The Ledger

2.20 Intolerance

Sam Rockwell guest stars in this episode (2.20) about a Chinese-American boy killed over academic rivalry. Cerreta and Logan determine his jealous friend's mother and brother (Rockwell) are responsible, but Stone and Robinette have trouble getting all the evidence they need admitted to the trial.

The episode begins with several school kids walking down the street near their school ("Manhattan Science") discussing a scholarship. The Chinese-American boy and the white girl taunted by some older Chinese boys in a passing car. Shortly thereafter, gunshots ring out and we learn that the Asian student, Tim, is dead. Logan and Cerreta arrive to investigate. Logan remarks that bullets don't recognize IQ.

Over at the precinct, they talk to the white girl, Kate, who was Tim's boyfriend. There were no witnesses to the shooting, but ballistics tells them that the gun was an expensive make. They talk to the victim's parents and sister, who say he was bound for MIT, and no, he wasn't in a gang. But then they learn he had cosmetic surgery to remove a tattoo. It was a tiger. A gang unit detective (or informant?) tells them that Tim was in a gang called the White Tigers "for about 5 seconds," hence the tattoo.

They talk again to the girlfriend. She says she was called an "egg" because she was white on the outside but "yellow" on the inside. She says Tim was in the "1600 Club" because he got a perfect score on the SAT. They talk to his physics teacher who says Tim was on his way to winning a science fair and its $20K prize and the attendant prestige. They learn that the other boy who was walking with the victim that day, Carl Borland, was always #2 to Tim.

They talk to Carl, and it begins to look like his family might be involved somehow. They talk to Carl's mom, who has a weak alibi. She directs them to her son, Randy (played by Sam Rockwell), who also doesn't have much of an alibi. Ballistics matches the murder weapon to that of the Borlands. They talk to the mom's boss (played by Estelle Harris from Seinfeld), as the detectives work to break everyone's alibi.

Logan gets an anonymous phone call from a tipster, and freaks out because he can't find his tape recorder. Finally, Ceretta solves the problem by picking up on the same line. Using the tip, they get a new search warrant and search, and find the gun in the china cabinet. The prints on the gun match Mr Borland's. Furthermore, Randy's alibi was that he was at the YMCA, but they learn that the sign-in sheet had been tampered with to cover for him. They arrest Ron Borland at the fish market where he works. He is represented by recurring character [?] Mr Willis. (31')

To seuq to the next scene, a rather unusual title card informs us that it is "3 hours later."

Stone and Robinette indicate that Borland might pleads to Man 2. Robinette visits Carl's high school, to figure more out. The parents are upset with the DA for investigating at the high school. The mom says, "My son's life is at stake," seeming to ignore her husband's stake in all this. Stone begins to believe that the dad is taking the fall for the mom and Randy.

They enter plea negotiations, and Willis challenges the search warrant, and wins, because the tip was not sufficient probable cause for the warrant. Like he always does, Schiff tells Stone to "make a deal" because "you'll lose."

Mom and Randy stand trail for the murder (46'). The gun is identified as a Tanfolio Titan 380, of which there are 2941 in NYC. At the Family Conference Room, the make a new deal offer: Randy gets 3-9, Mom gets 15-life. Mom refuses, so it's back to trial.

The vic's girlfriend resurfaces, and just as it looks like the case is going into the crapper, tells Stone she saw Borland at the scene in his fishing truck. This scene takes place in what is called "the Supreme Court rotunda." It appears Kate is lying.

Nonetheless, the verdict comes back guilty on Murder 2, so Schiff was wrong. Cerreta and Logan check out the girl's story after the fact. She says she saw a license plate on the front of the truck, and they learn there is no such plate. This leads to a mistrial.

Schiff says he liked it better when crimininals did the killings in the city. S

Here's a screenshot of Rockwell, who was 24 when this episode aired. Estelle Harris, who played George Costanza's mother on Seinfeld, also appears briefly in this episode.

Detailed episode summary coming soon.

Posted by adm at June 5, 2004 01:53 AM

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