Bennie Rosato

Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline takes place in and around Pennsylvania’s largest city, Philadelphia. The story takes place over 13 years, in 2002 and 2015. The main character, Bennie Rosato, is tied to the story because she is a trial lawyer, owning her own law firm with her partners. Flashback to 2002, Bennie takes on a juvenile case even though she doesn't practice juvenile law. Her case involves Jason Leftkavick an eleven year old boy thrown into the Juvenile detention center for getting into a fight with another child, Richie Grusini, at school. Bennie later gets fired from the case because she had relations with Richie’s uncle, Declan, which aggravated Jason’s dad. Declan breaks up with Bennie to deal with all his family drama but what he
doesn’t know is that Bennie was pregnant with his baby. The book then fast forwards to the present in 2015 where Bennie is called to represent Jason again, but this time he is being tried as an adult for the murder of Richie. Bennie is forced to interact with declan again, thirteen years after their initial fling. Jason’s trial proceeds but he is not found guilty the real murderer was Richie’s best friend. On the very last page of the book, Declan wants to reunite with Bennie, and she reveals the sad news that she miscarried their baby. If Bennie were to go on a trip she would definitely bring a legal pad.
Throughout the book Bennie is not shy about her lawyer mentality. She is willing to admit every time that she is at heart a truly intense attorney. The way she holds herself is not only a representation of her confidence in her abilities but also her love of her job. The way she unapologetically performs in the courtroom eventually even convinces Declan to quit his job as a state policeman and start studying law. On page 261, “Bennie sat down, picked up her pen, and drew a line down the top page of her legal pad, the time-honored technique of trial lawyers
everywhere.” Another item she would bring with her is her confidence. Bennie is a very confident woman. She jumps head first into every case she encounters, and everyone knows she’s an amazing attorney who wins most cases. Her ex-lover Declan was so sure that she was going to win the case that would free his nephew’s accused murderer that she found herself in the odd position of talking herself down, on page 253, “That could still happen. Don’t overestimate me. My representation doesn’t guarantee a win. I’m good, but i’m not that good.” After this, Declan replies “Don’t be modest. You’re the big gun. Everybody knows it, and I don’t want to take a chance.” Declan makes Bennie realize that she has room for another love in her heart other than law. If she couldn’t bring Declan with her on vacation, she would bring a picture of him. Their relationship goes through many tests throughout the book including Bennie getting fired from the case, losing their baby and her representing jason for the second time.They, as we find out on page 420 the last page of the book, are ultimately still in love, “And, finally she understood that in sharing a burden, there was the true love.” While in the book Bennie miscarries the baby, if this vacation is taking place in her dream world, her baby would be alive, waiting for her to return home. The baby would be almost 13 years old, and she would bring a picture of her daughter with her on vacation. On page 208, is when we discovered she miscarried, “She had lost the baby, miscarried when she was two-and-a-half months pregnant, and she would never forget that night, down to the most minute detail.” Bennie had never pictured herself as a mother until the first time she represented Jason, when he was just a little boy. She goes through a transformation as she gets attached to Jason and his case. Jason was a scared, innocent little kid, and from the moment he accidentally called her “mommy” Bennie loved him. On page 124, “She wasn’t sure what to call the feeling, which touched a part of her so deep that she didn’t even know it existed. She’d often wondered when she’d be a mother, but she’d never thought of herself as a mommy. Just the sound of the word got to her. Mommy.” This is only one of the reasons why she would always carry a photo of Jason with her, even on vacation. The second reason is because, she had had two chances to defend this boy, and on the second time, on page 15, “Bennie was going to give Jason everything she has this time, conceding nothing.” She did right by Jason, she proved him innocent when he was accused of murder, she was her second chance. Bennie’s first run-in with Jason was rigged from the beginning. He was a young child in the juvenile detention center, when he hadn’t done anything wrong. Bennie was right, he really hadn’t done anything wrong, he was a victim of a crooked scheme. Bennie would bring a newspaper clipping of the “Kids-For-Cash Scandal” with her everywhere. To remind her that the cards were stacked against Jason from the moment Richie started that fight in elementary school. On page 231, “But what nobody knew was that Judge Zero Tolerance was part owner of the new for-profit prison and that he was in cahoots with Judge Conahan, another judge on the Common Pleas Court. The judges guaranteed the builder of the new juvenile detention center that it would be kept full.” Bennie thoroughly thought about it before letting declan into her life.
She loved her life as it was, without a man. She loved her perfect little house, with her big dog, and her amazing job. While soul searching, she examines her house. On page 98, “Everything she saw was just the way she wanted it, wasn’t it?”, “She looked around at the house with new eyes, wondering if there was room for a man in her home, or her life.” and on page 99, “noticing that everything in the room were objects she loved and had collected over the years, but all of them were about her.” Bennie is critical of her house, because it is so much like her, filled with everything important to her. She would bring a key to her house with her on her vacation, not just so she can get in when she gets back, but because that house is all hers. One of the things in Bennie’s house is her oar, hung with “her beloved Thomas Eakins lithographs of rowers on the Schuylkill River”, she becomes very critical of these items when she thinks about Declan seeing her house. She talks about how she was on the rowing team in college, and it is obviously very important to her. On page 99, “the real oar mounted at the top of the wall, with the red-and-blue-painted blade of the University of Pennsylvania, her alma mater.” She would bring this oar with her, this is where she decides, she doesn’t care if Declan doesn’t like it because it is important to
her. Her blackberry is something she takes with her everywhere! Everyone takes their phones with them and constantly checks them but for Bennie this is part of her job. Updating her clients, looking for new information, and getting texts from her new, hot boyfriend are things she is doing all the time. On page 98, “spent the last few hours trying to get work done at the office, between checking her blackberry for texts from Declan.” on page 161, “Bennie checked her phone, but there was still no call or text from Declan.” Those quotes only give a small amount of insight to how many times the book talks about Bennie checking her phone. Although, communication is definitely important, it isn't the only use of her beloved blackberry. she also uses it for surveillance. On page 237, “Bennie, you take your phone and make a video of all the license plates on cars on the right side of the street. I’ll make a video of the license plates on the left side of the street. Then when whoever leaves the house, we can see which cars they go to, and i can run those license plates by some of my buddies.” This takes place when Bennie and Lou are staking out Richie’s house to find out who his friends are. Lastly and certainly not least, is Bennie’s dog Bear. She could have him because he was such a well behaved dog and she could bring him to the office. The book mentions how much Bear cheers Bennie up, he forces her to get out of bed to walk him, even when she wants to lay in bed all day after Declan ends their relationship. On page 99, “She went into the kitchen and turned on the light to see Bear trotting toward her with his metal bowl in his mouth, which was one of the cutest tricks she’d ever seen.” Everyone needs a bestfriend, in the form of a dog and Bennie would want Bear with her all the time, especially on a vacation where he could explore new environments and sniff new things! Corrupted by Lisa Scottoline was an amazing book, about a trial lawyer who herself didn’t know she could have such complex feelings towards anyone let alone a cop and an eleven year old accused of starting a fight in school. She would bring many things with her on vacation, things attached to her past and present. Bennie learned to be sentimental during the thirteen years when the book took place, and her backpack would reflect that.