tasteoftruth | The Story of Badd

Tyrell Badd was born to a working-class family in Chicago, and later moved to Los Angeles to become a police officer. He was made a detective in his early 20s and quickly established himself as a competent officer, willing to throw himself into dangerous situations and skilled enough to come out alive. He was eventually partnered with rookie prosecutor Byrne Faraday, and after some initial friction the two formed a close friendship. A few years later Badd became a secondary father figure to Faraday’s daughter Kay, who began referring to him as “Uncle Badd” when she was old enough to talk.

In 2001, Badd was assigned to protect Cece Yew, a whistleblower ready to inform on the activities of a smuggling ring. The ring was supposedly operating out of the embassy for the Principality of Cohdopia, where Cece worked, and she was afraid of being killed before she could testify. Badd promised that he would keep her safe.

He failed.

The evidence against Manny Coachen was overwhelming and Faraday felt confident that he would at least get Cece some justice. However, an agent of the smuggling ring stole the evidence right before the trial and Coachen was exonerated. This infuriated Badd and Faraday, as well as Cece’s defense attorney sister Calisto Yew, who blamed them for the fiasco (later known as the KG-8 Incident, after the case number). All three felt that the justice system had failed and was simply not competent enough to capture those who put themselves above the law…so they decided they’d have to take up the slack. Thus was formed the Great Thief Yatagarasu.

Taking their name from the image of a three-legged-bird used on the smuggling ring’s message cards and using a pallet-swapped card as their insignia, the trio stole evidence of corrupt dealings from businesses and sent it to the media to be exposed. Badd’s role in the plan was to be the head of the Yatagarasu investigation and use his position to hide and destroy any evidence that might get them caught. He continued to wear the bullet-hole-riddled trenchcoat he wore during Cece’s murder, letting it be a reminder of his own failure and motivation to continue fighting.

Unbeknowst to her partners, Calisto Yew was not Cece’s sister. She was actually an agent of the smuggling ring itself, there to keep an eye on the Yatagarasu and make sure it didn’t get too close to the truth.

The group functioned for three years, culminating in Faraday breaking into the Cohdopian Embassy and stealing an ornamental key with a hidden blade used to carry out the murder murder. Faraday sent the Key to the police rather than the media (since they were on the investigation team, he was basically sending it from his illegal self to his legal self) and planned to use it to finally bring their enemies down. Unfortunately for the Yatagarasu the smuggling ring decided they had gone too far and ordered Yew to put an end to the matter.

On the night of the heist a thug named Mack Rell, under orders from Yew, murdered another potential whistleblower with the very unfortunate name of Deid Mann. Again there was obvious evidence to the thug’s guilt, and due to the similarities it was known in the courts as the second KG-8 Incident. Yew acted as Rell’s lawyer, as she had for many criminals tied to the smuggling ring. Rell claimed that he was the Yatagarasu, although he didn’t recognize the key when it was shown to him. In a shocking twist, after entering the court Rell claimed that the Yatagarasu was the one who had ordered the hit on Mann—and that Faraday was the Yatagarasu!

The trial was suspended pending appointment of a new prosecutor, the rookie Miles Edgeworth. Faraday pulled Rell and Yew into Defendant Lobby #2 and began yelling at the both of them. Yew feared that Rell would be intimidated and tell Faraday that she had told him to make the accusation. She stabbed Faraday and then shot Rell. Afterward she arranged their bodies to make it seem they had killed each other and purposefully set the scene so that the sound of a recorded gunshot would be heard through the opened window a half hour later. She then went into Defendant Lobby #1 to talk to Badd, in order to establish an alibi for the supposed time of death.

Playing into Yew’s hands, Badd burst into Lobby #2 right before court was set to reconvene to find his partner and best friend stabbed to death, with the gun used to kill Rell clutched in his hand. As upset as Badd was, he restrained his emotion for the sake of solving the crime and for the sake of ten-year-old Kay, who was roaming the courthouse waiting for her father to come out. At the pair’s request, Prosecutor Manfred von Karma forced Badd to let Edgeworth and von Karma’s young daughter Franziska head up the investigation into the murder.

While Edgeworth investigated the incident, Badd did the same and only grudgingly gave them any useful information at all. He also kept Kay busy, distracting her with a Swiss Roll and asking her to look for the Yatagarasu’s Key, which had gone missing during the investigation. The only time Badd even showed a hint of rage or grief was when someone insulted the late Faraday or was arrested as the murderer.

Eventually Edgeworth found evidence that indicated Yew’s part in the murder and cornered her to force her to confess. Badd was shocked to find out that she was a complete fraud and a killer, but before he could arrest her she pulled a gun and escaped out into the lobby. Badd chased her down, getting another hole in his trenchcoat for his troubles, but she disappeared.

Badd spent the next seven years searching for her and found nothing.

[Note: I often play Badd from before the events of AAI, but not always. If he's still got a badge the following does not apply to his backstory.]

In March of 2019 Badd broke into Faraday’s old office, now belonging to current High Prosecutor Edgeworth, to retrieve the old Yatagarasu investigation files. He discovered the office had already been ransacked and the corpse of Detective Buddy Faith on the floor, but forced himself to simply move the corpse away from the bookcase and leave it to be found by others. Unfortunately Edgeworth returned to his office before Badd could leave and Badd was forced to hold him up at gunpoint in order to escape without revealing his identity. After taking the papers he needed he escaped into the hallway, leaving behind a Yatagarasu card.

The next day the former Cohdopian Embassy (now the Allebahst and Bahbahl Embassies, Cohdopia having suffered a civil war in the intervening seven years) received oanother Yatagarasu cards. There was later two fires, an apparent Yatagarasu appearance, and two murderers (one of Manny Coachen, the other of a hired thief of little note) in the embassies and Badd was called in to investigate. He conducted his own inspection while Miles Edgeworth conducted a more public investigation. Miles eventually outed Shih-na, the assistant to Interpol Agent Shi-Long Lang, as being a disguised Calisto Yew.

Shih-na abruptly grabbed Kay and put a gun to her head, intent on taking her hostage. She revealed that the Yatagarasu was actually three people, and named Faraday as her co-conspirator. Before she could reveal the third member, Badd had his gun to her back. He fired when Yew tried to escape, but Agent Lang tackled Yew and took the bullet in the leg.

As Lang took Shih-na away Badd revealed the true story of the Yatagarasu and admitted his own part in the plan. He handed over two pieces of stolen evidence that, while inadmissible in court, might help Edgeworth to determine the identity of the final smuggling ring member. Badd then told Gumshoe to place him under arrest and, very unwillingly, Gumshoe put his detective idol in handcuffs.

Badd was later called to testify to the Yatagarasu’s activities and to provide information on the smuggling ring. While the plea bargain lessened his jail time, he was happy to contribute to finally putting away the head of the ring.