The Ledger

5.11 Guardian

In this episode (5.11), a young woman is found dead in a park, overdosed on heroin. But she's no ordinary junkie -- she's the daughter of a wealthy family. Who is responsible for her death? McCoy thinks he knows, but he needs to prove a connection.

The episode begins with two nuns cleaning up a lot near a shelter. One nun is telling the other a somewhat dirty joke about a woman and a mugger when they discover the victim's body behind a dumpster. Briscoe and Logan investigate, and Logan quickly determines that the victim did not die there but was dumped.

The ME informs the dets that the victim had $20,000 in dental work, and they notice her clothes are expensive -- Versace, Jill Sander, etc. They show her picture to various neighborhood drug dealers, one of whom says he's seen her with a small-time dealer named "The Viking" who works the door at a local club. The Viking, whose real name is Eric, identifies her: Katie Blanchard. He points them to a low-budget rehab center where she spent some time. The director of the center says she was recently there but left a month earlier. After some investigation, the dets learn that this director was stealing Blanchard's social security checks, and those of many other junkies. He's a suspect, but eventually they focus on Jerome Kamen, another parental figure in her life, who has served as the family's trusted financial advisor for many years.

They re-interview Eric and learn that he recently delivered Blanchard drugs at a West 81st St apartment. They know she had Peking Duck the night she died, so they check the delivery slips from a local Chinese restaurant and get an address for her apartment. It turns out that Kamen controls the apartment and was letting Blanchard stay there. So what's the connection?

They suspect Kamen of the murder, but don't have much evidence. Van Buren orders Logan and Briscoe to arrest Kamen in his car, so they search his vehicle for evidence of the murder. They find the victim's blood and vomit in his car, but the evidence is tossed after Kamen's attorney objects to the deceptive nature of the arrest. The judge says of the cops' ploy, "Even Mr. Magoo could see this through this one." He dismisses the charges

Without evidence, McCoy and Kincaid aren't really sure how to proceed. They eventually learn that Kamen was embezzling funds from the victim's trust fund, and that the vic had found out about it and was apparently blackmailing him. They arrest him for larceny (41 minutes) and try to build a case for murder, eventually settling on the notion that he gave her money for drugs, and her death was a forseeable consequence. Furthermore, the brother admits that he was doing heroin with Blanchard the night of her death. She overdosed, and he called Kamen, who dumped her body instead of bringing her hospital, apparently because he wanted her to die so she wouldn't black mail him. At trial (50 minutes), McCoy gets Kamen to say something that allows him to re-introduce the vomit/blood evidence. Once that's in, Kamen's lawyer wants a deal, and gets one: Manslaughter 1 and Larceny. Kamen says he was entitled to the money he embezzled since he "ran their lives." He accepts the deal.

Not much interesting about the episode. Probably the best thing that happens is Kincaid goes to visit one of the victim's friend in a bar and is wearing a leather motorcycle jacket and jeans at the time, apparently trying to fit in.

Posted by adm at May 4, 2004 01:22 AM

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