The Ledger

7.5 Corruption

In this episode (7.5), a corrupt detective murders a small-time drug dealer in the presence of Briscoe and Curtis, and then tries to smear Briscoe as his own career falls apart.

The episode begins with a bunch of detectives, including Briscoe and Curtis, undercover preparing to make a drug buy followed by an arrest. Briscoe and another detective, John Flynn, approach the suspect, with whom they had apparently arranged a meeting. Curtis and some other detectives look on from nearby positions. As Briscoe heads back to the car to retrieve the money, Flynn yells "Gun!" and two shots ring out. When Briscoe turns around again and everyone storms the scene, the dealer is dead, two shots to the chest.

Flynn tells everyone he saw the dealer -- Ruben Morales -- make a move for his gun, so he fired. He tells everyone that when the investigation into the shooting occurs, the investigators will expect uniform recollection of events, and he makes sure everyone has his story straight. Curtis resists this, however, and says he's not sure whether he saw Morales reach for a gun. This creates immediate tension between Curtis and Flynn, and Flynn tells Briscoe to tell his young partner "how things are done."

The Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) conducts an investigation of the shooting, and they interview Briscoe and Curtis. Briscoe reveals he worked with Flynn previously for several years in the 116th precinct. When they interview Curtis they ask him if he knew why Morales was the targeted dealer that night, and if he knew a man named Hector Garcia. Curtis answers no to both questions, and is non-responsive when they ask him whether they saw Morales reach for a gun.

Suspicious, Curtis begins investigating the shooting on his own. He wants to discover the connection between Garcia, Morales, and Flynn. He talks to a cop who recently arrested Morales and learns that he should have been behind bars, but the DAs office let him go, apparently because he decided to roll on Hector Garcia, his boss. Curtis tries to track down Morales' brother. Finding no answer at his apartment, he asks a neighbor -- a woman and her young, brainy son. The son asks Curtis some questions about being a cop, Curtis says he's "Peruvian on my mother's side," and finds out the the Morales brother works in a dance club/bar nearby. At the bar, he sweet-talks a hostess who tells him where Morales might be staying. He arrives at the near-empty apartment, gun drawn, and finds a panicked Morales hiding in a closet. Morales is is great distress and is fearful of being shot. Curtis calms him down, and Morales says that after he and his brother rolled on Garcia, they knew Garcia would try to kill him. This suggests that Flynn killed Morales as a services to Garcia.

Curtis brings this information to Briscoe, who doesn't want to hear it. They have a heated discussion at the end of which Briscoe basically tells Curtis that he's on his own.

Curtis then looks into the connection between Garcia and Flynn. He talks to the DA who was going to prosecute Garcia several years ago (but who is now a personal injury lawyer) and learns that the case against Garcia never went to trial because the evidence against him was stolen from the property room at the 116th precinct. Meanwhile, Flynn talks to Briscoe and says he wants to confront Curtis, because he's heard rumors that Curtis is investigating him. At this meeting, Flynn angrily confronts Curtis, and then when Briscoe says something that is faintly defensive of Curtis, Flynn turns on both of them, and says he will make both of their lives miserable if they don't back down.

This gets Briscoe heated up, and he starts investigating Flynn, too. He pressures and connives the other detectives the night of the shooting to give him some information about how Morales ended up there. He learns that a snitch named Two-tone set it up. Briscoe tracks down Two-tone at a dice game, and roughly questions him about the circumstances leading up to the shooting. He learns that Flynn arranged it. Curtis and Briscoe together talk to one of the other detectives, Kenny Edwards, and Edwards admit that he got paid $200 a week from Flynn, and that he keeps the money in a coffee can in his basement. The money, he says, came from Hector Garcia.

Cheekbones, aka Jamie Ross, then gets involved and joins the IAB's investigation of Flynn. He keeps calling her "sweetheart," etc., sarcastically, but it's clear that he's cornered. When Flynn challenges them to arrest him, she issues the command to arrest him. (28 minutes in to the ep.)

At this point, political issues begin complicating the legal ones. Judge Hellman, of the Hellman Commission that is investigating police corruption, calls Schiff and says that he wants to make a deal with Flynn for his testimony. McCoy doesn't want that to happen, and he tries to get Flynn to roll on Garcia, who we learn has been a target of the DA's office for many years. Flynn refuses.

Cheekbones then talks to Flynn's mistress, who has seen Garcia and Flynn together. McCoy then confronts Flynn again and offers him Murder 2 in exchange for testimony against Garcia. Flynn retorts, "The offer is: kiss my ass." Cheekbones wants to offer more of a deal to get Garcia, but McCoy says the a corrupt, murdering cop is the worst kind of criminal, and should be prosecuted as such. Unfortunately for McCoy, Judge Hellman goes over his head and cuts a deal with Flynn: 2-6 years and lifetime probabation in exchange for testimony against other corrupt cops. McCoy meets with Hellman and is outraged, but there's nothing he can do. The governor and mayor's offices have both approved the deal.

Flynn testifies before the Hellman commission on TV as Briscoe, Van Buren, and the rest of the precinct watch. He discusses corrupt cops, but doesn't name Garcia. Eventually, he explains the time when Garcia got off because of the missing evidence. He says Briscoe is the detective who stole the evidence. Back at the precinct, Briscoe storms out of the room.

We next see Briscoe testifying before the commission. He says that he was home at the time of the theft, and that the login sheet had been falsified. He admits that he is a recovering alcoholic and that he was drunk on that day. It's clearly a humiliating experience for Briscoe, but he's apparently rather admit that he was drunk than that he was corrupt.

CB and McCoy investigate, and CB attempts to clear Briscoe's name. Schiff is uneasy about becoming the "Briscoe defense committee" but McCoy assures him it's in everbody's best interest to learn the truth. They learn that a sargeant named Dave Spence quit the precinct shortly after the evidence disappeared. Cheekbones attempts to track him down, but learns he's dead. Briscoe tells McCoy he wants to wear a wire to get Flynn to admit he was lying, saying he's got nothing to do since he's on "indefinite ass duty" since the commission hearing. McCoy refuses.

CB visits Spence's attorney to see if she can learn whether Spence did indeed steal the evidence. He can't violate privilege even though Spence is dead, but he's obviously charmed by CB, so he says something like, "I'm going to open that door and let you out. If I don't fall and break my arm by the time I get there, you can assume that my client admitted he did the crime in question."

Next, we see Briscoe entering what is apparently his apartment building. (Wow, that's the first time we've followed Briscoe home, I think.) A woman named Betty Abrams is waiting for him. It turns out that she and Briscoe were having an affair at the time of the property theft and that they were together the night before the incident. Somehow this means that Briscoe couldn't have stolen the evidence. We also learn that Abrams was married at the time of the affair. She says she wants to tell the committee this to clear Briscoe's name, but he says she shouldn't. Nonetheless, she testifies about this to the commission, and Hellman goes after her, trying to make her out to be a serial liar. He forces her to admit to other affairs. Briscoe is angry with McCoy for letting this happen, saying "I'm going to kick your ass from here to Hoboken," (but really, what does McCoy have to do with it?) but McCoy says the woman volunteered and was not pursued by the DA's office. Briscoe confronts Hellman in the bathroom, saying, "So this is how you get off," and calling him all sorts of names.

Briscoe tells McCoy he's going to do things his way, and he meets Flynn in a Catholic church, where Flynn is leaving the confessional. He gets him to say that he knows Briscoe didn't steal the evidence, but it's clear Flynn knows Briscoe is wearing a wire.

McCoy and CB prepare to arrest Flynn for violating his parole agreement by perjuring himself. Briscoe volunteers to go along. They show up at his house, and talk to him as he prepares to leave. He walks into the bathroom and -- no surprise here -- shoots himself dead.

The episode is notable for a couple reasons. We see the Hellman Comission in action. The commission has been referred to in several episodes, and every now and then someone brings up its investigation into Briscoe. We see that the commission is motivated by politics and the desire to make the front pages of the newspapers, not out of a real quest for truth. Also notable is the quick trip to the lobby of Briscoe's apartment building. The building seemed relatively high-end: a nice, atrium-like lobby with a doorman, desk, etc.

Posted by adm at April 13, 2004 04:48 PM

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