The Ledger

1.18 The Secret Sharers

In this episode (1.18), a priest covers up the murder of a drug dealer committed by one of his parishioners. Greevey and Logan investigate the case, and Stone and Robinette prosecute.

The episode begins, as many early episodes do, with a couple of cops discussing the mundanities of life. They are near a church fair, and a couple of shady characters are shooting water guns into a clown's mouth, winning multiple prizes. They exit the fair. Moments later, shots ring out. A crowd gathers and we see that the victim is one of the dealers. Roll credits. (This teaser is unusual because no detectives respond to the scene.)

When the show resumes, Logan and Greevey are at the scene. They roll the victim, and discover he had a gun on him, which the intial crime scene team missed -- so they don't if the gun was in his waistband or if it he dropped it. The gun hasn't been fired. Furthermore, they learn the victim, Jose Urbano, was shot in the groin.

They check in with ballistics, who tells them that he was shot by a Glock. They talk to Urbano's parole officer, who points them to his sister, who directs them to Hector Cartagena, his former jailmate. They raid Cartagena's apartment, and interrogate him. Things look bad for Cartagena, and Greevey tells Cartagena, "Your ass is grass, hombre," mispronouncing "hombre" the way you'd expect him to.

They talk to a witness, a carting company operator, who says he can't quite be sure what he saw. A woman named Alicia was seen talking to Urbano earlier that night. This leads to her parish priest, Father Torres, who is defensive of Alicia. They learn from ballistics that Anna Rivers, Alicia's grandmother, owns a Glock. Alicia becomes a suspect.

They visit a Latin salsa club of sorts, and Anna tells them the gun was stolen. They also learn that Alicia's sister, Lucy, is in the hospital, having been beaten and possibly raped. They begin to suspect that Urbano raped Lucy, and Alicia found out and sough revenge. But Lucy denies Urbano was her attacker. Meanwhile, Lucy's boyfriend, Nicky, also becomes a suspect.

They confront Father Torres in the church, and Logan is angry with him because he thinks Torres knows more than he is saying. Ballistics then tells them that the gun used to kill Urbano matches one used at a shooting in Anna's club. Robinette tells the detectives to act now and see what happens. They arrest Alicia (29').

At her arraignment before Judge Elaine Durren (recurring actress, but not a recurring character), she is represented by recurring character Shambala Green. Schiff is concerned with Green's involvement in the case, because he fears that given her way with juries, "she'll milk 'em til they moo." Robinette meets with the grandmother and tells her that Shambala is a legal aid attorney, and legal aid loses 2/3 of its cases. He wants her to roll on her granddaughter so they can work out a deal. Everyone meets, and grandma rolls on Nicky, saying that Urbano raped Lucy. Green is representing both Nicky and Alicia, and this appears to be a conflict for Alicia, who might wish to testify against him, since she's still charged with the crime. Judge Markham dismisses the case against Alicia.

Stone and Green discuss the case. Schiff is skeptical and, as usual, tells them "make a deal." Robinette tells them that Green has resigned from the case, and a new lawyer, Mr Burton, is coming up from Dallas, Texas, to represent Nicky. Burton shows up (later, in a cowboy hat and a bolo tie) and tells them that Latino culture calls for revenge when someone goes after your woman like that. He also says he's never lost a case.

At Nicky's trial for Murder 2 (44'), there is much tenstion between the New York and the Texas ways of doing things. The priest gets on the stand, and says that Nicky was going to kill Urbana. Logan testifies re the victim's gun. Greevey then learns that Nicky was a drug dealer, and maybe this had to do with business, not romantic revenge. This twist seems unnecessary and tacked on. They get a kid who will testify that Nicky is a dealer, but the judge won't allow it.

The jury goes out to deliberate, and Schiff says "I told you so" to Stone. The verdict comes back: not guilty. Stone lost.

Casting notes: The priest is played by recognizable character actor Paul Calderon, who has appeared on the show several times. The carting company operator was the main character in the episode about the guy who is black but pretends to be white.

The episodes title refers to those who share the secret of what happened that night. "The Secret Sharer" is also the title of a short Joseph Conrad book about a man who kills a mutinous sailor.

Posted by adm at July 6, 2004 11:38 PM

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