose careful language made clear that the decision was not mercy and was not exoneration, and should not be communicated to any media outlet as either.
The HOA board voted at an emergency meeting, by a count of seven to zero, to remove Sandra from the board presidency and revoke her community membership. Sandra learned about it the following morning when she tried to use her access fob at the community pool gate and the indicator light stayed red. She stood at the gate for a moment. She tried the fob again. The light stayed red. She turned and walked back to her car.
Six months and eleven days after the Tuesday morning in early spring, Derek Caulfield stood at the defendant's table in Courtroom 4B of the Harlan County Federal District Court.
The sport coat he wore had been obtained through the public defender's office and fit him with the generic approximation of a garment sized for someone with similar measurements, and not for him specifically. He was thirty pounds lighter. His posture, previously the forward-pitched posture of someone always reaching toward the next point of control, was now the posture of someone who had run out of things to reach for. His right hand gripped the edge of the defense table; the knuckles were white.