I'm trying to wrap up a campiagn we're running before the end of this month and here's the deal:

A beloved NPC has been picked up by Lone Star and is facing 21 counts of murder along with various weapons charges. He is also SINless.

You see, this guy was in charge of a local go-gang which was wiped out by enemies of the PC's and he wanted some payback, which he exacted very publicly with the help of the PC's. However, unlike the PC's, he was the only one nabbed, and he's not talking. Somewhat suprising me, the PC's have decided they owe it to this guy to get him off the hook one way or another.

There was no bail for this guy so what the PC's have done so far is this:

Hired a cheap lawyer for him. After the NPC was charged, this lawyer attempted to draw out proceedings so as to prevent a court date from being set until the PC's could afford an expensive lawyer. This was successful, and the PC's have hired a very pricy lawyer to represent the NPC.

However.

There is a lot of evidence against him, and things don't look good, so there may have to be a jailbreak...at least that is where the PC's seem to be headed, which I really don't think will be a good move on their part, but hey, what can you do?

What I'm looking for here is ideas on how to bail this guy out. Does anybody have any war stories that could provide ideas or even off-the-wall plans that just might work?

If they have enough money, they can bribe someone in the chain of custody of said evidence to either make it dissappear or contaminate it. Even a broken chain of custody can get evidence thrown out.


Or they can provide false evidence (dont really know how) to at least make his case unprovable by reasonable doubt. Maybe plant evidence, falsify receipts for alibi, ect.

I would expect that the easiest ways to spring a prisoner are by identity swapping or intercepting them in transit to and/or from the courthouse (again, preferably by identity swapping).

In the first case, you have the prisoner assume the identity of a parolee, employee, or visitor and just have them walk out. Sometimes, an enterprising prisoner can do this alone (it recently happened in real life), but outside help is always welcome.

As far as the in-transit thing is concerned, try to get the shadowrunners on the detail as security forces and use that to their advantage in getting the prisoner free. If that fails, just intercept the transport forcefully.

I'd go with Bastard's first idea simply because it's the easiest and most likely to actually work.

Hmmmm...I like that broken chain of evidence idea, and the PC's have the cash now. There were still a lot of witnesses that saw him gun down at least one of the guys, so I'm not sure how they'd deal with that...maybe a lot of bribes/hits?

Also, assuming that there is a jury trial, you can always influence a juror. All it takes is one.

They could ambush the prison transport while it is on it's way to the jail.

I see it this way: the Very Pricey Lawyer gets hired by the PCs. He reviews the case at 1000$/hour (or whatever), then sets a meeting with the PCs. "You friend is faced with overwhelming evidence against him. Right now, Judge Morgan has the case. That's no good. First we're gonna make sure Judge Baily has this case. Then..."

Bottom line, the pricey lawyer, which the PCs paid a small fortune, will require about twice as much again for bribes and paying for extra help he's gonna need.

The advantage is the ganger will be legally off the hook. Disadvanatage is it's gonna cost A LOT of money.

Second option, you're looking at things like jail breaks, transport nabbing, etc. The ganger will be forever wanted by the cops, but it'll be cheaper than legally getting him off.

To allieviate that, I suggest the PCs hit the transport bringing him to jail, and make it look like the gang he wiped out killed him as payback. Fake his death and bust him out at the same time. Of course, this isn't going to be easy to do...

But it would be fun.

I would consider saving a bunch of money to be a moderately good reason.

Fake some tapes of several of the key witnesses in compromising positions with same-gendered leather-clad troll bikers and 2 quarts of vegetable oil. Use them in the trial to discredit the witnesses.

Get *real* tapes of anyone sleazy enough to be taped in any illegal activity you can think of (*someone* involved in the trial has to be on the take, at the least). Use these for blackmail.

Kidnap the jurors while they sleep (without waking them -- keep them drugged and sleepy) and use memory engram machines on them while they sleep to distort their interpretation of the evidence. Then drug them with something mild that will impair their cognitive reasoning abilities.

Collect ritual samples from the jurors, and ritual mind control just in case the engram doesn't hold. Heck, mind control them at random in as subtle a way as you can, just so that they don't even trust their own thoughts (which should by this point be dulled by whatever you are drugging them with nightly anyway.)

Kidnap and impersonate one of the jurors. Make sure to get fingerprints and retinal patterns as part of the disguise; a high-profile trial like this will need them. You can stir up a lot of doubt and confusion as a juror "insider" -- especially with hacker help. "That's not what I remember that witness saying. Here, let's get the transcripts and see what he really said" -- and make sure your hacker changes the transcripts to something else. Especially if you've been following along and drugging them in their sleep, they'll be confused enough to listen to you and the "official" transcripts instead of what they remember.

Steal evidence (by bribery if possible, blackmail if necessary, and by outright theft as a last resort.) Make sure evidence is stored in warehouses with "poor electrical circuits" that occasionally catch fire (hack in and re-route the storage orders.) Then distort the evidence records (by "distort" I mean "hack into oblivion" or "set on fire") so that there is no provable chain of evidence (broken custody mentioned above).

Find "the real killer" -- i.e. someone with physical mask spells or the like that could have easily impersonated your guy. Make sure there is a well established motive for this person (for the killing as well as the impersonation), and that he also had the means. Also make certain this "real killer's" testimony won't be contradictory to your own -- by ensuring he has no pulse. Heck, if you make your fake killer heinous enough, and your story believable and dramatic enough (making sure to frame your guy as a real victim, maybe he was held hostage during this time?) he might even come out a "hero."

Fake the guy's death in prison. Remember, fire and acid are great destroyers of identity; a few hair fibers or maybe a finger will let you make a solid connection. If you *really* want this to work, implicate a cop in your friend's "accidental prison death" -- they will be so busy trying NOT to implicate one of their own, they won't even realize he really *is* innocent.

If ALL of that fails, you really only have two choices. Jail break, or kill your lawyer just before the closing statement -- which is probably cause for a mistrial. The first case will get you dead or wanted, the last will only buy you time, unfortunately.

Although, all things considered, given the strong case against this guy and his sinless status, he's pretty lucky to even be GETTING a trial. Worst case I see: Runners spend tons of money to get this guy aquitted, and he suffers an 'accidental death' before being released.

I think one good way out for your NPC is to go to jail. With overwhelming evidence, it would be better that the NPC does go to jail but does not sit on death row. He can set up a network in jail to help the PCs (see SOTA 2064). He could hook up with the in-jail/prison OC crowd. I would think that even mademen/yakuza would respect a ganger who avenges his gang, there is the NPC's "in" right here.

That, and he didn't rat out his accomplices...yet. (Who knows, really?)

That is definately one way to go with it and if the PC's fail to get him off I just might take it there. Thing is, if he's in prison for the rest of his natural life, it really doesn't do him any good other than make his stay a bit more comfortable.

Some great ideas out there so far. It'll be interesting to see where the players take it. As GM, I'd say I definately like Bastard's idea so far, though a transport break with a faked death (that's a great one too) would be oh-so-cool.

Wow.

I'd "kill" him, preferably in an attempt "to keep him from talking". Of course, the hit would be non-lethal; the slug would actually contain paint and a strong sedative. Then, have the janitor who hauls him out "attacked by vicious shadowrunners" (actually, bribed, hogtied, bruised and given a sedative to make him look as if he put up a good fight), and then leaving. A dead body is just one less thing for the courts to worry about.

In my hometown, there is no transportation from the jail to the courthouse, except for a tunnel that actually constitutes part of the jail. The buildings are right across the street from each other.

Perhaps you could get your lawyer to arrange a change of venue, to create said transportation issue.

But my vote is for this: Fabricate some crazier charges in another jurisdiction; another country or corp or something. Make it something really nasty that says the other jurisdiction gets a first crack at the guy. Then pose as representatives of said jurisdiction and let them hand him over to you. Easiest? No. Fun? Hell yes.
I'm thinking of something between Con Air and Black Rain. "This is an insurance policy!"

Has everyone overlooked the easiest possibility?

Lone Star is a corporation. They don't give a damn about gangers. Just pay the 'Star off, you get your guy back, and as far as the court is concerned, he died in a prison fight. Assuming he didn't kill anybody too 'important' (and remember, 'importance' can be represented as signs,) this would be the easiest way.

That is, assuming that it's the 'Star that has him.

I can't remember if this is true for SR's Seattle or not, but modern-day Seattle's courthouse is connected to the county jail, too. The worst they have to do is walk the guy across the street, should they choose not to take the connectors.

Getting this guy off scott-free is going to be next to impossible. I get the feeling that the Star is *not* happy with this guy... and if you're trying to get him off of the weapons charges as well as the murder, well, that's going to be a *huge* chain of evidence. If he's SINless, he's probably lucky the Star doesn't just execute him in an alley somewhere, if he gets off on a technicality... "Honest, sarge, we were dropping the guy off in his neighborhood, all nice and quiet, and he just went berserk." The cops *know* this guy's a killer. Of course, they might not care at all.

Besides, most runners (not all, certainly) would rather pull an armored truck bust than deal with lawyers for the next several months. The dude might have a hard time going home afterwards/resuming his old life if this is the route they pick, though... especially if any Star get killed in the process. I think this is what those anti-vehicular shocker missiles are for... less risk of fatalities (except maybe for the rigger) and you don't risk having spalling kill your extraction target.

Were it my game (and my group), I'd be all over a run where they hit the transport Your mileage may vary, of course.

Am I the only one thinking ski masks, assault rifles, a stolen van, and some c12? Am I the only one who liked the movie 'Heat'? Maybe a run and gun nab after conviction, right as he leaves the courthoue on the way to the pen. Then again, there's a reason I usually play gun bunnies.

Play it to you players streangth, do you have 4 troll's with HMG's? or 3 elven faces and an illusionist? One of each archetype? The plan doesn't have to be overly complex or too simple but everyone's streangth should play a part in the break.