The Ledger

10.7 Patsy

McCoy delivers one of his most blistering closing arguments ever in this episode (10.7) about a woman who nearly kills herself in an attempt to frame the man she believed killed her sister. Here is an mp3 of McCoy's closing statement. A portion of it is seen in the TNT promos for L&O when the lady judge says to McCoy, "You're in contempt, Mr McCoy!"

The episode begins with a superintendent and an exterminator approaching a woman's apartment. Hearing no answer, they enter, and see a badly injured, but somewhat conscious woman on the floor. Her name is Cecilia. Briscoe and Green investigate, eventually handing off to McCoy and Carmichael for a zealous prosecution.

Briscoe and Green head over to the hospital, where the victim is in a coma. It appears her attacker injected her with Demerol, a painkiller which, unfortunately, she suffered an allergic reaction to. They interview her co-workers at a travel agency. They learn that her sister, Julia, died recently. She has an ex-husband, but he is quickly eliminated as a suspect. They learn she was at the Mayflower Hotel, where she dropped off a package for a gust. They trace her to the Hotel Swanson, where she was at the bar with a man in a suit. At her apartment, the detectives find many business cards and call the numbers on the cards. One leads to Kenneth Taylor, the former press secretary for a state agency. They question him, and Green is extremely skeptical of him.

Back at the precinct, they learn the rape kit came back negative. They check her phone LUDs and find that she frequently called the 116th Precinct in Queens. They talk to a detective there who says that he was investigating the death of Cecilia's sister, Julia, and Cecilia would frequently call to check the status. The Queens det says Cecilia always thought Julia's boyfriend was to blame. Guess who that is? Yep, Kenneth Taylor.

They question Taylor at the precinct. He has a bad temper and blows up at them. They question another co-worker of the victim who says she thinks Cecilia's family must have a curse on it: her parents died in a car accident, Julia disappeared, and Cecilia has now been brutally attacked.

Back at the precinct, Van Buren is on the phone with "the computer company from hell" who has messed up her son's computer (she refers to this company in a later episode, too.) They learn that Taylor had a DUI arrest right around Cecilia's former neighborhood in Albany, and that he moved to NYC shortly after she did. It looks like he was stalking her. Also, they learn he's on painkillers, perhaps Demerol. They arrest him (off camera) and question him. Green takes notes in a pronounced way during the interview, which seems to rattle Taylor. Mid-interview, Van Buren enters and says that his DNA was found in semen at the scene. Even so, Taylor insists he is innocent.

He is eager to tell his story to the grand jury, and McCoy allows it. Taylor says Cecilia hurt herself to frame him. He also says he was with women from an escort service, and Cecilia must have gotten the semen from them. This seems unlikely, and McCoy is skeptical. He gets the indictment he seeks.

Carmichael is less skeptical and attempts to track down these escorts. It takes some effort, but she finds one who basically says that Cecilia arranged for her to have an encounter and take used condom from Taylor.

In the meantime, McCoy is going foward with his prosecution, aggressively, and Taylor's defense attorney, recurring character Mr Garnett, gets his butt kicked by McCoy on a variety of motions related to trail evidence. Realizing he's got no hope at trial, Garnett tries to get Taylor to accept a plea deal: 12.5 years plus all of Cecilia's medical expenses. He reluctantly agrees, but insists he's innocent. Carmichael is upset with McCoy for not telling them about the escorts.

McCoy learns of some additional property that Taylor had not previously reported: a barn upstate. He orders it to be searched for Cecilia's sister's body. They find it there, in a canvas bag just like the one used on Taylor's brother's boat. In fact, they learn through forensics it is the exact same bag as the one used on that boat.

At trial, Garnett argues that Cecilia killed Julia, and the judge allows it, despite her previous rulings that she wouldn't and McCoy's objections. Garnett delivers his summation in which he refers to evidence that was not introduced at trial, which he's not allowed to do. This visibly upsets McCoy, and he retaliates in his own closing statement [mp3], in which he ignores the judge's orders to stop explaining his belief that Cecilia attacked herself in a desperate bid to show that Taylor killed her sister. The judge puts McCoy in contempt and declares a mistrial.

McCoy visits Cecilia in the hospital. Carmichael arrives and tells him that, just like Taylor said, Cecilia may have killed her sister, too: two of the sister's hairs were found in the trunk of Cecilia's car, which she sold right after her sister disappeared.

Posted by adm at July 1, 2004 11:15 PM

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