Justin Lowell, the son of Llanview’s incumbent mayor Stan Lowell, was recently arrested and brought up on charges for possession of marijuana. Under advisement of his father, the defendant pled “not guilty” in juvenile court.
District Attorney Nora Buchanan had offered a very fair plea agreement of attending drug treatment, but Mayor Lowell believed going to court to be in the best interest of his son and his own campaign.
In accepting the plea agreement, or pleading guilty, Justin would have had to admit up front that he did, indeed, buy the drugs. Not only did the defense not want to admit to the charges, they also did not want to use the identity of the dealer Justin obtained the drugs from in court, for the same reason.
The dealer in question? Cole Thornhart, who has been working undercover for police lieutenant John McBain, and is the father of campaign manager Dorian Lord’s great-great-niece.
Dorian planned to put a positive spin on the events to the press, by representing the mayor as a “normal parent, facing normal parental challenges” which would make him more relatable to people.
The defense planned to pursue a strategy involving the fact that John McBain arrested Justin within a half hour of his drug purchase – hoping to nail the detective for police entrapment.
In fact, Cole had informed John of Justin’s purchase, and John had arrested Justin before he had the chance to use the drugs.
“Justin is still a child,” the mayor said in court. “He’s not a criminal. He was set up ... by a man with a grudge – someone who has made no secret of his wish to destroy me. My son was framed by the man who arrested him – Lieutenant John McBain.”
Dr. Lord seemed slightly confused by the mayor’s strategy in court, and John McBain’s actions, but still planned to tell the media as little as possible.
After a quick trip home to check on her nieces, Dorian overheard a conversation between Starr and her father, Todd, in which Starr revealed that Cole was working undercover.
Dorian promptly informed the mayor, hoping it would help Justin’s defense and the campaign, as well as redeeming Cole in the mayor’s eyes.
Todd also went straight to the mayor; concerned about any danger Starr and Hope might be in because of the actions of the police department.
Before further action could be taken, and knowing that the mayor might put Cole in danger, John McBain publicly arrested the undercover drug dealer.
The mayor’s mole in the police department, Officer Keaton, was later shot in the jail as he attempted to kill Cole.
Meanwhile, Charlie Banks – candidate Viki Banks’ husband and campaign manager – invited Mayor Lowell to attend her press conference to announce her candidacy. It was the Banks’ intention to promise the people a clean campaign.
The Lowell campaign refused to attend Viki Banks’ press conference, or make any promises about running a clean campaign. In fact, when Charlie warned Dorian that they might make it known that Mayor Lowell was invited to the speech and refused to come, Dorian immediately pointed out that they were, in fact, playing dirty right out of the gate.
When Charlie suggested to Dorian that the Lowell campaign was afraid that they couldn’t win the election without mud slinging, she rebutted by suggesting a political debate.
Back at Lowell campaign headquarters, Lowell and his manager seemed to amicably disagree on both the mayor’s insistence that he could not reach John McBain concerning Justin and Starr, and her volunteering him for a debate with Viki.
However, the debate did work out to the mayor’s advantage in one way – he could keep Dorian occupied with debate planning while he dealt with more important (and much more reputation damaging) issues. Cole’s drug boss headed to La Boulaie with a gun and plans to use Starr and Hope to fix their problem with the police.
In the meantime, when John McBain and his force entered Lowell campaign headquarters to make an arrest, no one was there.
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