The Ledger

Standoff

In this episode (11.4), a Latino gang leader is killed in a transfer area at a prison. Briscoe and Green investigate, giving Green a chance to return to his past as a gang unit detective.

Briscoe and Green first suspect a small-time drug dealer who was in the prison at the same time, who happened to have also been injured during the incident but was released. They investigate him vigorously, and when they finally track him down, Green and Briscoe rush in on him and another gang member in the back of a restaurant when Green recognizes the other gang member: it's one of his old colleagues from the gang unit, who addresses him as "Detective Green," a gesture that implies that the gang member they were after, who is standing right there, is also a detective. Time to find a new suspect!

Eventually, they come up with the idea that one of the prison's corrections officers was involved. There were some inconsistencies in his statement to the police, and Carmichael eventually is granted access to his personnel file where she uncovers some other interesting data. The scene in which she retrieves and photocopies his file is funny because the corrections dept. was very reluctant to turn it over, and she is surrounded by a bunch of stony-faced corrections officers as she makes her copies. By analyzing the officer's file and that of the victim, they learn that the victim had previously raped a female officer who happens to be...the correction officer's girlfriend. There's your motive.

The investigate the officer, but none of the other officers will testify against him. One of them even confront McCoy at the trial in the elevator, and looks like he is about to spit in his face. McCoy does, however, get the girlfriend to testify about the rape. Shortly before the trial ends, McCoy tells Schiff he thinks he's beat. Spoiler: the verdict, not guilty, confirms his suspicion.

This episode is fairly conventional, but still interesting. Notable, mostly, I guess, because McCoy loses the case. The episode's title refers perhaps to the standoff between the officer and the inmate, and also between the DA's office and the department of corrections.

One interesting casting note: Donna Hanover, Rudy Giuliani's ex-wife, plays the judge. She has appeared on the show many times as the same character.

Posted by adm at March 4, 2004 09:29 PM

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