The Ledger

5.10 House Counsel

In this episode (5.10), a juror in a mob trial that ended months earlier is killed, and McCoy thinks the defendant's counsel, an old friend of his, might be complicit. Briscoe and Logan investigate, and Kincaid helps McCoy make the case.

The episode begins with two guys coming off a basketball court at the YMCA. As one of them calls his wife to make dinner plans, he hears gun shots, but doesn't recognize them as such. He walks outside and sees the dead body of the guy he was just talking to. Briscoe and Logan arrive and interview witnesses, including a prostitute who says she saw a man enter a black Lincoln and flee the scene. The victim is identified as Dan Lempert, an employee of the the Parks Department.

The hooker even remembered some of the car's license plate, and they track the car to the widow of a doctor who keeps their car in the building's garage. When they go to check it out, the license plates are missing. However, through some fingerprints on the car, they follow the path to John Furini (played by Vincent Pastore, "Pussy" on The Sopranos). Furini has connections to the mob and several assault convictions. They vist Furini who pleads ignorance unconvincingly. Logan and Briscoe wonder what Lempert's private life may have involved, so they visit his office where they learn he is divorced and has a daughter in college. They visit his ex-wife, who says that all of her ex-husband's money goes to their daughter. They search his apartment, and find that he's a boring cheapskate. They theorize that perhaps he borrowed some money from a loan shark to pay off his daughter's Swarthmore tuition. They learn that he was a juror in a mob trial months earlier. Uncoincidentally, this mob trial involved the godfather of Furini's mafia family, Vincent Dasso.

The follow up this angle, talking to a court officer who gives them the name of another juror from the case. They talk to her, and she says that Lempert was the only juror who insisted Dasso was not guilty. It sure looks like Dasso somehow got to Lempert. They also learn that his ex-wife spoke to Lempert during the trial, even though she told the dets she hadn't spoken to him in a year and a half. (Briscoe recalls that he last spoke to his ex-wife on July 17, 1994.) They re-interview Mrs. Lempert and under pressure she admits that her husband went to a loan shark. She identifies Furini as the man who gave her husband the money.

On Van Buren's advice, the detectives head over to the Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB), and get some phone tap tapes that involve Furini and Dasso. On the tapes, the men discuss "Mr. Parks," which seems to be a reference to Lempert's job. Based on this, they arrest Dasso and Furini (26 mins).

Dasso's lawyer, Paul Koppel, gets involved. He talks to McCoy at the office, and it's clear they are friends. (We later learn they've been friends for 25 years). Koppel mentions that McCoy graduated 8th in his class, and that the two played basketball together in law school. Koppel manages to get the tape suppressed for Dasso's case, but Furini's lawyer fails to suppress it for Furini. The charges against Dasso are dismissed.

McCoy and Kincaid discuss the "game" aspects of practicing law, and McCoy seems to be enjoying the sparring with Koppel. Kincaid, however, is suspicious. McCoy gets a victory when he gets Furini to inform him about a secret Dasso hideout, an old lady's apartment, and he gets a wiretap on the apartment. On the resulting tapes, Dasso discusses Lempert's murder more explicitly. Briscoe and Logan arrest Dasso again (37 mins), but Koppel gets this tape suppressed, too, arguing that he (Koppel) is on the tape and it is therefore privileged.

Back at his office, McCoy is upset, and is beginning to suspect that Koppel's involvement in Dasso's dealings oversteps his role as a laywer. McCoy believes that Koppel was actively involved in getting information about Lempert from a jury questionnaire, and that Lempert was pursued by the mob to get him to hold out for a not guilty verdict. McCoy talks to a court clerk who admits that he provided information to Furini. McCoy feels that Koppel was therefore involved in a conspiracy to commit murder, and he sends Logan and Briscoe to Koppel's house to arrest him during a party (43 mins).

Koppel and his wife Anna are upset, but McCoy is insistent. Furini rolls on Koppel, and tells a judge in a pre-trial hearing that Koppel was actively involved in criminal activity. McCoy gave Furini a mere 5 year sentence in exchange for his testimony, an arrangement that Furini takes maximum advantage of: while on the stand, he confesses to 4 murders. McCoy feels it's worth it because he thinks the threat of losing at trial will cause Koppel to roll on Dasso. Unfortunately, the ploy doesn't seem to be working, and the case proceeds to trial (56 mins). At trial, we hear only the opening statements, and then we hear the jury's verdict against Koppel: Guilty. Koppel is surprised, and his wife glares at McCoy, who seems to have mixed emotions about his victory.

The episode is notable because of the appearance of The Soprano's Vincent Pastore as Furini. Pastore has appeared in a couple of other episodes. We also get the little bit of backstory on McCoy: 8th in his class, played basketball, etc.

Posted by adm at May 12, 2004 11:24 PM

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