Let the perjury begin.

Chapter II

'The great masses of the people .................will more easily fall victim to a big lie
than to a small on. - Adolf Hitler

In late January Darth gave his deposition. It was held in downtown Milwaukee in the offices of a local law firm. Carl Host and I attended along with Gamma Supplies' attorney Dan Gane from a Chicago law firm. The Better Supplies' lawyers were Cruz Little and Barry Champs from a Dayton law firm. Gamma Supplies was too small of a corporation to have in-house lawyers and the federal judge presiding over the case in Chicago's United States District Court had made a ruling early in the case that Better Supplies could not have their in-house attorneys to handle the case because there was to be an exchange of proprietary and confidential technical material in the case. Therefore both sides had hired outside council. That decision had been a major victory for Gamma Supplies because it limited Better Supplies ability to carry out an effective technical attack on Gamma Supplies' position. At the time of the that decision, I thought Gamma Supplies had been extremely fortunate to have won such a ruling and I was to later learn it was crucial in the course of the trial.

Darth arrived late as usual. I had not seen Darth for several weeks and I was a bit surprised when he came in the room looking very tan and wearing a very business-like three piece, blue pin-strip suit. His attire was quite different from his usual ski sweater and cleated cowboy boots that he wore around the office. I was also curious as to where he had gotten such a deep tan. As I sat there and listened to him give his deposition, I laughed to myself because it was such a fabrication that it was ridiculous, but it was the story line which had to be pursued to win the legal battle. The first day ended and Darth, Dan and I all agreed things had gone well, but we knew there were still a few items that needed to be gone over for the next day.

During the second day of questioning, Cruz Little asked the one question I had been waiting for.

Little: “There's no joint venture, anything like that between Gamma and Tenneland

Darth: “Mm-mm”*

Little: “It's just a manufacture-customer relationship?”

Darth: “Right”

Darth's first answer was barely audible, but it was still a “no” and then Little let him off the hook with the perfect follow-up question. What luck!

When noon rolled around we all decided to take an hour for lunch and then reconvene. At that point Cruz Little, Darth and Dan Gane asked me to leave the room while they chatted. I felt the request was a little unusual, but I dutifully left. As I closed the door behind me I stood there in the hallway and contemplated ease dropping on the conversation going on in the room. I wondered what could be so important that I couldn't hear it. After all, this was a legal proceeding. I decided to head to lunch, but to this day I wish I had listened
_________________________________________________________________________
* The first transcribed copy of the deposition shows Darth's answer to the first question to be “Mm-mm.” The official version shows it to be “No.”


The second day of testimony delved into the technical aspects. Mr. Little asked Darth to draw some chemical structures on a piece of paper which could be included in the deposition. Darth scrawled some crude structures on the paper as if he were barely aware of what had been going on in the lab. Darth had a B.S. Degree in chemistry, he had worked in and had been in charge of Gamma's lab for over ten years and I had given him detailed reports with structures on my work. We had discussed the structures, and now he was acting like a novice and as if he had never seen the structures before. I was concerned he was overacting. I was also beginning to wonder if Darth thought I didn't know what he was doing. After all, he had such a condescending attitude toward everyone. I decided for my own good, I had better find out.

Following Darth's testimony that afternoon, he, Dan Gane and I packed up the
documents and proceeded to leave the building. There was a sense of relief that the grind of two days of questioning was over. I jokingly said, “Darth, from the looks of those structures you drew, I'm going to have to teach you some organic chemistry.”

Darth stopped, turned and glared at me, and with a slightly red face said, “you better watch your step, BOY!” There was heavy emphasis on the BOY. Apparently there was no longer a need to explain things like the building fences lecture he gave me in our first meeting.