I'm with
cooperdk on the definition of VN's and sandbox/management games. It's either one or the other. You can't mix them as they have complete different nature. A VN is one long continuous story where you might have some choices which will send you down different paths, but you can't jump between different paths as you like during a game. In a sandbox/management game on the other hand each character can have it's own path and you can play them as you like, without having to finish a path before playing another.
You can off course ad a VN into a sandbox/management game, but I think you will lose a lot of the players who dislike VN if you do so. Instead it's better to break up the VN in smaller pieces so it's just another path.
I haven't played the court case yet, but based on the posts here, it sounds like it's a short VN that you can't get out of when first started. If this is true, why not break it up in multiple trial days, with the option to pause the trial and search for more evidence?