The Ledger

4.2 Volunteers

In this episode (4.2), various members of a neighborhood association are suspected in an attack on a mentally-disturbed homeless person who harassed the people on the block.

The episode begins with a couple making out and stumbling over the comatose victim, who turns out to be a homeless man named Roland Kirk.* Briscoe and Logan find the victim with a crack pipe and $2200, and a business card indicating that he is a psychiatric patient. One witness, Leon Proskey, the owner of a nearby restaurant says he didn't see much but a man with a red hat near the scene. Briscoe and Logan manage to track down the red hat wearer who is in possession of the victim's Medicare card, but turns out not to be responsible for the murder. They next track down the victim's sister, who is surprised to learn the victim had $15,000 is his bank account, and was withdrawing $200 per day. Where did the money come from? Nobody knows yet.

Soon enough, however, the detectives learn that the money came from a successful lawsuit the victim had filed against the neighborhood association. He said that they had waged a campaign of harassment against him, and he won. In retaliation, the members of the association filmed him screaming at them and pushing them around. It turns out he even mugged an old lady and pushed a boy into traffic once.

Around this time, Kirk comes out of his coma, and starts spewing a lot of nonsense about a bald woman in a flowered bathrobe sitting on his chest. These delusions turn out to be a description of a local dentist who found the victim and administered CPR to him. This dentist becomes a suspect in the attack, but eventually points the finger at two other neighborhood residents -- the restaurant owner and the father of the boy who had been shoved into the street. It seems the two had co-ordinated and planned the attack, but they offer a justification defense, arguing that they felt in constant danger from Kirk and had to do something about it. The scene in which Kirk testifies at the trial is great -- he gradually loses his composure and ends up boasting about how he is going to sue his attackers and use the money to "buy enough crack to last a lifetime" and get a "Rolls-Royce wheelchair." One of the defendants testifies on his own behalf, and Stone destroys him on cross, until he suffers the requisite emotional outburst that simultaneously makes you look guilty and unsympathetic. Nonetheless, the jury buys the justification defense, and finds the defendants guilty only of second-degree assault. The sympathetic judge takes the unusual step of moving into the sentencing phase immediately, and sentences the defendant only to time served, meaning he is free to go.

The name of the victim here -- Roland Kirk -- is interesting because it appears to reference Rahsaan Roland Kirk, an unusual American jazz musician who often presented himself as being not quite in touch with reality, and who had many psychological problems.

One casting note: one of the defendants is Dennis O'Hare, who has appeared as a defendant in two other episodes. In both of these, he defends himself.

Posted by adm at March 16, 2004 01:38 AM

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