The Ledger

13.7 Open Season

Danielle Melnick, the defense attorney who is a longtime recurring character on L&O, gets shot in this episode (13.7) after she defends a member of a radical militia group already facing trial for killing another attorney.

The episode begins in the courtroom as a verdict is read. Darnell Marbury is acquitted of Attempted Murder in the first degree for the shooting of a police officer. There is pandemonium in the courtroom. Afterwards, the defense attorney, Vance Grodie, and his friends gather in a bar where they celebrate. Grodie steps outside for a cigarette, and shots ring out. His friends rush outisde, and find him dead. Briscoe and Green arrive on the scene and recognize Grodie and learn he's been shot 5-6 times. A witness says she saw a blue Chevy leaving the scene.

The detectives talk to Grodie's friends in the bar. The friends believe Grodie was shot by a vengeful cop, and idea that makes sense to Green but not Briscoe. One friend says he spoke to a guy in the bathroom who was saying vicious things about Grodie immediately prior to the shooting. The bartended gives them a description of this guy. Medium everything, polo shirt, windbreaker.

The detectives visit Marbury's victim, Officer Chris Wilson, who is now in a wheelchair and extremely bitter. Green remains the only one who thinks a cop might be responsible for Grodie's shooting. He says he's tired of "the blue wall" that springs up everytime there's a shooting like this one.

They talk to a co-worker of Grodie's who explain that Grodie loved being a defense attorney because it was a chance to represent the people no one else wanted to. She says he didn't care about money. Briscoe and Green want to review all of Grodie's cases to see who would be upset with him, but the co-worker things the detectives are overlooking the obvious. Briscoe tells a story about a murder case he worked many years ago. The victims -- the Lippman's -- were killed, and Grodie had Briscoe on the stand and made him sound like he was solving cases in between shots of booze. The defendant was acquitted and then shot some people shortly thereafter. Briscoe is still upset, but Green says according to what he's heard, Briscoe was solving cases between drinks.

They next check out Wilson's old partner who gets mad at Green for suggested a cop -- namely him -- might be responsible. He refers to Grodie as "Oliver Wendell Sleazebag." (It's worth pointing out that modifying the name of a famous lawyer to insult someone is a fairly common joke on L&O. In fact, I believe the writers have even used the "Oliver Wendell [something]" formula before. Continuing to work this angle, Green and Briscoe check out the log of activity for the night. They clear the partner, but notice that a patrol car had been sent to ferry Wilson's brother from his home to the courthouse the night Grodie was killed. This is against regulations.

They talk to Wilson's brother, Kevin, and he fits the description of the man seen by the bartender and in the bathroom. They take him in for questioning, but insists he's innocent and went home drunk that night. He mentions he saw Grodie putting some phone numbers into a Palm Pilot, but the detectives don't remember seeing a Palm on the victim. This suggests the Palm was stolen from him, and that the people listed in it could be in danger.

One person in obvious danger from this is Darnell Marbury, the original defendant. The detectives visit his uncooperative mother, then trace the next phone call she makes, which is to an apartment in Harlem. They visit the apartment, where they figure Darnell is hanging out. He won't come to the door, but they talk to one of his buddies who tells them to wait at a fast food restaurant across the street. They do, and sure enough, Darnell slips in a short while later. After some indirect conversation, he hands them a pile of hate mail he received during the trial, then leaves.

The detectives read through the hatemail, and find one -- written with letters cut out of magazines -- that threatens Darnell and his lawyer. The nerdy forensics guy who is conveniently an expert on everything from molecular biology to typography traces the letters to three different magazines. He cross-references the subscription lists for these magazines for the area where the letter was postmarked, and comes up with one name. They visit this person, who turns out to be an old, slightly out-of-it lady. She says that when she's done with her magazines, "a nice young man" recycles them for her.

They immediately question this man, Julian Preuss, who is at first welcoming of the cops, but then becomes defensive when Green notices some militia-related publications and starts asking questions. Preuss drives a blue Chevy and is a member of a group called the American Patriot Union. He's taken in for questioning. He is accompanied by a lawyer who quickly realizes he's in over his head, since he's not a criminal lawyer, and advises his client to say nothing until he gets a new laywer.

The detectives talk to Southerlyn and decide it would be a good idea to check the offices of the American Patriot Union in NYC, but they don't have a warrant. They decide to send in Southerlyn, undercover, because she's blonde and blue-eyed. She goes to the office and starts talking to an enthusiastic female member of the APU. Southerlyn notices a box for a Palm Pilot in the trash can, and learns it is the same model as the one taken from Grodie. She makes a cell phone call, and the police arrive. Her theory is that Grodie had to purchase a new Palm Pilot so he could use the software to bypass the password on Grodie's Palm and download the contact information. (Nevermind that this software is freely available on Palm's website.) She tries explaining all of this to McCoy, who doesn't understand, but tells her to charge Preuss with Murder 2 if she feels she can make a case.

At his arraignment, Preuss has a new attorney, who Preuss instructs to "stand mute" when asked for a plea, so that jurisdiction is not implied. This doesn't last very long, however, and Preuss starts ranting about something and insulting his lawyer. This upsets the judge, who remands him and applies special administrative regulations which prohibit Preuss from having any contact with anyone besides his lawyer. This should theoretically prevent him from issuing any orders based on the contact information he downloaded from the Palm.

Apparently, this lawyer also realized he was in over his head, and his new counsel -- Danielle Melnick -- marches into McCoy's office and says that although she was friends with Grodie she is eager to defend Preuss because she feels his rights are being trampled. McCoy tells her he hopes that she never gave her home address to Grodie because she, along with everyone else in the Palm, could be in danger. He reiterates this point at a motion hearing where Melnick fails in her attempt to get the special regulations removed from her client's confinement.

McCoy and Melnick talk at a bar, where Melnick says, "I love you, Jack, but you're pissing me off." She leaves, and Southerlyn walks in with some scary news: a district attorney from Florida was murdered. He was a friend of Grodie's, and the address of the fishing cabin where he was found was in Grodie's Palm. This means that somehow the information got from Grodie to an accomplice, even though he had contact only with Melnick. As much as McCoy doesn't want to admit it, this suggests that Melnick somehow conveyed information outside of Rikers that led to the killing of this lawyer.

Southerlyn and Branch are eager to investigate Melnick, but McCoy, her friend for 20 years, is reluctant. They seek to bug the counsel room at Rikers, a move which is reluctantly approved by the trial judge, and they listen as Melnick and Preuss talk. Preuss writes an address on Melnick's legal pad, and she agrees to give the information to a contact of Preuss's on the outside. She does not seem to realize that the address belongs to someone Preuss wants killed, but she is prepared to willfully violate the judge's order not to allow Preuss to communicate with people besides her. This is painful to McCoy.

McCoy visits her at her house late at night, where he finds her wearing a silky night-robe. He tells her they know everything and she's in trouble. When she realizes that she's been played by Pruess and that she inadvertently contributed to the DA's murder, she's upset, but can't believe McCoy is going to go after her, and gives him the old "It's me, Jack" speech, but it does not good.

Melnick is arraigned (where we learn her middle name is "Rose"), and the judge removes her from defending Preuss. SS is aggressive at the bail hearing, and McCoy, in the background, frowns. But SS apparently telepathically gets McCoy's message, and does not seek bail for Melnick. She's released on her own recognizance. McCoy meets Melnick at a restaurant, and she tells him he should feel guilty for screwing their friendship. McCoy asks her to break privilege with Preuss, but she won't, admitting the irony of risking everything for the guy who killed one of her friends.

McCoy doesn't know what to do, but Branch tells him a story about his days in Yale Law School when he told a lie to a professor to help out a friend and everything worked out. He seems to be implying to McCoy that McCoy should lie to someone to help Melnick.

McCoy meets with Preuss and his lawyer at Rikers the next day, and tells the pair that Melnick rolled on Preuss about the DA's murder. The gambit works -- Preuss gets very upset at "that Jew lawyer" Melnick, and accepts a plea deal that will put him in jail for at least 12.5 years for the murder of Grodie. Part of the deal is that he testify that Melnick had no criminal intent, which means that she'll walk on the charges. He agrees, but is very upset.

Now, if you're thinking things through here, you might realize something that McCoy doesn't seem to: he just sold out his friend Melnick to this killer, and put her in the crosshairs of a guy who JUST ADMITTED TO KILLING ANOTHER DEFENSE ATTORNEY. Not very smart.

Nonetheless, McCoy, Branch, and SS are back at the office celebrating the way everything turned out when they get a phone call: Melnick has been shot.

SS and McCoy go down, and Briscoe and Green are already there. They have a suspect in custody -- the female worker from the American Patriotic Union, unsurprisingly -- and Melnick is being wheeled into an ambulance on a stretcher. She doesn't look like she's in very good shape. The camera follows her into the ambulance, and looks back through the windows and McCoy and the others, who are dubmfounded.

The episode is pretty good and interesting, but it seems silly that McCoy would unwittingly endanger Melnick like that. Also, it's not really clear why the militia group/Preuss would go after Grodie to begin with. These people are usually supporters of consitutional rights and go after over-zealous prosecutors, not defense attorneys. These flaws detract from the overall quality of the ep, but it's still pretty decent.

Melnick's shooting is referred to in at least one later episode (the following season), where she is seen on crutches.

Posted by adm at May 29, 2004 07:02 PM

Comments

Post a comment

validate