Davison Trials of 1399

The Davison Trials were a series of High Court and Senatorial trials held by Picketralia from January 17, 1399 - December 27, 1399. Led by Prosecutor General Daris Davison, it's primary goal was to combat corruption within the Picketralian government, and demonstrate to the world and Picketralia's allies that its long criticized judicial system did indeed work.

Background

Starting in 1389, many journalists and politicians began accusing high-profile individuals of corruption. This was a normal occurrence in Picketralia, but the public was fed up with what they viewed as constant non-transparency, and they got angry, leading to the "Troubled Times" of 1391-1399.

The 1390s were an especially turbulent decade for Picketralian politics and government. On December 18, 1391, senior Belleisle Party official and Snowdon County representative Ray Veltin revoked the lease that the Picketralian Copper Mining & Extraction Company had on the Kronx Islands in the northernmost part of the country. He opened a lease with a smaller mining company, the V.G. Jeuriv Mining Company. It was later revealed that the V.G. Jeuriv Mining Company had made a considerable campaign donation years prior. PCMEC sued Veltin and the Belleisle Party and their case was heard in the High Court of Picketralia on February 18, 1392. On February 21, 1392, the High Court announced that they sided with PCMEC and Ray Veltin soon resigned from office. However, no criminal charges were filed until 1398.

On December 30, 1392, Morgan Korkin, a representative from Snowdon County, who had long chaired the Senate Committee on Ethics, passed away, aged 78. After his death, the committee was abolished for unknown reasons. An attempt was made to determine the reason, but the Corruption Task Force could not determine it.

In late 1395, rural mail carriers for Flourtess County went on strike, protesting low wages and terrible working conditions. However, Maiman Party VP of Worker Outreach, Rahna Bash, had paid the Letter Carriers Guild hundreds of thousands of emeralds to encourage carriers to go on strike and receive an endorsement from the guild. When this was revealed in early March 1396, many believed that the entire strike was a fabrication to earn more votes, and Maiman Party polling suffered severely, with the Letter Carriers Guild losing support of PikPost. They were also not invited to attend negotiations to end the strike that month; the strike ended on March 28, 1396.

In June of 1396, Picketralia, under edict of King Mason I, conquered the rest of the Righteous Lands that had been promised to them in the Treaty of Pafalia in 978, when they gained independence from Railtown. That same day, the Kingdom of Frankfurt purchased a large swath of land just west of Stimpton's old border to construct Estalia Estates at 300 West Road, which would become the tallest building in the world. Many believed that King Frank V of Frankfurt had paid King Mason I possibly millions of diamonds to do this, as King Mason I had vehemently promised to not conquer the land for much of his earlier life (he was 85) and Frankfurt would make a lot of money with the building. After King Mason I's death in 1400, controversy ensued over whether King Mason I was losing his capacities or had intentionally conquered the land for monetary gain. Nevertheless, he was never put to trial.

Starting in February 1397, the Head Treasurer, Navis Kleick began investigating missing funds that were allocated either to road maintenance and repair via grants sent to the City of Stimpton and to widen Flourtess Road in Mordor and Flourtess County. He uncovered that numerous senior treasury officials, most notably Stimpton Comptroller Darius Marks, and Picketralian Senate Committee for the Trade of Picketralia chair Ethel Tulare, from Flourtess County, had been siphoning funds slowly to avoid detection for over 20 years. Tulare resigned immediately and Darius Marks was fired. This scandal was lampooned by the press as the "Drain the Bathtub" scandal, due to not only the method of money skimming, but also Picketralia's inability to "drain the bathtub," i.e., control the corruption problem. This culminated in the Treasurer's Report on Government Ethics, more commonly known as The Kleick Report, published in October of 1397, sparking mass outrage.

This all lead to King Mason I establishing the independent and nonpartisan Corruption Task Force, chaired by Prosecutor General Daris Davison, and made up of Head Treasurer Navis Kleick, Stimpton City Manager Erdman Noris, as well as a variety of other members. They began the planning for what became a series of 12 trials held between January 17, 1399 - December 27, 1399. Six would be held by the reestablished Committee on Ethics, and the other six would be held by the Corruption Task Force, acting as jurors in the High Court. On December 14, 1398, over two hundred individual charges were filed against 27 individuals, including Ray Veltin, Rahna Bash, Victor Jeuriv, Letter Carriers Guild President Nanis Irse, Darius Marks, Ethel Tulare, and 21 others.