The Ledger

5.17 Act of God

In this episode (5.17), a young boy is killed when the building he is trespassing in is blown up by dynamite placed by an arsonist. Many people have a motive for destroying the building, and dogged investigation from Briscoe and Logan yield a couple of suspects. Unfortunately, McCoy and Kincaid get the wrong man convicted, and then have to figure out how to prosecute the real perpetrator.

The episode begins with a boy, who looks about 11, throwing a grappling hook up into a building's window. He begins climbing the building, and is not spotted by a man who comes by walking his dog. As the man cleans up after his dog, the building explodes, and we soon learn that the man is ok, the dog has disappeared, and the boy is nearly dead. Briscoe and the FDNY get into a little tiff over the integrity of the scene, but the detectives are soon able to begin their investigation.

Soon afterwards, they are talking to the boy's mother when they learn he has died during surgery. They also learn that the explosion was purposeful and was caused by dynamite strapped to the building support beams, in an apparent attempt to bring down the whole building. They know they're in for a complicated investigation, so they start with the building's owner, who stands to gain $4.8 million in insurance money. However, he explains some rather complicated things indicating why he wouldn't want the building destroyed, and points them to his general contactor, Buzz Palley, who was heading up renovation of the site. Palley says he wouldn't really gain anything from seeing the building destroyed either, and points them to the unions, who have been getting angry with him for failing to hire union workers on his jobs. He also directs them to Calvin Tiller, a black activist who seeks jobs for minorities in the city and who protests outside construction sites. Logan has a face-off with Tiller, who stands his ground, and is more calm when the detectives visit him at his office later. They discount him as a suspect, and take a look at union activists. Everybody keeps mentioning that Palley is confrontational, almost to the point that it seems like he was trying to get himself fired from the job. But why? They talk to his former customer, who says Pally was stealing from him so he could pay for other jobs. The building's owner says that Palley was operating at a loss on the project, but would be let off the hook if the building were destroyed through crime or an "act of God."

Palley is questioned again, and denies he is financial trouble. He says he has a deal big investor, Mr Kee. They talk to Mr Kee, just in from Hong Kong, who says the truth is, he took one look at Palley's financial ledger and decided not to invest. He said he told Palley's "wife" this in a phone message. They talk to the woman at the address Palley gave them, and learn it is not his wife, but his sister. He's been staying with her because he's so poor. He also had no wife. She says he had a new contract that he was getting ready to work on.

They talk to Palley yet again, who says that Kee spoke to his girlfriend, Chris Chappel, whom he described to Kee as his wife. They talk to Chappel, who says she didn't give Palley the message about the non-investment. They learn he was living on the construction site, and so should have been there the night of the explosion. They talk to the bomb squad, who has rendered a basic 3-D computer model of the scene, and it appears like the bomb was designed to make the building fall on top of the trailer Palley was staying in. But the squad examined the trailer and found no personal effects in it. It appears that Palley picked up and left before the bomb went off.

They talk to Palley AGAIN and he has nothing but excuses based on coincidences. He says he was out for a walk when the bomb went off. Kincaid tells them to arrest him. (27') At Riker's, his lawyer tells the ADAs they should question Chappel's husband, a person the cops did not know existed. They assumed she was single. Kincaid goes off to talk to Ms. Chappel, also a construction worker, at a job site, where Kincaid wears a construction helmet that makes her look silly (or cute). She says that Hank, her husband, was out drinking that night, per usual. CK goes down to the bar to check it out, where she is treated with polite bemusement. She learns that everyone at the bar, including Hank, knew about the affair, and he said he was going to kill the guy. CK also learns that Hank is a licensed demolition expert, whose license has been taken away because of drinking on the job. Looks like a suspect! They search his apartment and find bomb-making materials and a gun matching one used to shoot at Palley one night prior to the bombing They arrest him for arson and the murder of the boy. (33')

At trial, Chappel's wife testifies about the affair, and faintly smiles while doing so, which indicates to me that she is quite malicious, since her actual husband is sitting 20 feet away from her, on trial for his life. Briscoe testifies, and is cross-examined about the fact that Palley was such a good suspect, he was arrested. McCoy has to make Briscoe look somewhat incompetent in order to cleanse that idea from the jury's mind, and he says to Briscoe, "So would you say in retrospect that the arrest of Mr Palley was somewhat premature?" To which Briscoe reluctantly answers Yes. Hank Chappel takes the stand and is credible as he asserts his innocence. Nonetheless, he is found guilty of Murder 2 and arson. (44')

Now you know with a verdict coming in at 44 minutes, there are going to be some further plot twists. Briscoe visits McC and CK as they prepare to celebrate and tells them that something has been bothering him: Palley said he went for a walk the night of the explosion, so why did he never return? This is such an obvious point, it is merely a testament to the weakness of the script that no one noticed it previously. McCoy and CK act somewhat alarmed, and this bit seems to suddenly convince them that they've convicted the wrong man, and that Palley is guilty after all, causing Briscoe to offer the rejoinder to McCoy, "Wouldn't you say in retrospect that the prosecution of Mr Chappel was somewhat premature?"

The DAs come up with the theory that Chris Chappel and Palley blew up the building. This seems obvious, but leaves open the question as to why Hank Chappel didn't accuse his wife of the bombing, since all evidence pointed to one of the two of them. They get a wiretap to listen to Chappel and Palley, and hear them talking about the bombing. They question Chappel again to get her nervous, and get a tape of her saying to Palley something like, "What if they find out," and him saying, "They don't know anything," etc. They re both arrested off camera (51'), but a judge suppresses the tape, due to the defense counsels' argument that the fact that another man was already convicted of the crime was not on the warrant application.

That's a serious setback, and Schiff is upset about the way things are going. He says to McCoy, "In the future, if we ever go to trial again, maybe we ought to know what we're doing." He orders McC to get the convicted Hank Chappel set free, but a judge refuses to do so until McCoy shows reversible error in the trial, or gets the others convicted (which he has trouble doing without freeing Chappel first, get it?).

McC comes up with the brilliant idea of changing their theory of the crime, and arguing that they misinterpreted the tape, and what they really "believe" is that Chappel *and* his wife are responsible for the bombing. This makes her seem like an accomplice in the crime her husband has already been convicted of.

They have a big meeting with everyone in the Family Conference Room, and the defense lawyer rightly accuses McCoy of suborning perjury if he gets Hank to testify against his wife. McCoy plays fast and loose with the truth, brings in Hank to cry in his wife's face and swear he'll testify against her, and then Chris Chappel breaks down and rolls on Palley. She makes a deal: Arson 2, Man I, 10 years.

In the epilogue, McC is down on himself for convicting the wrong man, but Schiff perks him up by giving him a funny face and saying it could have been worse: they could have had the death penalty to contend with.

Posted by adm at June 24, 2004 01:03 AM

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