Hello. I am P.A. Moore, the author of Courthouse Cowboys-A Modern Tale of Murder in Montana. I am talking to you today for one reason, and that is to tell about you Klinefelter's Syndrome. The book is a fictional memoir based on a true story involving a murder case that I tried about a decade ago. (And here is Oz, my little Cairn terrier.)
The real reason I wrote the book is to educate people on Klinefelter's Syndrome.
One in every 300 to 500 boys born worldwide is born with Klinefelter's Syndrome, meaning they have an extra X chromosome.
Why do you need to know that? Well, number one, that is a very common genetic anomaly. Number two, the reason it is a syndrome is because it affects these boys in their frontal lobes, their executive functioning.
Which means, all of them have learning disabilities that are not diagnosed when they are little. They have other symptoms, physical attributes that don't become obvious until puberty. If we can diagnose these boys early, with a simple blood test (you either have it or you don't),
they can be treated at puberty with simple testosterone hormone treatments, through a patch. If treated by age 11 or 12, or whenever puberty sets in, and possibly even before puberty according to some recent research, these boys can develop normal lives, their brains develop normally, and the only long term affect in some cases is infertility.
So, you need to know, teachers need to know, doctors need to know, because its not like a lot of other genetic disorders where nothing can really be done.
Additionally parents who know their baby has Klinefelter's Syndrome can be extra aware of it, just like if a child had Downs Syndrome or any other disability, blindness, deafness, except the beauty of Klinefelters Syndrome, and knowing about it, is that it can be remedied, and once its remedied, its remedied for life. And these boys can grow up, go to college, and be perfectly normal.
While both a lawyer and author who knows more than most people about Klinefelter's syndrome, I am not an expert. For more specific, clinical information please refer to the expert testimony in Courthouse Cowboys or contact: www.thefocusfoundation.org or www.genetics.org
BOOK Introduction
For Defalco & Defalco, murder is just another ho-hum part of their rural Mr. and Mrs. Montana law firm, a two-member establishment tucked above the local health food store. After moving their young family from a big city in California, these ‘tall building’ lawyers find themselves ostracized by the local attorneys. To make ends meet, the couple must switch sides of the courtroom, from former prosecutors putting bad guys in jail, to defense attorneys trying to get them out. Coming from a legal system that at least gave lip service to the U.S. Constitution, the stunned partners soon encounter an unscrupulous ‘good old boy’ network that infects Montana’s criminal justice system - a handy benefit for the cops, lawyers, and judges, but often hazardous for the accused evildoers.
When Jack Defalco cons Paige Defalco into accepting a job as a Kootenai County public defender, she heads to the local courthouse, daunted by the idea of representing criminals. Once inside, however, sitting in jail with client after client, each with his own story of unjust treatment by the ‘Courthouse Cowboys’, she realizes the line between good guys and bad guys isn’t clear.
Because she refuses to plead everyone guilty, within a month Paige angers the judges (all two of them), the prosecutors (all six of them), the cops (in three towns), and her own colleagues (go-along, get-along officers of the court). Things slide further downhill when she rats out these legal lamebrains to the Montana Supreme Court and the ACLU, making her as popular as a malaria-ridden mosquito.
Meanwhile, murders riddle peaceful Kootenai County, and the Defalcos land right in the middle of that controversy when they agree to represent several of the alleged killers. One such client - disabled, 18-year-old, Ben Stagg - sits in Deer Lodge State Prison serving a 100-year sentence for a homicide he didn’t commit. When Paige promises his parents she’ll try to help get him out, she unravels illegal and unethical back-door machinations, unheard of except in the movies.
Fighting to save her kid client from life and death behind bars, Paige finds herself threatened, investigated by the State Bar, and excoriated in the media. She unearths incest, abuse, and ‘demon-possessed’ attackers, enlists the help of a psychological expert in such things, and then she learns about Klinefelter’s syndrome. That discovery changes everything. By the end of this roller coaster ride, Paige sheds her long held cynicism and finds a bit of faith.
In Courthouse Cowboys, freshman author P.A. Moore mixes suspense, courtroom drama, and gallows humor into a fast-paced plot based on actual cases, public documents, and trial transcripts.
